8-2-05 North of Miles City

On Sunday I took a little ride north of Miles City into the big open grasslands. I took the back roads that are mostly dirt or gravel. I stopped at this site to take a photo of these flowers. Most of the country is starting to get brown and dry but there are some nice green spots along the road and in the draws.

It just so happened I saw the first wildlife when I stepped off the bike.  I guess I should say former wildlife, a road kill packrat.

This is the Cap Rock Road that heads north into Prairie County.

Just north of Jerome’s cut off road is this sign. I could hardly believe my eyes and thought it must be some sort of joke.

I had to go see and took the little road headed in the arrow direction. The road got a little funky in spots, so I took a cow trail that cut across the bad spot. The cows had even made a new trail as their old one was getting a little funky too.

It wasn’t long before I made it to the trout pond. There were some cows that didn’t appreciate me coming into their private pond, but they left right away at the sound of the motorcycle. They must have been wrangled with bikes before.

It turns out that it is a nice little lake and fairly good size. There was a sign that said that powerboats were not allowed and it really isn’t big enough for that size of boat anyway but I guess the government needed to make some rules.

There was quite a bit of hay and grain scattered across the country. This little bottom must have picked up lots of moisture and has made a good hay crop.

I took the Cherry Creek road over to White’s Gulch and found this big guy going my way

He was pissed that he had to get out of my way. It is better for him out there as you can see he is knee deep in grass feed. The country is in great shape.

As I turned south on the Crow Rock Road I found the second road kill of the day.

The Crow Rock  road is a well traveled fast road.

There was a little cross traffic.

A fast runner that didn’t make the crossing. As my dad would say “I bet he hasn’t the guts to try that again.”

It was a great short ride of about 100 miles and I am anxious to go back and explore some more. I see that by taking the Cheery Creek road to the east I can get into the Terry Badlands that are supposed to be really great. On the map I can see several reservoirs and lots of roads.

It has been getting fairly hot in the afternoon so these little rides in the cool of the morning are nice.

dezertk9@yahoo.com