Day 6- We are Blown Away By the Pioneer Mountains

September 20^th 2010 Day 6- Monday

Today is the first day that we are starting to venture into unknown territory. We headed south from Butte, mid-day, on I-15 to a state highway and onto a parkway that travels through the Pioneer Mountains after passing through Wise River, MT. It is super beautiful out here, aside from the tragedy of all the beetle-killed pines with their sad brown needles in place of where healthy green ones should be.  I wish I knew more about this area, especially about the homesteaders in the Pioneers, so in the future I’ll have to research the areas we’re about to enter so that I can better understand them.

There were so many beautiful trailheads and overlooks and campsites that we were not sure where to stop but we eventually turned up an unpaved forest road (despite our experiences with the unpaved Skalkaho mountain pass) that led to Coolidge Ghost Town. We stopped after a mile at a campground and detached the trailer from the truck. It was pretty chilly so we put on an extra layer. We decided to check out the ghost town so we got in Tyler’s truck and chugged 4 miles up a dirt road to the former mining camp. It was about a ¼ mile walk to the first part of town where the remains of only a few buildings remained on the ground. About another ¼ of a mile further exposed the heart of this mini-city, once home to at least a thousand people. I wish there was some more interpretive materials to go along with what we were seeing (like there is for Garnet Ghost Town, for example) but it was still interesting to be in a place with such interesting history. It’s fascinating to think of all the people who toiled in the exact spot in which you are standing, all of the hard work that went into building this civilization and maintaining a livelihood through incredibly harsh winters. One thing that was different about this ghost town is that it actually had electricity! They spent close to $150,000 on setting up power lines to connect this town to the electrical grid! I want to find more info on Coolidge and get back to you with more accurate history in the near future. 

At Coolidge Ghost Town

An Outhouse at Coolidge Ghost Town... Why are there 2 toilets?!

Tin Cans in a pile represent how garbage was disposed of in the early 20th Century

We returned to the campsite just before dark. It was so cold we had multiple layers on. This was the first night we had to worry about our pipes freezing because it was going to get well below freezing during the night. We turned on the hot water heater and ran hot water through our lines so they wouldn't freeze. We turned the heat on a bit to help as well. 

We went for a walk before going to sleep and ran into one of the other people staying at the campground with us. He and his wife were visiting from Wisconsin. I don't often think of people from Wisconsin as having accents but my god! He pronounced Wisconsin like Wis-can-sin! After chatting for a bit we headed back into the semi-warmth of the travel trailer.

The next morning we woke up and the water in Hanz's outside bowl was frozen. Good thing we were anticipating that!

Day 5- The Giants Make Me Cry & I Finally Get a Real Shower!

9/19/2010 6:28pm Day 5

Well, it’s Football Sunday so the Colts and Giants are about to face off, Manning versus Manning. The media just loves this. There have been 13,500 games or so in the NFL and this is only the second time that Eli and Peyton Manning will be facing off. Let’s go Giants!

Yesterday afternoon I spotted a patch of thimble berries on a trail by Flint Creek so this morning when I woke up to walk Hanz we brought a little basket and collected some. Yum! We hung out for a little bit to enjoy the scenery and then started to pack up to move to our next destination. Hanz saw a squirrel of some kind run over to a tree by our trailer and he chased after it. It proceeded to tease him for at least the next half hour by going down to the base of the tree, making Hanz run over to it, and then running up- just out of range for him- and loudly chattering at him. I’m not sure what kind of squirrel it was. I’ll post a picture below and if anyone knows, please tell me! It’s definitely smaller than a typical squirrel and the coloring is a bit different. It let me get really close to it. I was staring at it up in the tree and it would literally come down to about shoulder height on the tree but on the opposite side so all I could see was its bushy little tail waving back and forth. I would dart over to try to get closer to it and then it would scamper up the tree, just out of reach and then stare me straight in the face... cocky little bugger! So I guess it wasn't only Hanz that this squirrel was teasing! 

The Squirrel that gave me and Hanz a headache

When we finally departed we continued along the Pintler Scenic Loop. Right before passing Georgetown Lake we saw the locally famous “heart” on the mountain. It’s basically a scree field on the side of a mountain that is perfectly shaped like a heart and surrounded by trees. There’s also a dramatic and unexpected waterfall just off the side of the highway. Tyler commented on how this is a very interesting and dangerous place to put a highway and I have to agree. Sometimes it's pretty crazy to think about all the work that goes into building the first roads through rough terrain. I remember when I was in Costa Rica a few years ago for school we talked briefly about all the lives that were lost in building the Pan-American Highway and I bet it is the same out here. 

The Pintler Scenic Loop just up the road from the Flint Creek Campground

Check out the waterfall!

Georgetown Lake is where I went fly fishing with the CFWEP camp about a month ago. It’s a very beautiful area. You can see the Governor’s house overlooking the lake and supposedly a cell tower was built nearby specifically for his convenience. I checked my phone, the reception is great!

We passed through Anaconda, a town named after the company which ran the famous Butte copper mines starting in the late 19^th century. Anaconda is home to the smelter which processed a lot of the ore that came out of the Butte mines. There is still a railroad connecting Anaconda to Butte. If you do not know much about the history of mining in Butte I highly recommend looking into it because it is absolutely fascinating. There is a great book called Fire and Brimstone, which I believe I mentioned in a previous blog, which documents the events leading up to and following a huge mining disaster in 1917. It also discusses Butte’s role in American history and really, without Butte and its prolific copper mines there would not have been an industrial revolution and our world would be a very different place. Not to mention the fact that Butte was ethnically a microcosm of Europe because of all the immigrants that came over to work in the mines so it was socially a fascinating place to live in during World War I and II.

Tyler and I had planned on stopping in Butte and staying at an RV park but we opted to stop just outside in Fairmont for the night. We found a sweet little RV park with really nice owners originally from Minnesota. It’s nice to every once in a while stay at a place that gives you internet and cell reception and (gasp!) a warm shower! Allelujah! So right now I am sitting at our little dining room table typing away while the winds outside are insanely blowing. Even with the windows closed it is loud and every once in a while the travel trailer gives a nice little shudder reminding me or how exposed we are. Of course this is the one night we choose to stay in a campground that isn’t surrounded by mountains and trees. It’s not raining yet but starting at 5am it’s supposed to be thunder storms all day and into tomorrow evening. Makes for interesting traveling! 

By now the Giants game is over, and not just the over that it has been since the Colts initially asserted themselves in the first quarter. It's so frustrating when they get dominated like this!! I want the 2007 team back! And Amani Toomer! And Tiki Barber!!!! Is that so much to ask for?!

Day 4- Mountain Pass Insanity & A Sweet Little Camp Spot

9/18/2010 8:47pm Day 4

Tyler and Hanz panting on a boulder

Yesterday when we got back to the Como campground Tyler and I biked over to the lake while Hanz ran alongside us. It is a gorgeous area but it’s funny because there is a lot of contrast in the scenery. On one side, the direction from which we came, there’s a huge concrete dam and then another huge concrete put-in area. If you look across the lake, however, you see incredible mountains rising up into the sky. The actual color of the water is beautiful as well. I think that is just something about Montana lakes in general, because so many of them are so high up and pristine, they are absolutely beautiful. We went back to the travel trailer for some dinner after a little hike and then ended the night by watching the second half of North by Northest, further proving you can almost never go wrong with Cary Grant.

This morning I woke up and took Hanz for a long walk down an old road off to the side of the campground. It leads to a narrow trail in a beautiful coniferous forest and ends up at a creek. It was such a wonderful way to start the day. The air is already delicious in a quiet forest but in the morning it seems to be even more so. Hanz chased the ball, which I threw from a Chuck-It (he’s obsessed!), a good hundred times. When I got back we packed up our stuff and got on the road at around 10:30am. We were going to work at Homestead Organics in Hamilton, but giving that it was a Saturday and they did not do much work on the weekends we decided to just stop by the farmers market and then head on our way towards Butte. We ran into an old friend of ours, Paul Madeen and his girlfriend Terri at the market, which is always nice. Terri said she has a farm in Stevensville that she is working on and that she has goats and chickens and grows produce. Since Tyler and I are trying to find a place to stay where we can work in exchange for rent we are possibly going to help her out starting this spring with the produce and since the goats will be having kids there will be more to manage. We’ll see how it works out!

The Creek near Lake Como where Hanz and I took our morning walk

I had taken the Skalkaho Pass only once in my life and that was two years ago with 4 girlfriends in a small car heading to Butte for the National Folk Festival. I remembered the road as being beautiful and having gorgeous falls, maybe it is a bit windy as well. Well, obviously I was not the one driving and it is funny how your experience can change the way you remember something but as soon as Tyler and I started the ascent we started to get nervous. The road immediately narrowed and a sign warned of imminent “narrow mountainous winding gravel roadway.” All those descriptors on one sign… wow! Tyler glanced over at me with his brow furrowed and asked, “Are you sure this is going to be alright for my truck with this trailer?”

What followed was a who-knows-how-long period of extremely tense driving and the occasional wince as the trailer’s shocks worked overtime. We did momentarily stop at the Skalkaho Falls so catch our breath and take in some of the scenery. While we were stopped Tyler talked to another young couple who assured us that the road widened as you started to descend and that people took rigs this big up here all the time. Yeah, well it turns out the road widens alright but it also becomes a series of unending potholes that forced us to literally travel about 5 miles an hour. On the bright side we were surrounded by beautiful conifers the whole time so if you had the window down it smelled like Christmas!

At the base of the descent we turned our heads to look at a sign meant for those just beginning to take the pass from the east. It read something to the extent of: trailer attachments of no more than 20 feet advisable. Ours was 22 feet. Thanks for the warning.

We drove on a little while longer and eventually turned onto the Pintler Scenic Loop towards Anaconda. At this point we just wanted to find a place large enough to park the travel trailer for the night that would also afford us some nice scenery. We soon happened upon the entrance to the Flint Creek Campground also home to the Flint Creek Hydroelectric Project. Let me preface my initial hesitation towards stopping here by saying that I had only heard one thing about Flint Creek and it was not very great. A couple months ago I went to the Montana Audubon Society’s Annual Bird Festival where we went on birdwatching field trips and listened to all different kinds of people talk about birds and conservation and current research. One of the presenters was from the University of Montana and he had been studying mercury levels in osprey chicks. He found that Flint Creek, which passes by a gold mine, picks up mercury (a by-product of the mining process?) and is the largest contributor of mercury into the Clark Fork River when it flows into it. Since osprey eat lots of fish mercury, a heavy metal, can bio-accumulate in their blood, causing them to get sick. This is exactly what happened with DDT. So, knowing this I was not too thrilled about the prospect of camping right next to the water but I realized that it’s not the whole creek that has mercury, it’s really only after it meets up with the source, the gold mine, that it possibly gets hairy. Plus, once we drove down to the camp I saw a site that was located right on the creek with the water rushing by in the most beautiful way. So we set up camp. The water is so loud but relaxing, the perfect thing to lull you to sleep. Needless to say we did not go fishing.

Our Campsite on Flint Creek

The Traveling Trio

The hydroelectric project we read, was initiated in 1891 and generated about 1,100 kw of energy. The old carved wooden sign also informed us that it was “open to the public without discrimination.” Man, do I love some of the signs you can find out here!

Tyler grilled some delicious Italian sausages that we got from Jen at Lifeline in exchange for our work (a very tasty gift!) and put a can of beans on the embers of our campfire to cook. Baked beans have to be one of my favorite all time camp foods. That and s’mores, which we also had! We actually got the stuff in Philipsburg where we stopped to find a bar in which to watch the University of Montana Grizzlies dominate Eastern Washington University. We found a really nice bar, called the Club Bar, “the friendliest corner bar in town.” We did not actually see any other corner bars in town but they did seem to be a friendly crowd that was luckily Griz fan dominated. We weren’t sure if they would be Griz or Cat fans out here but we lucked out. 

Hanz being a Waffle

Day 3- Lake Como & Sheep on the Open Range

9/17/2010 9:28am Day 3

Today I woke up at the RV park at Lake Como. Unfortunately when we left Lifeline Dairy yesterday afternoon, about 200 flies came with us. The truck and RV were both full of them, buzzing around and making Hanz snarl at the air and then snap his jaw, trying to catch them. As we headed deeper into the Bitterroot we stopped in Hamilton to get ice cream. Our favorite ice cream place is a small local joint called Out West. Well, it was called Out West a couple years ago when Tyler and I worked at Homestead Organics, a family-run produce farm also in Hamilton, MT, now it’s called something less endearing and is attached to a greasy food joint. It was formerly attached to a really cute shop that sold home goods and western wear, including cute cowgirl aprons. Luckily, the ice cream is the same so they still had my favorite flavor, Montana Moose Moss; it’s mint ice cream with fudge swirls and mini peppermint patties. Yummmm.

We took our ice cream to go and then headed towards Lake Como to set up camp in the RV section. Tyler spent the rest of the evening fixing the various things that did not work in our Springdale 179 travel trailer. He had called someone at Bretz, where we had bought it to ask about using the hot water heater and they gave him wrong instructions. It is seriously absurd how much they charge for these things, when they are made with such cheap parts. But that’s another issue. So anyways, Tyler finally figured out the hot water heater so omg we had hot water! I could take a shower! That was the worst thing about working at Lifeline, the inability to really clean up at the end of the day, so now I was super excited to be able to take a shower. Oh the wonders of modern living!

12:39pm

I’m at River Rising, a café in Hamilton, sipping on a mocha and waiting for my sandwich to arrive. We came into town to do our laundry. Evidently when you use the shower water leaks onto the floor in the travel trailer so we used all our towels to mop it up. Lake Como is a really beautiful place to camp. When I woke up this morning, around 8:30am, I took Hanz for a little hike and he loved it. He loves hikes and areas where he can run around and act like a wild dog. He especially loves new places where there are foreign smells for him to investigate vigorously with his nose. After our walk I went back to the trailer, fed Hanz and put some water on for oatmeal, the breakfast of champions!

We took a small road from Lake Como to Hamilton, bypassing Hwy 93 and opting for the beauty of the back roads. What a gorgeous road! There were signs warning that this is “Open Range” so be careful of the roaming animals, they may very well be in the road! We passed by a farm with a couple sheep just walking around, right next to the road. Instead of having fences to keep animals in the people in this area had fences around their gardens to keep animals out of them.

We passed over the Bitterroot River on a little one lane bridge and saw a fly fisherman casting in the waters below. We passed over the bridge and continued along the dirt road, rising above the valley with incredible views both of the land below as well as the mixed jagged and rounded peaks above. I learned from my visit to Wilson, WY this summer, which is just outside of Jackson Hole and almost at the very base of the Tetons, that jagged peaks are present on younger mountain ranges that haven’t been around for long enough to be very weathered. So geologically speaking, the Tetons are one of the youngest ranges in this country. There are sections of the Bitterroot Mountains that are jagged like that but not nearly to the extent of the Tetons, which are famous for it.

Passing over the Bitterroot River 

We soon realized that the canoe, which was strapped to the top of Tyler’s Tundra, was not attached tightly enough to the roof so we pulled over. It is things like that, little seemingly random events, that can lead you to see or experience little pleasures that you would have otherwise missed. When I stepped out of the truck I heard Tyler remark, “Oh wow, look at the sheep!” I hurriedly scrambled around the back of the truck and looked down into the valley: hundreds of sheep were grazing not too far below. I could hear them going “bahh” back and forth and couldn’t help but smile.

Sheep Grazing Below

Tyler and I have decided to stay another night at Lake Como. We bought the “America the Beautiful” pass that allows you free access to all national parks and monuments and federal lands in general. We have yet to actually go down to the lake but I think when we are done with laundry we will explore that area with Hanz. We left him in the travel trailer to guard everything. It’s been beautiful fall weather this past week, cool and a bit damp but really nice for being outside. 

The First and Second Day- Lifeline Dairy

9/16/10 8:34pm Day 2

Yesterday and today have been kind of rough. Unfortunately I have a cold so when I woke up my throat really hurt. It's very difficult to get into the habit of living in a travel trailer. You would not believe the amount of stuff we are carrying with us. It's just all very compact and efficiently packed. The only problem is that I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE ANYTHING IS!!!!!!! So ideally we would have spent our first night at a campground so we could have gone through things a bit to organize them better and not be working but it is alright. We are going to go to a campground after our stay at Lifeline so we'll do it then.

I was going to meet Jen to start work at Lifeline Dairy at 8am today but we didn’t really get started until around 9am. Tyler took the travel trailer to a Les Schwab to get our flat fixed and to buy a new tire for the other flat. Oh my goodness, 2 flat tires in one day?! Seriously, what are the chances?? The first one happened when we were literally about a mile from our house. We turned a corner on a really narrow road and the tire hit the curb and popped!! So then we had to pull over and luckily we had the equipment to change the tire. We then drove to Victor but when we got to Lifeline we realized we had run over a screw, which was still stuck in the tire, and we were losing air. It was at this time 6:01pm. Literally. On the dot. Every auto store in the area was closed for the day. %#@! We went to a gas station down the road and I ran inside to get something. It just so happened that at that very same time an automotive mechanic from the shop across the street was also in the gas station and saw Tyler outside checking out our rig. He was incredibly nice and ended up helping us out. We determined the air wasn’t leaking fast enough to require immediate action so we were able to go back to Lifeline for the night as long as we fixed it the next morning. So that’s where we were before, with Tyler leaving that next morning to fix the tire and I working at the dairy.

Our first night on the farm we were able to help Jen out with some work on the dairy but spent most of our time just chatting with her in the milking parlor as she milked the cows with an automated milking machine. I have such respect for her and her family’s hard work. She was out there until 11pm milking the cows and makes just enough to get by with her family. Thankfully she was going on her annual vacation with her family on Friday so she had that to look forward to. I can imagine that it couldn’t come soon enough!

Today working at the dairy I definitely learned a lot. It was also nice to do some physical work and to feel like I was really able to help out with things. The family who runs Lifeline: Ernie, Jen and their children Liam and Belle, are incredibly sweet people. They are very willing to explain how everything in their operation works. I worked with Jen for the most part and it was really nice to learn from someone who loved their work so much. Passion is really contagious and in any learning situation I feel a passionate teacher has a much greater probability of being effective in their teaching.

Jen in the Milking Parlor

Today, Tyler and I got to help hold down calves as Jen tagged their ears with a fairly unpleasant looking device, and “castrated” the male calves, using a device that stretched a rubber band around their testicles so that in time, since the rubber band cuts off circulation to the testes, they would just eventually fall off. They also got 3 shots, one to protect against scour diseases, another that was Vitamin A and D, and I believe the third was a B vitamin. It was really interesting and great to witness this process, not because I feel that the cows really enjoyed it but because this was the reality of the everyday process that eventually brings milk and steak to your table. It is these little chores that just have to be done consistently to ensure a steady milk flow for customers and to keep the operation up and running.

One of the many interesting things that I learned was that calves are actually born without any immune system. They are supplied with something special in their mother’s milk that develops their immunity and ability to cope with germs and disease. It is critical that a calf get a good amount of it within the first 2 hours of being born. That’s why it’s a big problem if a calf doesn’t nurse or is rejected by its mother because if it doesn’t get those vital nutrients it will have immune system problems for the rest of its, probably not very long, life.

A cow who does not get pregnant (and therefore does not produce milk) is called an “open” cow. You “dry off” a cow who is pregnant (as in you do not milk them) starting around 7 months into the pregnancy. 5 months after a pregnancy is when the heifer’s milk production reaches its peak.

I think one of the not so great things about the whole process is when the mother has its calf taken away for the first time. The calf refuses to eat at first, choosing to wait for its mother to return, but eventually it gives in to being hungry. The mother will carry on for a couple days, mooing up a storm and searching all over the place for their baby. There was one mother in particular, a small black and white heifer, which seemed especially ornery. She kept looking like she was going to go after Liam, Jen’s young son, and Jen said it was because she thought he was a dog or some kind of predator and she wanted to keep him away. She even threatened me by lowering her head with its horns and kind of stomping towards me. I got out of there FAST.

One of the exciting things Tyler and I got to do was to bottle feed the baby calves. They were SO cute. I like them a lot because their noses are dry and they don’t slobber as much as adult cows!

A calf being bottle-fed warm milk... So cute!

Cow tongues are so strangely fascinating. I put my hand up to one of their noses so it could see I wasn’t a threat and it thought my finger was a nipple so it started trying to suck on it. Its tongue was super coarse and had a strangely powerful tip that probed around trying to figure out if it could get any milk from my hand. It quickly realized it couldn’t and looked at me like I was a very mean person, but then I made it all better by producing a bottle with a rubber nipple for it to suck from. It’s funny because some of the calves get it immediately and latch on, sucking for dear life to get some of that warm milk (it’s bad for them to get cold milk) but some of them just don’t get that this is what they are supposed to drink from… obviously this bottle is not their mother. Maybe cows are not as dumb as we think they are! It’s like they are saying, okay I’ll take the milk from this weird device because I’m really hungry but I don’t get how I’m going to get the milk because this is not my mother!

We helped to clean up one of the stockyards that had tons of equipment and metal slabs in it. Tyler put lug bolts in all the posts but unfortunately there was an electric wire running right over his head so every once in a while, while he was putting the bolt in place he would shock himself. This is not an electric fence meant to keep chickens in place, this is electric fence meant to keep thousand pound animals in check, so you can imagine what it felt like to a person. Around the fourth time that he got shocked, he happened to be holding onto something metal and he actually blacked out! He said he felt like he was having a dream that lasted for a split second and then when he came back he was disoriented and had no idea where he was. I felt so terrible! I hate it when he gets hurt. I guess that is something that you learn to be super aware of when it’s your full time job raising livestock. Jen said her young son had even gotten shocked when he was less than a year old! I guess it builds character.

Oink Oink

The morning light on fields near Lifeline

Lifeline Dairy