Dam!
19 June 2018
Another day with water!
It rained in Great Falls again last night. Also, someone was apparently testing their 2-stroke dirt bike at about 2am. But other than that, I slept like a brick. And surprisingly, my stuff stayed mostly dry. Except for my boots, which fell over in the night and were catching some rain from the edge of the vestibule. I got packed up in more than record time; I really need to streamline my morning routine.
Once packed, I started by driving along the waterfront of the Missouri River where there’s supposedly something called the Rolling Thunder Sculpture. I didn’t see anything, just lots of city maintenance people mowing in the rain. After that, I headed onto I-15 and departed north. I rode for about 90 miles through the rain and fog. I assume there was lots and lots of pretty scenery, but I mostly just saw this:
My hands were cold, my feet were damp, the rain wasn’t letting up, and then I saw a bakery. And it was open. For a few bucks I had a ham and cheese rollup and a pretty good cup of coffee. Chatting with the owner reveled that its been raining for days, and that this is very unusual for northwest Montana. One of her other customers was apparently up to his bumper in water wihle driving down main street. That explains why everybody kept complaining about the rain.
Once I was warm, I got back on the bike and went north. Just after the town of duyrup? is a dirt road leading West called Swift Dam Road. For those you not in the know, my Dad worked on the construction of the Swift Dam, so this road is something of a special interest to me. It was only 19 miles of dirt, in the rain, how bad could it be? Well, the first 6 miles were pretty sloppy, but not too bad if I stayed standing on the pegs. After that, there was more gravel and it was much easier riding.
Once at the dam, it was clear that rain was definitely a little out of the ordinary. Both gates at the bottom of the dam were wide open and launching water into the river. The spillway on the the side of the dam was also flowing a curtain of whitewater. The road crossing the river at the bottom was impassible, having been turned into a 50 yard wide mess of water, rocks and trees. As I was standing around taking pictures, a couple in an SUV approached. The lady got out and was taking pictures. We started talking and as it turns out, they are the dam keepers. Apparently, as of this morning the water was about to overtop the dam and flow down the emergency spillway, and so the regular gates were opened completely in order to prevent that. She said that hadn’t happened in years, this was truly a rare event.
Even more interestng, she and her husband were both children of people who had worked on the dam. Apparently her father was named Jones and worked at the batch plant, didn’t catch what his parents involvement was. They also said that the bear population is way up, they’ve had 5 sightings this year so far.
I decided that it probably woudn’t be wise to leave a bike full of bear food alone while I hiked in the cold rain in motorcycle gear to the top of the dam, so I took some more pictures and headed out. The ride back out the dirt road was uneventful, thankfully.
After returning to the highway, I went north toward the town of Browning. The rain was down to a mist, and the clouds were getting a little less thick. As I overtopped a hill, I got my first glimpse of the mountains in the distance, and stopped to take a picture. The picture really does not do it justice, the scale of Montana just doesn’t fit through a lens.
I hadn’t been sitting there long when I saw something brown and fuzzy out of the corner of my eye. Then, there was this guy, coming to check me out:
I petted him for a bit and he was friendly but a little unsure of this muddy guy that looks like an astronaut.
After making a new friend, I headed off for Browning, MT to stop for a quick bite to eat and some fuel. While munching on my ham, egg and pepper jack sandwich, I chatted with a guy on a Goldwing who was pulling a tiny camper. He was from florida, and had been touring various national parks for the last couple of months as well as attending his daughters graduation in Washington. He had just been at Glacier and gotten tired of the rain, and so was heading to Wyoming to visit the
One last drive over a road full of potholes and I arrived at Glacier National Park. The lady informed me that the campground is full, but I might be able to find room at the Many Glaciers Hotel. I read an article a couple weeks ago about the history of this hotel and its renovation, so I figured I’d give it a shot. Sure enough, they had a “value” (aka, no view), room available. Seeing as I could use some time to dry all of my everything, and I’d like to spend some time checking out the hotel, I but the bullet and got a room.
I think it was the right choice. This place is amazing, I could stay here for weeks (if I could afford it). The hotel is situated right on the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake at the intersection of several valleys. The building itself feels like it belongs here - brown and white interior, high ceilings, a giant fireplace, and lots of people. They’ve got three different pianos spread out around the lounge areas, and I’ve spent the last hour sitting in here watching out the window and listening to a couple of Russians employed by the food service foodservice play piano and sing. There was even a little dancing earlier. I’ve also managed to talk to a few different people about camping and backpacking, as well as about motorcycle travel.
Beyond the hotel, I’ve been looking at the map. There is SO much to see here. I don’t know what I’m going to do over the next couple days, but there is going to be some hiking and maybe even some kayaking involved. I also intended this trip to shorten my bucket list a bit, but I just added another one - backcountry backpacking at Glacier National Park.
