Wednesday (9/15) Great Falls, MT to Gardiner, MT

Today was a pretty easy day from the perspective of miles to cover at only 220. We first visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive center on the Missouri River in Great Falls. This is the point where Lewis and Clark had to portage their canoes that they had traveled in UP STREAM from Saint Lewis in the hopes of finding a water passage to the Pacific Ocean. What they thought was going to take only a day or two, took over a month of struggling to move the nearly 1,000 pound canoes over the rough terrain. The interpretive center is very well done and a definite stop if you are in the area. A side bonus is getting to see the Roe River which is listed as the worlds shortest river. about 150 million gallons of water bubble up out of the ground at a constant 57 degrees each day. It then flows about 20 feet into the Missouri river. They have actually carbon dated the water and it has been 3,000 years since it fell as rain or snow on the surface of the earth. That is simply amazing to me and well worth the stop. Unfortunately, none of us other than Rich took pictures of it and I can not upload pictures from his Sony Camera. Damn Japaneese!
After leaving Great Falls we headed down Rte 89 toward the north entrance of Yellowstone at Gardiner, MT. Initially the terrain was wide open spaces and exactly what you expect to see in a state named the "Big Sky" state. Sky from horizon to horizon and today it was completely cloudless. At one point the flat roads and wide open spaces got the best of us and we all had to "blow the carbon out" of the bikes. I won't reveal an any incriminating velocities, but the NJ "Super Trooper" did not lag behind on his big yellow bird. Three digits were involved and none of them were insignificant digits for you math experts out there. I won't say more than that.

As we headed further south snow capped mountains appeared on both sides of us and we transited Kings Hill Pass at 7,393 feet of elevation. From there we dropped down into the valley and eventually followed the Yellowstone River to Gardiner.
While passing through the town of Wilsall a building on the right caught my eye. It is the only Bank/Bar that I have ever seen and there was a quite happy group of locals enjoying some "beverages" outside waiting to have dinner. Of course I had to turn around and make some new friends and find out what was up. We learned that they had just rounded up 300 head of cattle, drove them 15 miles to corrals on horseback and loaded them into tractor trailers to head to finishing yards to be fattened up. These were range fed cattle and sold for $1.06 a lb on the hoof. Remember that the next time you complain abou the price of meat in the market. These ranchers are not the big winners in the equation, but the lead wrangler Larry told me that this is one of their few pay days a year and they usually head into the Bank/Bar to celebrate. They were doing that quite well! We joined in the fun for about a half hour as only the Phat Pac can, and came away with some great memories of very nice people that welcomed us to their town with open arms. Everywhere you go in this state you find the same hospitality and vitality. These people work hard, are humble and play hard. They appreciate the land and their little piece of tranquility.
Wildlife has been noticeably less than we expected. The ranchers told us that wolves have moved into the area and are taking their toll on the herds. One was recently shot that dressed out at 200 lbs. Now that is one big mean hunting machine. Mac was able to capture a picture of a herd of Antelope.
After dinner we headed back outside town and parked the bikes in the dark out of the influence of any background lights. We just simply wanted to take in the stars and watch a few satelites passing over. Unfortunately, there was a half moon and that tended to reduce the impact that you experience on a moonless night. Great fun in any event and a great way to cap of an perfect day of riding. Hope you enjoy the photo's!