The Montana Trail 406

After my five days on the river I get to James Kipp Landing campground and recreation area. It was packed with boaters for the Memorial Day weekend, but I found a tent spot and squeezed in. In the morning I loaded up my bike to take on a 200 mile section of backroads I had already dropped my bike here in order to take on this leg of the journey. My bike had been stored in a shed by the a helpful campground attendant - thankfully. I tied my kayak to a tree and stuffed everything river related into the hollows of the kayak. I took off on the designated trail to find an obstacle two miles down the road. The sign said no vehicle - doesn’t apply to me and my bike - so I undid a bunch of wire then laid down one side of the gate and continued on. Then had to do it again after arriving at the end of the closure. That was time consuming and difficult, but I managed. I continued on through beautiful river bottom country on a pretty good dirt road. However I climbed to the top of bluffs then back down to the river then back up to bluffs, four times and found that I had used up 2 batteries after 30 miles. Even though I was walking my bike on the steepest hills. Thinking I was only going to have one day of battery left when I needed at least 3 more days worth I had decided I’d have to rethink this method of travel and the amount of weight in gear and batteries I was carrying on this section. Hence a call to Brice to come pick me up. Send him my coordinates and see if he can perform a proper extrication in this very remote area. Around this time a mud rut that had dried to hard caught me off gaurd and threw me hard to the ground. My left forearm hit hard over the top of the rut spraining my wrist to the point where I couldn’t properly squeeze the hand break or hold the bike steady without pain. Well, if I had been wondering if I should go further to at least explore a bit more of the terrain with my remaining battery this put the final decision in no doubt. I set up my tent there after struggling to lift the bike off the ground and get it off to the side of the road. In the morning after I had packed up and sat waiting for Brice to arrive several nice people in 4-wheel drive trucks stopped to talk. One told me that about a mile ahead of me was about 4 feet of water standing on the road making a huge puddle with deep mud all around. That obstacle may have ended my trip too. With a bit more knowledge of the terrain, I’ll go back to this section after regrouping and retooling. Either hiking or non-electric bike would make this leg doable. The 30 miles that I managed were so breathtakingly beautiful that I vowed to return once healed and better equipped. I ate wild onions here that were really good with the instant garlic potatoes I had for dinner.Read more