June 6 - Flying Out
Well, the rains from last night have lingered, and in fact the weather has deteriorated rapidly. We spent the morning checking out some land for potential prospecting, in hopes that the weather would clear, but not only did in not get better, the land turned out to be all marine sediments. Since dinosaurs didn't live in oceans, that turned out to not be useful. But, the scenery was spectacular.
At last it looked like we might take off. Checking radar, weather, and farmer's opinions, we loaded up at the Malta airport, and headed out.
!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/june6-1.jpg!
AAAAAAA! I forgot to unpack my camera once we were inside! I missed 2 hours of incredible scenery...But, the weather was increasingly iffy as we headed south, and so my colleague decided to touch down in Lewistown to see if we could wait it out. Camera was the first thing I did. These small airstrips often leave a car for pilots to use to get to town, and this was no exception. We found the keys hidden in the car, and drove the five or so miles to town for lunch, keeping one eye on the sky the whole time.
Back from lunch, more computer checking, and we finally decided to make a go for it.
!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/june6-2.jpg!
So, off we took from the Lewistown airport, heading south by way of Big Timber so we would have an option for landing if the visibility or wind worsened.I am still amazed at how green it is. It is even more apparent from the air. It surely has been a huge relief to the farmers here to have so much moisture. It has been years since things looked so pretty! Yes, it is still pretty bleak, compared to the green of NC, but for this part of the state, it is impressive!
We headed south, and made it to the pass about 13 Cherokee 7045 Romeo waiting for take-off miles from Big Timber. But visibility was worsening and the rain picked up, and all of a sudden, just as we were to fly through a narrowing in the hills and on down, the clouds lowered like a cement gate. Doug said "guess what, we are heading back to Lewistown." But, things lightened up north a bit, and so we decided to try Harlowtown, a teeny tiny farming town (pop. 1000) that would save us an hour or so. We would try again in the morning, when the weather would either get better, or worse, depending on who you listened to.
!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/june6-3.jpg!
We decided not to take any chances, and try to stay the night. so, we called a small, family operated hotel (no one left a car at this airport! Or gas, or anything else). So, about 20 minutes later, a car comes bumping down the gravel road from town, and the young hotel owner was there to pick us up. A quick bite of cheese and chips, a soak in a real, hot bathtub, and I was out. Until 2 am, when I was awakened by a dull roar, like a train bearing down on the town.
Except it didn't pass, like a train--it just kept building and building. For 3 hours, it blew strong and steady. It was a long night, and I could just imagine my colleague in the room down the hall, having nightmares about heading out the next morning to find his little plane wadded up like a crushed tin can. But finally it blew itself out, and by 7 am when we checked radar, it looked possible, so off we headed, on a flight path that would follow the Crazy Mountains down over Livingston, and over the Bozeman pass, and on in--wow--that is all I can say.
!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/june6-4.jpg!
Well, that is it from the field in Montana. The snow line here on June 7, 2007 is about 5000 ft, and here in town it is hovering around 45F. There are more dinosaurs waiting, but the next trip in about 3 weeks will be east, not north, (I think?you never really KNOW), to the Hell Creek, and the land of the Tyrannosaurs.
Posted at 11:32AM Jun 29, 2007 by tppeake in General | Comments[0]