Brydn's 2003 Travel Journal - Montana: Ophir Creek

Brydn's 2003 Travel Journal - Montana: Ophir Creek

Page 8

I'm camping in Marysville, Montana, near Ophir Creek.

7/11/3, 07:15PM MT Great Falls, Central Motel, Room 22.
I camp out in Marysville, Montana. I go through the old mining town. There must be two miles of gold mining tailings getting there. I snapp a couple of pictures but they don't show how immense the the piles of tailings are. Marysville has many old "log cabins" from the 1880's mining days. Folks still live Marysville for tourism and skiing in the winter. It's a tiny town in the valley of the mountains. I go up the hill to the ski resort. Odd that there is all this nice new chair lift equipment and lodge but everything's green and it's 90` out. I go back down the road and turn toward Ophir creek. The road gets so bad with ruts and large rocks sticking out, I only get about a mile. I notice a creek on my left. There I see the new camping spot sign... a rock circle for fire. There are no neighbors, no kids, no pit toilets, and lots of mosquitoes, bitting flies and horse flies. So I set up camp from the back of my truck for free. I'm sure I am in the Helena National forest. I hike up creek 1/2 mile and down creek 1/2 mile looking for no trespassing signs and 'color' in the creek. Once again, I get so drunk on Obsidian beer I can't shoot anything with my hand gun. (This pisses me off so bad I shot around at Truman who is watching from a tree stump. I apologize of course). During the heat of the day, the flies get so bad I have to take a nap in my White Stag tent. After the day's cooled off and the flies ascend to whereever flies ascend to, I didn't feel like cooking even though I bought a steak for more stew. I settled for bread, cheese and heat up pork and beans. I spend a good deal of the rest of the afternoon and evening gathering wood. This exhausts me to boredom so that I don't feel like making a camp fire. Four of five trucks pass by going farther up the hill. I've camped close enough to the road that I can wave as they passed by. A couple work trucks come back down at the end of the day. All the trucks that go up the road soon return. I assum the road rans out before the next five miles.