Soggy In Bozeman
Rain, rain and more rain. The creeks and rivers were already full from snowmelt, and then it set to rain, and the water went over the roads in a number of places in Bozeman. We went out geocaching, which usually involves driving around a lot trying to get close and find a parking place. A lot of our roads were blocked by water, and some of the walking trails had turned into streams too.
My recollections of the Montana landscape do not include everything green and wet, but it surely is lovely. When the cloud cover lifted a bit, we could see lots of snow covered peaks.
We went to Montana State University to check out the campus where we will be hiding the caches for the Airstream geocache hunt. I always wonder what people think we are doing wandering around looking for caches, and finding places to put them, marking the coordinates and taking notes meant we got some odd looks. Two elderly people out in the rain standing around looking. Not at birds, but taking notes. I pretended we were two professors doing some kind of study. I had previously gotten permission to do this and told the head of security about it, so we didn’t set off a panic.
That done, we really had nothing else to do, and it was too rainy and wet to wander around. I will be back there for the Airstream get together anyway. So we sort of moldered away in the trailer waiting for it to dry out enough to get into Pocket Creek.
Eventually, we just headed out, even though Pocket Creek got another 1” of rain that day, and it was still raining. The drive through Livingston and Big Timber is spectacular, no huge grades, as we are soon following the Yellowstone River east, with several exciting snow covered ranges on all sides. Where the Yellowstone comes out of Yellowstone Park, you look south into a steep fold in some very craggy sharp peaks. These were all snow covered, and it looked like it was still snowing up in there, the entrance road on this side is still snowed in. Sort of like looking at Shangri –la. I still think I would like to spend more time in Yellowstone, but camping maybe or doing short hikes. Probably not in the high season though.
Gradually the tawny cliffs that give the Yellowstone River its name are the only heights we see near by, the Bear Tooths off the south. The wide river bottomland is full of green pasture and hay and even the bluffs have a hint of green on them. The river is fat and sleek, and just as yellow as the bluffs with the silt and mud it carries. It is moving along at a good clip, and is full to the brim, but not over the banks that we saw. We get off the interstate and head south to the ranch, even more astonished by how green everything is.
We cross Harry’s bridge over the Big Horn River, which is just as fast and fat and muddy as the Yellowstone that it is heading north to meet. Crossing the big hayfields and pull up into the ranch yard, to be greeted by my friend Ellen, and now for the difficult part.
We are supposed to be in back of the new shop, where we have a 50 Amp hook up, water and the sewer line from the old ranch house that once stood here. We even have a nice shade tree and Ellen promises a picnic table, so it will be just about perfect. But, it is a sea of mud and puddles, and the rain has delayed the branding so we have to pull up in front of the shop, kind of in the way, and in the mud and not level. Don’s truck gets stuck, and so a tractor is produced to pull us to some sort of spot for the meantime. Embarrassing, although I think the ranch guys were actually amused.
This is the first place that we have come to workamp that didn’t advertise for such a thing, and we are a little nervous about being in the way of a working cattle ranch with lots to do and already a full crew. After our weekend visit here last summer, we hatched the scheme of being here for the summer, and wrote to Ellen and Harry asking if we could, working off our electricity. We are not expecting to be entertained, and only to be paid if we do more than 20 hours a week, but it still isn’t clear what we will be doing. So far Don has mowed the lawn, I have weeded and trimmed and planted 4 large junipers. I help out with the huge lunch the crew gets every day, and also help Ellen with her granddaughters who come one day a week. Not quite enough to keep us busy and to help us feel like we are an addition to the operation. But we’ve only been here a week, and branding is almost done.
And still it rains.
My recollections of the Montana landscape do not include everything green and wet, but it surely is lovely. When the cloud cover lifted a bit, we could see lots of snow covered peaks.
We went to Montana State University to check out the campus where we will be hiding the caches for the Airstream geocache hunt. I always wonder what people think we are doing wandering around looking for caches, and finding places to put them, marking the coordinates and taking notes meant we got some odd looks. Two elderly people out in the rain standing around looking. Not at birds, but taking notes. I pretended we were two professors doing some kind of study. I had previously gotten permission to do this and told the head of security about it, so we didn’t set off a panic.
That done, we really had nothing else to do, and it was too rainy and wet to wander around. I will be back there for the Airstream get together anyway. So we sort of moldered away in the trailer waiting for it to dry out enough to get into Pocket Creek.
Eventually, we just headed out, even though Pocket Creek got another 1” of rain that day, and it was still raining. The drive through Livingston and Big Timber is spectacular, no huge grades, as we are soon following the Yellowstone River east, with several exciting snow covered ranges on all sides. Where the Yellowstone comes out of Yellowstone Park, you look south into a steep fold in some very craggy sharp peaks. These were all snow covered, and it looked like it was still snowing up in there, the entrance road on this side is still snowed in. Sort of like looking at Shangri –la. I still think I would like to spend more time in Yellowstone, but camping maybe or doing short hikes. Probably not in the high season though.
Gradually the tawny cliffs that give the Yellowstone River its name are the only heights we see near by, the Bear Tooths off the south. The wide river bottomland is full of green pasture and hay and even the bluffs have a hint of green on them. The river is fat and sleek, and just as yellow as the bluffs with the silt and mud it carries. It is moving along at a good clip, and is full to the brim, but not over the banks that we saw. We get off the interstate and head south to the ranch, even more astonished by how green everything is.
We cross Harry’s bridge over the Big Horn River, which is just as fast and fat and muddy as the Yellowstone that it is heading north to meet. Crossing the big hayfields and pull up into the ranch yard, to be greeted by my friend Ellen, and now for the difficult part.
We are supposed to be in back of the new shop, where we have a 50 Amp hook up, water and the sewer line from the old ranch house that once stood here. We even have a nice shade tree and Ellen promises a picnic table, so it will be just about perfect. But, it is a sea of mud and puddles, and the rain has delayed the branding so we have to pull up in front of the shop, kind of in the way, and in the mud and not level. Don’s truck gets stuck, and so a tractor is produced to pull us to some sort of spot for the meantime. Embarrassing, although I think the ranch guys were actually amused.
This is the first place that we have come to workamp that didn’t advertise for such a thing, and we are a little nervous about being in the way of a working cattle ranch with lots to do and already a full crew. After our weekend visit here last summer, we hatched the scheme of being here for the summer, and wrote to Ellen and Harry asking if we could, working off our electricity. We are not expecting to be entertained, and only to be paid if we do more than 20 hours a week, but it still isn’t clear what we will be doing. So far Don has mowed the lawn, I have weeded and trimmed and planted 4 large junipers. I help out with the huge lunch the crew gets every day, and also help Ellen with her granddaughters who come one day a week. Not quite enough to keep us busy and to help us feel like we are an addition to the operation. But we’ve only been here a week, and branding is almost done.
And still it rains.
posted by Thistledown24 at 5:43 AM
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