Haugan, MT - Quartz Flats, MT - Montana deer are different.

May 31 - 49 miles, 4.25 hours of seat time.

The inclement weather persisted, but the beauty just continues on and on. The road surfaces on the dirt roads were ever so slightly greasy/muddy but it wasn't wet enough to become sloppy.

The trail out of Haugan

Over the next couple of days I would encounter places where local landowners felt they should be able to block the rail trail. It's not clear to me whether this is legal or not, and frankly the only time I hop fences/gates is when I see a clearly posted sign stating that I'm crossing onto public lands.

A couple hundred feet back from here industrious people made little rock-based fairy rings.

Sometimes though, having to find your own way leads to moments where you get lost. When that happens, sometimes, you kind of just don't want to be found.

I'm not really lost, I only have to backtrack about 4 miles on a well marked but rarely traveled fire/forest road.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

You know the picture of the 4 deer at the top of Lookout Pass from the last blog post? Those are normal deer as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps a little docile. But when they move they kind of walk, or they kind of bounce/pogo up and down as they move in the direction their necks are pointed. I have lots of pictures and videos of these normal deer from all over Washington, and a couple from Idaho.

Today, while riding I encountered something I had never seen before. It was deer like. But it was more reddish than brown. Whenever they saw me coming, they were like "Oh shit! What's that?! Looks menacing! Let's get out of here!" They were always out of site by the time I could touch the camera on the aerobars. So....no pictures. No video.

At the end of the day, I searched around for "Fox Tail Deer" "Feather Duster Tail Deer" and a couple of other things, and I learned that what I was seeing is just a white tail deer. IN MONTANA.

All I can say is that these little guys are like 2 stroke motorcycles doing tail whips and serpentine jumps as they break through small stands of trees and disappear instantly into thick brush. Their tails are huge feather dusters that move more like a squirrel's tail as they change direction dynamically in the air. Maybe they are deer squirels? Deer monkeys?

Anyway.....white tail deer in Montana.....different. See picture here.

END PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

This is a panoramic shot, but I don't think it presents well here.

Riding through this section of public land just outside St. Regis was breathtaking in all the right ways. I saw one other person for maybe 20 miles. Fortunately, cellular service was available today so Bunny got a few calls while I kind of gushed about how amazing it was to be wandering around with enough signal to make a call but not enough signal to make Google maps work.

Eventually I came to a fork in the forestry road and cell signal had returned enough that I could just let Google tell me to go left. I eventually popped out of the woods and back onto a frontage road that took me into Riverbend.

Clark Fork River at Lozeau

We camped at Quartz Flats campground which is more or less attached to a rest stop. Accessing it required riding along the side of I-90 which isn't ideal, but the shoulder was 5' wide and cars/trucks only come by every 30 seconds or so.....so not the worst from a safety perspective.

Yes, this beer actually manages to taste like cheesecake. You should try it. Particularly if you like strawberry cheesecake. And beer. Trust me.....it works.