Western USA 2003
Helena to Custard National Forest near Cheyenne reservation.
Got an early start and headed into Helena, Montana and stopped at a Burger King for breakfast sandwich and hot coffee. The hot drink never tasted so good after days of being out in the cold and the bitter cold last night it felt like heaven on earth sipping that cup. Thus far the number of miles traveled each day have been limited as I wander around the back roads but to make it in time to South Carolina I need to pick up the pace and today will be the first push day now that I am through some of the worst mountains.
Went to a place called Castle Mountain Ghost Town which is marked on the map but turned out to be entirely on private property and could only see from the road some old 19th wooden buildings falling down in an unmowed grassy clearing in some foothills. It used to be a busy town when there was mining nearby but like a lot of the west old towns simply disappear when the reason for being goes away.
Staying on route 12 stop at Harlowtown at the Grand Café which is a historic place. Reuben and beef soup I was not that hungry but for 8 hours after that was plenty fueled up. The waitress is from Oregon but knows people from Maryland. Many people out here have never been "back east" and know only Maryland is one of the small states and get it confused with New England.
Route 3 south to Cushman bought some gifts at an all in one grocery/restaurant/ gift and antiques/gas store. A women was there hawking a book her son wrote about his trip following in the trail of Lewis and Clark with his dog. Pass through Billings to Pryor in the Crow Indian reservation not many people but lots of bird wildlife. Hawks, owls and pheasants along the road seemingly not afraid of people, normally do not see this kind of large wildlife so densely part of the landscape outside the reservation I think it has to do with Indian culture respect for wildlife.
Open plains over to St.Xavier and up to the Crow agency where I see lots of trailer parks and Indian poverty right next to the Little Bighorn NP. With only 45 minutes to see the battlefield before dark I am not expecting much but it turns out to be a fabulous park. The HQ has tons of artifacts from the battle and detailed minute by minute locations of individual soldier on maps it must be one of the most detailed documented battles in history. There is a road which goes through the middle of the battlefield along the top of a grassy ridge and on both sides are white tombstones marking the place where each soldier fell, as this is where each is buried. From this it is easy to visualize what happened and there is a sense of being in the middle of the battle. One thing I noticed was almost all headstones are in groupings of multiples of 2. This was because soldiers worked on a buddy system never leaving behind their buddy, since it was a complete route there are little groups of 2 headstones dotted around the landscape. At the highest spot is where Custer fell and a monument marks his grave. Very moving place and even more so to see the Crow Indians still squatting encamped across the road, in trailers not Teepee's.
Eastward into the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. There is something noticeably different about the Cheyenne they are physically more robust, taller, better dressed, and overall look strong and proud they look at you right in the eye. While looking for a place to pull off and make camp at Badger Peake a wolf crosses the road right in front of the truck.. again, I never see this kind of wildlife outside of Indian reservations.. the wolf is very big and has his head down and ears back and moving quickly never takes it eyes off me.. the piercing blue eyes scream intelligence and it is a somewhat taken aback experience this is not a creature to mess with!
Badger Peake turns into a difficult 2 hour off-road trip in the dark along some very rough dirt roads. Some of the roads were only recently created and were soft dirt mixed with dead branches along steep valley walls I was not comfortable with the safety being there alone. Had to open a few gates to pass through and one gate was not able to re-close so sacrificed a bungee cord to keep it closed. This is Cheyenne country and I did not feel safe here and wanted to get out of the reservation to find a place to camp for the night. Certainly the Cheyenne are good people I just don't know enough about the younger teenage crowd nighttime drinking habits, and felt like an intruder anyway.
Continued east in the dark to Custard National Forest roadside camp area, one of the few nights I actually slept in an official camping spot. There was another truck camped nearby that I had passed a few times during the day along the road with VA tags. Of course, he was driving very slow and causing big clusters and I had to pass him a few times but somehow we ended up at the same place for the night.
Posted by stbalbach at September 17, 2003 01:31 AM