Deer Lodge Montana

Deer Lodge Montana campsite - last night of our 3-night stay

Angry sky after the storm has passed over us while golfing

Kirk teeing off with 500 ft. copper mine smokestack on the horizon

One of the views on the Jack Nicklaus designed Old Works course in Anaconda MT

Some remnants of the old copper mine behind us

The center of historic Butte Montana - a mining town

One of the bands that played at the National Folk Festival, an Irish band - Pride of New York

Close up (sort of) of a bluegrass band

Bluegrass group below one of the mine elevators used in the past when mining was done in tunnels and "deep down" mine shafts

We arrived at our Deer Lodge, Mt., campsite about noon Friday. We goofed around, took showers in the facilities provided, and then set off for Helena Mt about an hour's drive away. That was so Kirk could keep his 4 pm appointment with a dentist to fix his broken tooth which had occurred soon after we arrived at our destination just south of Salt Lake City about 10 days ago. After about an hour with a graduate of Creighton School of Dentistry (about 45 years ago!!) and a temporary filling put in place, Kirk (although numb from the neck up) was all fixed up and we were ready to head back to Deer Lodge. Along the drive back, Kirk salivated at the great fly fishing stream that paralleled much of the road!!!!

Saturday morning, Kirk set out to test his fly fishing skills on the stream we had passed along the day before. It "almost" was a bust. When Kirk arrived at the stream and reached in to get the fly rod with fly attached, he realized he had left his fishing vest (with all the extra flies, leader, etc.) back in the trailer (#&&&!!$&& . . . . shooty pops!!!!). But he set out . . . one rod and one fly in hand . . . and a lot of hopes that he wouldn't lose that one fly too soon. Two and a half hours later, having caught 3 rainbows in the meantime (none of which he kept), and having NOT lost his one fly (a minor miracle!) Kirk set back home to see what Carol had been up to. She had been up to 1) laundry, 2) a short run into town, 3) some HDR internet work, etc. She didn't miss Kirk one little bit!!!

On Saturday afternoon, we drove to Butte to take in a "National Folk Festival". This was a "free" folk festival with on-going music performances from about 20 different groups at four different music venues set up in downtown Butte (DEFINITELY a mining town!!!). This festival draws about 100,000 people each day for its 3-day stand. The weather was great, the music was great, the food was good, and it really didn't seem that crowded . . . surprisingly.

Sunday we drove over to Anaconda Mt to play golf at the "Old Works", a Jack Nicklaus signature course which opened in 1994. It was constructed over the site of an old copper mining and smelting operation which went belly-up in the late 1980's. The design kept in place a lot of the remnants of the copper mining operation which made it very interesting and picturesque. We ran into a storm about the 12th hole and had to sit it out for about 45 minutes. We then went back out and ended up playing our remaining 7 holes and then actually played the last 8 holes over again for a total of 26 holes. It was very fun. The sand traps were filled with a coal black sand mixture which looked neat and actually wasn't too bad to play out of.

Monday morning, we set out for West Glacier, Mt for our 9-day stay in the Glacier National Park area. Until then . . . . . . . . . . .