Before that, though, I was lucky enough to join Charlotte and Sierra (her undergraduate researcher/field technician) on an adventure to sites in northern Montana-Chouteau County (near Fort Benton) and Valley County (near Hinsdale). If you look at a map, you'll see that these spots are close to the Canadian border. This meant we had long days, cool weather, and beautiful scenery! Anyway, this blog post is all about what a typical Charlotte field outing is like, and how the field truck goes from looking like this...
...to this!
Our journey began with a long drive to historic Fort Benton, MT. Despite leaving mid-morning, we didn't arrive until about 10 at night. We quickly set up camp at a BLM canoe launch, in the "Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument" (Lewis and Clark went right by here). The next morning, we awoke to loud tapping on our tents. Was it Lewis? No. Clark? No. Fur traders? No. Tons of rain!!! On a happier note, the daylight allowed us to see that our tents were smack dab against the Missouri River, and that the scenery was pretty phenomenal!
Given the worsening weather, we quickly packed up and headed into the ranch country outside Fort Benton to begin sampling wetlands-which is what Sierra and Charlotte were there to do. The land is a mix of privately owned ranches and publicly owned land that is leased out to ranchers. Basically, we were some of the few (soggy) humans in "big sky country" with the cattle.
Unfortunately, the clay and stone roads don't handle rain well at all. The "two track" roads (literally ruts through fields) don't fare well, either, and so as the rain became heavy while we followed a rancher, we quickly found ourselves very stuck. Getting "unstuck" was a super-muddy project, but without the help of two ranchers, we'd probably still be sitting in a pasture!
After getting free, we quickly sampled as much as we could, and then slid off another road into a flooded cornfield. Since the roads were definitely not getting any better, we inched back to Fort Benton (12 miles in nearly 2 hours) and found a campground cabin to hole up in while we waited for the roads to become passable.
Since we got over 3 inches of rain in two days (in an area that usually only gets 13" a year), this took a while! So, we had a chance to become very acquainted with Fort Benton, MT, which is an incredibly charming and quirky town. It's right along the banks of the Missouri River. It experienced its heyday back when steamships carried goods inland, and fur traders came here to meet up with Indians to swap the "cool" items of the day (you know, beaver pelts, buffalo hides, beads-all the sorts of things teens these days crave).
During our couple days in Fort Benton, we explored the pleasant downtown (this didn't take too long)...
...checked out some of the businesses (here's a view from inside the local hardware store)...
...and even sampled some of the local fare (they cook better than they spell).
Unfortunately, we weren't able to capture one of the oddest moments of the entire trip, which occurred at the reconstructed fort. There, a strange series of events culminated with the three of us sitting around a huge fireplace, while a historical re-enactor dressed in 1800's garb played a miniature guitar and sang "Puff the Magic Dragon." It felt about the same as getting stuck in a broken time machine with a hippie.
Anyway, the weather finally lifted, and we were able to escape the odd spell of Fort Benton. We headed back into ranch country and had a gorgeous day of sampling, talking to ranchers, and playing with ranch dogs!
As much as we loved the Fort Benton area, we had another area to sample, and so we headed east to Valley County. However, our visit to the area had one final act: a display of Charlotte's ridiculous memory. She lost her phone in a field at the beginning of our day, but none of us noticed until about 8 hours (and many miles) later. A somber mood promptly settled over the field truck. Somehow, though, Charlotte was able to recall the exact spot where she last remembered seeing her phone, and we drove back to find it awaiting us. Talk about amazing!!!
Well, enough about Fort Benton and all of its magic. Valley County proved to be just as gorgeous! While heavy rain forced us to return to Laramie after just a day or so, we had plenty of time to soak in the scenery and get some sampling done.
Phew! That's was an exhausting journey (whether through photos or in person)! Now that you're all caught up, though, our next posts should be shorter. Stay tuned for some more recent updates, and enjoy summer!
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