MIKE AND THE BEAR
It's been an eventful couple of days for the Giddyupgirlz, most of the eventfulness happening away from us! Day before yesterday, we split off from David and Carmyn and headed downhill in more ways than one to Troy Montana and the Holiday Motel, run in tandem with the Troy Conoco Station. We were situated in Room 1, which is located ON the Highway. General Safety Guidelines for cyclists recommend getting yourself and your bike at least 10 feet off of the road whenever you need to stop, and even while sleeping in room number 1 with our bikes in the room, none of us was 10 feet off the roadway. But, we didn't care. While we were luxuriating under a real roof, and I was renewing my relationship with Boudreaux's Butt Paste, David and Carmyn were camping 17 miles south of us in a "no water" USFS site called Dorr Skeels, which was supposed to feature bears. As David was walking the campground, he ran into a cross country cyclist named Mike, from Tucson who was looking for water. David told him, "Bad news, Buddy! No Water!" but offered some of his, then invited Mike to come to dinner. No SPAM bomb for Mike, either! They cooked him a grand meal, and gave him all my Golden Oreos and thoroughly enjoyed hearing his tales from the road, which he is taking a hundred miles a day. He rides til 8 or 9 at night! They replaced us so quickly....
At about midnight, Carmyn heard something rustling around outside the trailer---bumping into it, snorting and sniffing at the edges, then sloshing the water containers around and nosing the sides. David was snoring loudly, until he woke up and Carmyn told him,"There's a bear outside!" and he yelled, "A BEAR!!!" and the bear ran off. They saw his tracks everywhere the next morning, including where the tent pad would have been. When they told Kami this, she began hyperventilating. Meanwhile, I was chewing over the fact that they had given my cookies away.
Yesterday, we met Mike the cookie eater on the road. He's a fine cyclist, zooming across country on a lightly loaded Surly. I asked him if he was the guy who ate my oreos, and he grinned really wide and copped to it. My brother had told him what Kami and I do when we aren't riding bikes, and told him that I'm a critic. Mike was super impressed, "A Professional Critic?", he asked. "No. She's just a critic", David replied. "What is her field?" Mike wanted to know. "She doesn't have any particular field, she's a critic at large."
I almost swallowed a bee yesterday, riding downhill with my mouth open singing. I managed to spit it out before it stung me, and when I told Kami what had happened, she said, "THAT could have killed you" and I said,"Would you have me autopsied to find out I had swallowed a bee, or would you just think I crashed, or passed out or something?" and she said she wouldn't have an autopsy and we argued about that for a few minutes before coming to a consensus that Pearson's Nut Roll makes a darned good snack. It's good to end a conversation in agreement, I think.
Tonight we're headed to a campground that is described in the flora and fauna notes as having larch trees and conifers and LOTS of wildlife. A bunch of different kinds of trout. Then, the list grows ominous....coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, black bear and grizzly bear. It's definitely going to be a 50 foot rope night, and that's in addition to the concertina wire that Kami is hoping to string around our tent!
I'm writing this from Eureka Montana, almost in Canada. Tomorrow we'll be in Whitefish, then we'll start the climb into Glacier and up the going to the sun road on our way over the Continental Divide. It's beautiful beyond words.
At about midnight, Carmyn heard something rustling around outside the trailer---bumping into it, snorting and sniffing at the edges, then sloshing the water containers around and nosing the sides. David was snoring loudly, until he woke up and Carmyn told him,"There's a bear outside!" and he yelled, "A BEAR!!!" and the bear ran off. They saw his tracks everywhere the next morning, including where the tent pad would have been. When they told Kami this, she began hyperventilating. Meanwhile, I was chewing over the fact that they had given my cookies away.
Yesterday, we met Mike the cookie eater on the road. He's a fine cyclist, zooming across country on a lightly loaded Surly. I asked him if he was the guy who ate my oreos, and he grinned really wide and copped to it. My brother had told him what Kami and I do when we aren't riding bikes, and told him that I'm a critic. Mike was super impressed, "A Professional Critic?", he asked. "No. She's just a critic", David replied. "What is her field?" Mike wanted to know. "She doesn't have any particular field, she's a critic at large."
I almost swallowed a bee yesterday, riding downhill with my mouth open singing. I managed to spit it out before it stung me, and when I told Kami what had happened, she said, "THAT could have killed you" and I said,"Would you have me autopsied to find out I had swallowed a bee, or would you just think I crashed, or passed out or something?" and she said she wouldn't have an autopsy and we argued about that for a few minutes before coming to a consensus that Pearson's Nut Roll makes a darned good snack. It's good to end a conversation in agreement, I think.
Tonight we're headed to a campground that is described in the flora and fauna notes as having larch trees and conifers and LOTS of wildlife. A bunch of different kinds of trout. Then, the list grows ominous....coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, black bear and grizzly bear. It's definitely going to be a 50 foot rope night, and that's in addition to the concertina wire that Kami is hoping to string around our tent!
I'm writing this from Eureka Montana, almost in Canada. Tomorrow we'll be in Whitefish, then we'll start the climb into Glacier and up the going to the sun road on our way over the Continental Divide. It's beautiful beyond words.
posted by Laurel @ 2:04 PM
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