From One Extreme
Dogzilla takes a quick break along the St. Regis River - near Saltese, Montana
Having just blown out a tire in unrepairable fashion, I would normally be quite concerned, but in this case, I’d been planning on this tire failing for quite some time (every since putting on the boot) so I’d been carrying a spare tube and tire with us for this eventuality. All in all, it was very quick change out of parts (I replaced the tube as well just to be safe) and then Zilla and I continued on our adventure. If I hadn’t had the foresight to bring the spare tire with, Zilla and I would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere like a couple of turkeys, kind of like the ones we’d seen that morning on our way to the trail.
A short distance after replacing the tire, we found ourselves at the end of the NorPac Trail and in the near non-existent town of Taft, Montana. It’s called a town, but honestly, I don’t remember seeing a single building other than some highway maintenance related buildings. It was near here where we would get onto our next stretch of the Great American Rail Trail via the Route of the Olympian. The Route of the Olympian is well known for being a stunning ride through the mountains, but unfortunately, our route did not follow that particular portion of the Route of the Olympian as 1) it was a little out of our way; and 2) it did not allow dogs. It’s my opinion that if my dog isn’t welcome, then neither am I, so seeing that portion of the Route of the Olympian would have to wait.
We continued past Taft, heading towards Haugan. Along the way, we ran into a couple cyclists and stopped to talk for a minute. Amongst other things, they warned us to steer clear of the smoothie stand in Haugan as it was run by a old woman whom they described in less than flattering terms. That was unfortunate too as I had hoped to stop there to get a treat at the end of our day since we had parked nearby.
The rest of our ride was pretty uneventful but still worth every minute. We stopped several times to take in the beauty of the St. Regis River as it flowed east towards the much larger Clark Fork River. During one of these stops, we saw another cyclist and spoke briefly and again, I warned about the crabby lady that ran the smoothie shop. Apparently she is well known in these parts for being a jerk to pretty much everyone. Other than that, the only other people we saw were a couple guys doing some target shooting near, but thankfully off of, the trail.
We then rolled into Haugan and I started loading everything up in the car for the day. As I was doing so, a car pulled up and parked and an older woman got out of it and began screaming at me, “You know you can’t be here right?” I was taken a little aback by being instantly screamed at, but I stood my ground and told her that I was on a public trail. She then screamed that I was parked illegally and that there was no parking allowed on her property and she pointed at a no parking sign that was approximately 200 feet away and 2 buildings away from where we were at. I apologized and told her that I was sorry but it appeared that I was nowhere near the no parking sign and that I thought I was parked on the right of way for the trail but that I’d leave as quickly as possible. She then replied something to the effect that, “It’s people like you that are the reason that I get robbed all the time”. I again apologized and told her I was sorry if I caused her any problems, that I wouldn’t ever park there again, and that I would again be leaving as quickly as I could get my stuff in the car.
None of this seemed to satisfy the woman and she started coming closer to me and screaming even louder and telling me that she had video cameras (which she pointed to), and that I’d better not try anything. At this point, I had had enough of her nonsense. I’d tried being nice but this seemed to only add fuel to her fire so I decided take a page from her playbook and yell back. In much more uncouth terms, I told her, “Look ma’am, if you’d stop screaming at me, I could get out of here much quicker and never come back”. Even though she was 25 years older than me, 10 inches shorter, and probably 60 lbs lighter, she took this to mean that I wanted to fight her and she ran over and did her best to chest bump me and knock me over, which obviously failed. It took a lot of restraint to not punch her in the face but I instead asked her what the hell was wrong with her to which she responded by bending over and picking up a rock and getting ready to throw it at me. As she got ready to throw the rock, I politely reminded her that she being recorded by the video cameras that she had pointed out and that if that rock came in my direction, that I was going to protect my dog and myself. At this time, the realization that I was much younger, larger, and in better shape must have clicked with her because she then ran to the smoothie shop (which had been closed as I happened to glance a sign in the window) unlocked it and darted inside. I then went over to the door and, making sure she could hear me from inside, told her that she better stay inside until I was packed and drove away or I was going to take that as another aggressive act on her part and would respond accordingly.
I then went to back to my car, finished loading everything, and drove away wondering what the heck had just happened.
A calm river before the human storm - near Haugan, Montana
