DAY 17 : July 23/22 Saturday. Landusky to Glasgow MT
Km reading is 104418km on odometer
Usual 9am wake up, this time to the VERY quiet forest at Montana Gulch campground. We had only enough milk for our coffees and a bit more, so I make packet oatmeal for everyone. Kids played some ping pong on the picnic table and we decided to have a walk into “town” (one lone street) so the kids could show me the playground they went to last night with Jonathan, and we’d see if we could find any locals to ask about hiking up to the Hole in the Rock that we could see up on the hill behind the sparse houses.
10:30am we walked in the heat through the forest road out of the campground and up into the community. One of the first houses on the right had a big ranch style arch over the driveway that had a metal cut out sign that read “We don’t call 911” and had a metal cut out of a rifle above it. A metal eagle sculpture on the left of it and a US flag on the right. Hmmmmm. Friendly. We carried on past that to the playground that had a tiny little white schoolhouse on the grounds still that apparently was used up until about 10 years ago? There were a few old little log cabin / shacks along the road interspersed with a range of houses. Everyone we saw waved and said hello! Further up the road we saw a truck at the end of a long driveway with a retired couple out front trying to sort out fixing a fencepost. We stopped and said hi and started chatting and asking questions about the Hole in Rock, and the town that was marked on the Montana Map as a ghost town. They introduced themselves as Lumpy (Clarence) and Sandra and we had the nicest chat with them. They pointed out the old log cabin up behind their property that was originally Sherriff Landusky’s house in 1885. Sherriff Laundsky was shot and killed by Kid Curry of the Curry gang - a wild group of ranchers that didn’t take kindly to the miners that were taking over the town. Kid Curry eventually was also associated with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Back in the 1880’s this little town was populated by over 13,000 people, with saloons and bars all up and down this street. There used to be a be stamp mill to crush rocks at the top of the hill and they’d mine for gold up a winding road just above the town. The town’s water was now ruined because of all the chemicals from the gold mining. We had noticed that the campground had a big sign saying NOT to drink the water. We had such a nice little chat with them, that we said we’d go back to the rig and drive it over and have a visit after we climbed up to Hole in Rock (which is exactly as it is described… it’s a big hole in the outcropping of rock up the steep bank of a burned out hill across the road).
Hot and dusty walk back about 20min to the RV, and we changed clothes, had some cold water and a snack and packed up. Drove the rig into the town and parked by the dry creek where Sandra and Lumpy suggested. It was very overgrown and Amelia immediately realized that her shorts and pink slip on shoes were not going to cut it. Daddy graciously took her the 1 min back to the rig to put light pants on and some runners with socks and returned in no time to catch up to Oliver and me. Lots of thistles and small wild rose bushes and tall grasses to wander through up the steep terrain between burned out conifer trees. It was a good sized little hike that lead up to the big rock peak that had a 6x6ft or so hole through it at the top. We could climb into the rock and look out and down on the town. We waved at our new friends and thought we saw them waving back from their porch way down below. Pretty neat up there. Found some old animal bones bleached by the sun, and quite a few deer droppings. Apparently there’s deer, big horn sheep, bears and mountain lions up here. Less effort to get down the mountain than up, but still quite tricky and we ended up a little farther behind someone’s property where two dogs were alerting their owners of the “intruders”. The older grey poodle came over to say hi and the yorkie kept yapping and didn’t sneak under the barbed wire fence until we were pretty much past. The hike took about an hour from 12:15-1:15 and we hopped into the RV and drove a few houses down towards Lumpy and Sandra’s house and sure enough, they were out front on their beautiful wrap around porch waving away at us, so we turned into their driveway and hopped out to have a beer with them in the shade of their porch. 333 Ore Street :)
Kids enjoyed sodas (Ollie tried Dr. Pepper for the first time) while we had more chats and Sandra showed us some awesome old photos she had of the town in the 1930’s after the first fire had claimed many of the buildings. It showed the mine set up and operation and lots of the existing old buildings. Super cool.
By 2:30pm we had a photo taken with our new friends, and we were back on the road leaving Landusky by the long gravel road and turning left onto the Hwy 191 towards Malta, with rolling ranch land on one side and the Little Rocky Mountains on the left. Within half an hour we reached the turn off for Zortman (also listed on the Montana Map as a ghost town) where Lumpy had said we should be able to get gas (diesel). We were very low on fuel and had our fingers crossed that a) we could make it into that town and b) they would have diesel. 15 minutes drive off the highway and we came upon the teensy town of Zortman! We saw a gas pump in front of a little general store and pulled up. No diesel here, but apparently up the road “might” have some if they were open. We bought milk, and picked out candy bars we’d never heard of before… Ollie got a Nerd Rope, I bought a “whatchamacallit”.
Drove up the dirt road a little further and sure enough, there was the Zortman motel and a single little diesel/gas pump outside the building. I opened what looked like a shed door and inside was a magical little jam packed office full of dusty rocks and fossils and photos of hunters with their game. The smiley older gentleman (Steve) was behind the desk and he said he did indeed have diesel but it’s over $6/gallon. I said that would be okay since we were too low to drive any further and we’d be happy to get some. He flicked a switch (a light switch that read Diesel above it in sharpie) and we walked outside. Jonathan had turned around to position better to the pump, and Steve handed him the pump nozzle to fill how much we wanted. We decided on 10 gallons to get us going. As we were pumping the fuel, a black sedan with sheriff lights on the top pulled up out front and a smiley blond woman stepped out. Jonathan asked if she was the sheriff and she laughed and said, “why yes! Every town needs a sheriff” :). Turned out she had bought the car with the lights off a friend awhile back and had to disconnect the lights because the drained the battery if left on.
She had seen us pull up and drove over to see if Steve needed any assistance. After our fill of 10 gallons at $6.20/gallon, we had some nice chats with Candy and she showed us lots of cool fossils that she and her kids had collected from the area. Jonathan had a great chat with Steve outside while we did this. Both were so lovely! Candy lent us a book about the area, and popped it into a self addressed envelope so we could mail it back to her. She did lots of stuff with the University of Saskatchewan geology department and students would come from there to visit the town and do their field work. Things were starting up again for that this year since Covid had shut it down.
After fueling up and a chat, we parked across the dirt road in front of the cafe and went in for some cheesy cauliflower soup, fish n’ chips and a fish burger. The diner was small and retro and had lots of character. We could hear the cook in the back cursing and chatting away to her partner.
It was 5:30pm by the time we left, taking the more eastern exit out of town which was hilly, but at least paved. It hooked up to the Hwy 2 headed for Malta. We did pull over after 15 min to check out Sleeping Buffalo rock and hotspsrings but there really wasn’t much there so climbed back in and drove to Nelson Reservoir. We let the kids ride up on the bunk for a stretch and we reached the town of Glasgow just after 7pm. Upon checking out Trails West RV Park (which claimed to have free wifi and a pool), we discovered it to be a parking lot style with no one at the office and no pool in sight. Back int he rig, we found Shady Rest RV Park for $40/night, also close quarters, but had trees for shade and a very tired but super friendly owner who had a space for us in the back-in sites. She apologized that the wifi didn’t stretch back that far but we were welcome to come sit on the office porch and use it whenever we wanted. The showers/washrooms were super clean and lovely and we were all VERY MUCH in need of a shower since the last one we had was back in Silverwood. Kids hopped out and went looking for the city park just behind the campground while we found our site. As soon as we pulled up, a little boy about 5 yrs old came skidding over on his bike and asked, “Do you guys have any kids?”. He and his 5 brothers and sisters lived in the trailer two sites over. He was very pleased to learn we did, indeed, have kids and he was off to find them on his bike. When our kiddos came back, with new friend Kyler in tow, we met the sister (7yrs) named Kyla and the dad came and chatted a bit giving us some intel on an amusement park he loved and showing us the transmission he dropped on his truck the other day.
We walked Kyla and Kyler with our kiddos back to the beautiful little city park and played soccer and frisbee for awhile. With the wifi option, I headed back a little early to upload some more blog info and photos, and Jonathan came back to make some food for the kiddos. He told Kyler that we’d be going inside to eat and maybe the kids could play later. We sat down and literally 30 seconds later we hear a tap tap tap at the door. It was little Kyler, earnest looked his face, asking if the kids could come out and play yet. The family’s cats, Red and Missy, (Red was a ginger cat with a snake bite on his tail, who liked to try to get inside the rig).
By 9:45pm it was time for the much needed showers, then a quick propane fire with marshmallows (no extra kids surfaced) and stories and bed.
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