Slept in a bit late this morning... it was nice! Once up it was time for some breakfast and a chance to read the Sunday paper before getting busy. Spent most of the morning doing chores around the house. This included mowing and trimming the lawn, doing laundry, and raking up leaves and branches out near the lake. Also spent some time throwing a ball for Rhodie.... it seems that no matter how many times you throw it, she stills wants more. So far the most I've been able to do is about 67 times. She just keeps bring the ball back and expecting me to throw it for her again.

    I finally wore down and came back inside. Still plenty to do but I needed to get started with scanning and photo copying a bunch of family history documents that I had loaned to me for a short time. I spent more than 10 hrs this afternoon and evening finishing up one phase of that job. I just hope I got it all done correctly, because I won't be able to do it again in all likelihood. Now that I have finished that section it will be time to move on to phase 2, which includes scanning and photo copying a bunch of photo's that I also acquired during this time at home. All I know is that I am now tired and it is time to go to bed. So I will get started on the other stuff sometime tomorrow.

   In the meantime; here are a few more photo's from the river trip I took in early August. Sorry they are being parceled out a few at a time, but it takes me some time to prepare them, load them up and then comment on them. I also don't like spending so much time annotating all of them all at once. So I'll continue to post only 20 or so pictures per day for the next several days.

Missouri River Trip in Montana - August 2013

The start of day three on the river. I liked the clouds in this photo as well as how the colors were so bright.

We took a break about mid morning to walk up a hill along the river. At the top are a couple of tepee rings still visible. Tepee rings are rings of rocks that Native Americans used to hold down the edges of their tepee's. In the background of this picture is one of the rings, but check out the next photo for a better view. In this photo are the rest of the crew. From left to right: Steph, Tom, Donna, John and Caroline. In front are Lucy and Rhodie.

Another tepee ring, one of about six in this area. The Native people would usually camp up on a ridge away from the river a little bit. This would give them a better view to spot game and enemies. It would also have more of a breeze to keep the bugs down and also to cool the area off.

Hadn't seen one of these little guys in  more than 30 years. I remember calling them Horned Toads when I was smaller. I'm not sure why.

Back in the boats and some pretty decent down river wind. Even with all three boats tied together, we could still average about 5 mph most of the time and nearly 8 mph in some of the gusts. Sure beats paddling.

Lunch time on the river and it's time for Lucy to take a swim.

Heading into the 'White Cliffs' section of the river trip. The river has finally cut down into new layers of old limestone and sandstone which are harder than the layers above. So they stand up to the erosion forces better.

A small cliff along the river. Many, many more will soon show up.

With the sails up and pulling we only have to steer once in awhile just to keep the boats on course.

 

I have always loved this set of cliffs right along the rivers edge. Long ago much of the face of it was covered with mud swallow nests. A lot fewer nests there now for some reason, even though there seems to be plenty of birds still around.

Looking back at the cliffs and the large cottonwood tree that grows in a small inlet between cliff faces.

Looking down river at more cliffs along the river.

Talk about a great way to travel. Nice to have a day like this once in a while. It didn't last long. This would be the last down river wind we would have for most of the rest of the trip. From here on most of the wind would be up river and sometimes it would really blow against us. Boy do I hate that!

Our camp spot for the next two nights. We are camped just below Eagle Creek, one of Lewis and Clarke's campsites. The scenery doesn't get much better than this.

Setting up camp for the next two nights.

A hike up the Eagle Creek drainage once we have everything up and secure.

Looking down Eagle Creek towards the Missouri River.

Lots of nice sandstone cliffs all along the canyon walls of Eagle Creek.

What we had come to see... the only pictograph known to be along the upper Missouri.

Eating dinner.

Reading and relaxing while watching the sun set across the river. Life doesn't get much better than this.