Montana & Wyoming Day 14 - Deer Lodge, MT to Idaho Falls, ID

WE DID IT!

Bam. Montana = done!

What an awesome couple of weeks it has been, i've had the most awesome of times and am completely drained and knackered. As I write this it's Friday 13th, and we are having a well deserved break. I'm going to update this very soon, complete with pics (there are some great ones), and will fill in all the details.

But not yet. Nope, right now I'm going to chill with a pint of well deserved Bud. What a fantastic journey!

(and it ain't over yet - tomorrow the holiday begins)!

Montana & Wyoming Day 13 - Butte, MT to Deer Lodge, MT

(see above - text to follow shortly)

Montana & Wyoming Day 12 - Dreggs, ID to Butte, MT

We finally made it back to Montana today! Hurrah! The day got off to a flying start - no, literally, we went flying (I can't believe I haven't used that terrible pun yet). We took off out of Dreggs (actually called Driggs - but where's the fun in spelling it correctly when it's so close to sounding awesome), heading back east to Wyoming

This morning we filmed some of the most awe inspiring epic stuff we have ever filmed, I reckon.

I don't have an actual screenshot, but it was like this:

'cept we were flying at 100mph at what felt like 5 ft above the water. One of the most epic locations on earth, methinks. The light was good, we were all in a good mood and it just felt like such an awesome start to the day.

After this, we transitioned briefly back through Idaho before returning to Montana. Montana is such a pretty state, immediately after crossing the continental divide we were greeted with rolling hills, lush forests, lakes, rivers, and not a single bloody animal! We did not see any sign of life all day. I was starting to think perhaps an earthquake was inbound - it was as if all the animals had left. Apart from cows, but they are too boring to really count (and probably too stupid to get out of the way of an earthquake).

We still have yet to film a moose. This saddens me, as they are comical looking beasts.

Derp

We filmed another ghost town, some more lakes, general picturesque stuff, before ending up in the town of Butte. A pretty early end to the day, as we need to get the helicopter in for maintenance (which is hopefully being finished off as I write this). 

I bought a shirt that makes my american get-up from last week look very, very tame. Pictures to follow in due course - the rest of the crew needs to see it in the flesh first and I don't want to ruin the surprise. 

Butte, or butt, as we call it - is an old mining town, which more recently became a new mining town as the price of copper has soared, making it profitable to start pulling it out of the town again. The black "pit" in the off-centre of the mine is 7,000 ft long, to give it some scale.

(and that's just the overground part - it goes down a mile underneath)

This is the 5th biggest town in Montana, so it's not exactly small!

Staying in fancy digs tonight, La Quinta. Has a gym - our first for a while. Am having an internal debate on the merits of going for a run at 6,000 ft altitude. Might give it a shot tomorrow morning if I wake up early. Am also debating drinking the tapwater here, as a flock of geese landed in that pit a few years back, and all 300 of them died pretty much instantly. It's more acidic than lemon juice!

Deep in cowboy country now. Think I might even take out a subscription to this popular local mag:

(I can see myself in that outfit - let's face it, it's pretty conservative compared to some thing i've been caught wearing).

Two more days of filming to go (weather permitting), then it's time to de-rig and start my own holiday. The last couple of weeks have gone by in a heartbeat. 

Montana & Wyoming Day 11 - Dubois, WY to Dreggs, ID

Before anyone picks up on the title, YES I am in Idaho and NO I will not be renaming the blog Montana & Wyoming & A Bit Of Idaho. It's an overnight stop, I am so close to Wyoming I could spit over the border. Probably.

I have a ton to write about. The Buick LeSabre Custom, the antelope and horses scene, the ascent to 14,000 ft to film the highest peak in Wyoming. The fact that since this trip started, I've not been at an altitude lower than the highest peak in  England

But, I am feeling knackered.

So here is a picture of George Bush II eating a cat.

(I will update this soon - honest!)

Montana & Wyoming Day 10 - Cody, WY to Dubois, WY

As I sit here, feeling fat from the pizza I have consumed, and tipsy from the 4th beer I drank (compliments of the house - apparently ordering two beers at once in America means you get the second one free!), I realise I am falling behind with the blog.

The many, many fluid ounces of beer are giving me a form of writers block.

Therefore, rather than wait until later, until I feel I can write at my best, I will bullet point the day's antics (and tomorrows, as I am writing today's tomorrow - if that makes sense).

(I think that last comment broke the space time continuum)

Shit I saw today:

• Old faithful
• Prismatic Geyser
• Flew at 12750 ft through the Teton mountains
• Elk
• Coyote
• Probably a lot more

Lunch was exciting for one reason, and one only: the courtesy car was a truck. This truck:

(my picture, which makes this monstrous truck look even bigger, follows soon)

Arby's was our destination of choice for lunch. 

(I think Arby's is a thing you try only once. Like eating play doh)

And we went a day without internet. Literally, there was no internet at both the airports we stopped at. We're deep in cowboy country now folks!

Montana & Wyoming Day 9 - Cody, WY to Cody, WY

Hmmm, I should have thought about this set of blog posts before calling them all Montana. A dilemma arises. Do I go for Wyoming Day 1? Though technically it's day 2, or one and a half. Should I call it Montana & Wyoming Day 9? And go back and change the rest? Maybe.. or do I carry on regardless of the fact we weren't anywhere near Montana today?!?!

I think I'll rename all the blog posts, it won't take long. Montana & Wyoming it is!

Today we basically did a big old loop into Yellowstone National Park and back again. It was pretty spectacular in the morning, until the weather started closing in. In the afternoon we filmed Old Faithful Geyser - but it was raining pretty heavily so we will no doubt go back and do it again tomorrow. Old Faithful is probably the most iconic feature of Yellowstone NP, so we want to make sure we get it in the right light, so to speak!

Our DeLorme system is brilliant. I've harped on about it once, but am going to do so again. It's absolutely chuffing marvelous! I can see a topographical map on my iPad, with our helicopter as a marker in the middle, and see the name of every mountain peak, lake, forest, creek and even ditch around me. Not only does it allow me to do a better job of logging the things we are filming, it also means I can play spot the geographical feature, and see if I can pair up the map with the outside world, whilst zooming along at over 100mph. Great fun!

I'm going to keep today's post short, and tomorrow will add in some photos and what not.

Oh yeah, and we filmed bears! Frickin bears! How cool is that?!

Montana & Wyoming Day 8 - Bozeman, MT to Cody, WY

There was a day I'd been looking forward to since before I embarked on this trip. A day I thought would be simply awesome. Today, departing south out of Bozeman, we were headed towards Yellowstone National Park.

Alas, I was wrong. The day did not turn out simply awesome. No, it was far from it. It was magnificently-brilliantly-incredibly-awesome. Words failed us - in fact the only thing to be heard in the helicopter for most of the day was the odd gasp as we entered the next valley and found even more amazing scenes.

Here's what I did today:

• Spotted a solitary male buffalo hiding under a tree out the side window whilst travelling at 100+ mph through low visibility - oh yes, my misspent youth playing all those sniper video games has at last paid off!
• Climbed to 12,000 ft - higher than Simon, our pilot, had ever taken a helicopter
• Skimmed over ice lakes
• Filmed herds of buffalo
• Spotted a group of fairly well camouflaged deer in woodland whilst filming something else (seriously, I'm going to change my career to animal-spotter)
• Filmed hot water springs
• Flew down a canyon
• Filmed two dams
• Filmed the place of Custer's last stand at Little Big Horn
• Ate in a restaurant where Buffalo Bill once ate, and where a present from Queen Victoria (an entire ornate wooden saloon-bar - we're talking 30 ft long - now resides)
• Whittled a piece of wood in down time - I'm getting into the whole redneck thing, what with my patriotic get-up, the beard and cap and all
• Filmed native american indians
• Flew down a valley between the ground below, and low lying cloud that was lower than the peaks of the valley - like a tunnel!
• Found the greatest driving road in America
• Ran 3 miles in the morning, 
• And finally, ate a reasonable UK sized sandwich for lunch!

Phew. I'm knackered. I think we filmed a greater variety of things today than we film in some weeks. 

We're now in Wyoming. Tomorrow we are in Wyoming all day, and probably the day after too. I should probably amend the title of these blogs - but that's far too much work! So despite the fact that tomorrow will be a Wyoming day, I'm going to call it Montana Day 9. It's my blog after all!

[Apologies - the internet here seems to be shit - I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to upload a picture from my phone without success. I will try tomorrow from the FBO and update this] Photo below!

Er, in the mean time, how about this:

Buffalo Bill. Badass mofo, and patron of a place that does a damn good half rack of baby back ribs. Avoid their "house" fries. They are shit. Go for mash instead - looked much better!

Caption for the missing photo: Refuelling before entering Yellowstone. This place was run by a real mountain man. The facilities were so basic, that the unisex toilet didn't even have a door - just a sodding curtain! Thank god we were probably the first people to pass by in years!

Montana & Wyoming - Day Off

Hurrah! At last, a day off. Good timing on our part too, as the weather is TERRIBLE today.

Only joking. It is overcast though.

Here's what I'll be doing today:

(in case any American's have started reading the blog, that's supposed to be a pun, as I plan on doing sweet F A today)

(in case that still means nothing to you "sweet F A" means, er, not very much)

Montana & Wyoming Day 7 - Bozeman, MT to, er, Bozeman, MT

Feeling refreshed after a good night's kip, we set off on today's trip. It was a big old loop, taking in a variety of awesome sights. First off were the ghost towns of Nevada City and Virginia City. These old mining towns are a fascinating juxtaposition of old and new, and seem to be real tourist traps. Horse drawn carriages were taking families down the streets and alleys of old mining towns in the baking heat.

Too busy operating to take photos at the time, but here are the ghost towns from the ground at least!

We then filmed canoeing, a bald eagle, a rodeo and white water rafting! It was an action packed day, with some fantastic close up shots. I've now got the urge to spend my week off after this travelling into the wilderness! 

And I may have found the perfect companion:

This isn't the actual one I saw for sale. This is much nicer. The one I saw was broken, missing a front bumper, rusty and every panel was dented. BUT, it was only $1,000 (so $500 after some harsh negotiation), and it has awesome roof mounted floodlights!

Hmmm. After last time, perhaps not.

Although, I have discovered a rather awesome piece of kit, which I feel I may have to invest in, regardless of whether or not I go exploring the great outdoors. It's called a DeLorme, inReach, and it's a satellite GPS device with two awesome features. 1) At the push of a button, it sends an SOS signal, via satellite, sending your lat/long/elevation 2) You can send/receive text messages by pairing it with your iPad. How cool is that?! It's not even that expensive. Think I'll get one!

After the morning's flying, we landed at Ennis Airport. Simon dared me to go out with some white paint and draw a P on the runway in front of the airport's name. Fortunately, I am not a hooligan, and declined. Nor did I have any white paint come to think of it. Ennis Airport is a fascinating place. The FBO (fixed-based operator) is normally a large building, with staff, a pilots lounge, wifi, showers, vending machines, coffee. At Ennis, it was literally a shack. One room. Despite this, it had wifi and a fridge stocked with soft drinks and candy bars. In another show of American trust, they have an honor system. If you take anything from the fridge, you leave the money in a tin. How trusting is that? Less awesome was the outhouse toilet with a hole in the ground.

The less said about that the better. 

We lifted up for the final bit of filming, the rodeo, run by a bloke whose name is, and I kid you not: Pokey Armitage. What an insane name! Although perhaps not, considering top 20 Montana names include: Wyatt, Hunter, Landon, Caleb and Shelby. That last one being a girl's name. "thanks ma, fer namin' me after the railway station".

Anyway, the bucking bronco's are an impressive sight. Apparently the horses buck because their testicles are tied together. Fair enough really, it would probably make be buck too... Surely that's an urban legend though? Right? I mean surely the most popular sport in this north-western state isn't based around a group of leather clad men constricting a horse's nutsack? I'd Google it, but I'm too afraid of what I might find....

Montana & Wyoming Day 6 - Miles City, MT to Bozeman, MT

It is perhaps unsurprising, that none of us slept particularly well. It wasn't the quality of the rooms, which were fine, nor the ineffectiveness of the air con, which was aging, but just about working. No, the reason we all slept badly, is that some bright spark decided the best way to design a motel by a busy road is like this:

After dragging ourselves out of our rooms, we were greeted with a breakfast that can only be described as being cooked by Satan himself. The bacon was so crispy, it actually snapped in half as I tried to pick a piece up. Abandoning this (along with overcooked smeggs - fake eggs, that are called smeggs, for reasons we won't go into here), I opted for the "healthy" option of a bagel, muffin and yoghurt.

Our day of filming was shorter and sweeter than most. We started our journey west, covering a few interesting features such as Pompey's Pillar, before landing at Livingston.

(apologies for the delay - here is the second half:)

Livingston is like the land that time forgot, except it's an airport. They were missing basic things like hot coffee, flat screen TV's, magazines, oh and electricity. Yep. We landed, they unraveled the pump to fuel the helicopter with some Jet A fuel, and it just went click. The pump didn't start. At this point they discovered the power was out in the local vicinity. I find it somewhat incredible that they only discovered there was no power when they were trying to fuel something. Obviously the poor old dear behind the counter had been sitting in the dark for the last few hours oblivious. Strange.

We waited. It felt like an eternity. Colin was miles and miles behind us, and we had to wait for him to catch up. My first lunch consisted of two bananas and a handful of nuts, this was washed down by a warm can of Monster energy drink. Loverly. :s After that I attempted dozing, but in the stifling un-airconditioned heat I soon gave up and ended up watching the rest of the Sherlock Holmes film with RDJ. Pretty decent, in a light-hearted action adventure kind of way.

Eventually Colin arrived, and we set off to lunch at the Ribbentrop, ahem, sorry, I mean the Rib 'n' Chop which seems to be a Montana chain. Richard and I decided to feast on the animal that had spent so long eluding us from our aerial perch: the buffalo. Buffalo burgers are darned tasty things! A bit gamey, and not as strong a flavour as beef, but decent nonetheless.

It's hard to take pictures up in the helicopter, as there's always something going on. Here's a quick on I managed to grab. In  America they make fields round, as there is so much space, it' makes them easier to irrigate I suppose. The corners are just abandoned land - imagine that in the UK!

A short flight to Bozeman, where we're going to be staying for the next three days and we checked into our hotel. I asked for a room near the gym, at which point I was laughed at (quite rightly), but the rest of the team: "let me get this right", asked Colin, "you want a room that's near the gym, so you don't have to walk so far to get there?". Guffawing ensued. I ended up in the room directly opposite. With a run up, I could actually jump from my room into the gym.

So to the gym I went. Despite the late and very filling lunch, I felt like going for a run. Half an hour on the treadmill, at a steady 6.5 mph, I thought. That'll do the trick. Having spent half the day crammed in a helicopter, and the other half sweating like John Prescott in a pie shop, I was feeling pretty out of shape by the time my running shoes hit the rubber. But off I went, and my god, it felt torturous. After 15 minutes I could feel myself struggling, and by 25 minutes I could feel the buffalo burger threatening to make a reappearance. I heard a good expression recently: pain is weakness leaving the body. I decided though, that buffalo leaving the body is probably a step too far, and so a minute later I stopped.

Dinner was a very civilised affair at a local restaurant. I've decided I am a beer heathen: I like cold lager, preferably European, but budweiser, coors, or even a miller will do. These weren't on tap in the restaurant, and I had a choice of ales. I settled for something that was sort of OK, a light ale I think. For someone who likes lager quite a lot, I'm really not into any other beer. Richard and Colin found this quite amusing, after I sent the first one back having ordered an ale that was simply gross. Hey ho.

Montana & Wyoming Day 5 - Glasgow, MT to Miles City, MT

Awaking from about 9 hours sleep, I almost jumped out of bed, filled with energy. Last night I flopped into bed and just fell asleep - I didn't even get undressed or crawl under the covers. Either this film making malarkey is taking it out of me, or the combination of 10oz steak and several pints of beer proved fatal!

Breakfast got off to a slight misfire. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but we ended up split into two groups, each one having scouted for the other before sitting down. This was followed by a senile old waitress, who carried over our breakfast, a plate in each hand, and the third resting on her bosom. And not in a good way. Think Jabba the Hutt more than Dolly Parton.

Over breakfast we discussed the arduous heat that was afflicting us. It's hot in America at the moment. I mean really hot. So hot that this happens:

Yep, that happened today (full disclosure: that is not my photo - our helicopter flies low, but there's a limit!)

And so, our acting sergeant in chief, ex-RAF man Simon Cookson, taught us an old army trick to keep cool whilst flying: the sweat rag. The premise is simple, take a bit of cloth (like a handkerchief), not too dense, preferably a light cotton of some sort. You take the rag, you moisten it, then you wrap it around your neck. The end result, if done right, should look something like this:

It looks like I'm wearing a bib, it's actually just a really bad choice of t-shirt to wear for this photo.

Why, might you ask, do we need a sweat rag? Well, today, and yesterday, it reached 38 degrees celcius in the cabin. And it stays that way. For hours. Our record is 42 degrees. Yeah. It gets hot. And when you are wearing a helmet, headset, and covered in various control panels, you end up feeling like you being slowly grilled alive!

Our day of filming saw us take off and head for Sidney, which we arrived at two hours and 5 minutes later. Two hours from Glasgow to Sidney? Alas, the Glasgow we stayed at was more dire than it's hellhole of a namesake in Scotland, and Sidney looked pretty Mad Max-esque: by that I mean post apocalyptic. Still, we saw some awesome sights yet again. Abandoned shacks among still working oil derricks. The owners, as Richard pointed out, have no doubt long since moved to their new homes in the Cayman Islands.

Lunch at Sidney was a pleasant affair. We normally try and forage for food somewhere in the local vicinity. Midday is the only point in the day where I am completely at a loose end. Simon is busy fueling the bird, Richard is making notes and reporting back to base. I have nothing to do. So I do what comes naturally: find a way to fill my stomach. This usually involves finding a courtesy car, getting a restaurant recommendation, and hoping we don't end up with enough food to feed Italy. For a month.

This time though, the courtesy car was already gone. "Don't worry", exclaimed the woman behind the counter, "you can take my car", as she thrust the keys to her car, house, and all her worldly belongings into my hands. The hands of a stranger and foreigner she had met only minutes before. Can you imagine that happening in England? Or indeed anywhere else? They say Americans can be paranoid, with their guns and what not. But there's a very trusting and over-the-top-trying-to-be-helpful-and-please manner that is frankly awesome. And so we took this woman's Chevy Suburban, complete with her kids booster seat, down to the golf course to lunch.

I ordered a club sandwich and coleslaw. I then discovered that in America, coleslaw is served sweet.

Gross.

After forgetting my doggy box of half a sandwich in this poor woman's car (which I realised hours later, much to the delight of my colleagues), we headed off towards our destination: Miles City. On the way we filmed the Badlands, some terrific rock formations called the Medicine Rocks, and I continued to marvel at how varied and pretty the Montana landscape is.

Our final treat, before the day's end, was a trip to Walmart. At long last! Walmart, you see, is a source of all my tackiest of clothing. I decided this trip would be no exception, and promptly kitted myself like so:

America. Fuck yeah!

I'm now drinking my second cup of real tea, made in a Kettle (thank you Colin for the tea, and aunty Clare for the kettle - which I have now used for the first time in 4 years!). In five days we've traveled the whole way across the top of the state. And what a state it is!

Montana & Wyoming Day 4 - Great Falls, MT to Glasgow, MT

Day four has been short and sweet so far. Flying east, we decided to wait for the sun to get out of the way (it's easiest to shoot forwards and you don't want to shoot into the sun!), and so had a leisurely 8:30 start, a real lazy call time compared to the last few days. Over breakfast we had a good banter over some more delicious breakfast sausage patties. I had my second healthy thing ever in america - some fruit! Perhaps I am able to resist the lure of american food after all?

Despite deciding to start late, we then some mild weather warnings, and so were underway before midday. Although we left the Rocky mountains behind yesterday, today we had some of the best filming of the shoot. A deserted ghost town, an eagle chasing a smaller bird of prey, a group of a dozen elks roaming around in the prairies. For only a few hours filming, we got a bucket load of shots.

Now we're just resting up in Glasgow airport, waiting for Colin to catch up with us. This is a small railway town, so not expecting much out of food and accommodation - let's see!

Here's a shot of me and my rig: