Day 35 Milk River to Montana

Farmroad 501 was barren all night.  Not one car drove past me.  I woke up shortly after sunrise to walk in the rangeland 30 miles away.  The area was noted on Google Maps but there were no signs at the turn -off unless one looked directly at the cattle crossing over the gravel road.  It was still cool so I walked the dogs for .75 miles on this gently descending path. Zeke was fascinated by the many prairie dogs that had dug up holes all across the land.  Antelope watched us from a distance.  A golden eagle flew off an electric line and cows grazed in nearby ranches.  A few wildflowers were in bloom but it was otherwise a landscape resting for the upcoming heat.

After that 1.5 mile we left the area and headed for the border town of Coutts where I pulled over to nap by the post office.  Neighborhood cats sauntered down the road, getting the dogs excited.  The heat was already getting to me and it was only getting hotter.  I woke up in a sweat.  I had no option but the brace myself and cross into Montana, where the customs agent scolded me for allowing the dogs to bark at her .  Welcome to the United States!

It was a hot drive and I could tell the dogs were stressed.  The AC was running hard and both dogs looked hot.  I drove into Montana on I-15 but got off it at the Oilmont-Kevin exit ten miles into Montana and drove in a westerly direction.  Kevin is a small ranch community with not much going for it, but it has a bar (of course!), a post office and a city hall.

The hills around me were dryer than a month ago, the result of Montana's worst drought in years and the worst one currently in the country, according to the Helena paper I read later. From Kevin I continued in a westerly direction on MT215 to Cut Bank, then south on MT 358 to Valier, then west again on MT44 until I hit US89.  Now the terrain was getting hillier and the Rockies were clearly in view.  I was now in the foohills.  It was in this area that Lewis and Clark had the one and only deadly encounter with a Blackfoot Indian who was killed trying to steal some of Lewis' supplies while Lewis and his crew were sleeping.  Cattle ranches were around me now.

My goal was to make it to Helena for the day.  The towns on US287 were all touristy towns and Choteau with its tall, mature trees was inviting enough for me had that been my destination, but I needed to put some distance in today.  I made it to Helena by 6pm and drove right to the down town area.  I tried the Blackfoot River brewpub, then took the dogs on a pee break that turned out to be a nice walk in the lower hills, following the Acropolis trail through a quiet neighborhood to a hilltop which gave me nice views of the sunset.

I drove 446.3 miles in the last two days, most of that today.  My campsite ended up being a quiet corner of the town's Walmart.  I'm staring to feel comfortable using the Walmart parking lots to rest in.  The storm that blew through town didn't last long.