Two Medicine

Two Medicine was our destination today.  In order to get there, we had to take Montana Route 49.  The road is restricted to vehicles of no longer than twenty-one feet and no wider than eight feet including mirrors.  This was a warning for the road was narrow and winding and climbed up the side of a mountain so we were looking down a thousand feet with no guardrails and in places, no shoulders.  I was holding on for dear life and doing my lean away from the edge like it would help.  I did manage to take a few pictures but their perspective is nothing like the reality.  The road had big dips in it where the dirt had washed out from under the pavement and in places there were piles of rocks where they had been plowed off the road from slides.  The scenery was magnificent when I could open my eyes but I was glad to reach the entrance to the park.

Scary Drop Off

More Scary Drop Off 

Lower Two Medicine Lake

Field of Wildflowers by Lower Two Medicine Lake

As soon as we had we gone through the entrance gate we went around a corner and saw a small RV stopped in the road coming toward us.  In front of it two black bears were lumbering across the road.  They took their time and I was able to get a couple of good pictures of them.  Even though one of them was brown in color, they were both black bears as opposed to grizzlies.  The ranger station was just ahead and when we turned in there were six longhorn sheep standing in the road.  We thought they looked like goats but were told they were sheep.  Finally we had seen some wildlife.  We went in to get my stamp and told the ranger we had seen the bears.  She asked us all kinds of specifics, took notes and thanked us for reporting the sighting.

We drove on to the end of the road and launched our kayaks on Two Medicine Lake.  It is about four miles long and again sitting at the bottom of huge mountains.  We had another beautiful day and had a light wind at our backs as we paddled to the far end of the lake.  

There is a dock there where a park boat transports hikers for a fee and an open fronted shelter.  We landed on a small beach area in front of the shelter and changed from paddling clothes to hiking clothes in the shelter.  We secured the kayaks as the water was high around the shelter and started the mile hike up to Twin Falls.

We only met four groups of people on our way so had the place pretty much to ourselves.  There wasn't much of a climb   as we hiked through woods and small alpine meadows with pretty wildflowers.  There was quite a lot of snow on the trail and I really wanted to make a snow angel.

A Friend We Met Along the Way

We arrived at the falls just as one couple were leaving so we sat across from the bottom of  the falls to eat our lunch.  There was a tremendous amount of water coming down with a great deal of force and power.  As we sat there, we could feel the mist from the crashing water.  We could hardly hear each other over the thundering rush of water.  It was awesome.

The trip back was uneventful, again only meeting a few people on the trail.  When we got back to the shelter and were getting our paddling gear out of the kayaks, two little boys kept questioning whether they were really our kayaks.  I felt like a thief taking my own things.  We changed and launched for the trip back.  The wind was in our faces on the return and we hugged the north shore to minimize its effect.  This worked until about the last mile when we just had to dig in and head straight for the boat launch.  It was a struggle to paddle but we kept making headway so kept on trucking.  What bothered me most was there were children out in rubber rafts in shorts and t-shirts having just as hard a time to get to shore.  At least we had Hydroskin and dry-tops on in case of a mishap.

The End Was in Sight

The ride back wasn't quite as traumatic as we were on the inside of the curves.  When we got back, I made a huge batch of black beans and rice and some fried bread so we would have leftovers for lunches.  We need to get to a grocery store but I want to wait until we get to Canada on Thursday and am trying to "rough it" by making do with what we have.  Trying to save batteries, I again went to bed fairly early.  I think Ted did his sleeping in his chair.

The Road is the Line on Cliff Ahead

Red Bus on a Scary Road