July 7 - Hell Creek
I left Bozeman about noon today, after running multiple errands in town. I have had enough of town life already, tho I have not really been "in town," and have worked from my place in the country as often as possible, with only the company of horses and mules, dogs and cats. But, the badlands call me, and I am anxious to go again. I took highway 90 east toward Billings, but this time kept my eyes open for the Big Timber turnoff--last time out, I absolutely bypassed the little town, and ended up almost to Billings before realizing it. It can happen when the roads are straight and the scenery is distracting--to me, anyway.
So, the by now familiar road stretched out before me- Big Timber to Harlowtown has some relief, some curves, and it is still relatively green, tho it is concentrated near the Yellowstone river. Then on to Lewistown, the cow-town that sits and Montana's very center, geographically. From there, the Crazy Mountains fill my windshield as I head east on highway 200, and there we hit flat. I like the drive better than that to Malta, and it feels shorter. But it is still long, flat, dry.!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july7-1.jpg!
The first signs of Hell Creek Formation begin a ways outside of Jordan, with the drab, featureless grey of the underlying Bearpaw Shales giving way to the silver and tan and reds that indicate terrestrial deposits: and dinosaur hunting grounds. I pass small creeks that are not usually named for people or battles, like back east, but for more mundane things. In my wanderings across Montana I have passed Deer Creek, Elk Creek, Sheep Creek, Bear Creek, Squaw Creek. Here we find Sagehen (it's a prairie bird) Creek, of course Cow Creek (lots of cows) and Calf Creek, Horse Creek, Box Elder (both a bug and a tree) Creek, Bug Creek (ugh, 'nuff said), and of course Devil's Creek and Hell Creek--and the realistically named--Big Dry Creek. Even the names of the small towns up here reflect both the hopeful (Grass Range) and realistic (Sand Springs) names inherited by the early settlers. Also Big Timber and Plentywood, both in the midst of the prairie, where trees are anything but big and plentiful, except near the river. I stopped to top off my gas tank, and ran into Bob and half the crew, heading down to join Jack Horner in Ekalaka, where a T.rex or two are awaiting discovery. Then, I headed out of town.
"There are TWO roads going north, one a few miles out of town, the other 25 or 30 (mind you, there is a BIG difference out here between 25 and 30 miles..). Take the second one, except there are lots of farm roads going north, so don't take any of them (???). The road you want is by a big gravel pile. If you pass the rest stop (and presumably the gravel pile) you went a little too far (oh, like 20 additional miles--out here, I guess that is a little ways). There is a big sign with a lot of ranch names on it, and it is a gravel road?a GOOD gravel road (as opposed to???). Go 20 or 30 miles. You will pass a "moose crossing" sign (moose---HERE?) but just keep going past it till you come to a mailbox. Turn right. Go a ways further till you see camp". All I can say is, it's a good thing I grew up here..!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july7-2.jpg!
The crew was still out when I drove in, and only Laura, our resident cook and opera singer, was here. I set up my tent over the hill--hot, but not as hot as yesterday when it reached 112 in town. This was NOT heat index, it was base temperature.
My tent has three tent poles that crisscross and when you bend them in place, the tent sorta sets itself up. But of course as soon as I did that, the wind came up. I had only staked one corner so I could position it, and my tent was flapping around like a giant balloon tethered by that one lone stake. Once again, I was very glad no one was around to see me try to wrestle it to the ground and pin it down. I finished and went to help with dinner about the time the crew drove in, so it was fun to see folks I hadn't seen in a year and get caught up--but not so fun when I learned that last night they caught and killed a very large rattlesnake right by where I pitched my tent. I guess it can't bother me now, but I will certainly be more cautious!!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july7-3.jpg!
It was easy to fall asleep, for sure, but about 2, I woke to tiny taps on the tent--my only thought was, "I love sleeping when the rain is falling." That didn't last, as the wind came up again, and the rain increased in intensity til being inside the tent was like listening to a thousand tap dancers on a glass floor. Ugh. Eventually, my exhausted brain got the message from my head that it was getting wet. It was raining hard, yes but not hard enough to force the water thru the rain fly. Hmmm. It took awhile for me to realize that I had left the rainfly front open to catch the breeze, which was now driving the rain in thru the screen and onto my head, pillow and sleeping bag. I got wetter trying to figure out how to zip it, but finally got it mostly down.
Posted at 10:50AM Jul 23, 2007 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]