The Birds

No, not another Audubon Society report.

We had 80 miles to cover so we set out at 7:30. The sky still looked a bit threatening but Miles City was dry. We rode about three miles on the interstate, then turned onto Highway 12. It took us the rest of the way to Baker.

It was one of those huge western landscapes. There were all sorts of cliffs, buttes, and other rocky formations. Within only a couple of miles we were past every town-like element we would see all day. Our route took us up and over a few of the ridges but was mostly pretty flat. There were cows and a few places where we saw small groups of elegant horses.

I saw a couple of red tailed hawks being harrassed by some blackbirds. I thought about how even the large, fierce predators were not allowed any peace. It is impressive to see their potential prey diving at them, hounding them and, most often, succeeding in chasing them away. At least for a while.

As I was thinking about their patterns, I realized that one of the blackbirds was now following me, making all the same calls it had been using on the hawks. It stayed with me for a while, then a second one joined it. And a third, and a fourth. One kept coming in lower as if to memorize my face so it could pick me out of the police line-up. About now I began to realize how lucky I am never to have had the nerve to watch Hitchcock movies. I was also glad not to be riding through Bodega Bay as it was happening.

I don't want to disappoint anyone, but the ending to this story is pretty tame: they got bored, or perhaps reached the end of their territory, and peeled off and went home. But Bruce came through a few minutes later and had the same experience.

So forget about grizzlies and cougars and wolves. It's those red winged blackbirds you need to watch in eastern Montana.

We stopped at the only rest stop along the route and had sandwiches. I had found a nice bag of sugar snap peas which were a real treat in this land of beef and potatoes. We saw another cyclist who had ridden out from Miles City - we had not seen him on the road - but he had a friend picking him up to drive him back to town. We headed east. The terrain gradually became more and more green rolling fields. The sky, which had thoughtfully provided a good cloud cover but almost no rain and plenty of blue up until then began to clear. It got warmer, but never hot.

After about 80 miles we rolled into Baker. It's a small but not tiny town that has not been spoiled by tourism. Probably because no one has had any reason to come here. We had planned to spend two nights here, but after we rode around we decided to move on tomorrow. Maybe Bowman will provide more rest day activities.

Baker is fine, really, just not much to look at or to do. But there is a pretty decent Chinese restaurant. It's the first one we have been to on the whole trip. I am quite cautious about Chinese restaurants where there is little Asian population; I was once served canned bean sprouts in Watsonville. But the first thing we saw when we walked in was this sign:

Check policy
must show or write drivers license
and
phone number when writing a check
if no we don't accept
$50 charge for Bad
check and put your
name on wall.

I knew the food would be good.

Miles today 80, yesterday 5 around town

Total so far 1497