you are just about to have the worst 3 minutes of your life..........unless you have a .50 cal revolver"
...and use it on yourself...
MONTANA - The Last Best Place
- Thread starter Timolgra
- Start date
...and use it on yourself...
The river in your last couple of pix is the Firehole River, I used to fish it a lot on my days off. You need a special permit to fish anywhere in the Park which puts off many anglers so it's not usually too crowded in summertime.
Weirdly, it's warm to wade in because of the geothermal activity on the banks but the trout don't seem to mind
Weirdly, it's warm to wade in because of the geothermal activity on the banks but the trout don't seem to mind
Just for the record, Bear Spray is utterly pointless and will hardly slow the bear down if it's charging.
As a pal of mine in Alaska says "if a bear is charging you and is 30ft away, you are just about to have the worst 3 minutes of your life..........unless you have a .50 cal revolver"
It's hard to know isn't it.
When travelling by bike we tend to stay close to it which may have already scared a bear off or we're with others.
It seems questionable if spray is necessary for Black Bears although I've seen loads of video footage where it most definitely does work.
The big question is of course will it stop a Grizzly if its charging and I cannot imagine anything more terrifying!
Either way, carrying spray and knowing how to use it and a little about how else to behave can certainly make a walk in the wood just that little bit more comfortable
More on the revolver later
Looks awful Tim.
Mark
Mark
We have time to head down to see the Tetons in Wyoming before driving back up the west side in Idaho and returning to that touristic shithole of West Yellowstone where our motel is.
Armed and full of confidence we take a picnic in the woods
Surely just a quick half second burst of bear spray to test it can't harm, Ange say NO!
I'm sure many on here have seen the Tetons so just a couple of photos
Using smaller roads when possible the drive north on the western side of the Tetons was just one long, beautiful sensory delight in perfect weather.
Armed and full of confidence we take a picnic in the woods
Surely just a quick half second burst of bear spray to test it can't harm, Ange say NO!
I'm sure many on here have seen the Tetons so just a couple of photos
Using smaller roads when possible the drive north on the western side of the Tetons was just one long, beautiful sensory delight in perfect weather.
Superb!
The Tetons are magnificent that's for sure.
One of his best! Can I interest you in a pair of zircon encrusted tweezers?
Ha ha get right down to the roach
Genius of FZ even down to disguising this song so well it slides on past those who would have sensored it
Right it's too cold in the workshop to continue so back to it here.........
I'd been thinking about the many reasons we both felt this particular trip was better not on a bike!
1. Originally and in our naivety we'd planned to use Air Canada to get us and the bikes to Calgary and ride down from there.
although the cheapest and simplest option, still expensive, much hassle for only 2 weeks, Ange wouldn't have enjoyed the long distances she need to cover on a TTR250
2. We were going to camp when possible.
Feck that
3. Weather.
We were very lucky, a week earlier it had been snowing with no visibility in Glacier NP, huge rain storms washed whole roads away during the summer in Yellowstone. 10
days after we left the temperatures had dropped from 20 deg C to -20deg C in places.
4. Traffic
Others who've been more frequently may say different but certainly post Covid the National Parks have been a virtual traffic jam with little place to even stop, accommodation often fully booked, big queues for food in and near the NP's.
5. The riding.
For me at least, when on a bike at least 50% of the trip is about the riding. I'd have been totally bored and frustrated in both
Yellowstone and Glacier 'in season', gravel
roads were everywhere and some of the tarmac roads would have been fun on a bike....a big bike that'll eat miles.
6. Looking!
We certainly stopped and looked much more often than we would have on a bike and I'm one who really appreciates
'down time' is as important as the riding time.
How many time have we heard complaints on here about riders who want to stop for smoke breaks while they want/need to
ride, ride, ride covering as many miles as possible before their early final stop for beer and hotel.
Well, have you still not learnt?!?
Edit and 7. No motorcycles allowed on the Bison Range but although I did love the countryside there we did see more Bison in Yellowstone
Just a few thoughts which hopefully many will disagree with
We press on through beautiful cattle country
Historical information signs along the roads in Montana are frequent and something we wouldn't be continuously stopping for had we been on bikes.
This one clearly explains what's happened here.
Answering the questions we may have had about the dead trees still standing in the lake
This one clearly explains what's happened here.
Answering the questions we may have had about the dead trees still standing in the lake
I'm sure anyone's who's travelled in Montana has used the 287 running between the Madison river and Madison Mountain range.
For me it was pure beautiful Montana without being 'in your face', I loved it as I'm sure shuck raider does particularly for it's fly fishing.
We stop in the lovely town of Ennis, if I had enough money, I could live here for a while.
There'd been talk of a big bear prowling around at night but thankfully this is all we saw
Time for late breakfast
This trip was very much intended as Ange's trip and for her to visit as many interesting and historical places as we could. She had post it notes over our map at home and it was for me to join the dots even though this was something of a daily ongoing process, which is how I work best with this kind of thing.
First we need to eat at least some of this....I have Corned Beef Hash, remember that?
For me it was pure beautiful Montana without being 'in your face', I loved it as I'm sure shuck raider does particularly for it's fly fishing.
We stop in the lovely town of Ennis, if I had enough money, I could live here for a while.
There'd been talk of a big bear prowling around at night but thankfully this is all we saw
Time for late breakfast
This trip was very much intended as Ange's trip and for her to visit as many interesting and historical places as we could. She had post it notes over our map at home and it was for me to join the dots even though this was something of a daily ongoing process, which is how I work best with this kind of thing.
First we need to eat at least some of this....I have Corned Beef Hash, remember that?
Stopping by Virginia City and Nevada City which like so many first towns began in the gold frenzy
If you're at all interested or even planning trips particularly in the NW states it's worth reading up a bit about the Lewis and Clark expedition. (1804-1806)
Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson after they'd just got their hands on the western part of the country and to establish a trading route up the Missouri, across the Continental Divide and down the Columbia river to the Pacific
Of course Montana doesn't exist just yet but now many of these frequent information signs mark their passage all that time ago and long before there was any real route.
Beaverhead Rock
We take an evening drive out into the beautiful backcountry before heading to the pretty town of Dillon for the night and we're back to listening to trains.
If you're at all interested or even planning trips particularly in the NW states it's worth reading up a bit about the Lewis and Clark expedition. (1804-1806)
Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson after they'd just got their hands on the western part of the country and to establish a trading route up the Missouri, across the Continental Divide and down the Columbia river to the Pacific
Of course Montana doesn't exist just yet but now many of these frequent information signs mark their passage all that time ago and long before there was any real route.
Beaverhead Rock
We take an evening drive out into the beautiful backcountry before heading to the pretty town of Dillon for the night and we're back to listening to trains.
Today we're going to first spend some time at the ghost town of Bannack.
Bannack
Grasshopper Creek
Beaverhead County
Montana
What a cool address!
This is something we'd both been looking forward to since we first decided to come to Montana.
I've convinced Ange we don't go direct by tarmac but come at it from the south via a tiny place called Grant. We can follow the dirt road which is now only used by Hunters but as it happens was also pretty much where the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by.
I didn't let on to Ange I hadn't known this beforehand as she wasn't always too happy with me taking these remote tracks, then much to my surprise there was an information sign ....
"Ah here's the sign about Lewis and Clark, I knew it must be here somewhere"
What I also wasn't expecting was the expeditions account of running out of tobacco!!
Note BHT, they had already chewed their last, no advertising, no patches, vapes etc. just pure and unadulterated nicotine withdrawal and loss of comfort ..... something many ex smokers simply don't relate to because their bodies weren't as addicted to nicotine as others may be
So as much as I'd love to agree with you, that would only make us both wrong
Onwards to Bannack
Bannack
Grasshopper Creek
Beaverhead County
Montana
What a cool address!
This is something we'd both been looking forward to since we first decided to come to Montana.
I've convinced Ange we don't go direct by tarmac but come at it from the south via a tiny place called Grant. We can follow the dirt road which is now only used by Hunters but as it happens was also pretty much where the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by.
I didn't let on to Ange I hadn't known this beforehand as she wasn't always too happy with me taking these remote tracks, then much to my surprise there was an information sign ....
"Ah here's the sign about Lewis and Clark, I knew it must be here somewhere"
What I also wasn't expecting was the expeditions account of running out of tobacco!!
Note BHT, they had already chewed their last, no advertising, no patches, vapes etc. just pure and unadulterated nicotine withdrawal and loss of comfort ..... something many ex smokers simply don't relate to because their bodies weren't as addicted to nicotine as others may be
So as much as I'd love to agree with you, that would only make us both wrong
Onwards to Bannack
What a fabulous trip report, your photos are excellent Tim
Catch the Detroit Lightning
Out of Santa Fe
Great Northern out of Cheyenne
From sea to shining sea
Jack Straw by The Grateful Dead ....
Did a night run following a gig by Gov't Mule from Alta, WY to Fort Collins, CO, miles and miles of empty roads, a few deer staring at us, one in the middle of the road as we were twisting and turning down the Grand Teton, millions of stars in the sky and no (other) fuckers on the road, once you leave a town, there is nothing till the next one ......... Wonderful Place.
Great write up again Tim, Long May You Run ...
Out of Santa Fe
Great Northern out of Cheyenne
From sea to shining sea
Jack Straw by The Grateful Dead ....
Did a night run following a gig by Gov't Mule from Alta, WY to Fort Collins, CO, miles and miles of empty roads, a few deer staring at us, one in the middle of the road as we were twisting and turning down the Grand Teton, millions of stars in the sky and no (other) fuckers on the road, once you leave a town, there is nothing till the next one ......... Wonderful Place.
Great write up again Tim, Long May You Run ...
Superb, simply superb !
And so to Bannack, Montana's and the West's best preserved ghost town.
General info is plentiful online, in the 1860s gold discoveries around here swelled the town to over 3000 blah, blah, blah
I'll post a load of photos of the town up soon but first a bit about the parallel story here I find so interesting.
So interesting I bought this book, generally reckoned to be the most accurate account.
Here's a couple of short review comments:
"Probably more blood is spilled to the page than in the wildest of western fiction" Chicago Sunday Tribune
"Henry Plummer's road agents surpasses the wildest imagination of any Hollywood writer" Vol 1 Westrern Frontier Library
In a nutshell.
It was a lawless time with murders common place so they elected a Sheriff, Henry Plummer who already had two murders to his credit a couple years previous in California!
Plummer puts together a huge gang (100?) of baddies known as Road Agents or the 'Innocents' ( their password was 'I'm innocent or similar). This gang headed by the Sheriff continue to rob fortunes of gold while it was being transported and murder up to a claimed 100.
So the Vigilanties were formed who eventually capture Plummer and hang him, but not before he tells people he's hidden the fortune in the hills.
To this day historians debate whether the Vigilanties were in fact an early organised crime unit and whether The sheriff was guilty or not.
It's likely whatever we've all seen in brutal and lawless Western films, did for a short time actually happen in Bannack and probably where artistic license for these stories and films was born.
Just as Bannack evolved in what was Idaho it then became Montana's first Territorial Capital...for a short time.
General info is plentiful online, in the 1860s gold discoveries around here swelled the town to over 3000 blah, blah, blah
I'll post a load of photos of the town up soon but first a bit about the parallel story here I find so interesting.
So interesting I bought this book, generally reckoned to be the most accurate account.
Here's a couple of short review comments:
"Probably more blood is spilled to the page than in the wildest of western fiction" Chicago Sunday Tribune
"Henry Plummer's road agents surpasses the wildest imagination of any Hollywood writer" Vol 1 Westrern Frontier Library
In a nutshell.
It was a lawless time with murders common place so they elected a Sheriff, Henry Plummer who already had two murders to his credit a couple years previous in California!
Plummer puts together a huge gang (100?) of baddies known as Road Agents or the 'Innocents' ( their password was 'I'm innocent or similar). This gang headed by the Sheriff continue to rob fortunes of gold while it was being transported and murder up to a claimed 100.
So the Vigilanties were formed who eventually capture Plummer and hang him, but not before he tells people he's hidden the fortune in the hills.
To this day historians debate whether the Vigilanties were in fact an early organised crime unit and whether The sheriff was guilty or not.
It's likely whatever we've all seen in brutal and lawless Western films, did for a short time actually happen in Bannack and probably where artistic license for these stories and films was born.
Just as Bannack evolved in what was Idaho it then became Montana's first Territorial Capital...for a short time.
And so to Bannack, Montana's and the West's best preserved ghost town.
General info is plentiful online, in the 1860s gold discoveries around here swelled the town to over 3000 blah, blah, blah
I'll post a load of photos of the town up soon but first a bit about the parallel story here I find so interesting.
So interesting I bought this book, generally reckoned to be the most accurate account.
Here's a couple of short review comments:
"Probably more blood is spilled to the page than in the wildest of western fiction" Chicago Sunday Tribune
"Henry Plummer's road agents surpasses the wildest imagination of any Hollywood writer" Vol 1 Westrern Frontier Library
In a nutshell.
It was a lawless time with murders common place so they elected a Sheriff, Henry Plummer who already had two murders to his credit a couple years previous in California!
Plummer puts together a huge gang (100?) of baddies known as Road Agents or the 'Innocents' ( their password was 'I'm innocent or similar). This gang headed by the Sheriff continue to rob fortunes of gold while it was being transported and murder up to a claimed 100.
So the Vigilanties were formed who eventually capture Plummer and hang him, but not before he tells people he's hidden the fortune in the hills.
To this day historians debate whether the Vigilanties were in fact an early organised crime unit and whether The sheriff was guilty or not.
It's likely whatever we've all seen in brutal and lawless Western films, did for a short time actually happen in Bannack and probably where artistic license for these stories and films was born.
Just as Bannack evolved in what was Idaho it then became the first Montana's first Territorial Capital...for a short time.
Big lad would be in his element's with this thread;
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