You don't get there by accident

 Valier Montana....yup we've been on the road . Now Valier is in northwest Montana but it reminds me a bit of the towns on Highway 2 along the High Line of the State.  Some of the towns that are usually about 25 miles apart which is the time it would take to ride that horse that far have successful, vibrant downtown districts, but small....Well Valier isn't that , it's the one with the closed up buildings that people left the signs up when they left. Maybe they were in a hurry, I don't know . The towns motel is a 6 unit trailer and of course the biggest business in town is the Case Tractor franchise. All over Montana we see buildings like these .

So, there's a lot that Valier doesn't have. But what they do have is Lake Francis . It is 3000 acre impoundment that is chuck full of Walleyes , has beautiful campgrounds with lots of availability with boat launches and cleaning tables and....well it's just a great lake except for just one lttle thing it doesn't have....water !  Now I'm familiar with the fact that these type of lakes were designed and built for crop irrigation but I've only seen lakes " drawn down " like this at the end of the irrigation season and not at the start. It makes you wonder what the water level will be in September. A guy might be better off with a tracked Nodwell instead of a boat. Here's a pic of a boat ramp that ends right into a mud bog.

So I get to looking around and see this path of truck tracks across the lake bottom to what I suppose used to be an island . About that time I see a truck pulling a Lund slowly creeping back from his fishing adventure. You'll see him about mid pic.

So I guess a brave soul put the ol truck in 4 by and went looking for a spot where the  lake bottom was angled enough to float a boat off and also dry and firm enough to support the the F 250 along with the Lund Pro V angler....For years when I was cutting my teeth in Alaska we would Launch into the ocean from the beach and we learned it was pretty darn easy to get stuck but also putting the boat back on the trailer with a little surf rolling was a really great way to washout the inside of the skiff....one time I floated a tackle box right back into the ol briney.  Here's pic of the Lake.

And then I see something I've never seen on an inland lake, never....A lighthouse . And I guess it makes sense to have navigation aids in a place where people can run around just like the ancient Mariners would when they'd mistake a rocky shoal exposed at low tide for dry land . So if any of you are headed to Lake Francis just remember to keep the lighthouse to you eastern beam and you'll be just fine....I think...

And I bumped into this guy. I guess he kinda decided on the Nodwell over the boat approach. You talk about roughing it gently !  He's got 6 X 6 positraction, a 55 inch color TV and a kitchen stocked with everything you need for that gourmet Walleye meal this evening...

Now that's something I should warn you about. Here in Mooooootana anytime you get within 250 Miles of Glacier National Park where one of the last viable populations of Brown Bears in the lower 48 exists you start running into these signs. They're funny here in Montana. They won't tell you where you might catch a fish or shoot a deer but boy howdy they'll sure will tell ya where you might get ate by a bear. The signs are at the rest stops, in the parking lot at the Town Pump gas / beer cave , next to the lake , next to the park , next to the bowling alley....And it makes me wonder, if you're a non-resident visitor, especially one with California plates and you're responsible for ruining there State WHY the hell do they care if you get ate by a bear ????     Pro Guide Tip # 237  -  between Valier and Cut Bank keep an eye out for ' Sober Up Creek ' just in case you've been to the beer cave and are in need of that. 

So if you're up there in ' Bear Country ' this is the place to stay. Interesting western art and decor. A hot tub that's just perfect. A breakfast that has protein and gourmet coffee. a Happy hour with 2 dollar G + Ts .  And the old school multi-game machines where my running buddy won 48 bucks.

This is my serious face now : we really do love Choteau , they welcome us every time .

They have gorgeous central park with fields and rodeo grounds, ya can't be a Montana town with Rodeo grounds. The park has walking trails along a lush rambling creek and of course a watch out for Bears sign.

And Camping that is ' almost free ' as we say in Mexico. They even have plug ins and availability which is run on the honor system , I like that .  Choteau is  like a secret paradise  for me and MPeasy. So if ya wanna escape and end up in Choteau Montana, go golfing, have a pizza at John Henry's , buy a T-shirt at the Choteau seniors thrift store and don't forget to tell them Jeff sent ya .

How long it been since you've seen a 1968 Ski Do Elan ? Ya gotta go to Choteau.

Walking for Life

 Years ago before we met them we would see Bill and Sharon Radke walking everywhere, and I mean everywhere in Soldotna Alaska. We were semi-running in the same circles so when we finally met them they were instantly our friends. They are wonderfully interesting and at 10 years older than us they are also incredibly physically fit....I was hard at the gym at the time  and was pretty darn fit but I was always hurt, my shoulders, then my neck and always my back....soooo...being the guy that wants to learn from success we started walking like the Radke's and now all these years later me and MPeasy average 10,000  steps everyday of the year. So, some days its 10,000 , other days 4000 and then the make up days can be 20,000....When  I hit my personal best of 25,000  I told Sharon and shouldn't have, her best was way longer than my best. Here's a screen shot of my Pacer App that highly recommend and traces my steps.

That average is about 5 miles and it generally takes 20 minutes to walk a mile which comes to about 1,825 miles per year and 580 hours of walking....So we walk, we chat , we notice and look for new things and we also try to do uphills a couple times a week for cardio exercise. When I walk on the treadmill in the gym I try to cycle my heart rate up and then recover usually by setting it steep until my heart rate reaches 90% which is about 120 beats for minute then I return to flat and within 3 minutes I'm back down to 92 beats per minute....all set at a fast walk. 

We have several routes we walk. Around the Lake, Prickly Pear trails, Mount Ascension and all the interesting neighborhoods in Helena Mt....and oh boy do we see some stuff and occasionally have to dodge a car that doesn't look out for pedestrians. This morning at the lake we came across this excited young gal with a way above average rainbow trout.

Up on the side of the mountain off of Pine street we run into a guy who made a life's work out of adding Clay artworks to the outside of his house. The pics don't do it justice but my goodness , what an extreme coolness that we'd never noticed.

5.8 miles and you can circumnavigate Helena's irrigation Holding Reservoir. When I came back to Montana after the fishing accident Bert Madsen gave me a job working for the irrigation district as a ditch rider. I was their there daily to turn on the days water and I guess I was just a different person then as I never noticed the beauty and remoteness that's so close to town....I guess appreciation for some people takes a lifetime.

They opened a new trail and of course we were there for the ceremony. It runs along the creek right behind the site of the old ASARCO smelter that was the entire town of East Helena back in the day...and I also worked there, briefly. As  walked the portion that abuts that slag pile you see I saw some metal by the trail and reached down and grabbed an instant flashback, so weird to remember that the slag clogged up all parts of the smelter and  routinely had to be burned away with oxygen torches that we would run into the furnace or reverb. The torches were lit with magnesium sticks that looked and acted like 4th of July Sparklers. On night shift we'd play with them and throw them into the air etc....kids...doing real work. The smelter job was a motivator for me to move on, Alaska . 

See ya'all on the trail.