Dispatches from the road… Down by the river

 Dispatches from the Road by Bill Poindexter

Montana tales : 

down by the river 

Well, these last few days, been a whirlwind of excitement and emotion. Some days I just want to turn tail and head back to Kansas City other days... Can’t believe how lucky I am to be here. The beauty of this place is just amazing. I don’t know -maybe it’s because I’m a city guy and it’s hard to transition to live in one place like this for three months or more. I’ve been here over a month now and I’ve only been in town once and when I was in town all I could think of is I wanted to be back here. And up here I’ve just been wanting to work, and finally hours are starting to come, which is good, so I work six days this week bartending and then working washing dishes and doing prep line and being a line cook too-figure I better get my skill set up. Sad news -they ended up firing the chef, Ryan for drinking on the job long story, he has a long line of demons that he’s fighting with, it’s pretty sad and he’s in a hell-bent self-destructive mode right now. I think it was the best thing for the saloon as talking to multiple people. They were happy to see him go because honestly the guy was an asshole although he and I got along pretty well he didn’t treat me well, especially in the beginning. He was actually from Kansas City to, but c’est la vie. We all have our own problems. I’m sitting in front of the north fork river at 7 AM on the 23rd. It’s cold probably in the upper 30s. My hands are really cold. I got out of my tent which was really cold and moved over to a sunny spot drinking coffee. 

I met some cool people this week. I’ll share that with you real quick I met three army officers two infantry -one artillery, good guys. We had a nice conversation after work one day I was sitting outside the saloon having a beer, and they came over and sat with me, they’re all West Point graduates and here for a week or so to hike in the mountains in glacier national Park. They went out the first day and the weather was really bad including some snow up in the mountains and rain. It was cold. I saw them yesterday as they came back and got a warm cabin the night before last and they said they were heading out yesterday again yesterday was really nice day. Today’s gonna be a nice day too so they should be OK. I met some two girls who were Bikepacker’s as well. Nice couple for him Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I met a continental divide trail backpacker who’s attempting to do a thru hike his Trail name is Mr. Z. If you want to follow his story, you can go to 2011 Mr. Z he did the Pacific crest trail and the Appalachian trail so he’s going for a triple crown the CDT.

I feel like I need to get my food situation dialed in a little bit better now that Ryan’s gone and Jennifer the new general managers there we get a better selection of food so I can get more salads in my diet and more vegetables so I’m excited about that -Had a couple offers of people to do my laundry for me so that’s good. My friend Kaytee from Colorado sent me a package. I finally got only took a couple weeks to get here and sent me a really cool Hammock which I’m looking forward to using with a bug net on it if anybody wants to donate to a cause I need a door screen, one of those ones you can hang up on the door and then has a slot through the center basically like a mobile screen. Keep the mosquitoes and the flies out -flies are next. They’re starting to come black flies. I think they are. I’m not sure. 

I’ve had a lot of conversations with people up here you know about the world -life, and it’s fun  to chat as most people are up here for vacations, so they just want you to tell them stories and I’m good at that -they want you to send them places where they can see animals and I’m actually good at that too. I sent four men on the road where I knew that they have more chance of seeing a grizzly bear than anywhere else and they took my advice. They came back to the bar couple hours later, with big grins on their face and kind of announce to the bar that they saw two grizzly bears on the road. I told him to go on, and they took a video of it from the car and it sure enough it was too young grizzly bears, probably yearlings, crossing the road saw them stood up on their hind feet then one fell over and then they bolted off into the woods. It was pretty cool. 

I spent the summer solstice with some locals at  home bottom Ranch, Clay, Rachel, Rose, Kent, Danny, and then there were some Tourist folks -was fun to share that time and as I walked up to the bonfire they would say “happy solstice” and raise up their glasses for a dink. Remind me of an episode of that 90 show Northern Exposure…

I’ve been reading meditations by Descartes, on the existence of life and God, the universe -I like exploring philosophy as I navigate my way through this new life here. it’s beautiful here sitting right on the edge of the north fork river you’ll see in the pictures, listening to the sound of the river, I just saw a raven fly overhead. I’m looking towards Bowman lake area and I think one of the glaciers in front of me over in Glacier just me and there’s a kind of a one of those end of the world campers behind me. They’re parked there and they’re asleep in there where I met is a mile and a half from glacier or from Polebridge on the north fork river, and the entrance to glacier national park on the northwest side and I am camped on the left side of the bridge where I have my bicycle and my tent. 

This was actually the first place I ever camped in Polebridge in 2017. 

I got off my shift last night at -I think -10 o’clock had a couple of beers with a traveling musician and he regaled me with some really good acoustic guitar music and watched the moon and Venus below it and then rode my bike here it was only 1 1/2 miles to get to my camp. Still somewhat light at 11p with the silhouette of the landscape-I think I’m gonna keep this camp for tonight as well and just head into the park and do some exploring because I have to work tomorrow morning, I like the idea of being able to camp anywhere I want to and then head just heading into work rather than staying at the cabin all the time. 

Abbey and Dylan who work next-door at the Mercantile went to town and got me a bag of apples and a couple other things I needed so that was nice. So well that’s it for right now I don’t have anything else to say drop me a note if you’d like. 

If you’re interested in supporting this blog and my words from the road, you can find me on Venmo or just reach out to me on Facebook or directly -always appreciate and I’m grateful for a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

OK, I think I’m gonna head up to the Mercantile and get a breakfast sandwich and a another cup of coffee. I’m glad to have the day off.

Hope you are doing well peace and love from the road Bill Poindexter.

Poem next….