Lewistown, MT
Above: My 4th of July was pretty typical… I just hung out at an old hole in the wall.
Above: Mom – Tori tried to get me to climb to the edge of the 300 ft. cliff with her, but I said, “No way! My mom wouldn’t want me to! You go ahead, wild woman.” Someone’s got to be the sensible one…
Above: The hole in the wall from farther away. (click to see a larger version)
Above: The view of the hole in the wall from the canoe. This provides a nice perspective. It’s the little dot in the top right corner. (click to see a larger version)
Above: If you’re going to canoe with a girl, make sure she’s an outrigger canoe world-champion from Hawaii…
Above: The White Cliffs Area of the Missouri River Breaks.
Above: A nice view…
Above: “Dave-o is so swell” (what Tori is thinking in the picture)
Wednesday, July 5 3pm
Location: Lewistown, MT
Mileage on the river, Sunday-Tuesday: about 65
Today’s destination: Grass Range (short day)
On Sunday morning, I rode my bicycle to the Great Falls airport to pick Tori up. I was a little worried that I didn’t schedule enough time to ride to the car rental location, fill out the necessary paperwork, and then get to the gate in time to greet Tori coming off of the plane. However, when I arrived at the airport, I realized that I’d have plenty of time: the rental car parking lot was adjacent to the rental car office, which was in the same building as the terminal gates, all 6 of them. You can sure get around an airport quickly, when the whole thing is smaller than a food court at DFW.
Tori and I rented a car, so we threw my bike and Tori’s luggage into the back and headed for the river. Even getting to the drop-in location was a bit of an adventure. We had to drive about 50 miles, the last 10 of which were on dirt roads. After buying food and supplies, we loaded up the canoe and got ready to shove off into the Missouri River.
I must admit that it took a bit of a leap of faith, for Tori and me both, to hop in the canoe knowing that it’d be another 3 days before we’d come across civilization again. We didn’t have a checklist of food or supplies, so we pretty much just estimated what we would need. Just as we were about to lock up the car, Tori remembered to grab my Leatherman multi-tool, which proved to be a lifesaver, since more than one of our meals relied on a can opener.
The canoe rental company gave us maps of the river, but we still weren’t sure how we were going to know where we were or how fast we were moving, given that the river doesn’t come with milemarkers or street signs.
Just as we were about to push off, Tori stopped short and said, “We didn’t remember cooking fuel, did we?” Oh sh-t!
To our great fortune, a ranger at the drop-in site had a leftover cannister of stove fuel. It would have been an interesting trip had she not. Thank goodness for that ranger, and thank goodness for Tori’s memory!
Finally, we hopped into the canoe and floated off downstream.
I didn’t keep up with my blog entries during the trip, on account of being distracted by Tori. However, here are some of the highlights:
1) Finding a box of matches with my camping stove, after realizing at our first campsite that we had forgotten matches too.
2) With a few exceptions (including my rendition of “Amarillo By Morning”), we spent 3 days in the absence of man-made noise. We only saw about a dozen people over the course of 3 days.
3) My second bald eagle sighting in Montana. More wild rabbits too.
4) Hiking around in the rock formations. We saw a lot of towering monoliths, soaring cliffs, and jagged canyons. Erosion is nifty!
5) Being the sternsman in a canoe behind someone who paddled competitively in Hawaii for many years. “Don’t worry, Tori. It only FEELS like I’m not paddling back here. Keep up the good work…”
6) Switching sides of the canoe and being the bowman in front of someone who’s used to paddling in 6-person, ocean-faring outrigger canoes. “Dave-O, what’s wrong with this stupid thing?! How do you make it go straight?!”
7) And most importantly, having 3 1/2 days with Tori all to myself!
We made it to the take-out site on Tuesday afternoon, which was about a day earlier than planned, so we dropped off or gear and drove to Lewistown, MT, in search of 4th of July fireworks. Lewistown put on quite a fireworks display at the country fairgrounds, which capped off the weekend nicely.
Sadly, Tori left for the airport this afternoon, and I hit the road again on my bike, bound eastward towards the North Dakota state line.
Tags: Travel
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