Mesas, Mountains, Meals, and Meeteetse, Part 2 - Sat., June 10, 2017

Continued from Part 1...

We left off with us going through neighborhoods and then into downtown Red Lodge, which is a historic mountain town.

Old theater, new movie

Downtown Red Lodge, Montana

Red Lodge seems very testosterone fueled

When I say Red Lodge seems very testosterone fueled, I mean that there are lots of bicyclists, fishermen, kayakers and rafters, big pick up trucks, jeeps, and boats around town. Not to say that women don't do all those things...just an observation.

During our walk today, we socialized with Mike and Kathy, also from San Antonio. All of us were pretty hungry and it was close to 11:00 a.m. The group decided to have lunch at Bogart's. Bogart's Restaurant offered a 10% discount to our Volksmarching group. 

At exactly 11:00 a.m. Bogart's opened their doors and immediately filled up with Volksmarchers, all famished from climbing up that trail to the bench. The menu at Bogart's was awesome. No matter what kind of food you like, you would have found something delicious. 

I ordered a wonderful Sierra Madre layered salad with hot rice on the bottom, black beans, and pulled chicken, topped with lettuce and pico de gallo. Ranch dressing was the perfect topping. It was wonderful and provided all the protein my body needed to replenish itself after all the hiking.

Bogart's outside menu board

Inside Bogart's

Susan, Darren, Gerald, Mike, Kathy

Mike, Kathy, me, Susan M., Darren and Gerald
(photo by our waitress)

Do you think Susan M. is happy
with her margarita?

Bogart's bar (this filled up with the lunch crowd too)

Below is the sign on the two restrooms at Bogart's.

Both bathrooms say, "Either / Or"

Bogart's sandwich board

After lunch (still on our 11k [6.8 mile]) Volksmarch, we shopped in a rock and gem store, and a gift shop for postcards and souvenir pin (me). 

The Sundance Kid and Kid Curry history here

Big horn sheep mural

Carnegie Library of Red Lodge, Montana

Peter Toth's "Trail of the Whispering Giants," #32, is in front of the Red Lodge Library. Peter Wolf Toth, a Hungarian-born artist, uses a hammer and chisel as the basic tools to create the Whispering Giants, but on occasion will use a mallet and axe, or rarely, power tools. Before starting work on a Whispering Giant, Toth confers with local Native American tribes and local lawmakers. 

Whispering Giant #32 is made of Ponderosa pine and stands 25 feet tall. This was his gift to Montana in October 1979. Toth always donates the Whispering Giant he creates to the town it is carved in, and never charges a fee for his time. He does require that the raw materials be provided, as well as lodging and living expenses. The carvings have been appraised at a quarter of a million dollars each. 

Peter Toth's Whispering Giant #32
in Red Lodge, Montana

To finish our walk, we were directed through a section of beautiful, historic homes. Most of the homes had plaques with the history of the home in front of the houses.

The 1959 Metropolitan car below generated a lot of interest from the Volksmarchers. People were admiring it from all sides.

1959 Metropolitan

1959 Metropolitan

Roysdon House

1899 Queen Anne Style home - Meyer House

Queen Anne Style Chapman House

Chief of the Crows - Plenty Coups

Chief Plenty Coups

With that, we were like horses returning to the barn and made our way back to the high school, had our books stamped at the Finish table, and then we continued on our way to Meeteetse, Wyoming.

To be continued in Part 3.

Mesas, Mountains, Meals, and Meeteetse, Part 1 - Sat., June 10, 2017

Hi, ho, hi, ho, it's off to the mountains we go, leave behind the plains and see new thangs, hi, ho, hi, ho. Pardon me slaughtering the song, but it segues into the next portion of our vacation.

We say good-bye to Billings, Montana, and turn south toward Red Lodge, Montana. Today is our first post-convention Volksmarch; we will have one more sanctioned, post-convention walk tomorrow in Cody, Wyoming.

Driving through tiny towns on our way to Red Lodge, we notice a particular type of art: rusty, metal, big sculptures. One sculpture looks like a monster, others we drove by quickly so we didn't get a good look. The one sculpture that stood out the most to Susan and I was a very old rusty car filled with a rusty metal family with kids. It was great. We did not turn around to go back and get a photo. We know another couple who did get a photo, maybe they will share it with me. (Yes, the did share their photos! Thank you.)

Photo Credit: Mike Schwencke

Photo Credit: Mike Schwencke

Upon entering Red Lodge, we turned off the main street as we entered town and drove to the high school to begin our walk. My first impression at the town's entry round-about was that their sculpture of Chief Plenty Coups was top notch. I wondered what else this little town had in store.

After registering for the walk, we set off from the high school along Rock Creek, a lovely mountain stream that was flowing at high volume due to snowmelt from the Rockies; such lovely music to my ears.

View from Red Lodge High School stadium

Me with the Rock River racing by

Our walk instructions made mention of a house that had two trailers with large silver tubes. We saw them (see photos below). These are traps to catch and relocate bears. Yes, boys and girls, ladies and gents, we are officially in bear territory.

Bear traps

Bear traps

According to our walk instructions, we were in an area to see wild turkeys and a resident moose; however, they weren't out for us this morning.

Rock River raging through town - running high!

We walked a short distance through neighborhoods, then came out on Broadway, their main street. Downtown was still a few blocks ahead of us.

As we walked, there was a commotion up ahead. By the time I looked up from my walk instructions, all I saw was someone rolling across the street. Then the person just laid there in the middle of the lane. There was a small orange motorbike (similar to a Vespa) on the ground at the corner. The man was wearing a helmet. 

Volksmarchers jumped into action as there was a checkpoint at that intersection. I told Susan to call 911 as she had her phone handy. 

From what we could piece together from what the man told us, as he was laying on the ground waiting for EMTs to arrive, he was making a right-hand turn to go buy pastries. He said he was stupid, because he was trying to beat out some cars that were coming. His motorbike hit a patch of gravel on the side of the intersection and his bike skidded out from under him.

Volksmarchers detoured traffic around where he was laying in the road. A gentleman we didn't know knelt down on the road beside him, held his head stable, and asked him questions to make sure he was aware of what had happened, knew his name and phone number, etc. From the questions the man was asking him, it sounded like he was an EMT or doctor or someone with first aid training. 

A few minutes later, the police and EMTs showed up. The police blocked the road with their cruiser and detoured traffic. No one moved the man yet, as he may have had neck trauma or broken ribs (his left side was badly bruised and scraped). At that point, we continued our walk.

The next portion got our lungs pumping fresh, clean mountain air as we took "Main Street to the Mountains Rock Fork Trail" 180 ft. up to Bull Lake "Bench" overlooking town. (I mistakenly thought it was a mesa or a plateau, but it wasn't. The mesa alliteration sounded good in today's title.) Our walk circled the bench and we passed a small airport, "ditches," and the rodeo grounds.

Darren and Susan at start of 180 ft. climb to top

View of Red Lodge from the trail going up

Spectacular scenery and a small airport

A "ditch" - as in irrigation ditch

Another view of the ditch

Just "WOW"

Volksmarchers on the trail...

Darren

Don't know names

Mike, Darren, Susan M., Kathy

A group coming up the hill

And a group returning

More climbing up

Hiking poles come in handy

Darren and Mike

Below is a cutie patootie travel trailer called "Strawberry Bunkhouse." Maybe one of you out there knows who owns this.

Our walk encircled most of the mesa plateau bench.

How do you like the stunning scenery so far? Isn't it delicious? In addition to the scenery, it is spring in the high country and there are wildflowers aplenty.

Goat's Beard or Yellow Salsify

Goat's Beard with Butterfly

OK, so maybe I should have made a separate blog with wildflowers. Sorry about that.

Not wildlfowers, but poppies in a yard

Anyway, after we circled the bench, we took the same trail back, criss-crossed in a neighborhood and then made our way to Broadway. Broadway is where all the cute shops, restaurants, and Carnegie Library are located.

Today's blog is too long; I'm going to do 3 parts. See you in a few minutes.

To be continued in Part 2.