Malta to Glasgow (70 miles):

Photos added on the morning of June 20, 2011

Another 70 miles down today! There was cloud cover all day, with only a few sprinkles of rain. The temperature began in the mid 50's and ended in the 70’s.  In fact when we arrived at the motel I immediately changed into capri pants and sandals! Felt great!!

The day has been interesting in that we have been informed of the difficulty in finding motel accommodations in northeast Montana and northwest/north central North Dakota.  There are oil fields in these areas so the oil companies have all the hotels/motels reserved during the week.  Today I called ahead to where we anticipated arriving the next few nights, only to be told, “We are booked”.  Everyone told me the same story “Oil workers”. Tonight we have been working on a new route, and booking motels, so that we do not have to camp with the swarms of mosquitoes and black gnats!

Tomorrow we are going to stay in Wolf Point along Hwy #2, however Cal plans to ride farther than that point as he wants a longer day, then I will pick him up and we will drive back to Wolf Point for the night. At Macon on Hwy 2 we plan to turn south on Hwy 13 (the Big Sky Back Country Byway) and go toward Glendive, MT.  At that point we will turn east.  Yes, Cal will be riding on the shoulder of I-94 for 28 miles – very legal in Montana.  We will just catch a little portion of southwest North Dakota before reaching South Dakota. 

By doing this route change we will also be missing a lot of the flooding in North Dakota.  We will have to be careful regarding this in eastern South Dakota along the Missouri River. 
As to flooding – today we saw massive flooding from the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River. We have been told this area received an unusually large amount of snow this winter.  A lot of this water came from snow melt and now it rains almost everyday.  They are so tired of all the rain.  This evening we drove to Fort Peck Dam.  According to locals, Fort Peck Lake has never been this full.  They are opening the spillway for a huge amount of water to go down the Missouri River.  Tonight we drove by the completely flooded Little League fields here in Glasgow. With all the excess water it is no wonder there are all the swarms of flying insects.

Flooded Glasgow, MT Baseball Field



Milk River Flooding near Glasgow, MT




Fort Peck Earthen Dam - 4 miles long




Spillway for the Fort Peck Dam




Eared Grebe on nest in Saco, MT Flats Marsh