Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire On the road again.

Almost done, and no really spectacular photos, turns out no one goes to the Hi Line for the scenery.

Route 2 runs along east and west along the Milk River Valley at this point, so it was a surprise to be faced with an immediate climb over a tall riverside bluff to get to Havre itself. IIRC the bluff was two or three hundred yards wide, enough for a fairgrounds and shopping mall. The mall lay between the highway and the river, and immediately in back is the site of a buffalo jump from back in the days.



I've seen a couple of buffalo jump sites up here now, it weren't rocket science, all you needed was a high enough dropoff with a relatively level approach from the top side. Without looking it up I'm pretty sure most of this area was created by volcanic deposition of ash and such, makes for an easily eroded level plain. For example any number of sites on the plains above the Missouri Breaks like the photos I posted earlier on this thread would probably have worked as a buffalo jump.

In the Havre one they would have had to steer the buffalo herd out on that wide bluff and keep them running north instead of downhill to the east or west. I will say the Havre Buffalo Jump was the tallest drop-off I saw labelled as such. I saw another one on the drive to the Bear Paws Battlefield that might not have even been 100ft tall. Just had to be big enough to immobilize a fallen buffalo I'd guess.

The Havre Buffalo Jump weren't open yet, and advertised "Native America Guides" which indicated a price of admission, and there are Native American Guides and Native American Guides of course, not all of whom know much about what they are talking about. There is a strong Indian presence up on the Hi-Line (Blackfoot, Rocky Boys and Fort Berthold Rezzes??) as reflected in the hyperbole of some of the historical markers, like this one for the Bear Paws Battllefield....



I had been repeatedly running into traces of the Nez Perce on this trip all the way since Yellowstone.

No one argues that the Nez Perce got the short end of the stick, and both the record of their flight and their skill in battle turned out to be remarkable. I suppose the language in the marker ain't any more extravagant than any number of markers about White guys in other places. I do wish tho somebody would mention Poker Joe, one of those important bit players in history that often get overlooked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_Joe

Now THAT guy could probably tell some stories, and if they had followed his advice the whole time all 700+ fugitives would almost certainly have escaped to Canada. Presumably Joe was also a good poker player, maybe he might have majored in Math or Statistics if he were around today.

I didn't get a photo looking down off of the buffalo jump, its right behind the parking lot in back and they have it fenced off (maybe so it don't become a Mustang, Jeep or Tacoma jump) but looking down the east side of the bluff towards Havre you can get an idea of the elevation...



On the way down it did occur to me that I didn't have a photo of my bike and a Hi-Line marker like I shoulda done against the HIghway 2 sign in the first-look photo earlier, but I found this one on my way down the hill.

A couple of details in this photo that were of some import to me at the time: You may note the original front tire, an $80 700x35mm Schwalbe Mondial hanging from the left pannier, I was running these tires with their fairly aggressive treads in anticipation of long stretches of dirt road, which never happened until the last miles to Jim's place. In place of the Mondial I was running my emergency backup Continental Gatorskin, a considerably narrower street slick with no tread at all but which is relatively lightweight and compact if carried as a spare.

I was somewhat apprehensive about running that slick on the gravel roads to Jim's but it turned out at the speeds I ride it wasn't a problem, what WAS good was the treaded wider Mondial in back, I didn't spin out and lose traction all the time like I do with a slick in back.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gQTqtX]

More or less flat going out of Havre, the shoulder along Hwy 2 was an uneven quantity, maybe depending on the contractor who applied the latest layer of asphalt. Of note is that Hwy 2 comprises a major part of the Northern Tier Transcontinental Bicycle Trail, prob'ly ridden by hundreds of cross-country cyclists every year, it is also a major traffic artery in the State of Montana, The Rt 2 part must suck both for the cyclists and the motorists and truckers that gotta deal with 'em.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gQUecc]







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