Centre of the universe

Thursday, August 23, 2007

ST. REGIS, MONTANA — We’ve visited three states today, having crossed into Montana this afternoon and set up camp in this tiny town, nestled between mountains covered with evergreens, including some very tall redwood cedars. It’s a lovely campground with generous pull-through sites, separated from each other by strips of grass and low shrubs.
The lady who registered us at the campground office suggested we take a stroll around to see what had been done with various trees that campers had hit. She says that a local chain-saw sculptor turns the resulting tree stumps into bears or other creatures for a few dollars. At the back end of our site is a cute little black bear perched on a stump about three feet high.
Despite the relatively limited number of miles we covered today — just over 300 — we enjoyed an amazing array of terrains in that distance. When we left Ellensburg this morning, we were in real cowboy country, with dusty brown fields studded with sagebrush, tufts of yellow grass and gently rolling countryside.
Val was delighted with the long, straight stretches under a huge sky. "I’ve had enough of mountains," he announced, reveling in the opportunity to let his gaze wander over the wide open plains on a highway he could see for miles, free of dips, potholes or other hazards.
There were plenty of ranches, where cattle or horses grazed. There was one cluster of cows on a dry patch of land with sagebrush behind them and one of those weathervane windmills that you see in the western movies. You half expected the Lone Ranger to ride up in a cloud of dust!
Windmills of a more modern variety, about 30 of them, were generating energy from the hilltops in central Washington. By this time, there were more hills, though still dusty brown, separated from time to time by gulches where green willows grew in the moist soil left by a creek or river.
Then we came to Vantage, where the land dipped down to the Columbia River, running north and south across our path. We crossed over a causeway and bridge, and climbed the banks on the other side to a height of land where we were able to pull off the highway and take a look.
High on the ridge by the highway were a dozen figures of wild horses, silhouetted against the sky with manes flowing and hooves pawing the air. We were at the foot of the ridge, and from that vantage point we could look back on the bridge we had crossed as well as the great river, reflecting the blue of the sky against the dry terrain around it. Far in the distance we could see the flat dry land we had crossed. It was a worthwhile stop!
As we continued across eastern Washington, we passed a huge, rich farming area with enormous fields on either side of the highway. We were even able to tell what was growing, since they had posted crop names on signs along the fences by the road — potatoes, field corn, sweet corn, timothy hay, wheat, peas, and peppermint! We also passed dozens of barns and long quonset huts, each the length of two football fields, filled from end to end and up to the rooftops with bales of hay.
Shortly before leaving Washington, we passed through Spokane, a prosperous town with its own international airport, lots of suburbs, and a bustling downtown with interesting-looking buildings of a 1930s vintage. At its eastern end was a large industrial section that included a B.F. Goodrich company, a Peterbilt truck business, steel foundry and metal casting factory.
Very shortly after that, we entered Idaho. On the map, the part we crossed is a small vertical panhandle that touches the Canadian border for less than 100 km just south of Cranbrook, BC. The terrain changed completely to mountains, lakes, pine trees and winding highways, with steep climbs and descents. You should have heard Val griping as we entered the Fourth of July Pass! And not without reason; there was quite a bit of construction going on, and the road was rough in places.
There were a number of small towns along this stretch, one of which, Wallace, posted an enormous billboard declaring itself "the Center of the Universe!" We had been to the Top of the World, so why not take in the centre of the universe on the same trip?
The Lookout Pass was near the Idaho-Montana border, and we have now left the Pacific time zone and entered into Mountain time. So we’ve lost an hour of sleep tonight, but it means we’re that much closer to home.