Montana Ride 2006, Day 4 - Helena to Lake Alva CG

Distance ridden 120 miles
Departed 11:40 am
Arrived 3:30 pm
Riding time 2 hours 45 minutes
Average moving speed 43.2 mph
Number of fuel stops 1
Average fuel economy 65.42 mpg

Route map
Breakfast of.. champions?
Day 4 started early enough that I certainly didn't get enough sleep. We wanted to be up in time to see the girls off, some of whom were leaving at 9 am. I was awake by 8:30, and shaking my roommate awake by 8:55, reminding him of the 9 am deadline. He woke up with ease, and we were quickly out in the little dining area, eating breakfast. The sideboard was actually quite well appointed, including a waffle iron, with little pre-measured paper cups of waffle batter, which you pour out and cook on the iron.

Cheezy group photo
Eventually, everyone got sufficiently organized as the departure time approached. We all got together for a final (well, and initial, now that I think about it) group photo, and the rest of the group left for the theater around 10:45 to load up their stuff. Then, they were off for I-90, and a long drive back to Seattle, all in one day.

I went back into my room, and organized my stuff. With the helmet, drybag, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, GPS and tankbag, it's more than I can reasonably carry all at once. I mean, I did it when I pulled it all off the bike, but it wasn't at all enjoyable, and not a load I was able to carry very far. I grabbed one of the brass luggage carts from the lobby and loaded it up. Much easier that way.

I loaded the bike in the shade of the hotel's pull-through, thankful for the protection from the sun. It was already quite warm. I ended up having to redo the loading procedure several times as I reminded myself of all the different straps and tiedowns which were involved in getting the load secured.

Finally, I had it all sorted out, and I rode off at 11:40.

Haven't I Seen You Before?

Myrna Loy Theatre
My departure route from Helena was the same way I'd come in, although I diverted long enough to get some good pictures of the outside of the Myrna Loy Theatre. It was built in the 1800s as Helena's jail, and was actually used for that purpose up through the 1990s. Quite a handsome building.

I was back out along highway 12 out of Helena, and had much more of an opportunity to explore MacDonald Pass, just a few miles outside Helena. I followed a sign to a scenic viewpoint, which ended up being a higher peak, achieved by traversing a quarter mile of dirt road. My first dirt road of the trip! It wasn't that exciting, but I'd figured before I started that at some point, dirt roads would come into the picture.

Atop MacDonald Pass, elevation 6644
It was quite windy atop MacDonald Pass, but there was a beautiful view all around, and I was having a good time exploring. There was a little platform of sorts, made out of rubble and concrete, and I climbed up to it. A better view, but also apparently where someone had asked that their ashes be dumped. That was a trifle odd to find.

What is that glass thing?
I noticed two towers near where I was parked and exploring, and when I looked at one of them, found that it had a mysterious glass globe on top of it, with some chunk of machinery situated within. My guess is that it's a solar measurement device, but I'd love to know what it actually is, if anyone knows.

Let's Get This Show on the Road

I'd planned, the night before, to go up to the Lake Alva campground, which is about 120 miles from Helena. It's just off highway 83, north of Seely Lake. All of my camping decisions were made by looking through The Best in Tent Camping: Montana, which is a pretty good book. Its recommendations didn't particularly lead me astray, although their descriptions didn't really prepare me for the campsite I would actually find each night.

I mounted back up after snapping a group photo for a carful of people which had joined me atop MacDonald Pass. Carefully back down the packed gravel road (which was actually in pretty good shape), and left on US 12.

Cloud shadow on 141
The riding went by quickly, and I again noted how nice highway 141 was to ride going the other way. I'd made a decision at some point that this whole 70 mph thing wasn't for me. I even wrote in my notes, "MT is killing my gas mileage w/ high speed limits." So, let's try 55 mph. It seemed a trifle radical at the time, but it ended up being an excellent decision. I was much happier at 55. I just tended to hug the white line and wave people forward, encouraging them to pass me.

I stopped in Seely Lake to refill the tank, and purchase the night's food. I decided to try pasta where I made up my own sauce out of a tomato and a red pepper, plus some spices. I discovered that string cheese sized cheese sticks are the perfect single-serving size for that kind of thing, and put a stick of colby-jack into my basket.

Shortly after Seely Lake (too shortly, really -- 83 was a great road, lots of gentle winding curves and beautiful trees), I found the entrance for the Lake Alva campground, and turned in. The campground was situated a couple hundred feet off the highway, but was separated by a thick layer of forest, so there wasn't any feeling of being too close to civilization.

Right, Camping

My campsite at Lake Alva, site #27
At that moment, it had been perhaps 20 years since I'd last pitched a tent and camped. Fortunately, there's not a lot of trickery involved in camping. I had the tent up and my stuff set up in short order, and dropped the requisite $10 into the fee envelope for my night's stay. Not quite as demanding as the backcountry camping I'd done most recently. I really appreciated the picnic table, though.

I had imagined, when I was planning this trip, that I would have huge swathes of time in which I would be doing nothing, and potentially bored out of my skull. In fact, that didn't seem to be happening. I was glad to have brought a book, but between setting up, taking notes, preparing food, and exploring the campground, my time was pretty well filled up.

Trying to rig up a bear-proof food storage solution ended up being very difficult. I had the cord, and I found a great rock as a weight, but it probably took me 25 minutes of tossing the rock, missing my intended branch, and reeling the cord back in before I finally got it situated the way I wanted it.

Your author, with camp in the background
Once I had that set up, I cooked up dinner. It smelled fantastic, and attracted a nice little crowd of hungry woodland creatures. I shooed them all away, but the bluejay in particular was very persistent. No bears were attracted, fortunately.

Dinner was nearly as good as it smelled, but I was presented with a problem when I was all done: how do I clean this cheesy mess? I got it done, and with surprisingly little water, but it was a lot of work, and I'm sure put some fascinating scent trails on the ground to attract more critters. I wrote in my notes after that experience, "pasta - good, but hard to clean up. sandwich tomorrow night?"

Sunset over Lake Alva
I noticed that the tops of the trees were a bright red shade from the setting sun, so I grabbed my tripod and camera, and hurried down to the lake's edge to grab a picture or two. Not a bad little sunset.

Photographic mission accomplished, I returned to my campsite, finished my note-taking, and curled up with my book, figuratively speaking. There was no curling-up to be done on that picnic table bench, but I was pretty happy to be sitting there.

As darkness descended, I gave up on the book, and got myself situated in the tent for the night. The tent I had chosen, a Eureka Apex, could have benefitted from another 6 inches of length, as I could position myself so either my head or feet brushed a tent wall, but I was too long to fit entirely in the clear. It did fit all my gear and myself, though, so it was big enough for the task. I didn't bother with the rain fly, since it obviously wasn't going to rain.

With a bit of scrunching around I found a somewhat comfortable position, and fell asleep.

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Created by Ian Johnston. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.