September 16- 28, 2001

Sunday, September 16, 2001                                                                Juneau, AK

We rose early to catch the ferry down to Juneau to further explore the Inside Passage.  The weather was not cooperating with us.  The rain and fog kept the views to a minimum.  We were aboard the massive M/V Kennicott with very few other travelers late in the season.  The ferry was so large that it even had a movie theatre.  We passed some of the voyage watching “Cast Away” in the theatre.

We arrived in Juneau early in the afternoon at the ferry dock, which is fourteen miles outside of town.  We carried our bag for a half hour to reach the nearest bus stop and then made our way into town.  We found a very nice hotel room in which we dumped our gear before stepping out to explore Alaska’s capital city.  The weather had lifted a bit and we enjoyed visiting some of the attractions while we looked for a good place to have dinner.

Many restaurants were closed on this Sunday evening so we ended up back at the nice eatery in our hotel.  We forced the bartender into mixing several margaritas for us before we retired to our room for the night.

Monday, September 17, 2001                                                                Skagway, AK

We awoke to a steady strong rain this morning, but we didn’t let it slow us down.  We started the day at the Alaska State Museum.  It had a comprehensive assortment of exhibits covering the entire human history in Alaska.  Next we walked up to the State Capital Building and walked through the empty chambers before finding a tasty Mexican restaurant for lunch.

We walked around some more after lunch before catching a bus out to the location of the Alaska Brewery.  This fifteen-year-old brewery is the dominant beer maker in Alaska and is reaching wider circulation along the U.S. west coast.  The brewery was fun, and was emphatic about providing as many free tastes as possible.

We caught the bus again and killed some time in the mall before enjoying a fine Chinese dinner.  We caught a cab through the rainy evening back to the ferry terminal.  We took the 9:15PM ferry back to Skagway with maybe a dozen other passengers aboard the M/V Matanuska.  We both got some sleep aboard the ferry by lying on the floor.  We finally climbed into our RV bed at 4:00AM in the ferry parking lot in Skagway.  We were awfully tired.

By Christine: While it did rain quite a bit during our visit to Juneau, I was glad it cleared up a bit on Sunday night.  while we were walking around, the fog lifted and it was really beautiful looking over the water to the mountains on the other side.  The beauty here is not equaled in many if any other state capitals in this country.

1) The front of the Alaska State Capital Building; and 2) the Alaskan Brewing Company - a very friendly place.

Tuesday, September 18, 2001                                                                Teslin, YT

We slept in pretty late this morning trying to recover from an awkward sleep schedule.  We woke to see two cruise ships in port and a town full of action.  Apparently the shops were a little premature with plans to shut down last Friday night.  The Cruise ships were still operating, and most of the shops were back open for business.  We scratched off a few errands before heading north back out of town.  It was another beautiful day to cross White Pass back into Canada.

We kept it a pretty short day and stopped at the same campground in Teslin that we had enjoyed on our way up the Alcan over a month ago.  Christine cooked up a fine dinner with some of our salmon and we settled in for the evening.

Another beautiful view on the Klondike Highway.

Wednesday, September 19, 2001                                                    Dease Lake, BC

It was a pretty gray day as we continued east on the Alcan toward Watson Lake.  We turned off the Alcan and went south on the much less traveled Cassiar Highway.  This is the only other road route through British Columbia when coming from Alaska.  The road is more remote and less developed than the Alcan, which is precisely why I wanted to take it.  The varying reports of the road condition of the Cassiar had me concerned, but the most recent inquiries were quite positive.

We were greeted with great driving as we headed down the Cassiar.  Even the unpaved stretches were graded smooth.  We stopped to pick up a couple old farts that were out hunting for moose.  They were in their seventies and seemed to be looking for moose the easy way.  They had spent the day motoring down the river hoping to shoot a moose from their boat.  The river however, was too shallow for them to motor back up.  We gave them a lift back to their truck so they could return to put their boat on a trailer.  Christine and I got the feeling that they weren’t really trying that hard to get a moose.

We ended our day in the town of Dease Lake near the southern end of a lake by the same name.  Christine cooked up a tasty pork tenderloin as I lost myself in a good book.

To see beautiful views of the Cassiar Highway in fall, click here.

Thursday, September 20, 2001                                                                Hyder, AK

We continued our quiet lovely ride down the Cassiar Highway this morning.  We spooked a caribou along the roadside, stopped for a crowd of stone sheep on the road, and later we watched a black bear that was about to cross the road.  The wildlife sightings were great, but the scenery was fantastic.  The road condition held up all day, and I was just so happy about choosing this alternate route.

Since we were making good time we opted to take a side trip over to Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska.  The truth is that we were already missing Alaska and needed to get one more fix of the magic.  The Stewart—Hyder area has all of about 300 residents up at the end of Portland Canal.  Hyder is so small and remote that there is no U.S. Customs checkpoint.  The 40-mile side trip off the Cassiar is named the Glacier Highway to Alaska.  There are numerous low elevation glaciers in this area that are visible from the road.

Hyder has ended up being one of those surprise towns that I didn’t know anything about, but was sure glad to discover.  Apparently there is a world famous bear viewing area here on Fish Creek.  And the fishing on the Salmon River is supposed to be pretty good.  We picked a campsite for the night and then began exploring.  I bought a one-day fishing license for tomorrow and we learned about the bear-viewing platform.

Christine and I decided to go check it out.  About four miles up the road inside the Tongass National Forest there is a massive new cedar boardwalk platform along the Fish Creek.  This platform was just completed this summer and replaced an older version that permitted too much interaction between bears and humans.  This is such a dense area for bears that the U.S. Forestry Service keeps people on site here full-time.  There were about twenty other onlookers hoping to see some bears, so we bundled up and spent the next two hours waiting for their evening feeding ritual.  We had not eaten dinner and it was beginning to get dark at 8:00 PM so we decided to try again tomorrow.  Supposedly it is unusual for there to be no sightings in an evening, making tonight unusual.

We went back to our campsite somewhat dejected, but committed to return for the morning feeding opportunity.  Christine whipped up a fine meal of halibut and we spent the rest of the evening inside listening to the rain.

1) More Stone sheep.  These walked right between the cars - slowly - as we all stopped for them.  2) Bear Glacier.  This glacier can be seen from the road on the way to Stewart and Hyder.

Friday, September 21, 2001                                                                    Hyder, AK

We jumped out of bed this morning and drove straight to the bear viewing area and arrived at 8:00 AM.  There was already a bear in the creek when we arrived.  We got several photos of this very young grizzly named Tiny Tim as it meandered through the area.  We had learned last night about the close relationship between this town’s residents and the bears.  There are about thirty bears that make this area their home.  Half of them are black bears and the other half are coastal Alaska grizzly bears.  They are outnumbered 3 to 1 by the humans in Hyder.  The bears are so common and such a part of life here that they are individually recognizable and have all been named.

Tiny Tim is a young bear separated from his mother and two siblings.  He has been successful making it on his own, though he is less than two years old.  Tiny Tim has lighter coloring on the fur around his neck and on his chest.  It makes him very easy to identify.  We watched him move about the viewing area scavenging on fish carcasses left behind by other bears.  The mature bears mostly just eat the fish skin, roe and head for their fat content.  This leaves plenty of meat to be scavenged by younger bears, eagles and other sea birds.  Tiny Tim was so comfortable with our presence that he took time to scratch his back against one of the posts supporting the viewing platform.

Later we returned to the RV for some coffee and breakfast before heading back down to the Salmon River so I could do some fishing.  I found a pullout where Christine could see me from the RV while I fished.  She decided to stay inside out of the rain and work on her term papers.

The Salmon River moves pretty fast on its way out to the Portland Canal.  I had chosen this spot to fish because of the extended visibility I had over the area.  The last thing I wanted was to have a bear surprise me while reeling in a fish.  I waded through some of the rapids looking for a spot where the water pools.  Salmon tend to rest in calmer waters before and after swimming up faster sections of the river.  I just didn’t have very good access to any pools from where I was.

I returned to the RV and drove us up to a side drive that came out where the Fish Creek empties into the Salmon River.  There were already three cars in this drive when I arrived.  Two of them belonged to a couple German men that warned me of a grizzly that had been fishing in that area.  They said the grizzly will pursue people unless the people know to make an intimidating gesture back at the bear.  I took the advice seriously.  I moved my RV to let them drive away.

Fish Creek in this area has a deeply wooded bank on the side where we were parked.  The other side of the stream is a rocky and sandy spit that extends to the creek’s confluence with the Salmon River.  I don’t have waders and I didn’t want to get my feet wet in the icy glacier fed water, but I wasn’t going to cast from the wooded bank and permit a bear to surprise me.  I waded across the knee-deep creek filling my hiking boots with water and began casting from the opposite open shore.  I could see well from there.  I finally picked out the owner of the remaining vehicle parked next to the RV.  He is a serious photographer and was further up the creek looking for opportunities to photograph the bears. 

I took up fishing the creek, encouraged by the visible presence of many salmon.  I had found a promising pool below a section of rapids and focused my casting there while occasionally looking around.  I was starting to feel some tugs on my lure and saw the fish following it through the water.  My first fish of the day seemed imminent, but then I looked up to see the photographer walking in my direction with a large grizzly following well behind him.

I began waving my arms to get the guys attention and have him turn around.  He finally acknowledged that he was aware of the bear’s presence.  It was then that I realized that he was just moving to take up a better position before the bear got too close.  I waded back across the creek to invite Christine out to see what was going on.  The RV was parked in a tunnel of trees making it impossible for her to see anything from inside it.  We could see the bear in the water just above the rapids, below which I had been fishing.  Christine saw it take a fish out of the water and begin to eat it.  The bear was still too far away from the RV to hold her attention, so she went back inside and I returned to fishing.

I now felt less comfortable fishing the pool I had found, but I wasn’t getting any bites from anywhere else.  I gradually inched my way back up the creek to get closer to my pool.  I was just about in my spot when all of a sudden the bear came into the water from the wooded bank and began approaching me directly.  I was too far from the RV to make a safe and calm retreat.  I reeled in my line and prepared myself for a confrontation.  The photographer was about 200 feet behind the bear watching the approach through a high magnification telephoto lens.  I was on my own.

I tried to stay calm and exude confidence in front of the bear.  I was amazed at how quickly my heart began racing and my legs turned to jello.  This bear had crossed the creek and was on my side of the bank approaching me at a steady and deliberate pace.  When it got to within 40 feet of me I began talking to it in a firm deep voice that I hoped was coming across very strongly.  I was trying to let him know that he really didn’t want a piece of me.  The verbal defense was not proving to be effective as his gait was unaltered.

When the bear was within 20 feet of me I knew that I needed to muster some courage and try to intimidate him.  I put my hands on my hips with my elbows jutting out and took two steps toward the bear while verbally chastising his judgment.  He immediately came to a stop and turned his head away from me.  I stood still and waited as he again began to approach me.  I took another step or two toward him and got downright insistent with him.  He again stopped and yielded his stare.  I was uncomfortable continuing this game of chicken as the gap between us continued to erode.  I followed up with a steady verbal assault as the bear took a tangent course away from the creek and showed me his backside.

I took a moment to examine my pants to see if they were wet anywhere above the knees.  I managed to not piss myself.  I looked back at the photographer wondering if he had captured any of that encounter on film, only to see that another grizzly bear was approaching him.  The last thing I wanted now was to be caught between two bears in a territorial dispute.  I began walking along the creek bank back toward the RV while exchanging intimidating glares with the first bear.  I got to the point where I could see the RV on the other side of the creek and I began waving to get Christine’s attention. She did not see me until I waded back across the creek and out of harm’s way.

Christine grabbed the camera and we watched as the two bears faced off.  It turns out that the second bear was Tiny Tim, the same one we had seen this morning at the viewing platform a couple miles up the creek.  She took some great photos before we finally climbed into the security of our RV.  I got out of my soaking footwear and put my cold bare feet in front of the furnace register.  Christine fixed up some lunch and we continued to watch the bears through the front window.

I never did get to speak with the photographer.  We started out being too far apart, and then we were separated by the bears.  I wrote a note asking for him to contact me if he had managed to photograph any of my encounter.  I left it on his car before we finally left the area.  I hadn’t caught any fish, but I now have one heck of a fish story.

We decided to spend the afternoon by driving the twenty-mile road up to Salmon Glacier.  You’d think that we’d have seen enough glaciers by now, but we had been strongly encouraged to go see this glacier.  It is the fifth largest in all of Canada, and the road permits you to see it from the top.  None of the roads in the Hyder area are paved, so it was no surprise that it took us an hour to drive up to the glacier.  The views of the Salmon River Valley were spectacular and occasionally harrowing.  The near constant precipitation causes steady erosion along the road, and the washouts at higher elevations were successful at grabbing our attention.

We ascended from sea level up to nearly 3,000 feet in the last twelve miles.  This took us above the toe of the glacier and up near its summit.  The view of the glacier below us paralleling the road was overwhelming.  It’s the kind of vantage that I thought was only available by flying over a glacier.  We finally reached the summit pullout and were disappointed to be nearly socked in by the weather.  The clouds had all but blocked the glacier from view.  We decided to wait it out in hopes that the fog would dissipate.  We sat in the RV for nearly two hours as the wind and rain only seemed to get worse.

We decided to descend and hope for some better views on the way down.  As we began our descent we got to watch a wolverine trot down the road a ways.  We had neglected to take any photos on the way up, and now we were regretting that shortsightedness.  The clouds had descended into the entire valley.  We were now only seeing a fraction of what was visible during our ascent.  We captured a few photos and made a note for future reference about taking photos when views are good.

We returned to our campground for the night since it was now already 5:00PM.  I had until 6:00 before my fishing license expired, so I left Christine in the RV and went back out in the rain.  Access to the river behind the campground was impeded by a large flood-dike protecting the town.  It took a while to find a good spot to descend the dike and end up on dry ground, but even then the current was too swift for any hope of catching anything.  I was now a bit edgy from fishing efforts earlier in the day and didn’t feel as safe about fishing in this area.  I was glad when my 6:00 expiration occurred.

When I returned to the RV I found Christine busy preparing some salmon patties from the last of the fish I had caught on the Kenai River.  We enjoyed a nice dinner and a quiet evening.

1) Tiny Tim, he had just tried to come up the bank, but the rangers yelled at him so he decided against it.  2)  Joe tried to take this picture from on top of him as Tiny Tim  was itching his back.  His stomach is facing us and his nose is in the air.  3 and 4) Both views of Salmon Glacier.

*** To see the pictures of Joe fishing with the grizzlies, click here. ***

Saturday, September 22, 2001                                                    Burns Lake, BC

It was raining steady when we went to bed last night; it rained all through the night; and it was still coming down with unrelenting steadiness as we pulled out of Hyder, AK this morning.  This is a wet part of the world.  When it isn’t raining, then it’s almost raining, or else it’s snowing.  Hyder gets thirty feet of snow each year.  We turned into the interior and drove through rain until well into the afternoon.  It was just a dreary sort of day that actually made for some very laid back driving.

As we were approaching the southern terminus of the Cassiar Highway we began seeing small temporary villages and signs that said “Mushroom Depot.”   We stopped for gas in Kitwanga and I drew an explanation for the above from the gas station attendant.  This area is known for an especially strong crop of pine mushrooms.  Pine mushrooms are not in much demand domestically, but they are considered an aphrodisiac by many Asian peoples, and are thus highly valuable as an export.

The mushroom harvest lasts for about two months from mid-August to mid-October.  There is no organized picking, but there is a consortium that sets the price and buys from all the freelance pickers.  The consortium sets up the mushroom depots that we saw, and thus a village of squatters sets up camp around the depots.  The pickers all paid in cash and no records are kept of who the pickers are.  This invites a very interesting variety of people to come out and do the picking.

Many retired people come up in their RV’s and use the picking as an excuse to be out in the woods.  They are not the serious pickers, but make enough money to easily pay for their vacation.  Some pickers are often people that are wanted by the law.  Mushroom picking is a discreet way to quietly earn some cash without raising any suspicions.  The gas station attendant even told me about some enterprising young women that would pick all day and then open their campers for lascivious business in the evening.

The mushrooms grow in groups under the moss.  The trained picker looks for moss beds with the telltale lumpy surface.  The moss is then carefully peeled back to expose the mushrooms.  Once the mushrooms are harvested, the moss bed is then restored so that it will continue to produce.  The mushrooms vary in size considerably from a pound each down to eight to the pound.  The average price is about $25C per pound, and the serious pickers can pick 15-20 pounds per day.  I was very interested in learning about this little micro-economy.

We made it as far as Burns Lake today and retired at a nice campground.  Christine cooked up a boil of cabbage, sausage, onions, potatoes and carrots as a welcome change from all the fish we have been eating.

Sunday, September 23, 2001                                                    Williams Lake, BC

We awoke to rain again today, but the weather quickly turned better as we turned south at Prince George.  The skies cleared and the temperatures climbed to over eighty degrees.  It has been quite a while since we have felt this warm.  We drove along the Fraser River and decided to stop early so that we could enjoy some of the warm weather and get our laundry done.

By Christine:  You have been hearing Joe talk about eating fish a lot.  We left Alaska with all the Salmon we had caught and as much Halibut as I could filter out of Craig's freezer without guilt.   Luckily we both really enjoy fish and it has challenged my ability to be creative.  As we get a lot of comments on Joe's food interest, I thought I would let you know what we did with all this fish.  Tonight we finished the last of the fish with a really good fish chowder that I made with the last of the Halibut.  It turned out well and we will have enough for lunch tomorrow.  But I've also made the following; Salmon Patties; Broiled Salmon w/ a Sesame Teriyaki glaze; Baked Halibut with a yummy parmesan coating; and a simple Baked Halibut with Lemon, butter, pepper and onions.  That is all I can remember even though I know there was more.  

Monday, September 24, 2001                                                    Keremeos, BC

Our drive today was beautiful on our way to the U.S. border.  We continued to follow the Fraser River valley and then the Thompson River valley.  We turned east on a twisty scenic drive through the Nicola River canyon, which brought us to BC’s agricultural area.  Though heavily dependent on irrigation, the region boasts a variety of fruit and vegetable harvests that thrive in the arid sunny climate.

We picked up two hitchhikers from Montreal that had been picking the pine mushrooms up in Terrace for a few days, but their close bear encounters had spooked them.  They had opted for the safer activity of fruit picking.

We ended up stopping today less than fifty miles from the U.S. border.  We chose a campground that had cable TV so that we could watch the Packers on Monday Night Football.  Green Bay kicked Washington’s butt—Christine was very happy!  I spent some of the evening trying to remove a virus from Christine’s computer.  Here, with two papers due on Friday, I got her computer fouled up nicely.  I lost my good mood after that.

By Christine:  We have passed a ton of fruit and vegetable stands in this area.  We stopped at one really nice one and got some great potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes, and best of all fresh sweet corn that we enjoyed tonight.  The vegetables were really good prices.  I have to be careful not to get carried away as I don't have much ability to store food items.  Although now that it stays cooler, I can keep potatoes and squash for longer in the back of the RV

Tuesday, September 25, 2001                                                                Spokane, WA

We got an early start this morning so that we could get to Spokane and try to get some help today on Christine’s computer.  Our border crossing at Oroville was uneventful except for the threatened confiscation of some oranges Christine purchased in Canada.  Unwilling to waste the fruit, Christine quickly peeled some of the oranges and we ate them on the spot, leaving the orange rinds with the border agents.

We took the scenic route east on Highway 20 to get to Spokane.  After we crossed the Columbia River and turned south, the wind really started to pick up.  It was blowing the RV all over the road.  Soon we were driving through a dust storm caused by the wind.  The dust got worst as we approached Spokane.  Apparently the combination of recent harvests and the very dry month had left a lot of dust waiting for a wind to force it into the air.  This uncommon storm has laid a heavy layer of dust across the entire Spokane area.  Hopefully tonight’s rain will knock it down.

We got very lucky with Christine’s computer today.  I found an available systems engineer with my second phone call and we were in his office by 2:15PM.  Two hours later her computer was clean.  We were very fortunate.  We drove out to the edge of town and found the campground that we had previously arranged to receive our mail drop.  This place has phone hookups at the campsite so that Christine can get on line from within the RV.  We haven’t had this luxury since March.

Wednesday, September 26, 2001                                                        Missoula, MT

Christine put the wraps on one of her papers this morning and we drove into town to get it printed off at Kinkos.  This is the first time one of her professors has asked for a hard copy of the final paper.  All her other papers have been submitted as e-mail attachments.  She took care of printing her paper and sending it under way via FedEx.  When we returned to the RV I got my motorcycle off and readied it for a long ride, leaving Christine to work on the paper for her other class by herself.

I left around noon with plans to return tomorrow afternoon after a good long ride.  I headed east out of Spokane to Coeur d’Alene, ID and turned north to Sandpoint to come down the north shore of Lake Pend Oreille on route 200.  I left some rain showers behind me as I crossed over into Montana on a beautiful new stretch of pavement.  The speed limit increased from 55 mph in Idaho to 70 mph in Montana on the same stretch of road.  Montana has pretty liberal speed limits on all its rural routes.  I was able to comfortably cruise along this gently curving ribbon at the nearly legal speed of 80 mph.  I was feeling great.

I left the lesser elevations of the Bitterroot Range at the state line and looked ahead as I approached the more precipitous Rocky Mountains.  I pulled off the road for the night in Missoula and eagerly awaited a full day’s ride tomorrow.

Thursday, September 27, 2001                                                                Spokane, WA

I left Missoula heading southwest on U.S. Highway 12 heading back into the mountains near the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.  Holding the 70 mph speed limit through the turns of Highway 12 was a real challenge while still in Montana.  The route got twistier as I approached the Idaho state line and I had to really lean the bike into the turns at that high rate of speed.  I was buzzing from the rush that my ride was giving me.  There was no traffic, the pavement was perfect and the bike was humming.  All this put me into a performance zone that I haven’t felt for a while.

I crossed Lolo Pass into Idaho and was immediately confronted with a revised speed limit of 50 mph.  Right after that there was a road sign straight from biker heaven: “Caution, winding roads, next 77 miles.”  The lower speed limit was not out of order since Highway 12 is very twisty descending along Lochsa Creek.  I maintained my riding zone and executed my turns with an enlightened precision.  I only passed three cars in all of those 77 miles.  It was a very sweet road for riding.

I stopped briefly in Orofino to refuel and to scarf down a corn dog before continuing to test myself against Idaho’s roads.    I got more adventuresome and began riding roads that weren’t even on the map, but appeared to go in the right direction.  I even found a second gear road (a road that has turns so tight that they require the bike to be in second gear).  I climbed out of the Clearwater River valley on this super twisty stretch and rose to the high prairie.  Recent harvests had left all the land buzzed closely as I purred through the rolling hills back toward Spokane.

I pulled into the campground about 5:00 PM after a 650-mile outing that completely rejuvenated me.  Christine had finished her second paper and was eager to go out for the evening.  After I put the bike away we drove into Spokane and had a great evening at Shenanigan’s Restaurant and Brewery.  We both chose delicious steaks, having had our fill of fish recently.  We stuck around for the live music later and enjoyed playing pool on a spectacular table.  It all made for a fine evening.  I forgot to mention the nice beer they served.  I would recommend this place to anyone visiting Spokane.

Friday, September 28, 2001                                                                    St. Regis, MT

We got a slow start this morning waiting for the temperature to climb before washing the RV.  The campground had a professional carwash station that made it easy for us to finally get the Alaska mud off of the RV.  We had a good stay at this park in Spokane and had a beautiful day of 70 degrees to continue our journey.  We crossed through Idaho along I-90 and stopped in St. Regis, Montana.

Saturday, September 29, 2001                                                    Townsend, MT

We left in a thick fog cover this morning, but the sky soon cleared to the beautiful blue big sky for which Montana is known.  We stopped in Deer Lodge, MT to visit the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, National Historic Site.  This well-preserved cattle ranch from the late 1800’s tells a great story of the rapid evolution of ranching in the west.  The open range ranching became successful around 1860 as the Indians and buffalo were both being overcome.  Plentiful grazing area made up for the low growth of grasses.

Cattle from the Grant-Kohrs Ranch grazed as far away as Idaho, Wyoming and Canada.  The cattle were driven to central areas within each geographic district twice each year.  In the spring they were rounded up to brand the calves.  In the fall they were rounded up to select which ones should be sent to market.  Ranchers mostly worked together to manage the massive herds that intermingled on public lands.

The cattle boom out west took off as railroads made it easier to ship beef all the way back east in refrigerated railway cars.  The boom eventually created problems of over grazing by the 1880’s and then homesteaders began carving up the land into 160-acre lots fenced in with barbed wire.  This all contributed to the end of open grazing.  The ranchers recognized that with the proliferation of the railroad network, they didn’t need to drive their cattle any more.  They could cut hay on the lands they owned and bring it to their cattle.  Ranching since then has followed this model of summer grazing and winter feeding.

We drove up over the Continental Divide and visited the state capital at Helena.  Montana’s capital is a grand classical structure now a hundred years old.  We were too late to take a tour, but we certainly appreciated what we saw.  We then drove southeast out Helena and camped for the night along the first reservoir of the Missouri River.  Thirty miles upriver, the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers join at Three Forks to form the Missouri.

By Christine: The ranch was fun today and it was really neat to realize how much the ranchers worked together.  All the cattle were gathered and all the branding irons were placed at one fire and one person was in charge of branding all the cattle.  Often, the smaller ranchers never even sent cowboys to help with the roundup, just their branding iron and the rest of the ranchers made sure all the cows were correctly branded.   Not many people can trust their competing businesses that much today. 

  The Montana State Capital

Sunday, September 30, 2001                                        West Yellowstone, MT

We drove past Three Forks this morning on into Bozeman in search of a place to watch the Green Bay Packers slaughter the Carolina Panthers.  We found a place by the beginning of the 2^nd quarter, and settled in for a very enjoyable game over lunch and beers.  It’s hard to get used to games starting in the morning out here, with respect to the time zones.

Bozeman is a cute college town on the edge of the mountains, but its appearance was marred this day by the smoke from wildfires burning just south of town.  The smoky haze all but blocked the view of the surrounding mountains.  As we were heading south from Bozeman we drove right by the burning areas.  This led us into the splendor of the Gallatin River valley.  This is a beautiful area.  We took a side trip to see the Big Sky ski area before stopping in West Yellowstone for the night.

What we could see of the fires from the road.

Continue to October 1, 2001...