Brydn's 2003 Travel Journal - Montana: the Face of G*d

Brydn's 2003 Travel Journal - Montana: the Face of G*d

Page 71

The video equipment gets to Missoula. I test drive my truck up the old Wallace Creek mining road. I'm camping out in Thibodeau Sheep Flats.

I get my load of equipment and sort it out. I try to tie it down but the hooks are not there. I put out my trash. I fill the water bucket and change my shirt. I drive back to Missoula. The blue tarp keeps popping up. I have to stop and tie it down. I get to Missoula about 10:00 AM. While I'm unloading my computer and stuff, I notice the towers with cables between them from my dream the night before. They're on the roof of one of the large Fairgrounds buildings. I take a picture of this. It's near the Commercial Exhibits building. I find a Jiffy Lube; oil, lube, and wipers. I'll have to shop around to get an emergency serpentine belt. Not bad! I get to the Fairgrounds about 11:30 AM. Toni's so busy. I cant get the key. I'm going to a parts store and then camping.

8:40 PM, 5 miles past the Jonsrud Camp Site. Thibodeau Sheep Flats?
Another hair raising, wonderful, and adventurous day. A lot of things in my stuff melt; CD cases, emergency candles and the black electrical tap. At 5pm in Missoula, the sign outside of Checkers sign reads 117`. Fire season is in full effect. It's 10:48 PM before I finally eat. Tonight's special: Campbell's Minestrone Soup in a can. It's boiler makers time and a very pleasant night for a star party. It now is the extreme opposite of 12 hours ago. I buy grocery's in Clinton. I mess up the turn on Hwy 200 and go South on Hwy 90. I get beer, water, round crackers, a summer sausage, a potato and a bag of ice. I remember the ice this time.

The according to my Western Montana map and Robert Feldman's 1985 book, "Rock Hounding Montana," Wallace Creek Road goes all the way through to Hwy 200 at Potomac. The signs at Wallace Creek Road say, "No through fair." The book says, "Lying on the South Slopes of the garnet range the District is reached by a scenic mountain from Clinton. Several mines are present, a few of them are lying at a relatively low elevation." Cool. I'll test out the locking hubs and the 4x4. I head up Wallace Creek Road. I pass a new Housing Development. The winding road comes to an "End of Montana Road Department" sign. It turns into a gravel road about at the Ranger station. I wind my way up to an incline where I pull over at a level target shooting pit. I get out, locked the hubs and get me a cold beer for my lap. The road goes all up hill the entire time with but two ruts for a road and a shear drop off on my left. I kept going, "Just don't do anything stupid and back up to turn around if the road is caved in." Now I'm four wheeling. I pass a skull with a No Trespassing sign before I get to what must be another Range station. I get to the summit which has a for sale sign on it.

I go a little farther around a corner and there's a house. A ways down from a house are there are two dead 4x4's and a Lincoln. I get so that I'm starting back down from the summit. I pass a cow grazing near the road. I think for what ever reason, "Wow, it's the face of God." Then the truck stalls for a moment. I go "No! Not here!" Nobody goes up or down this road for days. Sure enough, Hellena dies, which of course so goes the breaks and steering. I put her in park and start her again. She hiccups and seems to be out of gas. She completely dies. The battery won't turn her over. It's 100` out. My cellphone doesn't have service. I decide to let her cool off. I walk down the road to see if there is a house for help. I walk for what seems like only 20 minutes. Around each corner I'm thinking there has got to be something until I get to another corner. I turn around because of the heat. I pull myself up the hill to the truck. I had gone down farther than I thought. I want to lay down and not get up. Nobody goes down this road. I watch my footprints I made coming in the whole way back. I get to the me truck which is stopped in the middle of the narrow road. I climb in and turn her over. She starts!