Day 15 Beaverslide

Last night the chef at the hotel restaurant prepared an omelet for each of us because they didn’t open for breakfast until 8 AM. We microwaved them this morning and ate them in our room. Yum.

The temperature was nippy when we left at the crack of dawn. We had a 10 mile climb with a lot of headwind as we went up and over Big Hole Pass (7400 feet). The air remains hazy from the forest fires. There wasn’t a lot to see but the sky was very large.

We went downhill and then over a smaller unmarked pass and continued dropping into Dillon, Montana. Unlike Pittsburgh, Dillon is celebrating Labor Day with a parade.

Dillon is in the Beaverhead valley. The valley, river and county gets their name from a giant limestone outcropping that the Indians said looked like a beaver swimming in the water. You may have to squint a little to see the beaver.

Our destination was Sheridan, Montana, population 742. It is a quiet little town with a business district about a block long. Today we descended more than we climbed.

A beaverslide (photo at top of post) is a device for stacking loose hay. It was invented in the Big Hole Valley in 1908 and was called Beaverhead County Slide Stacker. That was quickly shortened to beaverslide.

We saw several very large steel beaverslide‘s but no haystacks. Here is a link to a large beaverslide in operation. A haystack will preserve the hay for 3-4 years. Baled hay is only good for a year. We only saw baled hay on our travels.

Here is a truck picking up round hay bales.

Here is a truck picking up square bales.

And a third style of truck that is shown tilting its bed to stack the bales.

People in Montana know how to handle hay.

Stats

• Jackson to Sheridan, Montana
• Distance: 86.3 miles (139 km)
• Climbing: 2833 feet (863 m)
• Temperature: 42 – 85°F (6 – 29°C)

Dad and Bicycles

Dad liked to go riding with us kids on a 6-mile loop to the East of town. It went south to the English River and then followed the river east. The loop was mostly flat and all on gravel.

On one trip it was Dad, Willie and myself. At about the halfway point one of the cotters fell out of the left crank arm. Fortunately the right arm (with the sprockets) remained attached. Dad removed a shoestring from my left tennis shoe and used it to tie my foot to the right pedal. We completed our journey back to the house using just one leg.

Then I tried to put the wrong foot down in the driveway. Over and down I went. Everyone laughed except for me.

After that we learned how to file cotters and that cotters had to be installed in the proper direction. Otherwise they become loose very quickly. Dad was teaching us how bicycles worked and how to be resourceful.

Sundry