More rediscoveries; more Kalamities

Journal Day 4

7/28/04

Billings, MT to Butte, MT

We proceeded on . . .to the 3 Forks area. Interesting experience when we stop for gas. (We are learning to stop for gas anywhere we see a gas station. They are few and far between.) A truck with a horse trailer attached, towing a flatbed with a carriage was filling up next to us. I struck up a conversation with the woman filling up. She said they had just been in North Carolina, where her husband, who trains horses, had been working. They bought the carriage on the way home for him to use in his work. She showed me a newspaper clipping about him from a North Carolina newspaper. What really got my attention was his name. Ty Cobb. He is the grandson of Ty Cobb, the Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer. This, of course, resulted in further conversation. All the men in the family are still named either Ty or Wes. She didn't even know about the connection until after she married him!
To be at the Three Forks of the Missouri area was amazing, especially since L&C had been there 201 years and one day before us. Since we live where the Missouri ends; to see where it begins is pretty incredible. It is a beautiful area; still very much like it is described in the Journals. When I saw Lewis Rock, a large limestone formation he climbed to the top of on 7/27/1805, I was quite moved to be at the exact spot. He mapped the area from there. There are cliff swallows flying about; buffaloberry bushes all over (I've finally identified that bush after years in the mountains. We met some guys tubing at the confluence of the Madison and Jefferson Rivers. We told them to just hang in there; they would eventually get to St. Louis and could take in a ballgame. We stuck our hands and feet in the Missouri River where it begins, at the confluence of the Madison ,Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers, and Garrett skipped rocks.
We arrived at the Butte, MT campground KOA in plenty of time for a bison burger dinner and our first really relaxing evening.

Other memorable facts of the day: highest gas price so far--Billings, MT--$2.08/gallon!
Elevation at one point over 6000 '; sighted lst aspen trees.

News from the Koch Korps

The Official Journal of The Koch Korps of Rediscovery and Kalamity


Official departure time from Hazelwood, MO:.11:30am, Sunday, July 25, 2004.


Where was the Lewis & Clark expedition on this day?

7/25/1804-White Catfish Camp. This is near Omaha NE and Council Bluffs Iowa.

Today we took I70 across MO to I29 north, following the Missouri River. From I29 north, I was in country unknown to me. The Missouri river flood plain is much wider here. Unlike the flood plains back home, the land is still farms, not industrial parks and shopping malls. Corn and soybeans abound! Also some wildflowers. I was able to identify the black-eyed susans; but not the other small yellow flowers or the purple ones.
As we proceeded on (north), we found the landscape becoming flatter and flatter, and the trees disappearing. We are definitely in the plains. We continued on I29 through Iowa and into South Dakota. We split the driving. Along the way we listened to our last Cardinal game for a while, then to music of the type expedition might have made, and from the Ken Burns film. We are camped in Sioux Falls, SD. Garrett surprised me as we arrived in town by taking us to the Wells Fargo Park Sound and Light show, which uses lighting to tell the story of the town, and highlight the Sioux Falls of the Big Sioux River.
Our first time putting up the popup went quite well, and I expect it to get better every time.
The only bird I've had a chance to identify here so far is a kildeer.



Journal Day 2

7/26/04

Slept late--too late. Tough night for both of us. Temperature down in the 50's; got a little chilly in the popup. We threw on a few extra blankets but were still cold. Went to bed very late. Departure time from Sioux Falls: 1:22pm, after purchasing supplies at Walmart.

The natives are growing corn and wheat.
Also native grasses--.Big Bluestem, Western Wheatgrass, and alfalfa which is harvested here as hay.
Beautiful weather-clear, 79 degrees. Breezy.
Trees since yesterday are rare mostly cottonwoods along creeks. Some pines also planted as wind breaks.
High 86 degrees in Bismarck ND.
Checking Cardinal score on mMode..Good news--we beat Cincinnati 11-6 in 11 innings! How could Lewis and Clark be cut off from baseball all that time?Traded $$.with the natives in Sioux Falls and Bismarck for more supplies--fruit, groceries, shower bag, ceramic heater, chocolate graham crackers. Highest gas so far 1.99.


Journal Day 3

7/27/04
This morning we break camp & head go to see Fort Mandan. So far we change our camp daily, like the Expedition. Warmer day already 81 degrees at noon.
New birdt to identify at the campground today-a brown bird with a yellow tail. After checking my bird book I identify him as an orchard oriole.
Met a Couer d'Alene Indian at the campground;but did not feel it appropriate to give her the standard speech about the Great White Father in Washington that Lewis and Clark used whenever they met native Americans. She had obviously had contact with white culture since she was dressed in a t-shirt, shrts,.and baseball cap like me!
In New salem N.D we saw sunflowers being grown as crops (also a Mandan/Hidatsa Indian crop) and we saw and took a picture of the world's largest Holstein. It was bovinular!
We also saw wild sunflowers and artemesia.
We went to the Knife River Historic Site; where they are excavating and Mandan and Hidatsa villages that the Expedition wintered with in 1804/1805.

One Mandan earth lodge has been rebuilt to show what they were like. We walked through the area where the villages once stood where Sacagawea lived, and down to see the Knife River where the Indians set up their winter lodges (their summer lodges were more permanent and were up on the bluff.)
I was able to procure an autographed copy of"Lewis and Clark Among the Indians" by James P. Ronda which I have long wished. to read, as well as a pair of earrings crafted by an artist of the Three Tribes.
My great interest in the Lewis and Clark Expedition began in 1979, when I read a book I had been hearing about called "Sacajawea". It was written by a teacher, Anna Lee Waldo. I was fortunate to hear her speak at a teacher's conference. She had researched the book for years, and had finally finished it and gotten it published. I hadn't gotten my copy yet; so she autographed a paper for me and attached a feather for Sacajawea, "Bird-wowan."
Yesterday as we walked around the site of the villagewhere Sacajawea lived, Garrett found a hawk feather and gave it to me. It seems very appropriate to me for him to find it there.
Next,. off to Ft.Mandan replica. The MO here is wide and shallow. Temp 84 degrees;.dropping as a rainfront moves in. At Fort Mandan we visited a good replica of the fort the expedition built and spent their 1st winter in. This is where Sacagawea and her husband were signed on as members of the expedition.
Leavirg Bismarck area for Bozeman @6:30pm. We hope to arrive in time to take a short nap before we leave again!
T-storm-severe just as.we.leave.Bismarck. Hard rain & hail.Immediate filling of storm sewers .and gullies along the road.
TR nat'l park The Badlands.
This evening the trip becomes difficult, as we proceeded on to Bozeman. Elevation 3000 '. Rain all the way at least to Billings. It hit as a sudden storm w/no warning while I was driving. I could hardly see; it was so windy I had trouble hanging on to tne truck. I had to pull over and let GK drive again--he had already done most of it.
We change plans;lose our reservation in Bozeman. We pull off in Billings. Room at the KOA, but it's almost 1am, and we decide not to deal w/the popup in the rain. Instead, we stay at the Rimview Motel

Koch Korps Departs

On the evening of April 7, 1804, when the L&C Expedition headed out on the second leg of their journey, M. Lewis wrote in his journal:

". . . the picture which now presented itself to me was a most pleasing one, entertaining as I do, the most confident hope of succeading [his spelling] in a voyage which had formed a darling project of mine for the last ten years, I could but esteem this moment of my departure the most happy of my life."

I've had a fascination with the Lewis and Clark expedition for over 20 years. While I wouldn't call this "moment of departure the most happy of my life", I am certainly excited about it.

On Sunday, we cover a part of the trip that took the expedition about 4 months to travel in their keelboat and pirogues. A pickup and a popup are definite advantages!

More later . . .

View photos Here!

We have a site on our Yahoo account where you can see exciting photos of our expedition; such as when we run out of gas in the middle of a totally unpopulated section of Montana; or when we get arrested in Idaho for doing four-wheeling in an unauthorized area of the Lolo trail motorway. (Please send help, or better yet, money.)

Here is the site for our photo album:

http://photos.yahoo.com/carol1211k@sbcglobal.net

Enjoy!