31 Aug: And tomorrow was indeed another day: today, and today dawned drizzly in Butte, Montana. At noon-thirty, the weather is drying out a little. We walked to The Montana Club for salads for lunch and are back to preparing for our departure Wednesday morning towards Missoula to buy new tires for our baby blue motorcycle. Ron putzed with recycling before discovering that there is no recycling center in Butte, even though it is at the intersection of two major Interstate highways. Then we walked the cemetery again in the cold- and getting colder. And Cynthia wanted a baked potato dinner at the Rib & Chop House. While we were waiting Ron witnessed such disorganization by the hostess seating people that he got disgusted and told Cynthia to call him whenever she was finally seated. She has called, so I am on my way back down even though I don't feel inclined to eat anything. And except for the cook, service for the rest of our meal was similarly incompetent. I left an $0.84 cent tip. Today Cynthia made reservations here at the Copper King after we return from Missoula until September 21st. It is cool here, and we do like hiking the convenient cemeteries and the Maud S. Canyon Trail, so this will be an excellent option until time to head directly towards Minneapolis. Ron started trying to figure out a route and lodging en route, especially across South Dakota, where finding hotels is more of a challenge. He had to change the route in order to find acceptable lodging no more than 300 miles apart.
30 Aug, Sunday: So now we have seen quite the selection of font sizes, tiny, reasonable and nearly huge. Cynthia has been napping, but I'm guessing that her "feed me" alarm will be going off momentarily. We hiked this morning to Walmart for groceries, and Ron is now enjoying frozen mango as he types. It has taken him three days to get caught up on emails and this blog, but he can now consider what else to do before we leave Butte - only three mornings hence. At 4;30 we walked the mile or so to The Montana Club for lunch of salmon, salad, steamed asparagus, broccoli and a baked potato. In the evening we again walked the cemetery for a half hour to take it easy on Cynthia's hurty feet.
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| Maud S. Canyon Trail map |
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| Sign pointing to Continental Divide |
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| We hiked up really high today |
29 Aug: Today we hiked the Maud S. Loop Trail up to a junction where we continued uphill towards the Continental Divide but stopped about a half-mile short of reaching it when the trail became steeper with gravelly inclines that made it quite a challenge. In two places going back down, Cynthia squatted onto her heels to scoot down. The loose rock is like ball-bearings under her shoes. As we ascended, we met Paul, a Butte resident who had bicycled all the way up to Our Lady of the Rockies (click here). We all decried the social unrest, radical left, and "news" media who are trying to purge our country of capitalism and plunge us all into socialism. (Socialism means that you either join the Socialist party to work for the government or live on welfare.) Our mileage totaled 11.5 miles with about a 1500 foot elevation gain. (Cynthia's feet are tired and upset with her.) Ron and Cynthia walked the cemetery at sunset. Now that the air has been clear for a couple of days, we are considering returning to Butte after getting new tires Missoula.
28 Aug: Ron likes the larger font. He is astounded that the smaller font survived this long because it means that he hasn't updated the blog in nearly a month. (Don't bother to look, it is gone now.) Today has been more relaxed because he doesn't have a clue what he wants to spend his time doing for the next four days before we leave to hit the road again on Wednesday. For now, this blog is a great choice, especially since Cynthia has abandoned me while getting a manicure and pedicure (and God knows what else).
27 Aug: Yesterday seems so long ago that Ron cannot remember anything about it. Oh, memory is returning, we woke up to a light rain and putzed around in the room after breakfast until late morning. Since the air quality was again "good," we rode the motorcycle a couple of miles to the Maud S. Canyon Trail (uphill for two miles and 1000 feet of elevation gain). Cynthia was delighted that she had the strength and energy for that uphill challenge; Ron discovered that his energy was weak. Afterwards we ate our usual salads at the Montana Club. (We have apparently given up on the Rib & Chop House after Cynthia's unacceptable shrimp dinner - although we will probably continue to eat their superior salmon.) Ron went for a second cemetery walk at dark and talked for an hour to his friend Ed. Finally he stayed up until 1 AM answering long-neglected emails.
26 Aug: Butte, Montana. And Ron is finally back on-line !! He hasn't been for the month due to working on the next SCS package and fearful that the hotel internet would throw his computer into somewhat permanent never-never land. (And it did just that !!) Now he has successfully backed up the computer and sent the package off to the SCS member, so he can breathe a sigh of relief and start answering some of the more than 50 emails that have stacked up. The good news is that Cynthia and I are still "sheltering" successfully despite being in a hotel and eating breakfast and dinner in a dining room ... at least we don't think we are any sicker than usual, - no covid-like symptoms so far. And we are still walking a couple of times a day despite the unhealthy air thanks to California wildfires, raging out of control almost like America's younger population that is "entitled" to riot and loot and burn to their heart's content, protected by their assurance that the police don't dare interfere with this inalienable right. One of these days a whole lot of them are going to wake up in prison wondering how and why did they get there. The highlight of our day was seeing a fawn enter through the cemetery gates and walk around paying her respects to the people buried there. This fawn was about as little as a mule deer can be, and she seemed very puzzled by the two-legged characters watching her. Somewhat later she ran out in the opposite direction and crossed the street without looking both ways for traffic. By then we had noticed the big, friendly, curly-haired black dog that a lady was "walking" without a leash. Apparently the little deer wasn't interested in making new friends.
25 Aug: Hiking it tough in this smoke, so we are stuck walking the cemetery twice a day (level ground). Our walk this morning was punctuated by seeing a large red fox streaking through the cemetery a couple of rows away. His tail extended straight behind him with a white chevron at the tip. Today the smoke was diminished by a blessed rain after a huge wind. We ate dinner in at the Montana Rib & Chop House adjacent to our hotel. Amusing that the restaurant web site shows the butte near Montana Tech with its "M" prominently displayed; amusing because the restaurant is so far away that the M is obscured by the smoky haze on many days recently. Cynthia listened to speeches tonight while Ron walked the cemetery. He was quite surprised to find several trees or large limbs in new places; the tree next to the cemetery office was entirely uprooted but fell without damaging either office or tombstones.
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| Sunset amidst wildfire smoke |
24 Aug: We had one walk and a long nap. Yes, this is boring to our readers, but we were delighted with our afternoon nap. Ron is knee-deep in the SCS project (as he has been for three months now - which explains the absence of details in WhereIsRonNow), Cynthia mailed her article on DNA to the editor, and we fussed over the increasing smoke from California. Ron went for a second walk after dark despite the smoke. His conversations have also been neglected, so he caught up with a few of his walk-and-talk regulars.
23 Aug, Sunday: Cynthia is lining up the winter reservations. She is in charge of her high school class reunion on 3 October. All of the letters were mailed and food is ordered.
22 Aug: Our hikes are totaling nine to ten miles a day flat-land as we hike the cemetery due to heavy smoke from the California wildfires.
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| Boss Hoss motorcycle, V-8 engine |
21 Aug: After our walk up Maud S. to the Butte overlook, we returned to the Montana Club and discovered an unusual "Harley" in the parking lot. After eating we exited to see the rider talking with a friend, so we walked over and introduced ourselves and were quickly corrected to learn that we were looking at a Boss Hoss motorcycle whose rider was returning to Portland from Sturgis. His Boss Hoss has a Chevy small block V-8 engine (a 509). He says it does 0 to 100 MPH in three seconds.
20 Aug: Our morning walk through Holy Cross Roman Catholic Cemetery was three miles in an hour and 45 minutes. We stopped in the office to learn why there is a huge lot of babies ... most without headstones or names (because they were not baptized). Another huge field of unkempt graves is due to burial without paying for perpetual care, or they were indigenous. So much for Christian care of the poor. In the late evening we repeated the walk for another three miles. Cynthia foreclosed on a house she sold and she owner financed. She got the furniture back, and it was moved out of the house today to the storage unit.
19 Aug: Wow! We hiked the Maud S. Trail to the Vista, a thousand-foot elevation gain (actually 930 feet gain), plus the evening walk for a total of ten miles. YAY for us. This was after an early AM ride to Summit Labs for a fasting blood sugar test. We arrived at the labs in the morning just before they opened and were back to the hotel in time for breakfast.
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| This is Our Lady of the Rockies |
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| View from Maud S. Trail to valley |
18 Aug: This was our designated day for hiking on the bike trails near the Montana Tech College. But when we arrived, the parking area indicated by Google Earth required a Blue Decal, and classes had already commenced. So we parked in the nearby lot for the World Museum of Mining (click here). Curious, we paid $8 each admission and entered the compound full of recreated buildings and shops full of authentic artifacts from the days gone by when Butte was a bustling city full of deep shaft miners. Due to covid we were required to wear a mask whenever within eighteen inches of any window worth peering into. Cynthia found the mining museum spectacular and promised to post photos. (Oops.)
17 Aug: And today we hiked the Maud S Trail again. Cynthia's feet and back seem to be tolerating hiking this uphill grade every other day without undue complaint. We have decided that we really like this Copper King Hotel & Conference Center and being close to both cemeteries and the Maud S. Canyon Trail.
16 Aug, Sunday: We must have rested on Sunday, except for our twice walks of six miles. Ron is working on a package of materials about Israel Peterson for a Swedish Colonial Society (SCS) member.
15 Aug: Hiked the Maud S. Canyon loop trail, with 1000 foot elevation gain... two TOUGH miles up and two steep miles down. The downhill trail had many short, steep sections with treacherous footing on loose gravel, so we promise ourselves to never do that again. Tonight we walked through the very large Holy Cross cemetery across the street. It was a pleasant walk in a diversely maintained cemetery. Some parts were watered, mowed and green, another part was untended, parched and broken, yet another part had tiny plots, and yet another mere flat stone markers.
14 Aug: We hiked to Staples to pick up the invitations printed on party paper, ate lunch at the Montana Club, and boogied back to the hotel. Cynthia stuffed envelopes and got them into the mail. Classmates are now fully informed about the upcoming extemporaneous reunion Oct 3 in Northwood.
13 Aug: We checked out of the Hampton Inn in Butte, rode three miles south, and checked in to the Copper King Hotel & Convention Center. We asked the desk clerk (also hotel manager) if there were good hiking trails nearby, and she told us how to get to the Maud S. Canyon Trail. After unpacking, we followed her directions and hiked the Maud S. Canyon Trail as far as we dared for our first steep hike in a week, almost to the panoramic Vista overlooking Butte. In the evening, we rode to the downtown historic district and walked an additional mile or two, starting with a "tour" of the grand old Hotel Finlen. (We asked to see a couple of rooms.) As we walked and read historic plaques, we became more familiar with the colorful history of Butte. Besides seeing the gigantic open-pit copper mine north and east of town, we were able to walk right up to the fences around several "headframes" which lowered miners into the underground mines and brought the ore to the surface. Butte has a plethora of old buildings with historic markers in varying stages of decay. Several look to be very well cared for, but they are the exceptions. I just read today that Butte is a very, very dangerous US city.
12 Aug: We departed Bozeman via the same Baxter Lane and backtracked to take Montana Highway 84 west until we intersected US 287 north towards Sappington, Montana according to the map. Cynthia is a Sappington descendant, so Ron thought it would be fun to show her the namesake town - but there was nothing there. Population must be zero or less unless you count cattle. Google Earth shows me that there is indeed nothing there - except for one large milling complex. No houses, no residences. Fooey. I was still expecting to find something of a town when we came upon Montana Highway 2 which would take us to Butte, except that when highway 2 crossed Interstate 90, I changed the routing extemporaneously right there for a quick and easy entry into Butte.
11 Aug: We enjoyed breakfast at the Bunnery, but the wait was long and the service was slow, drawbacks of a popular place in a tourist town. We continued on US 191 right on through The Tetons. The only delay was an interminable line at the entrance station. Ron was surprised that the lakes were not as big nor the mountains so impressive as his memory. After enjoying few delays and light traffic for a couple of hours, it was a huge disappointment to run into another interminable line. Ron was convinced that the stupid tourists were each in turn stopping in the middle of the road to get out of the car and take a picture of some unique wildlife (like a chipmunk). (Cynthia read that one lady was gored by an irate momma buffalo for approaching her little calf too closely this year.) As it turns out, the line was to go through the Yellowstone National Park entrance station. Since the parks are practically contiguous, I had expected to have to endure entrance lines once. Fortunately for the rest of our very enjoyable ride through the parks, no one saw any wildlife so we were not forced into yet another interminable line by the photo-crazy tourists. We stayed on 191 through West Yellowstone and came to a stop due to road construction, chip sealing (click here). Continuing north after riding through that loose gravel we came to another episode of chip sealing before clear sailing up to pass the junction with Colorado 84 and on to Baxter Lane that took us in to the northern edge of Bozeman where our hotel was located. Baxter Lane was a sweet, untrafficked alternative to the main highways through town.
10 Aug: Rock Springs provided us about the most deplorable breakfast we have been fed on this entire trip, so we left with a poor opinion of Rock Springs and continued north on US 191 into Pinedale, Wyoming where Cynthia decided that the Heart and Soul Cafe looked good. (After that long without eating, anything looks good.). The restaurant was actually able to provide us good food. We were quite well pleased. US 191 took us through the mountains into Jackson, a town full of tourists. Cynthia was very proud of herself to use points to book the night at the Hampton Inn. (Otherwise prices are outrageous.) She also won the competition to find a suitable place for us to eat: St. Genevieve (click here), a quite excellent restaurant. Pearl Street Market is supposed to have groceries, but it is more akin to a yuppie convenience store. We did get bread and blueberries there.
9 Aug, Sunday: We left Grand Junction on Interstate 70 west for several miles until we could turn north on Colorado 139 towards Rangely, Colorado. (Granted, few people besides Ron have ever heard of Rangely.) There are impressive emerald-green fields on both sides of Colorado 139 as we headed north up a slight grade. That lovely emerald green stops abruptly as if cut by a knife - when the irrigation systems end. One side of the fences was lush green and the other side was parched brown desert sands and plants. The rest of highway 139 isn't a scenic wonderland, but it is a good route towards cooler northern vacationlands. We enjoyed a surprisingly nice lunch at the Main Street Cafe in Rangely. After lunch we saw the backsides of two pronghorns quite close to the road (Colorado Highway 64) and enjoyed marvelous views as we sped through those desert landscapes on US 40 into Utah. Our goal for the day was Rock Springs, Wyoming (click here), so we stopped only briefly at Vernon, Utah and turned north on US 191 towards the Flaming Gorge Recreation Area. We were surprised to find ourselves on top of the world, and the hurricane force winds also surprised us. It was a struggle to ignore the force of the wind in my ears. The motorcycle was able to absorb the wind without much more than occasional deflection. It was awesome indeed to look in any direction and see other plateaus and mountains at the same elevation or lower. By the time we arrived at Rock Springs, Cynthia was starved, but the only good option was to buy rolled oats, berries and veggies at the Smith's market in town. This was the second day that Ron's butt got tired of sitting.
8 Aug: We didn't need a particularly early start to ride from Ouray to Grand Junction, passing over Grand Mesa, but since the weather at elevation can be unpredictable, we started somewhat early. The early part of the ride on US 550 through Montrose was a bit warm. In Delta we turned east on Colorado Highway 92 for several hot miles, but as we rode uphill north towards Grand Mesa on Colorado Highway 65, it became downright chilly. Having just been warm, we felt no need to stop for warmer clothing. Grand Mesa is a wonderfully scenic vacationland (click here) close to Grand Junction. We enjoyed incredible views ascending the twisty roads (which so many motorcyclists love - including Ron). I had forgotten that Grand Mesa also has gorgeous lakes besides the mountains, forests and twisty roads. We stopped only at the visitor center because it was mid-summer and everybody and their brother were out vacationing with no coronavirus concerns to dampen their enjoyment of the outdoors. Besides, the roadways were relatively uncrowded, so the ride was delightfully free of slow pokes. As we descended the other side of the hill, the heat returned to relieve our chill and we were soon overdressed (having donned more clothing at our rest stop). Once to the river at the bottom of the hill, the roadway entered into a deep gorge that was even more awesome; river and greenery on one side and ahead, perpendicular rock walls on the other side and ahead. This canyon continues for about 10 miles !! Here the slowpokes don't bother Ron as he prefers to gawk at the scenery and admire those impressive, sheer cliffs up close and personal. Once we exited the canyon and joined Interstate 70, we ran into oppressive heat and heavy traffic, but there is no convenient alternative into Grand Junction. At least that stretch of Interstate 70 is quite scenic, being built as an elevated above the Colorado River at times.
7 Aug: Ouray, Colorado. We hiked the flats today, and as we passed through downtown approaching our hotel, we saw two bucks! Both were still in velvet. The smaller one looked a little scrawny and desperate, but the larger one was a fine specimen with six points. It was indeed to a surprise to see these bucks walking right through a residential area two blocks from the highway and downtown. We liked the Bon Ton so well that we ate there again this evening.
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| Cynthia takes flattering photos |
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| Ouray is NOT a big place |
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| The San Juan mountains in Ouray. |
6 Aug: The adventurers hiked three miles straight up to God, starting in town at 8000 feet elevation and walking up the steep Box Canyon trail to Ouray's Perimeter Trail (click here). The photos are from that hike. A widowed classmate asked if Ron is looking for a second wife... he looks so good. In the evening we walked again, this time through town to enjoy a more nearly level pathway. There is a koi pond as part of the hot springs/ swimming pool in town and we discovered a veritable humming hive of activity near a house with multiple hummingbird feeders on the front porch. Ron had been curious to see if a multitude of hummingbirds perch at dusk on the same electric wire across the street as in previous years, but apparently they've changed to a different evening "hang out." In the evening, we thoroughly enjoyed an excellent dinner and great service at the Bon Ton; the swordfish was awesome.
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| This is the "river" in Box Canyon. |
4 Aug: D-day minus one (Departure day). Up, exercised, and fed with mandatory correspondence completed, it is time for our morning walk. Ron feels relatively confident that he will be packed and ready to roll first thing tomorrow morning - off through Durango to Ouray, about three hours and two high mountain passes away over the "Million Dollar Highway." (Click here for accelerated U-Tube dashcam ride.) Don't worry we won't travel as fast as it appears in that U-Tube. Afternoon thunderstorms are forecast, so we want to get a very early start. (That means 10 to 11 AM to us.) We were lucky this evening to have Dan join us for our walk again. It was really quite dark by the time we finished (8:58).
3 Aug: Ut oh, our departure date is only two days away. We walked our favorite to-the-lake route and return in the late morning, and it was really quite warm. Then Cynthia indulged in a manicure before we ate lunch of sweet potatoes at Boss Hogg's, and now Ron is returning to his tasks preparatory to packing the motorcycle. During our evening walk to the lake & back, we saw the five bucks, a forest of horns again. Ron was delighted that they were available to see us off so close to departure. Cynthia retired early tonight, so we did not stay up past midnight reviewing her "Harry Bernard King" article for the NGS Quarterly.
2 Aug, Sunday: And the birthday month came to a successful close. We can hardly wait to see what next year will bring for birthday presents. Our hiking total today was seven miles in two walks, and we saw our favorite five bucks with antlers in velvet - twice !! In the morning, they were resting in woods on the eastern side of our neighborhood, a proverbial forest of antlers, and in the evening, they were grazing close to the street on the western side of the neighborhood. Cynthia took video on both occasions but hasn't cropped a photo out of the video.
1 Aug: The views crossing the Continental Divide take your breath away, and massive thunderstorms an arm's length away will do the same trick. We had a beautiful ride over Wolf Creek Pass through South Fork to Alamosa to visit with Becky and Doug for the afternoon before heading back towards a beautiful sky full of grey clouds and streamers of rain descending in torrents. The lucky part is that all of this that captured our full attention and imagination was slightly to the left of the northwest bound route we were riding (US Highway 160). We did pass under a few of the leading streamers and experienced a brief spattering of raindrops. We passed through those before we arrived in Del Norte and turned to a due west heading just north of that same thunderstorm system. In twenty minutes more it was apparent that we had dodged that bullet. Thank God. We arrived in Pagosa Springs early enough to eat dinner at Boss Hogg's before our usual evening walk. And this walk was special in that we picked up a stray homeowner to keep us company from his new home to the lake and back. Even more special was that he (Dan) was born in Conroe, Texas and still lives in that part of Texas. Pretty much a small world any more.
