After a not-so-comfortable night lying on the hard rocky ground, we rustled up porridge for breakfast and then headed back down the valley. Various people we met on the way down (and on the way up yesterday) mentioned that they had seen a blonde coloured bear on or near the trail, but we didn’t get a glimpse of it. Perhaps we were making too much noise (intentionally, since we didn’t fancy surprising a bear on the path). We were armed with bear spray – I would have liked to see a bear at close quarters in its own habitat – but no luck this time.
Back at the car park we had a refreshing shower and then headed south. Not far from the park in Browning, in the middle of the Blackfeet Indian Reserve, we passed a mass of tepees, horses and RVs – preparing for a “powwow” we were told by the guy in the drive-through burger place where we grabbed a bit to eat for lunch.
The scenery changed rapidly – the mountains fell away into open hills, with silver, lifeless, leafless trees covering the hills. There was no obvious sign of fire, and yet every single tree was dead. Perhaps some disease that had stripped them of their bark and killed them. It was not so long ago – new growth had not yet sprung up between the dead trunks.
Soon even the dead trees were gone, and we were in the middle of wide, open grassland. The start of the great prairies, stretching from here all the way across to the east. I’m looking forward to seeing the huge, open skies and flat, flat land. Need to catch up with learning Spanish from my CDs too! Tucking back towards the mountains again, we ended up in Butte, where we’re going to be for the weekend, at the Montana Folk Festival. We’re camped in a local park with a hundred or so other people, watching a thunderstorm crash and flash on the hills behind the town. The full moon is rising behind the bank of clouds and it’s muy dramatico.
Next to us on one side are a couple travelling around in their van for the summer. He’s from Pennsylvania and she’s from Costa Rica. The other side is a couple from Billings, the capital of Montana. They moved over here from New York a few years ago for his work. Even the largest city in the state only has about 100,000 people – it’s a pretty empty place – pretty different from New York, but they love it. The state tagline is “GET LOST … in Montana”, it’s definitely a place where recreation is high on the agenda.
We’re skipping tonight’s festival activities, going to catch up on some rest and attack the crowds tomorrow.
Road and Ocean 