Days Three & Four

Montana is beautiful. There's no other word for it. Even the dry, tan and brown prairies on the eastern side of the state have a sort of romantic edge to them. I had no trouble imagining cattle herders and pioneers fording creeks and rivers to get to prime grazing land.

We hung out in Great Falls most of the day on Friday, even popping off to the cinema to see Pirates. Fun movie, lots of winks and nods to the rides, barely a plot but who cares. I could watch Johnny Depp as Captain Jack all day. Then after burgers and Nebraska corn we packed up and headed for the cabin in the mountains.

Lots of rolling hills with hazy peaks of the mountains in the distance. Because of the wildfires the horizon has been tinged with the haziness from the smoke. Sunsets are fiery orange and red filtered through it which is spectacular. But it does sort of impede the view. Then again, it also gives you an idea of depth and how far or close the mountains are compared to the rolling foothills at their feet.

We passed a couple of nuclear warhead silos (underground) and I took a picture of one, fully expecting to hear helicopters after us from being caught on their cameras taking photos of it :) no such luck because that would have made for some excellent photos :)

Finally arriving in Lincoln at dusk. Lincoln's a tiny town of about 4 or 500 people. Spring Creek passes right in front of the cabin. We waded out in it for a few minutes but *shiver* it's cold enough to cramp up your toes pretty quickly.

After depositing bags and food we grabbed some beers and sat outside for several hours just chatting and having a good time. We plotted out the course for the next day and then headed for bed.

In the morning, we rose early and headed off for Helena where we were going to hit the Farmer's Market, a bread store that's supposed to be really good, and to stop by a friend of gary's to pick up some books on CD.

Going to Helena involved a trip through Flesher Pass and tall pines and huge peaks with great names like the Sleeping Giant:



See his profile and chest? He's either pretty buff, or it's really the Sleeping Giantess.

Bread shop was yummy, Farmer's Market was ok. We got the veggies we needed and Gary's friends weren't home. That was OK. Helena is a cool city, even with the yuppies everywhere :) Gorgeous old mansions from cattle barons and senators that manage to look stately and rustic at the same time.

Our last stop for the day was a place called Gates of the Mountains which is an opening along the Missouri River that flows between the mountains... Actually, it's hard to describe how amazing they are. We took a boat tour about 6 miles down the river from the Gates with a colourful tour guide who told us everything from the time period of the oldest rocks in the cliffs to the meanings of some of the ancient Native American shamanic pictographs found in a depression along the cliff walls. We spotted some bald eagles who had not reached maturity and learned about a devastating and fast fire that killed 13 smokejumpers in 1945.

The day was brutally hot though and that put the kibosh on our plans to picnic at the other end of the boat ride, so we returned back to the marina and headed back to the cabin. We grilled Beer Baron sausages (made in Great Falls) in the fire pit and later in the evening we did the S'more thang :) Mmmmmmmm...

Here is Flaming Marshmallow Man:



Early night after that so we could get up early and go Huckleberry picking.