Motherland Stomp Day 5

Good stuff!! So I awoke with the sunrise! I was alive and so happy that I slept the whole night. I actually got one of the better nights sleep so far! It was cold on the prairie and that made me sleep like a log. I got up took some pics and said good morning to the cows. I watched the sun come up and said thank you to the land for letting me crash for the night!!


I was in a great mood again! Yet another lesson learned, don't drive too far or you will not be able to find a crash zone... But, then again, maybe you will. Calabro told me to just sleep next to my car but I still am reserving that for another night.. But with each day, I tend to learn this road life and slowly peel away the layers of Urban living. It is truly a different way of life out here. The people are friendly and healthy. The only out of shape people are tourists. This is a different America from the one I know.


Life is not easy out here either, people work very hard and live sometimes in tough situations. There are not many jobs unless you live in one of these cities. So, how do you make a living???

I drove around for a while and tried to find a good place to put some food in my belly since I did not eat much yesterday. I figure that on this trip, I will pay for one good meal a day and eat PB&J to make up for this terrible gas crisis. I thought that the prices were gonna be a bit less out here but they seem to be the same. I paid $3.99 in Minnesota but it went back up to 4.29 in Glendive. They have a lower grade of fuel here too. 85.5 Ethanol???

Anyhow, I found a great little greasy spoon in Great Falls in the old downtown area which was much better than the chain metropolis I drove through the night before. Great stuff... This lil' old lady was running around serving everyone with a smile. It made me feel very much at home.




I got over to the park by 7:45am. All the stuff from the night before kinda worked to my advantage. Getting up with the sunrise allows you time to pack up the gear, get a good breakfast/coffee and still hit the park long before the groms arrive. It is also obviously much cooler in the morning, quiet and pleasant. It gives me time to fuck around on the streetcourse and learn some lines in the bowl before the locals arrive.


Riverside Park in Great Falls, MT is amazing!! This is definitely a destination park for any serious skateboarder and Grindline addict!! The park was designed by a pro dude that does skatecamps all over the world and is some big time snowboarder, he trains Olympic atheletes and stuff. (i have to look up his name),


However, Grindline got the bid to do the build and slightly changed the entire design. And thank goodness!!! This park has so many features that I will forget to do some.. But is a perfect park for any level skater, and allows for growth. They have ample street features with all kinds of transition as well. There is a super fun snake run that dumps into small bowls and even a micro cradle. there are micro spines bowled and hips on the edges so you can swing into the snakerun and roll into anything without death.



The coping on the micro stuff is purposely crafted as noping so the kids can just learn to get on top and roll in. It helped me too because I suck at rolling in. You can just carve and flow the whole thing with no problem...

There are also more pump bumps and little banks around the outside of the park to flow into two mini ditch like bowls with not coping. There is a tiny fish pond and a larger ditch that is even left rough like a real ditch. It can even be challenging. Thank you sooooooooo much Grindline!


And so the main event, the big flow. It has two sides, that are divided by a full-pip funnel! Pros can loop this thing, I do not know how but it is possible. There the west side of the funnel has mellow transitions that range from 4'- 9' that are mostly topped with metal coping. There is a cradel, a spine and lots of hips as well as a Burnside bank. Cool, cool. cool.


Once you loop the funnel (joke) and transfer into the East end you will find more gnar!! This side is my favorite of the park and is topped completely with pool block. The bowl is a long peanut that dumps into a nice 10' deep end with about 3-4' of vert!! Yes, this place is RAD!! The small end is about 5' with a kind of crows nest on one side that wraps into a nice cradle with a over-vert flat wall that continues to the funnel. I kept riding up that flat wall thinking it was just vert when it was oververt - like a pipe cut off at 11 o'clock.

In the mid section there is a half cradle that goes into a flat wall with the biggest death box I have ever seen that hips over into the deepend that features a loveseat.\


I was a bit timid at first in this bowl. I hit the pool block on once side and it nearly ripped my foot off. Now I am a lover of pool coping and like it gnar, but this one spot was soooooooo GRRRLLLLLLP. Loved it. I got some nice lines in there when some locals showed up.

I kid named "Lovechunk" because he does the love seat and this totally cool old surfer, snoboard dude named Dave Simmons. His daughter was also there, a cool skater snowboarder. I had a great time talking with these super friendly people. The world sometimes seems so cold and cruel, but there are warm people in it. You just have to go to the right place!!

So they were telling me a story about Tony Hawk and how this place is called "Tony Hawk's Home Town". It is a long story that I'll tell you about sometime. Pretty funny stuff. Basically this link will give you a little insight into what happened when he and his secret skatepark tour rolled into Great Falls. The cops do not like skateboarders, do not care about anyone and hate hate, etc.

I headed out north towards my next destination which was this awesome place and to drive up and around, down into Whitefish, MT by evening...

So on the way up to the secret place, I stopped in a small town to check out this totally cool museum. There are all kinds of great things in there including dinosaur bones, frontier artifacts and local legends. One of the legends involves a skeleton that was unearthed in the 20th century. It features two bullet holes in the head and several arrowheads embedded in the chest and pelvis.





Yes, the story goes that this trapper dissapeared one year and never returned to town. It is evident that he was attacked, maybe by Blackfeet Indians or?? It just is a reminder of the old West and how things were back then... Regardless if it was Euro-Indian battles or Rancher disputes, people solved things a certain way. I guess they still do but today, you get caught a lot more often. Violence is violence though, it is sad but it is within all of us. If we are defending a loved one, drunk and disorderly or just plain nuts. People are dangerous. I sleep with my crowbar in my tent just in case some some sicko comes around. I am definitely not looking for trouble and will avoid it at all times.


So, after more driving and more Angela's Ashes I entered Blackfoot territory, I had never been to a reservation before. This is the route to St Marys, which is the entrance into the most beautiful place in the world!! This is at least one of them. According to Calabro (world traveler) and myself (apprentice). If you ever get up to Montana, you have to do the $25 drive through Glacier Nat'l park. You stop, get out of the car, hike look, take pictures and contemplate. I took over 300 pics and wore out my batteries in one day. You just have to go to a spot like this at least once in your life.

I can not explain the beauty of the land through words or even photographs. As I was hiking and looking I kept hearing people say, there is not competition when nature is concerned. The landscape here, the rivers, lakes, mountains, pines, animal and plant life is better than any painting, any photo. If you want to go to Paris, Rome, or to see the Pyramids, do so, but come to Glacier Nat'l park. You will see great cathedrals, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Giza, all in the land.



Despite all of the amazingness of the day, I made it into Whitefish, MT by sundown. I actually found another free campsite. This time I was able to set up and not sleep in my car. I fulfilled another dream of mine - to sleep on a mountain. I drove to Big Mountain, MT, drove up the mountain finally became wise to those picnic signs. I found my spot and there I slept.

I decided not to wait until tomorrow to hit the park up. I needed to rest and contemplate the landscape and my travels. As the sun set I began to hear the most beautiful warbeling sounds of birds. I thought they were Magpies but Calabro said that they are not in MT. Well, maybe fairys...