Drove to Three Rivers, where the Jefferson, Madison, and Galatin rivers combine to make the Missouri. On the way we saw a train carrying airplane fuselages! At the confluence of the three rivers we met a nice biking couple who suggested we go to the Potato Festival being held that day in Manhattan, Montana.
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on the road, MT: wheat fields
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Missouri Headwaters State Park, Three Forks, MT:
Dear Journal,
Today we drove to the forks, but we only saw 2. Then we went to a potato festival, and got some candy. After that, we hiked 3/4 of a mile to the entrance of the Lewis + Clark caverns, where we saw amazing configurations like bacon, pillars, stalagmiles, popcorn, soda straws, and stalagmites. Then we drove to Francie and Jenifer's house, ate dinner, saw their 2-day old puppy, and went to sleep.
Aron
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Missouri Headwaters State Park, Three Forks, MT: Aron Cowen and Arthur Luehrmann
We went to the Manhattan, MT, Potato Festival in time to see a funny parade with potatoes and potato vines on all the floats. At the fair we got a nice windchime present for Ben's birthday.
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Potato Festival, Manhattan, MT: potato vine bikes
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Potato Festival, Manhattan, MT:
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Potato Festival, Manhattan, MT:
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Potato Festival, Manhattan, MT: potato plane
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Potato Festival, Manhattan, MT: Mr. Couch Potato
Then we drove to the Lewis and Clark Caverns. It was a very difficult uphill walk of .75 miles to get to the entrance of the caverns. The caverns had big rooms, but going from one to another sometimes meant sliding on your butt or crawling through narrow passages, but it was worth it! We went into many big rooms. We saw soda straws (little stalactites which have hollow centers), ribbons (where the water ran down the wall in streamlets), pillars (where a stalactite met its opposite stalagmite), popcorn, where the water upwelled from the surrounding pressure and made lots of bumps), and bacon (where the water sheeted down the wall and left smooth slabs).
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT: walk up to the entrance
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT: Aron Cowen listens to warnings from the Ranger
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT: straws
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT: popcorn
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT: walk back from the exit
We then drove to the ranch of Jenifer Wise and Franci McMahon (my high school classmate) near Boulder, Montana. We almost missed the road to the house. Actually, we did miss it and had to turn around and call Franci and Jenifer for directions. Their road is off State 69, between the 28 and 29 mile markers. The road itself is mostly very rutted and full of boulders for 1.8 miles, then it has a short strip of gravel. We had to go up it at about 3-5 mph to avoid the worst bumps and scrapes. Their house is lovely: all wood, with a high ceilinged living room. They also have built, mostly on their own, log by log, a cabin where Arthur and I stayed. Aron elected to stay in a loft in the main house. In their fields you could see their horses and some visiting antelopes.
Jenifer and Franci had a beautiful Australian Shepherd-German Shepherd mix named Maud, who is 8 years old. They also just got - yesterday - an Australian Shepherd-Border Collie mix puppy, only 6 weeks old, named Molly. Maud is wonderful and wise, and Molly is a darling ball of fluff.
Aron made a big outside fire and we had a great dinner of hamburgers with homemade buns and potato salad. We gabbed a long time, and then Arthur and I made our way to the cabin. It had a half-built outhouse, which we made use of, and then to bed.
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Jenifer and Franci's ranch, Boulder, MT: Molly