Back to the Lower 48

















Friday we woke up to 28* and clear.  We slowly packed up and planned to make the drive to the Sweetgrass border crossing.  The drive out of Banff/Canmore was beautiful with the fall colors coming out.  The plains looked the same as they did in April.  Just outside of Calgary with winds really picked up.  The gusts were 35-40mph and I had to work a little bit driving the truck.  


There’s not a whole lot to report on, the border crossing was as easy as they get.  Four questions and we were on the way.  I did the conversion on our fuel purchase in Conrad.  It was .92 cents a liter, the cheapest we paid in Canada was $1.62 a liter.  It’s good to be back.  


We stayed with Big Sky Deli and Bakery in Vaughn for the night.  It was 76* when we pulled in.  Definitely t shirt weather and temps we hadn’t seen for months.  We got settled in after they closed, there is ample parking in the back.  The high wind warning that was set to start around 8pm, actually started at 7:55.  It was pretty impressive, we had gusts to 62mph and I had to go out and reposition the rig.  The wind blew for 3 straight hours, but we came through unscathed.  


Saturday morning it was 43* and we hadn’t set the thermostat before bed.  It was in the low 50s in the trailer and no one wanted to get out of bed.  We got up and went in to support our hosts.  


We picked up breakfast, coffee, some meats and cheeses and a Wilcoxsons Huckleberry Ice Cream Sandwich for after dinner.  It was just as good as I remembered.  After breakfast, we regrouped in Helena at Costco and filled our propane tanks.  The drive over to Deer Lodge on the 12 was pretty and we fueled up over there.  The town was just OK and if we had more time, we may have visited the old prison museum.  


Next stop was Anaconda, MT.  Even though we didn’t spend much time here, this area is high on our list of landing spots.  Of course we’d have to spend a little more time here.  The fall colors on the mountain backdrop and the revitalized downtown make this a nice place.  It also has a little bit of everything you need and it’s close to Butte.  We had a beer and a snack at Smelter City Brewing then drove up to Phillipsburg.  It has a cute downtown, but there’s not much to it.  The drive is nice with multiple lakes full of trout.  


After Phillipsburg we took some backroads down towards Dillon.  We passed through Wise River and followed the Big Hole River out of the canyon.  It looked like there were lots of spots to take a fly rod, bow and or a rifle for a walk back in this neck of the woods.  I liked the area.  


We stopped for dinner in Dillon at Beaverhead Brewing and had a pizza.  The wildfire smoke was getting pretty thick so we pushed south down the 15 to the Beaverhead Campground at the Clark Canyon Dam.  The campsites are free, pretty nice and they have covered picnic tables to get out of the sun.  The smoke was worse down here, but we were done driving.  It was a pretty quiet night as the traffic on I-15 really slowed down.  

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