Summer Adrift Episode 11: Ghost Towns of Montana
Welcome to episode 11 of A Summer Adrift!
Feeling content with everything we’d accomplished in Idaho, we decided to relocate to Montana. Not moments after crossing into the state, over the radio Peter told us that he thought their van Blitz was having some problems.
The breakdown, not a mile into Montana, 35mm
The road we were taking into Montana was a steep pass. As soon as we started our descent Peter said Blitz (who is automatic) stopped switching gears.
After talking through a few possibilities, Peter started to take a look around the engine bay and undercarriage trying to see if anything was obviously a-miss.
Peter trying to figure out why Blitz isn’t changing gears, 35mm
After poking around for a bit nothing was glaringly obvious, so we found a near by trailhead to limp to so we could get off the road and take a deeper look.
The next morning Peter dismantled as much of the transmission as he could from our roadside spot. He found that many of the internal seals for the transmission had melted. This was devastating news. It meant that they needed to have their entire transmission removed, if not replaced altogether. The nearest shop that could see them in the near future was all the way out in Bend, Oregon.
They made the plan to pick up a Uhaul so they could trailer the van to the shop and get the necessary repairs done.
Emotional support cat, Levi, 35mm
After we helped them retrieve the Uhaul we said sad farewells and agreed to meet back up as soon as they were able to!
Our little camp spot by the river
Chase, Aimee, Owen and I all headed towards Missoula to take some time to mentally recover from the break down.
Roxanne and Neowise
Neowise
As silly as that sounds, when anyone in your group breaks down, you feel like you’ve broken down. We’ve been in their position countless times before and know how low it can make you feel.
While we sat still we got to enjoy comet Neowise in the night sky!
View from the backseat in Chase & Aimee’s van, 35mm
MAK looking around a ghost town
MAK with her first crystal find
The spoils
Chase lazing about
MAK and her best find at the crystal park
MAK inspecting a hole for crystals
In a day we explored one of the biggest ghost towns Owen or I had ever seen, and went to a park funded by a local geology organization where you can go dig for crystals. The crystals that come out of this area are unique and we were lucky enough to find a few while looking through some of the preexisting holes.
None of us came prepared to dig, but the 30 mins we said we’d spend there turned into hours! It was fun to hear stories of Chase’s youth from each and everything we did that day.
Chase showing Levi some passing cows
MAK looking around one of the homes left by the miners
The next day, we took the scenic route to get back to Butte which took us through more ghost towns filled with buildings and belongings left behind to return to the land.
It’s not often that we come across ghost towns let alone this many and in this good of condition.
It’s fun to wander around ghost towns and imagine the way that people used to live all the way out here back then. To this day, the nearest town or city is a long way away, it would be a challenging commute even now for people to live here, but back then people lived differently.
A view of our homes from the home of someone who lived here a long time ago
Aimee exploring the charcoal kilns, 35mm
When the mines shut down, there was no longer a need for the kilns and they too were decommissioned. One of the kilns was reconstructed to look as it did when it was in use. They even filled it with logs in the same pattern they would be if they were still operational today.
Owen enjoying the view, 35mm
The kilns, 35mm
After the light rainstorm, you could smell the aroma of burnt wood coming from each of the massive brick structures, even after all these years.
View of the valley, 35mm
After leaving the area, we went straight to a CVS to get Tetanus shots after Owen stepped on a rusty nail while walking around the old mine. After it happened we all realized we were behind in our shot records and went in to get the situation rectified before lock jaw set in for Owen.
Thank you all so much for reading! We will see you next week!
MAK
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Our work life is powered by Battle Born! They make the best lithium batteries on the market and are a crucial part of our power and solar system that makes working from the road possible! It took an incredible amount of power to create Summer Adrift, and we have Battle Born to thank for making it possible.
We’ve now been living our of our flat-bed Four Wheel Camper for 2 years now. FWC builds comfortable and durable campers that can fit on any truck. We can confidently say that a FWC is the most comfortable and livable rig we’ve had in all of our years on the road!
Maps are your best friend when you’re on the road. On X makes it easy to find open routes and trails near you no matter where we are or the time of year. On X allows us to access saved maps to locate ourselves in the wild. The GPS works perfectly offline, even when service is nonexistent.
MAK’s favorite underwear (or shall I say innerwear) company anywhere! After a long search to find, comfortable, technical and sustainable underwear the search is finally over! Made of ethically sourced Marino Wool, Branwyn underwear are ready for anything you could through at them. Use code BFN15 for 15% off your next order!
Main Line Overland is the shop that built our incredible rig, Roxanne. They are incredibly knowledgable of everything overlanding. We chose to work with them because they build thoughtful, reliable and durable vehicles that can get you to anywhere you ant to be!
Tires can be some of the best insurance when you are out in remote places. We love and trust our Toyo ATIII’s to get us in and get us out safely no matter the terrain. They’re amazing in mud, moon dust, loose rocks, slick rock, you name it!
