It was hard to leave that little cabin on Flathead Lake. Partly because it’s on a lake – the views are pretty amazing. But I also loved the cabin because it was so tiny. It felt like the right size house for me and Michael.
But it was time to move on. In the general arc of things, we were now headed for Michigan. My parents live in the little town of Elk Rapids up in the northeast part of the state. We knew that getting there would involve a lot of driving – specifically, a lot of not-fun driving. There’s just not much going on in the middle part of North America. Changing the latitude doesn’t matter; it all sucks. We’ve gone across Texas and Kansas, so I know.
I suppose we could have gone the northern route across Canada, but I met a guy from Saskatchewan once and he said that part of the country is so flat, you can watch your dog run away for three days.
This is all a roundabout way of saying that I did not have high hopes for eastern Montana or the Dakotas. Maybe that was the key? Because I was pleasantly surprised.
Our first stop was the VFW Campground at Tiber Reservoir in north-central Montana. Not much to write home about, but it was pretty clean and pretty quiet. (Also, that reservoir was pretty damn big.)
The next day we continued east, across rolling plains of wheat and hay. Pretty boring. We ended up at Fort Peck Lake, a pretty area just outside the little town of Glasgow. When we were in Glasgow we stopped for gas and a sheriff’s SUV pulled in behind us. I noticed it, was all.
We camped at a free area down by the boat dock. The sites were level and there was a dumpster. There was also a stinky pit toilet and several neighbors, one of whom was extra chatty. As we were cleaning up from dinner a Sheriff’s SUV came rolling by, and the deputy stopped to chat with folks at each campsite.
Turns out he was the same deputy who pulled in behind us at the gas station. He was curious about our setup and we talked shop for a while. In another “small world” moment, the guy was originally from Denver.
The next day was Monday, August 21st, the day of the big solar eclipse. We had a good signal so we streamed the eclipse from the phone as I drove. We were too far north to get a total eclipse, but the sky did get a lot darker. It was cool!
Remember how I said I did not have high hopes for this leg of the journey? Yet we kept camping by these pretty bodies of water. That night was no exception. We found our site at Heart Butte Reservoir (also known as Lake Tschida) in North Dakota on FreeCampsites.net.
As we approached the site a golden eagle flew off from a nearby tree. The lake was teeming with ducks, geese, pelicans, and gulls. We were the only people around. I began to wonder if it was really okay to camp here – it just seemed so nice.
I mean, it was crazy beautiful. And I was shocked to see this much water in North Dakota. Wasn’t this place supposed to be a barren wasteland?
Even better, it was new moon and the skies were looking pretty clear. I got my camera ready, set up the tripod outside. When I went to bed I set my alarm for 1:30am. Then I got up to the most amazing clear sky.
I think this is about as good as I can get with the lens that I have, which is the 18-105mm kit lens that came with the camera. It’s actually quite nice, and it’s my go-to lens. Largest aperture setting is f3.5, though, and for starry-night photos you generally want a fast, wide-angle lens with a max aperture of f2.8 (source: Light Stalking’s article, How to Photograph the Milky Way.)
Nikon lenses like that tend to be a bit spendy. (Here’s the proof!) If photography were my only interest, I’d go for it… assuming I had $1900 burning a hole in my pocket. But seriously, for that kind of money I could buy a single lens… or two kayaks. Or a kayak and a stand-up paddleboard. Or even a new road bike.
Also, $1900 for a lens is kinda crazy. Hell, the camera didn’t even cost that much!
But I digress. I’m actually quite happy with my camera and the lenses I have. And I was super happy with that campsite at Tschida Lake.
I wish we could have stayed here another day. Those all-day drives get old after a day or two. But we were super close to our next stop, one that would give us a much-needed day off: Langford, South Dakota.