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Wednesday, August 4, 2004

To my pleasant surprise the exhibit actually turns out to be a wonderful and inspiring dedication to the grizzly bear. I spend some time admiring the exhibit's mini-ecosystem, reading a multitude of placards, and talking with Bud, the exhibit's Curator and all-around-do-everything guy.

Click here for more detail (and pictures) of my visit to Montana Grizzly Encounters.

After departing the exhibit, I backtrack to my missed exit (Trail Creek Road) and find myself turning onto a dirt road. When I plotted the course earlier with my GPS software, I hadn't paid close attention to the routing details. Apparently the software plotted my course based on shortest distance, not shortest in-transit time. But I not complaining, it's an opportunity to leave the Interstate and really immerse myself into the sights and sounds of Montana's wilderness.

The dirt road is about 20 miles long and in fairly good shape. On most sections I drive 35 mph or so but a few sections have to drive 15 mph due to periodic onslaughts of washboarding caused by water erosion. I can certainly drive faster on the rough sections but doing so will really shake my homemade camper and I don't wish to breaking anything.