E conked out for a midmorning nap while we loaded up Ludwig for the road ahead. Look at how nicely that pop top pops up up top. 
The Boulder River meandered gently through the meadows next to the road. There were a lot of these dead trees around.
We've not seen so many (so much?) cattle hanging around in a National Forest before.
All of these cattle were branded of course, and there were cattle guards (those metal rumble bars that cattle are loathe to cross) at the fence lines. Unlike the pair I hassled the day before, these two didn't cause Melissa any trouble as she drove past.
As we wound up the road we started running out of mountains. There were a couple weirdly numbered intersections where the numbers on the signs didn't match the numbers in our DeLorme's Montana Atlas & Gazetteer. Maybe a Forest Service map would've been better. At one point, we took what we pretty quickly recognized was a wrong turn, and Melissa performed an admirable 3-point turn on a very narrow road that left little room for error on one side. That is, were it much steeper, that side would be called a cliff. Further up the road, another ambiguously marked intersection got me nervous enough that I scouted ahead with the map and determined which way to go according to the lay of the land. Melissa thought this was a bit foolhardy and asked why we couldn't just turn around and go back to the interstate.
Because, my dear, I have a secret agenda for all this gadding about half-lost in the mountains. And that secret agenda is that I want Ludwig to climb over every motorable Great Divide pass in Montana (or Montana/Idaho, as the case may be) at least once. And if we just turned around and got back on the interstate, we'd've missed Champion Pass, which Fire Road 92 crosses at an elevation of 7045 feet, according to the sign. Other sources beg to differ by about 200 feet. I've decided that for future discrepancies of this sort, we will defer to the elevation given on the sign. Six down, fourteen to go.
Over the top, we looked out across the Upper Clark Fork valley. I think this smoke might've originated in a fire in Idaho someplace. We're lucky that it's been a slow fire season around Missoula, little kids burning Mount Sentinel notwithstanding.
I wonder if cattle raised a mile-and-a-quarter up are extra good eating. Maybe next time we'll "accidentally" hit one and have to take it to a butcher to be put out of its misery.
We stopped in Deer Lodge at a city park for lunch and some baby stretching time. We saw a sign for the farmer's market and thought about stopping, but when we saw it consisted of two trucks selling a few tomatoes and some flowers we kept on truckin'. The rest of the trip was, we're happy to say, unexceptional.
(miles 219,090-219,216)
5 comments:
Man, you guys sure are out using Ludwig a lot lately. Well done. We have bunkered down in the heat of summer and are trying to keep up with the rest of our life.
Oh, and I can't tell you how many times I get EP to venture off course in the sake of "exploring" when I have other ideas in mind, specific things to see along the way. She loves it when we get there, but sometimes I need to be coy about exactly why we are going the way we are going.
Do you guys lift your feet when you cross cattle guards for good luck, or is that a Montana thing?
I must ask, do you still jam your bear in the front windshield so it will be the 'first' to a new place?
BB'sD: Don't let the multiple posts fool you--the last three are from one ~200 mile trip. We just take more pictures now that our camera holds 1200 instead of 125 pictures.
I think I may've tipped my hand a little early with this post, as pertains the GD passes. But there are some so out-of-the-way that I'd've had to tell Melissa sometime. I think she understands.
BMill: No, though I have heard of it from Western Nebraskans. Where we're from (Eastside Nebr. Represent), the cattle generally live in enormous feedlots and there are no cattle crossings. I wonder if we should begin respecting the superstition, though. Do you tap the windshield when you go through a yellow light?
NK: Melissa says, "Uhhhh, no".
I don't tap the window on a yellow light, I think mainly its because I'm too busy watching out for other cars. But maybe the good luck would just protect me...
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