Along the Yellowstone

20090905—Along the Yellowstone

I followed the Yellowstone River all day today, mostly along I94 heading West thru Miles City to Forsyth. All this passed through grasslands with a lot of irrigation (sprinklers and canals) from the river. This is generally rolling topography with larger fields (owned by large ranches as well) of wheat, hay, some grazing and some sugar beets.

At the confluence of the Powder River with the Yellowstone and there is a sign saying that the area had been the site of Gen. Custer's camp a couple of weeks before the Little Bighorn battle. There is a lot of Custer info in this area.

I followed frontage roads at some points, with signs pointing out that it was Old Highway 10 which seemed to give me some connection to the land. The day was very hot, reaching 95 along the way. I was thankful for the investment in repairs to the AC we had made back in April.

I pulled off for the evening at a Montana State 'fishing access' site knowing that these usually also serve as undeveloped campgrounds. This one was almost full, with the ~30 sites occupied by the residents of Forsyth, only seven blocks to the South. This was less attractive than most, with at least 4 rigs running generators constantly. One was being used to power a household oscillating fan to cool some (fellow) geezers in lawn chairs. There was also a yapping dog, the joy of someone's life, I'm sure. And an incident around 12:30AM involving some kids on bicycles doing some (not quiet) racing around the campground. There were also a lot of families thoroughly enjoying the outdoors, swimming and fishing, despite the heat.

I sat at a breezeless picnic table and finished “The Bean Trees” by Barbara Kingsolver. I was sorry when it was over -- I loved the characters and wanted to live more of their lives with them. There was some quiet movement toward dark in the large cottonwoods around my site. I identified the source to be a roosting collection of Turkey Vultures.

There was no Internet access, of course, but I did get in a short conversation with Patt at home.