Dead Body in the Trunk?

I biked between spires of dark rock, on a leisurely road between the mountains and always right next to the Missouri. My maps had me go along a road that ran parallel to I-15 until just before this point where once again it told me to take the interstate. My mom scouted ahead and said the road continued, so we met where the road ended and we had no other choice but the interstate. Then we called it a day. We went on to Helena to get a campsite at a KOA. On the road and quite on a whim, I saw that there was a “Gateway to the Mountains” boat tour. The last one was at 2pm, so when we had a campsite reserved, we rushed back, and had just enough time to eat lunch before we got on the boat.

• 

• 

This boat ride was one of the big highlights of this entire trip. I am always excited to get on the water, since I feel visually that’s the closest, I can get to seeing what Lewis and Clark saw. We had a tour guide who knew dozens of stories about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, including directly quoting full entries from their journals. We learned about wildfires in the area, a tragedy at Mann Gulch that is well known amongst wildfire fighters, and about the various sites the founder of the tour pointed out over a hundred years ago that are still there today. Meriwether Lewis named it Gateway to the Mountains in his journals. I left my phone in the car, so I commandeered my mom’s and took an excessive number of photos. I was excited.

• 

I discovered as we searched for a place to have dinner, that there was a Lewis and Clark Brewing Company. I’m not really a beer drinker, but I didn’t think I could call myself a Lewis and Clark nerd without going there and trying something. I tried the Prickly Pear Pale Ale because why wouldn’t I with a name like that. My mom had an amber ale. I’m still not a beer person but I didn’t leave without getting myself a Lewis and Clark Brewing Company hat. I would have gotten a t-shirt but none of them were particularly me.

The next day we drove back to Wolf Creek so I could complete my ride to Helena. This was some of the most terrifying riding I’ve done, period. It was a winding mountainous road, but it was all narrow overpass with little to no shoulder. The speed limit was 80mph. At first, I told my mom I wanted her to drive in the right lane slowly with her hazards on so cars would slow down, but the second we got onto the actual interstate I waved my mom along and told her to go on without me. I felt like in trying to keep me safe someone wouldn’t see my mom around a curve, and they’d rear end her. I was practically shaking and to my horror as I went I realized I had my bike light attached to my bike but I had never turned it on!

I finally got to a part with shoulder and biked up yet another endless slope, but when I got to the top the rest of my ride was coasting downhill. I finished early in the afternoon and we visited the Montana History Museum where we saw yet another collection of Charles M. Russell art (they’re seriously obsessed with him in Montana) and then we explored the Capitol Building. There was a little brochure where Seaman the dog was your tour guide. It was adorable.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our next stretch led us closer to Three Forks, Montana. That’s where the Headwaters of the Missouri are. It was wild to think I was near biking the entirety of the Missouri River. We stopped in Townsend, but drove on ahead to see the Headwaters of the Missouri Museum, yet another adorable local history museum with high school photos from a hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark memorabilia, antiques, vintage and antique clothing, hats, and a room set up to look like a classroom, a dentist’s office and a beauty salon from at least the 1950s. We broke up my ride in an odd way that day. I biked most of my ride toward Three Forks, then we went back to set up our tent at lunch since we were right there, then drove on ahead to visit the museum. On our way back to the campground I had my mom drop me off about 15 miles away from the campground and I biked West to East for the first time. The hills were pretty consistent, so I figured it didn’t make a huge difference which direction I did the mileage in.

Our campground was…interesting. There was an old car parked at the site next to us with tickets stuck to it, implying it had been abandoned there for a while. Morbid as we are, my mom and I joked that there was probably a body in the trunk. We read Dracula again and played card games under the picnic shelter when a woman showed up and asked us if it was our car. My mom decided not only to tell her it’s not our car, but to tell her about our morbid theory. She wandered around for a few minutes, then skedaddled. Either we freaked her out or the car did. She was traveling alone with her dog, so I get it. As we continued to play cards someone drove into the day us area, eyed the abandoned car and left. I told my mom I thought that was the murderer.