2023 CDT - Day 31 - Choteau to Francis Lake, Valier

Not a very far move. A bit closer to Glacier and a different town.

Choteau City RV Park and my spot in the shade.

Helen was an older woman from Texas who came up to Montana to get away from the heat. that didn't work so well but I understand it's still even hotter down there. She had sold her house and bought a Sprinter van, got rid of all her stuff that wouldn't fit in the van and hit the road. Her 14 year old dog Dixie and her cat are with her. She said she's going to get rid of the passenger seat because the dog and cat keep fighting over it. Her girlfriend drove in her family van down from Canada to hang out with her for a while. Pretty brave to do what she is doing at this stage in her life. Interesting times.

The creek running alongside my campsite at Choteau, MT.

I woke about 0600 this morning to the wailing of a siren. A very loud siren. I'm guessing it was the call for the volunteer fire department. Three minutes later it went off again and not long after the sounds of a bit less loud sirens I'm guessing to be the engines heading to the scene. Not surprising in this heat and all the dry grass.

After some trailer maintenance and battening down the hatches and pulling up stakes Beau and I slowly moved on up the road. Not far out of town my speed dropped down to 25 MPH following one of those giant hay bailer things behind a tractor. I was kinda enjoying the pace and obviously the ten or so cars behind me didn't care much for it. Eventually they all got their chance and lit off past us. I waited for the guy to turn off on to a farm road and he gave me a wave. It is a Sunday morning and actually traffic was fairly light. I went through a few towns that really didn't amount to much more than a few grain silos and maybe a craft or antique store. They sure like their hay here in Northern Montana. Sometimes as far as the eye can see. I'm sure there's a few country songs about hay. Even one I know of about a combiner putt putt putting 25 miles an hour with everyone honking behind him. Anyway...

Somewhere beyond the hay, the Bob Marshal Wilderness, The Chinese Wall, and Runningbird.

The town of Valier is small, no bakery, has a cafe, Cenex station, and a coffee shop. I'm at the city RV park along Lake Francis. It's hot here and not much shade but I have electricity to run the A/C. There is WiFi, 4 cell bars, and it puts me a bit closer to the next resupply point. The weather app on my phone says it's 94 degrees and there is a Red Flag Alert for high winds and relative humidity of 12% into Tuesday.

Francis Lake from the city RV park. Valier, MT.

Seems odd to me to be so far inland and see seagulls. My guess is that these particular seagulls have never seen the sea. Just sayin. I've been trying to get Beau out for regular walk but afraid to have him out for too long. We walked along the park border and along came a huge Golden Retriever. "Blaze" was 4 years old and just over 100 pounds. He seemed a bit grumpy because when I let Beau off leash to play blaze was not interested and just did a bit of growling. I thought all Goldens liked to play. It didn't bother Beau, he just ran over to play with the young girls of the family Blaze was with. They were from Las Vegas and came up to their ranch a few miles from here to get out of the heat. I'm sure it is cooler here regardless.

Blaze and Beau. It may not look like it in the photo but Blaze is quite a bit bigger than Beau.

Walking back to the air conditioned trailer my cellphone rang and it was Runningbird. She said to let everyone know she was doing well today. The day before (18.5 miles), not so well. This was the first time she had a cellular signal but she was fine and the heat was not bothering her where she was. She had lost track of the days and was running early again and was hosing over my plan. Again. Just fine with me.

It feels odd to be in Montana, walking along a lakeshore that looks like a sea, seagulls gliding overhead, and such a warm breeze blowing. I wonder what winter will be like. One day at a time.