Day 2: Tally Lake Campground, Montana
Distance travelled today: 534.2 km, about 45 on gravel
Cumulative distance: 848 km
Maximum speed: 129 kph
Moving average: 82 kph
Temperature range: 19.0 – 30.4
We were able to have a leisurely breakfast at my sister’s
place because we knew, notwithstanding that we had a long way to go, that with
a campground reservation, we wouldn’t have to be fighting anybody for a spot.
This spot was the only available campground in the area; everything else was
booked except for the spots left available for walk-up. I didn’t know when I
booked it that there would be gravel; as long as it is not deep gravel where it
swishes the bike around, I am not generally bothered by it too much except to
say that the bike, everything attached to it and everything inside it is pretty
dusty tonight. We will be looking for a wand wash tomorrow morning.
Leaving Carol’s at 9:37 a.m. (after attaching the extraneous
stuff, Nan judging it too loose, stopping the bike and taking it all off and
then re-attaching it), we set off south on what was a very pleasant morning:
clear, warm but not hot, no wind and little traffic. Actually, it did get hot –
really hot – at one moment in Calgary when some driver in the right lane
decided to swing into my lane right where we were riding. I laid into the horn
and held it but she kept moving to the left, to the point where I had no where
to go but to hit the brakes. And then she waves to us. “Oh, hi there! Nice
horn!” I had resolved to order a really obnoxious replacement horn for my cute
little Japanese buzzer of a horn two years ago and failed to get around to it.
I will fix that this winter.
Through Okotoks, past The Big Rock, which, by the way, is
not Alberta’s biggest beer but a huge
Our first break was a Chain Lakes Provincial Parks. Even
though we were feeling pretty good – we were only about 140 km into the day –
it seemed like a good spot to pull over. There is a camp ground there and a
reservoir where we saw several anglers. There is actually a concession there,
though we rolled in at 11:00 a.m. and she was only just opening. We thought a
coffee would be a great way to spend our break but we had to wait for about 10
minutes for her to put the urn together.
Turns out it wasn’t much for coffee, especially as we had been spoiled
that morning by a great cup of coffee at Carol’s: thick and strong versus weak
and flavoured with cinnamon. OK, I know there are people out there that like to
flavour their coffee but to presume
to just serve it? Ewwww.
Inside the concession, the lady that ran the place was
pulling it together and her husband was delivering the fresh, baked goods from
Wonder. There was a large number of very beautiful astronomical photos on the wall. These were what we call “deep space” photos, i.e. from beyond our solar system. The pictures would have to have been taken by a very talented and skilled astrophotographer with some outstanding astronomical equipment. The photographer, according to the concessionaire, would come camping at Chain Lakes and take the pictures. He had a website address written underneath one picture: www.imagingstardust.com
and as I write this, not having seen his website yet because I have no
cell/internet service, I wonder where he is this weekend because somebody like
that will almost certainly be on his way to an eclipse venue. I wonder who
reading this blog will see his website before me?
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| Ranching, the old fashioned way |
It turns out to be a windy day. There is an electronic sign
along Hwy 22 estimating the cross wind gusts and it says “38 kph” but it feels
more like we are going to end up in Kansas. The bike is being tossed around
quite a lot, though that might be because we have a lot of material to catch
the wind. We are keeping one eye (each) on the sky, watching for the amount of
cloud cover. There are scattered diffuse clouds all over but also, lots of
places of clear blue sky as well. Even though the forecast is for “sunny” in
Ontario, and I am thinking they would call this “sunny”, there is just enough
cloud cover to be problematic for eclipse viewing. I have two locations
identified as potential alternate locations if the sky is cloudy – one east and
one west however, most of the roads around where we are going are north-south,
not east-west and if we end up chasing blue sky Monday morning we may be riding
gravel.
We are back at the Rum Runner Saloon for lunch in the
Crowsnest. It’s a great spot and our second time there, the first being last
summer when we rode to Nelson for the weekend. Only unlike last year, which was
on the August long weekend, this time the place is smokin’ busy. But the
service is good and the food outstanding, as far as bar food goes. The Crowsnest
looks like it has lots to offer for tourism, at least for a brief stay and we
resolve that sometime, we will make turn a long weekend into a five day
weekend, ride down here and learn some history about the area, old mining
activity and the Frank Slide.
There are two long lines of traffic to enter the U.S. at the
Roosville (or was that “Whosville”) border crossing. A number of cars are being
sent to the side where they are getting ripped apart by border guards. We pull
up to the guardhouse and the border guard gives us the third degree, wanting to
know where we are going, what we are doing and what is our “final destination”.
“Home”, we tell him – after the eclipse and a ride around the Northwest. Then
he steps out to walk around the bike and sees Nan’s “Human Organ” bag. He wants to know what is
in the bag. Even he can’t help himself but laugh, so want to know where we got
the bag. Then, if it is really meant for
organs. 😊
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| Art, of sorts. Roosville border crossing |
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| Old bank building, circa 1907, Eureka Montana |
It has been mostly “slab” riding, as Daryl puts it, not too
many twisties but the scenery has been nice – and we are on virgin roads.
However, as we approach Tally Lake, the pavement turns to gravel. It’s about
the last fifteen kilometres before we hit the campground, so we are pretty
dirty. However, we are also pretty thirsty and even though we have “emergency
rations” on board, we opt to get something fresh for dinner. Nan elects to stay
at the campground to get everything set up and I go to Kalispell to buy dinner
and a six pack of cold beer. To go in the organ bag. Well, it’s another 15 km
on gravel, so it is about 40 minutes to Kalispell. I also have to get a SIM
card but fortunately, I find a hyper active teenager working the cell phone
counter at Wal-Mart so he rattles of about a half a dozen phone options for me
in 20 seconds. It was well over two hours for me to make the trip, so I am
pretty hot and dusty by the time I get back to the camp ground. Fortunately,
Nan has a book to read.
We’ve been in bed for a couple of hours, in a deep sleep
because it has been a week of short nights when I hear some commotion at the
picnic table. My first thought is that it is a rodent checking out our stuff.
We haven’t left food sitting out, so I’m not too worried, until we both hear a
crash and we wake up with a start. Something big has fallen. It’s 1:15 a.m. and
all of a sudden, I am on FULL alert and I have a flashlight in my hand,
unzipping the tent to check it out: it is a black bear trying to get into Nan’s
pannier, where our emergency rations are stored. He has knocked it off the picnic
table and on to the ground in an effort to figure our how to unlock it, I
presume. As soon as I shine the light on him, he darts up the tree right beside
the picnic table and is staring back at me with two, bright, yellow eyes,
reflecting the light of the flashlight. My first thought, is why go up THAT
tree? That’s not even out of danger (for us) because it is right beside the
picnic table! And then I am thinking, how am I going to get rid of this thing?
To be fair, this is not a full grown bear. He somewhere between “cuddly” and
“ohmigawd, stop, drop and roll!”. I am guessing he is probably a three year old
but not more and maybe less. I think I could take him. He evidently senses that
I could probably take him and is gone however, our bigger concern is whether
his mother is still around. Nonetheless, we have to get up and sort out our
stuff, so we dress and go outside, hoping that he was alone.
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| Tally Lake |
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| Nice spot. |
There is no real damage other than a few scratches but we
don’t want him to come back and finish the job he started, so we have to get
rid of the attractant. I am astonished at the amount of food Nan has stuffed
into her pannier! It is mostly energy bars and pre-prepared food packages that
have been liberated from its original packaging and placed into Ziploc bags to
save space. There are no bear bins
around and even if we had a rope, the trees are all 100 foot ponderosa pines
and the lowest branches are about 40 feet up so we elect to toss the food out.
We are throwing all the food into a grocery bag and Nan is frantically rooting
through her stuff trying to make sure she has accounted for everything. Into
the garbage bin it goes. However, there is not much garbage in there at all and
I make a mental note that I’ll retrieve our food in the morning, as long as nobody
gets there before me and dumps their bacon grease into the bin and on our
stuff.
Well, it was a short night. We are both hyper alert, hearing
every mouse and rodent within 100 yards. Nan has me check out the sounds two or
three times but eventually, we go back to sleep.
Post script: imagingstardust.com appears to be no longer active.
It is Saturday at noon; we are just having coffee and a nice brunch and then on our way. No cell service where we are going tonight so next update probably Sunday night. h
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