My Journey
- Thread starter YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
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YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Sierra Valley.....I definitely gave thought to taking one feather, but I just couldn't get myself to do it.....when I say I was a bit emotional, that was not an exaggeration.....I felt as though I'd lost a good friend.....to have taken a feather, I thought, would have been inappropriate.....
Arjan & mekcanix.....the eagle was special, the prairie was special, and the story was special.....certainly not me.....
We made many other discoveries during our time spent wandering here.....none were near as special as the Golden Eagle.....but I suspect that anything in nature should be defined as special. Something as simple as this ant colony that caught my eye.....it was certainly special.....
And not much bigger than the ants, was the tiny frog that went on an adventure.....he was far from the pond. Finally I saw what it was that seemed to croak for 24 hours per day. No bigger than a quarter of an inch explained why I had such a difficult time actually seeing one.....
Along the road I found this old automobile plate.....
In a field full of tall grasses.....along a streambed.....I found a 3 point antler (one point turned down into the soil).....
And bones.....dang, we sure did find a lot of bones while wandering here. As you can see, the dogs took advantage of that.....
Colonies of Prairie Dogs were everywhere here.....pesky little things.....
It was interesting to see the wounds on the big, old Cottonwood trees which were left by the Buffalo.....they scratch themselves and then leave piles of fur at the base of the trees.....we saw this frequently.....
The feathers of a hawk.....feathers only found here.....
Where there's life, of course there's death as well. We stumbled onto the carcasses of a Porcupine, and of some sort of rodent.....
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”
From the website of the American Prairie Reserve.....
"We allow the public to take deer and elk antler sheds, but we limit the amount to two sheds per day. We allow foraging for fruit, mushrooms and plants for personal use only. No commercial collection of natural items is allowed. The collection of bison bones or skulls is not allowed as they play an important role in nutrient cycling.
American Prairie does not allow the collection of human artifacts like arrowheads or other cultural items at homestead sites or other historic sites. No cutting or collection of firewood is allowed."
I would have loved to have taken this Buffalo skull that I found while wandering along a streambed.....but of course I didn't.....
Arjan & mekcanix.....the eagle was special, the prairie was special, and the story was special.....certainly not me.....
We made many other discoveries during our time spent wandering here.....none were near as special as the Golden Eagle.....but I suspect that anything in nature should be defined as special. Something as simple as this ant colony that caught my eye.....it was certainly special.....
And not much bigger than the ants, was the tiny frog that went on an adventure.....he was far from the pond. Finally I saw what it was that seemed to croak for 24 hours per day. No bigger than a quarter of an inch explained why I had such a difficult time actually seeing one.....
Along the road I found this old automobile plate.....
In a field full of tall grasses.....along a streambed.....I found a 3 point antler (one point turned down into the soil).....
And bones.....dang, we sure did find a lot of bones while wandering here. As you can see, the dogs took advantage of that.....
Colonies of Prairie Dogs were everywhere here.....pesky little things.....
It was interesting to see the wounds on the big, old Cottonwood trees which were left by the Buffalo.....they scratch themselves and then leave piles of fur at the base of the trees.....we saw this frequently.....
The feathers of a hawk.....feathers only found here.....
Where there's life, of course there's death as well. We stumbled onto the carcasses of a Porcupine, and of some sort of rodent.....
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”
From the website of the American Prairie Reserve.....
"We allow the public to take deer and elk antler sheds, but we limit the amount to two sheds per day. We allow foraging for fruit, mushrooms and plants for personal use only. No commercial collection of natural items is allowed. The collection of bison bones or skulls is not allowed as they play an important role in nutrient cycling.
American Prairie does not allow the collection of human artifacts like arrowheads or other cultural items at homestead sites or other historic sites. No cutting or collection of firewood is allowed."
I would have loved to have taken this Buffalo skull that I found while wandering along a streambed.....but of course I didn't.....
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Finally, it was time to move on.....I really hated to do it, but foul weather was in the forecast. Those days of 60's and 70's were soon to end.....and it was going to get quite bad.....actually really bad. So for my last post regarding our amazing stay one mile north of Buffalo Camp at the American Prairie Reserve, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite sunsets, mostly using the lone tree in the prairie as the focal pint.....I hope you can enjoy these sunsets as much as I did.....
AbleGuy
Officious Intermeddler
This is one of the most simple but stunning illustrations of the wide open west I’ve ever seen. This evocative picture whispers a tale of lost hopes, sad failures and lingering ghosts.
Jerry, your continuing evolution into such an incredibly observant, joyful and philosophical recorder of the many otherwise unnoticed macro and micro scenes of our untrammeled public lands is so enjoyable to watch develop. Thank you so much for making the effort to share your updates with us.
“Generally speaking, we saw nothing.....and sometimes I think that seeing nothing is all that we need to see.....”
Man…That’s such a powerful statement. It’s an inspirational incitement to us to just jump in the camper, grabs the maps and take off for new unknown landscapes. Reminding us that they’re still out there, waiting for us…🙏🏻
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YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
AbleGuy.....thanks, I like to write.....
We drove further east.....more gravel roads.....maybe 30 more miles or so. The forecast for the prairies was looking pretty bad.....highs in the 30's and lows around 20, sustained winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour with gusts exceeding 50 miles per hour.....so we headed for the Pines (sounded good).....I was dreading this.....
The Pines is the name of a campground along the northern shoreline of Fort Peck Lake....there are approximately 28 free campsites here.....located on a long peninsula (a good mile or 2 long) which is covered in pine trees.....and no one was here.....literally.....
With the strong winds, I found it difficult even to walk short distances in wide open spaces. My hope was that the thick pine forests would give us enough cover to at least get out a bit.....
What I found was that walking along the western side of the peninsula was impossible.....the winds nearly knocked you to the ground.....there were white caps on the lake.....and of course, not a single boat.....
But the eastern side of the peninsula was nearly perfect for long walks.....it was, a whole different world.....
The 20 to 30 foot high walls of earth, combined with the pine forests, blocked the winds pretty much perfectly.....
The eastern shoreline was covered in these shattered rocks.....there were thousands of these.....everyone looked as if it had been sliced by a knife.....
Foy.....what caused this ?
We drove further east.....more gravel roads.....maybe 30 more miles or so. The forecast for the prairies was looking pretty bad.....highs in the 30's and lows around 20, sustained winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour with gusts exceeding 50 miles per hour.....so we headed for the Pines (sounded good).....I was dreading this.....
The Pines is the name of a campground along the northern shoreline of Fort Peck Lake....there are approximately 28 free campsites here.....located on a long peninsula (a good mile or 2 long) which is covered in pine trees.....and no one was here.....literally.....
With the strong winds, I found it difficult even to walk short distances in wide open spaces. My hope was that the thick pine forests would give us enough cover to at least get out a bit.....
What I found was that walking along the western side of the peninsula was impossible.....the winds nearly knocked you to the ground.....there were white caps on the lake.....and of course, not a single boat.....
But the eastern side of the peninsula was nearly perfect for long walks.....it was, a whole different world.....
The 20 to 30 foot high walls of earth, combined with the pine forests, blocked the winds pretty much perfectly.....
The eastern shoreline was covered in these shattered rocks.....there were thousands of these.....everyone looked as if it had been sliced by a knife.....
Foy.....what caused this ?
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
We camped at the Pines for four nights and four days......occasionally we'd dart in and out of the Pines to see what we could see but a pine forest isn't exactly the best place to see.....
As you might imagine, I got a lot of reading in.....I usually carry about 20 books in the camper these days.....you never know what the mood will be......
We spent a good bit of time staring out into space.....
Waiting on a sunset.....
An evening sky.....
Or even the night sky.....
Watched other travelers passing by.....
But probably the real highlight of our prairie skies were the birds that soared by.....the brutal winds seeming to have no effect on their flight.....
At first one came by to check us out.....and then there were three.....
And then there were four.....
And then there were five.....were they Golden Eagles was the question that I couldn't help but ask ? Was this yet another sign.....
As you might imagine, I got a lot of reading in.....I usually carry about 20 books in the camper these days.....you never know what the mood will be......
We spent a good bit of time staring out into space.....
Waiting on a sunset.....
An evening sky.....
Or even the night sky.....
Watched other travelers passing by.....
But probably the real highlight of our prairie skies were the birds that soared by.....the brutal winds seeming to have no effect on their flight.....
At first one came by to check us out.....and then there were three.....
And then there were four.....
And then there were five.....were they Golden Eagles was the question that I couldn't help but ask ? Was this yet another sign.....
TheDeliverator
New member
Interested to see an expert like Foy weigh in... but I think the rock splitting is due to temperatures below freezing. Something akin to water getting into cracks in the rock, freezing, then splitting the rock.
Stunning.
ITTOG
Well-known member
I just finished a book called "Where the Falcon Flies" by Adam Shoalts. It is about his 3,400 km canoe trip to hopefully see Peregrine Falcon's. It is renowned for its speed and can reach over 320 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high-speed dive) making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom. Anyway, cool birds I figured you would like, and probably already know about them.
Well, Sir, you discovered some pretty interesting rocks. The fractured nature is most likely due to freeze-thaw cycles where small amounts of water seep into tiny planar fractures in the rocks. Even though the clean cut nature looks unnatural, it is entirely natural. What is more interesting, at least to me, is the existence of such rocks in that exact part of Montana in the first place:
The north shore of Fort Peck Lake, especially towards the dam, is made up of exposed beds of the Bearpaw Shale, generally a brown to grayish brown bentonitic mudstone and shale unit known for low resistance to weathering. The Bearpaw Shale was deposited in the late Cretaceous time in calm, deeper water within the Western Interior Seaway. The "bentonitic" composition is due to significant degrees of volcanic ash within the fine grained muds. One of your first pictures includes a thin white/tan/yellowish layer within the brown mudstone/shale and I'll bet that's a more concentrated layer of ash now altered to bentonite clay. So the skies were often filled with volcanic ash emanating from volcanic centers as close as the Highland Mountains a hundred or so miles west, and at times heavier downfalls of ash created purely ash layers within the accumulating muds in the Seaway basin. Oh, and good thing you didn't get a lot of rain while down at The Pines since bentonitic shales form sticky gumbo muds when wet. Ask me how I know that signage warning of "impassible when wet" status should be respected in Central and Eastern Montana.
Anyway, the Bearpaw Shale includes many concretions. Concretions are common in all kinds of sedimentary rocks and they generally form during or soon after deposition when minerals precipitating out of aqueous solution begin to concentrate around a nucleus of some sort. Sometimes the concentrations form around small bits of organic material like small sticks and twigs, other times the nucleus is the remains of a critter (a fossil). In the case of the concretions within the Bearpaw Shale, the primary composition of the concretion is calcium carbonate, so they're referred to as limestone concretions. What is particularly cool about the limestone concretions within the Bearpaw Shale is that the nuclei are mostly shellfish--lobsters in this case--and that most often the nuclei are single individual lobster fossils. A study published in 2012 analyzed around a dozen of the whole concretions beginning with sawing them along the long axis followed by polishing the fresh cut surfaces to better see the innards of the concretion. It was discovered that the inner portions were calcium carbonate and pyrite which replaced the cuticle like shell and internal structures while the outer portions of the concretions were more phosphatic in nature, probably representing changes in groundwater geochemistry as the shales were dewatered of salty ocean waters and replaced by fresh groundwaters. The concretions sampled and studies were collected along Bobcat Creek/Bay along the far eastern shore of Fort Peck Lake's Big Dry Arm.
If you look closely--might need to squint and use your imagination a bit--it looks like the lowermost surface in your picture shows an overhead view of a small crayfish/lobster with a pair of claws oriented to the upper left and the thorax and part of the tail oriented to the lower right.
So, the rocks you found are interesting in at least 3 ways: They document conditions within the Interior Seaway basin during the late Cretaceous, they're particularly cool examples of concretions having single lobster fossils as their core, and modern-day freeze-thaw actions cleaves them in nice straight lines. That's a geo-nerd trifecta, Jerry!
Safe travels and looking for more from under-appreciated parts of Big Sky Country.
Foy
The north shore of Fort Peck Lake, especially towards the dam, is made up of exposed beds of the Bearpaw Shale, generally a brown to grayish brown bentonitic mudstone and shale unit known for low resistance to weathering. The Bearpaw Shale was deposited in the late Cretaceous time in calm, deeper water within the Western Interior Seaway. The "bentonitic" composition is due to significant degrees of volcanic ash within the fine grained muds. One of your first pictures includes a thin white/tan/yellowish layer within the brown mudstone/shale and I'll bet that's a more concentrated layer of ash now altered to bentonite clay. So the skies were often filled with volcanic ash emanating from volcanic centers as close as the Highland Mountains a hundred or so miles west, and at times heavier downfalls of ash created purely ash layers within the accumulating muds in the Seaway basin. Oh, and good thing you didn't get a lot of rain while down at The Pines since bentonitic shales form sticky gumbo muds when wet. Ask me how I know that signage warning of "impassible when wet" status should be respected in Central and Eastern Montana.
Anyway, the Bearpaw Shale includes many concretions. Concretions are common in all kinds of sedimentary rocks and they generally form during or soon after deposition when minerals precipitating out of aqueous solution begin to concentrate around a nucleus of some sort. Sometimes the concentrations form around small bits of organic material like small sticks and twigs, other times the nucleus is the remains of a critter (a fossil). In the case of the concretions within the Bearpaw Shale, the primary composition of the concretion is calcium carbonate, so they're referred to as limestone concretions. What is particularly cool about the limestone concretions within the Bearpaw Shale is that the nuclei are mostly shellfish--lobsters in this case--and that most often the nuclei are single individual lobster fossils. A study published in 2012 analyzed around a dozen of the whole concretions beginning with sawing them along the long axis followed by polishing the fresh cut surfaces to better see the innards of the concretion. It was discovered that the inner portions were calcium carbonate and pyrite which replaced the cuticle like shell and internal structures while the outer portions of the concretions were more phosphatic in nature, probably representing changes in groundwater geochemistry as the shales were dewatered of salty ocean waters and replaced by fresh groundwaters. The concretions sampled and studies were collected along Bobcat Creek/Bay along the far eastern shore of Fort Peck Lake's Big Dry Arm.
If you look closely--might need to squint and use your imagination a bit--it looks like the lowermost surface in your picture shows an overhead view of a small crayfish/lobster with a pair of claws oriented to the upper left and the thorax and part of the tail oriented to the lower right.
So, the rocks you found are interesting in at least 3 ways: They document conditions within the Interior Seaway basin during the late Cretaceous, they're particularly cool examples of concretions having single lobster fossils as their core, and modern-day freeze-thaw actions cleaves them in nice straight lines. That's a geo-nerd trifecta, Jerry!
Safe travels and looking for more from under-appreciated parts of Big Sky Country.
Foy
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
TheDeliverator.....welcome.....I thought the same as you (now verified by Foy) but I couldn't see how water could penetrate the rocks, which I thought would have been a part of that process. I also wondered if it could have happened during the construction process of the lake since it's man made.....and thanks.....
ITTOG.....that sounds like a good book that I'll put on my Amazon booklist.....thanks.....
Foy.....dang, that was a lot of good information which we've all come to expect from you. You're a great addition to the blog.....thank you.....
Finally I'd had enough of truck camper time.....we'd run out of fruits & vegetables (which basically means I needed food).....
And without the Jeep.....our water hauler.....we were also down to one gallon of water.....
So we headed out.....out onto those well maintained gravel roads.....the high winds persisted.....
.....we drove east.....and the scenery sure did change. The miles and miles of nothingness turned into miles and miles of farmland.....
Maybe twenty miles we drove.....before we took a left turn and drove north......continuing along yet another well maintained gravel road.....
Eventually we connected with Highway 24, took another left, continued north......stopped in the busy little town of Glasgow, Montana where I thought the people to be overly friendly (not a bad thing !).....
We purchased our groceries.....fruits & vegetables.....then we proceeded to drive south.....back onto Highway 24.....
We crossed the 21,206 foot long man made dam at Fort Peck, Montana.....and continued on driving south. At this point in the trip, my thoughts now were often about the warm fire in the cabin.....and of course.....the endless stream of hot water in the shower.....
I'd driven these roads.....and visited these towns in years past.....Havre, Montana.....Wolf Point, Montana.....Miles City, Montana and many more..........but I don't think that I'd ever taken the time in the past to know these lands the way I do now.....
There's not much good in getting old but there may be one silver lining in the aging process if you slow down enough to see it.....that one good thing (yes, the one & only !), in my opinion anyhow, is that you indeed do slow down and then, and only then, can you see the benefits of slowing down.....at least, that's how it is for me.....
I have the highest respect for the Dalai Lama.....I believe.....and I do love this saying of his.....I can't help but wonder if he ever thought about it this way.....I did.....
Once a year go some place you've never seen before.....
ITTOG.....that sounds like a good book that I'll put on my Amazon booklist.....thanks.....
Foy.....dang, that was a lot of good information which we've all come to expect from you. You're a great addition to the blog.....thank you.....
Finally I'd had enough of truck camper time.....we'd run out of fruits & vegetables (which basically means I needed food).....
And without the Jeep.....our water hauler.....we were also down to one gallon of water.....
So we headed out.....out onto those well maintained gravel roads.....the high winds persisted.....
.....we drove east.....and the scenery sure did change. The miles and miles of nothingness turned into miles and miles of farmland.....
Maybe twenty miles we drove.....before we took a left turn and drove north......continuing along yet another well maintained gravel road.....
Eventually we connected with Highway 24, took another left, continued north......stopped in the busy little town of Glasgow, Montana where I thought the people to be overly friendly (not a bad thing !).....
We purchased our groceries.....fruits & vegetables.....then we proceeded to drive south.....back onto Highway 24.....
We crossed the 21,206 foot long man made dam at Fort Peck, Montana.....and continued on driving south. At this point in the trip, my thoughts now were often about the warm fire in the cabin.....and of course.....the endless stream of hot water in the shower.....
I'd driven these roads.....and visited these towns in years past.....Havre, Montana.....Wolf Point, Montana.....Miles City, Montana and many more..........but I don't think that I'd ever taken the time in the past to know these lands the way I do now.....
There's not much good in getting old but there may be one silver lining in the aging process if you slow down enough to see it.....that one good thing (yes, the one & only !), in my opinion anyhow, is that you indeed do slow down and then, and only then, can you see the benefits of slowing down.....at least, that's how it is for me.....
I have the highest respect for the Dalai Lama.....I believe.....and I do love this saying of his.....I can't help but wonder if he ever thought about it this way.....I did.....
Once a year go some place you've never seen before.....
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YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
We continued driving south and once again I found myself trying to make that decision that most travelers make at some point in time.....do I go home ?
Soon enough, the landscape began to change again.....we left behind the tractors and the fields.....
.....and drove into this area that was covered in these tiny buttes.....
I thought that maybe we could find refuge from the winds by setting up camp on the east side of a ridge. After several failed attempts on random BLM roads, I gave up & we headed back to the lake.....
This road would eventually take us to the southern shoreline of Fort Peck Lake.....
At this point in time, I had squandered away most of the day, so driving home at this late hour was now out of the question.....
The brutal winds continued to pound us.....at times I felt as though, with the swaying of the camper, that we had actually set up camp in the lake (you know.....like we were on a sailboat).....
The following morning we awoke to a light snow.....this was now the third night with a light snow.....
I decided then & there.....that it was finally time.....so we prepared ourselves to head west.....bound for home.....
Soon enough, the landscape began to change again.....we left behind the tractors and the fields.....
.....and drove into this area that was covered in these tiny buttes.....
I thought that maybe we could find refuge from the winds by setting up camp on the east side of a ridge. After several failed attempts on random BLM roads, I gave up & we headed back to the lake.....
This road would eventually take us to the southern shoreline of Fort Peck Lake.....
At this point in time, I had squandered away most of the day, so driving home at this late hour was now out of the question.....
The brutal winds continued to pound us.....at times I felt as though, with the swaying of the camper, that we had actually set up camp in the lake (you know.....like we were on a sailboat).....
The following morning we awoke to a light snow.....this was now the third night with a light snow.....
I decided then & there.....that it was finally time.....so we prepared ourselves to head west.....bound for home.....
the deputy
Well-known member
Well, l've been away for what seems like a lifetime, dealing with some health issues and my aging parents that have both recently passed, no sorrow, both lived into their 90's and had great lives. Anyhow, it's been nice catching up with your Journey (although, l've only gone back a few pages so far, many more to go). Your Golden eagle find and tribute and calf find and "let nature take its course", yes, what a heartwrenchingly difficult decision, both events were powerful. And that quote by Black Elk...don't even know what to say...besides it was beautiful.
A quote that always comes to mind whenever l check in on you...
"We have two lives, the second begins when you realize you only have one." Confucius.
Safe travels home!
Brian.
A quote that always comes to mind whenever l check in on you...
"We have two lives, the second begins when you realize you only have one." Confucius.
Safe travels home!
Brian.
the deputy
Well-known member
Knew if l dug around for a while...l'd find your quote...about second life's.
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Brian.....yes, an excellent quote.....and how you found something in here of value to you, I'll never know. So much nonsense. I read that post and said to myself "did I actually write that ?.....
It was a day filled with dark skies, blustery winds.....it was cold.....a day of snow flurries and snow showers.....most of the way home.....
So I think that black & white sets the mood.....once again.....
As always, I was headed home with mixed emotions.....
I had mentioned in an earlier post that the prairie can be a spiritual place if that's what you want it to be.....
And without a doubt.....that's what it was for me.....
The Golden Eagle.....I felt a connection with.....a moment in my life that I don't think that I'll ever forget.....
It was a day filled with dark skies, blustery winds.....it was cold.....a day of snow flurries and snow showers.....most of the way home.....
So I think that black & white sets the mood.....once again.....
As always, I was headed home with mixed emotions.....
I had mentioned in an earlier post that the prairie can be a spiritual place if that's what you want it to be.....
And without a doubt.....that's what it was for me.....
The Golden Eagle.....I felt a connection with.....a moment in my life that I don't think that I'll ever forget.....