The Hi-Line

In this installment we bring our heroes across Hwy 2 alongside the Great Northern Railway (aka “the Hi-line”) — from the northern prairies across Montana and into the Pacific Northwest.

Current situation: Greetings from a very warm Portland! We’ve been enjoying many a fun restaurant and pub in this great town over the past week, with a priority on air conditioning. (Yes, there are many McMenamin’s in the mix as we continue our quest for passport stamps, but we’re also seeing friends and trying to patronize other venues and types of cuisine!)

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Dear Reader: we left you in North Dakota three weeks ago (!!), so let’s pick up the story there.

June 26: Odometer = 3,967
After our close encounter with the bison, we packed up and departed Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The minute we left the park, the environment changed dramatically. Instead of the quiet 2-lane highways through ranch/grasslands we’d become accustomed to across the Dakotas, now we have brand new 4-lane highways packed with large trucks, and a landscape of massive fracking operations: rows of earth movers, derricks, pipes, and barracks for workers. The boomtowns of Watford City and Willistone were sights to behold: strip mall cities to support the drilling operations, with gas flares burning alongside the highway and above the city buildings.

As soon as we cross into Montana, Highway 2 returns to the two-lane, rural road we expected. Although the Dakotas and eastern Montana are pretty flat, there’s something special about the prairie landscape and small towns.

Fun fact about Highway 2 (and once again connecting with our pal Teddy Roosevelt): a large portion of Hwy 2 follows the old Theodore Roosevelt International Highway – an auto trail organized in 1919 to connect Portland Maine with Portland Oregon. This route was also built to parallel the Great Northern Railroad. Indeed, we had train tracks and many trains running alongside us during our travels. And you know what? More trains means less semis on that road. Win, win!

The Great Northern, was – of course – the brainchild of Canadian/Minnesotan railroad director James J. Hill, who had a dream of building a railway to the Pacific Ocean, where he could establish a substantial trade industry with Asia. Hill’s labor strategy was to build small towns along the route where workers could live, and in order to entice a European immigrant workforce, they gave these towns familiar European names: Malta, Dunkirk, Havre, Zurich, etc.

We get as far as Fort Peck, MT today, and camp at the “downstream campground”. Very nice! Big cottonwood trees and lots of grassy areas, spacious sites, nice bathrooms, sweet bike path around the area – all for $25! The Fort Peck dam is one of the largest projects from the New Deal era, and still the 2nd-largest earthen dam in the world. Similar to the towns along the Highline, Fort Peck was built to house the New Deal dam workers and remains a sweet little piece of history. (Apparently this area also has one of the world’s biggest concentrations of dinosaur fossils, but we didn’t look into that.)

June 27: Rain is in the forecast so we pack the trailer accordingly (we get a bit of seepage in our lower storage hatches when we drive through rain, so we stuff some towels right inside the doors to soak it up). We hop back on Hwy 2, traveling through Glasgow (trains, stockyards, rodeo); Hinsdale; Saco (it appears the entire town is for sale); and Havre, where we stop for lunch at the homespun Lunch Box Cafe. We also grab some gas and groceries. It is really gross outside: rainy and windy and only 54 degrees (a HUGE change from 3 days ago when we were sweltering in Sturgis at 96 degrees!).

Back on the road, through Shelby (stuck in the 50s with great vintage signage!), Browning and Starr School (both looking pretty grim and depressed), and Eler (where we’re at 5,000 ft and climbing). And then – all of a sudden, after driving through flat lands for days – BOOM! Mountains!

It’s still rainy and terrible outside as we pull into St Mary, a sweet little spot that serves as the East entry point to Glacier National Park. The weather inspires us to go check out “town” and have a beer, then we cozied up in the camper and shut out the wind and rain for the night.

June 28: Still pretty rainy. We hang out in the camper most of the morning – Kayla worked a bit, and we did some more future planning. Rain finally let up a bit in the early afternoon – we venture out to Many Glacier, intending to take a short hike, but it was really crowded and the rain picked up again, so we went back to the campground. The weather finally broke late afternoon and turned into a gorgeous evening. We had delicious grilled burgers and a stroll around the campground.

June 29: Sunny! Blue Skies! Checked out of the campground, left the Bettymobile in the Visitor Center parking lot, and set off on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Gorgeous views! We saw a bighorn sheep and an adolescent bear! Had a nice pull-off at Sun Point for a little stroll and a nice vista. But, like most National Parks these days, it was pretty crowded. Limited parking at the handful of trailheads, resulting in people making their own rules and walking along the roadside. Crazy cyclists also made for some stressful driving, especially as they were pushing their way up the steep hills near Logan Pass. There are still PILES of snow above 6,000 feet.

We picked up the Bettymobile and moved on to our next spot: Rocky Mountain Hi campground, just north of Kalispell. We have a couple of hours to rest and continue drying things out, but soon it’s time to go visit one of Kayla’s old college chums: Mark McCrady! Mark and Kayla were in the St Olaf Band together all four years of college, but hadn’t seen each other in over two decades. Truly delightful to see him and Kari again, hear about their sweet life in Whitefish, and spend some time in their lovely home.

June 30: Raining again! But we caught a break in time to pack up, and fortunately avoided rain for our whole drive. We made a great stop at Kootenai Falls, between Libby and Troy – nice hike to see amazing river rapids and falls, plus a swinging bridge across the river. Matthew is ready to move to Troy and become a white water kayak guide.

As we pulled into Sandpoint, ID, thunderstorms were rapidly moving in. We had just enough time to park the trailer at Springy Point Campground and jump back into the car before it started POURING. We went to Utara Brewing Co for shelter, and then Arlo’s for pizza. The storms moved on, and we caught a lovely sunset from our campground beach. Pretty nice campground – sites are small and close together, but there are lots of trees, a beachy area, and clean facilities.

July 1: Of course we’re moving through these lovely areas too quickly, but we have an appointment in Snoqualmie tomorrow night, so we push onward. Leaving Sandpoint, we stay on the south side of Pend Oreille River all the way to Priest River, where we reconnect with Hwy 2. We stopped in Newport WA, where Kayla took a couple of meetings in a municipal park while Matthew got groceries. The hills and rivers of ID have given way to scrubby, treeless ag land in eastern WA. To save a few miles, we take WA 292 to Springdale and 231 to Rearden, then hop on 2 again all the way to Leavenworth. Just past Waterville, Hwy 2 cuts through rocky hillsides and curves continuously until we run into the Columbia River, the beginning of the Cascade Mountains, and all the fruit farms of the Wenatchee Valley. Plus – WOW – Leavenworth! A Bavarian village through and through. We didn’t take time to stop, but we had no idea something so German lurked in the Cascade foothills.

We camped in Lake Wenatchee State Park. Spacious sites, although we were surrounded on both sides by families with rambunctious (and hilarious) tykes who became fast friends and our site became a busy path for them to visit each other. Fun for one night – would have been annoying for two. Lots of mosquitos in the campground, but the steady breeze by the lake was perfect for an evening sit.

July 2-6: Kayla had a meeting and was grateful for good cell service (and that the children had all cleared out for some lake activities!). At noon we hopped back on Hwy 2 and crossed Stephens Pass. Beautiful day for a mountain drive! Upon our arrival in Snoqualmie, we were greeted enthusiastically by Terry and Mary. It was only 15 months ago when we first met these two delightful humans — our Portland friends Bill and Poppy introduced all of us last April and the six of us had one fantastic evening of music jams and conversation. Fast forward to this year – they heard we were traveling back through the area and invited us to stay with them for a few days. So sweet and generous! We knew we would have lots of fun conversation and great musical times together … and sure enough, we did! It was marvelous to get to know them a little better, and we really enjoyed swapping “tasty tunes” (as Terry would say) and sharing harmonies with them. We’re already looking forward to the next time we can get together.

We snuck into Seattle for a couple of days – many thanks to Sitka friends Grace & Charlie who let us crash at their condo again! We were able to check in on nephew Jon and have a couple of easy-going city days with him. We spent the evenings on the condo’s roof patio – a beautiful view of Seattle Center, glorious relief from the 90-degree heat, and a neat vantage of all the suburban fireworks on the horizon.

We’ll leave it there for now – our next post will share stories of our week on the coast, diagnosing Twyla’s brain condition, and adventures camping with a motorcycle club. Before we close, we missed this awesome bison photo from our last post: