Road Trip 7. Eight more days in the Custer National Forest

We have spent the past 8 days in the Custer National Forest.  Here is our site, on top of a hill overlooking two valleys.  

We had about 6 cars/day that drove by.  All of the people we have seen are bow hunting Elk (relax, our assessment is that the Elk are very safe), and all (literally all, not a single exception), hunt by driving around in their pickups wearing camouflage (ha!  Doesn't work.  We can see them anyway).  They stop and chat, and are very friendly. 

 

We have taken several hikes:

See Vicky?

One hike was so particularly lovely that it deserves its own photos:

 Each day, after our hikes, we sit outside facing one valley or the other.  Vicky knits and reads, I drink red wine and wonder how my life got so good.  Here are views we have:

Road Trip 7. 1000 miles from home: Off the grid in eastern Montana

We’ve been “off the grid” for six days.  We are in the Custer National Forest (there a lot of places named after someone who was such an arrogant bonehead that he “won” battles against defenseless Indian villages, and then lost the big one against one ready to fight back).  The Custer National Forest is located miles away from any population centers, so there don’t appear to be many people who come here——hooray!

We spent the last six days along the Yager Butte road.  For two of the days it rained.  But at least we had something beautiful to look at.

We took three hikes.  The land is a combination of prairie grass and pine trees.  Different from what we have seen before, and very nice.  We have 5-6 cars on our road per day.  That’s a total of about one minute/day, which means we have found the isolation and solitude we enjoy so much.

For one hike we went to the Yager Butte Lookout tower, now no longer in operation.  Still standing though.  And there was evidence of living quarters nearby.  Most of these towers are no longer used because it is cheaper to use airplanes to scour the landscape to detect fires. 

We left this morning to go to a small nearby town to see about getting some groceries, water, and a place to dump our trash.  We also have a signal so we can find out what’s been happening in the world.  Probably haven’t missed much.  For the past several months all that there has been in the news is that Trump has picked a meaningless fight with someone.  We’ll see who the latest fight has been with..........OK, just got my answer.  He called Kim "Rocket Man" and threatened to kill everyone in North Korea (in case you are wondering why won't mind being off the grid)

Then, it’s back into the Custer, somewhere, for another 5-6 days. 

Here is our campsite:



Some photos of our hikes and the lookout tower:


 

 



Pilings where probably there were living quarters:




See the tower in the distance?



Elk:



We ran across some private property on one of our hikes.  I guess we could go into it and, if caught, claim that we couldn’t read the sign because we weren’t walking on our hands:

Road Trip 7. 1000 miles from home

We are in the Custer National Forest, in south east Montana.  We have gotten off to a rather slow start, with one of us being a little sick, and then rain in the forecast.  But we are having a good time, and have seen some new, and beautiful places.

We are going to explore this National Forest today, and see if we can find a nice place to hole up for the two days of rain. 

Here are photos of our first three campsites.  Pretty lovely, and very isolated and quiet. 

Owen teaches gun safety

I mean, what does he know?  I'm a college professor.  I know more about gun safety than an Army Ranger Green Beret, don't I?

It was good to get lessons from the best. 

Then we went out to eat at Azteca.

It's raining: Time to go south

It hasn't rained in over two months.  Everything is dry and brown.  We had more rain here in the spring than usual, and then there was less rain over the summer than usual.

It couldn't come at a better time psychologically for us.  It reminds us of why we are happy being away from our Whidbey Island home in the winter---the rainy weather makes it too difficult for us to be outdoors in the way we both need.

......and we need all the help we can get because we will miss our home so much.

Knowing that the rain was expected today we got most of our small "home" (i.e., the camper/pickup) loaded yesterday.

A small portion of the supplies that we will need.  Chairs, tables, a well-packed and complete set of tools (since we are frequently need to make repairs along the way), truck supplies, tire chains, etc.:

Water.  Since we are live animals we need water.   Yesterday I put 35 gallons of drinking water into the camper storage, plus another 10 gallons in jugs.   We have another 4-5 empty containers that we will fill up along the way.  Our goal is to be able to remain away from civilization for 3 weeks at a time, and this means having enough water.

Since we are (somewhat) human animals we also need to be sorta clean at times.  We have another 10 gallons stored in solar heated bags.  These work really well---just a little bit of sun will warm them enough for our 1-minute, 1 gallon showers.  You realize how much water is wasted when we see how little we really need on a daily basis.

 

Vicky gets a lot of food packaged in such a way as to be able to make meals with as little clean-up as possible.  By repackaging our food she can also get a lot more into our refrigerator/freezer.  Time spent up-front saves a lot of time down the road.

We have to pack all of the clothes we might possibly need.  The weather can be very warm or very cold (even in the desert southwest it is winter;  nights, especially, can be chilly).  Our clothes are chosen carefully--they need to be moisture wicking for safety and so they will dry quickly when washed.  Some of our clothes also need to serve double duty as dancing clothes for when we can drop into a dance along the way. 

It was time to put the camper onto the pickup.  The first time we did this several years ago it took us over an hour.  We've learned, and now it takes about 10 minutes.  

Then it is a matter of loading the back seat.  Every inch is used.

Today's project is to shop for, prepare, and store our perishable foods.   The refrigerator was turned on yesterday, so it will ready when we move food into it.  Here are some of the veggies that will accompany us (at least for a few days):

The Prius is in the garage.  Even that seemingly simple task isn't very simple.  Before we left last year we had a trickle charger installed on this car.  This keeps the battery charged.  A Prius isn't like cars made years ago where it's a simple matter to just charge the battery.  On a Prius, if the batteries run down all of the car's computer systems can be affected.  So......a trickle charger.

Here Vicky is filling the refrigerator and freezer.  Every inch is used.  This requires a lot of planning.

By the time we finish today the pickup will be ready to hop in it and go, and all that will be left will be to shut down the house and winterize it.

Leaving our home.  It's sad, but we are off to see what we can find in this wonderful country of ours:

Countdown to Road Trip 7: No Grandchildren for 5 months

We are in the final stages of preparing to leave.  Closing up the house is always sad--moving flower baskets, locking our valuables in our safe deposit box, packing the truck and camper, getting ready to winterize our home, etc.

The hardest part of this time of year is knowing how long it will be before we can see our precious grandchildren again.  We had such fun with them this year.  With Soren and Sebastian we went to Disneyworld, we had them out to the house here for a day, and then went camping with them at Sweetwater Park in Georgia.

With Ian and Adam we got to see Ian's plays, got to have him out to the house for a few days, saw Adam playing baseball, and generally got to see them a lot over the summer.  We went camping with them and then went to Mt. Baker again with them. 

And the important milestone for Ian was, of course, his Bar Mitzvah.  It was a major event in his life, and a major event in all of our lives.  The whole family was here, including my sister Kathy who came from Colorado.

We got to see our granddaughters a lot as well.  They were out to the house frequently, working on projects with Vicky.  They entered several of those projects into the county fair and won all sorts of awards and medals.  They were justifiably proud. 

All of them are growing up so fast.  We realize that our time with little people is rapidly coming to a close.  Too soon all will be adolescents, and while we will still enjoy a special relationship with them, it won't be of the read-them-a-book-while-they-are-sitting-on-your-lap type of relationship.  Sob.

And now it will be five months before we see any of them again, except Ian.  We have something awesome planned for him for his Bar Mitzvah gift---he will fly to Los Vegas where we will pick him up and have a week of dispersed camping with him.  We'll show him how his weird grandparents live for five months of the year.   We hope to be able to have a week like this in the future with all of the grandchildren.

Time flies.  I believe I'm the first person to have ever noticed that.  Especially when you are having fun.  I'm also the first person to have ever noticed that.

Last time with Marina and Stella this year

We are headed out for Roadtrip 7, but we got to see the girls one last time this year.  It was so good to see them but sad to say goodbye.