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!