First Jedediah Smith Trail 1822 — 1824

Day 33: September 17th, 2009 Hamilton — Missoula

Map Hamilton to Missoula

Also today I totally sleep in. All in all, it was already midnight when I went to bed yesterday. Just before eight in the morning, I get up and get myself ready. Into the bargain I realize that something is wrong with my throat. Well, hopefully I have not caught a cold!

I put my stuff into the car, then I check out. At the reception is the same lady as yesterday evening and I ask again for directions to “The Kitchen”. But the directions I remember in my head are correct. So I hit the road in direction of downtown.

I already fear that I am not able to find a parking spot. But there is plenty of space available. Like she described, the restaurant is directly on the left after turning onto 2nd Street. The restaurant is a real hot tip. There are mainly locals and regular guests and only a few transient guests.

I order again my usual breakfast, whereas they only have country potatoes instead of hashbrowns to chose. Then I will try these! The breakfast is plenty and good and with great bacon!

Also the coffee service is awesome. All in all, this is definitely a restaurant to highly recommend. I pay and drive over to the next gas station.

Highway 93/S 1st St, Hamilton, MT

Highway 269, MT

Around 11am I am finally ready to leave the town in direction of Thompson Falls.

Highway 269/Main St, Stevensville, MT

First, I take the smaller Highway 269 and then turn onto Highway 209 in northern direction at Stevensville. But also around here is a lot of traffic and you are not really able to drive slowly.

Lower Woodchuck Rd, MT

Lower Woodchuck Rd, MT

Lower Woodchuck Rd, MT

Eventually, I am able to be on backroads and gravel roads with a nice view of the valley. But this enjoyment does not take long, because I am blocked by private property very soon.

Highway 93, MT

Therefore I must drive everything back and to Highway 93. On this one I pass Lolo and continue up to Missoula. Because I am still good in time, I decide to make a stop at Walmart, which is only two miles away from my planned route. There I buy some bottled water — and a whole bunch of CDs, especially the more expensive ones for $11.88, because you don’t pay taxes here!

Then I am driving back to Highway 93.

Blue Mountain Rd, MT

On this highway, I continue to Blue Mountain Road. There I realize, that I have forgotten once again to hook up my laptop to power. The battery is almost empty. Therefore, I quickly connect it and drive on.

Big Flat Rd, MT

Big Flat Rd, MT

Big Flat Rd, MT

Big Flat Rd, Clark Fork, MT

Big Flat Rd, MT

Then I continue on Big Flat Road. Soon, this road turns into a gravel road and runs slowly up the hillslope. With all this rattling, my laptop once again looses its power connection. Well, this is something I am already used to. The connection with this bloody Kensington adapter is not really well designed. But even when working on it for a while, I am not able to get the laptop back to charging.

I stop again and again, but every time after a short time of rattling, the laptop is not charging anymore. It seems like the cable to my laptop connector has a loose contact. Therefore, I quickly exchange it. All in all, I have one as a spare especially for a situation like this. But this did not solve my problem!

I fight this situation on and on until I arrive at a spot where once ran a bridge over the Bitterroot River. There is now no chance anymore to cross over. But I use the opportunity to take a closer look at my problem: It seems that the problem is not the cable but the solid adapter part! This one as spare is still laying at home, because I thought I would never need this one. There is nothing on it that can break…

But it is possible to open this part and to my surprise I see that there is a small PCB installed with a Dallas 2502 in a TO–92 case. It seems, like this one is a diode or Zener diode. The solder joints to the middle pin does not look too well. Therefore I take out my soldering iron and try to resolder it — whereas it stays with a try for the next two hours. The only thing that melts is the hot glue. I solder and work on it, but I am not able to get it fixed. Finally, it is completely broken and nothing works anymore, not even intermittent.

Big Flat Rd, Clark Fork, MT

Southside Rd, Clark Fork, MT

Southside Rd, MT

I give up and continue driving without laptop. Slowly the time is approaching four in the afternoon. The trip continues on this gravel road for another half an hour. Then I am blocked again by private property and must drive all the way back to the main highway. This throws me now completely out of my planned schedule. Now I plan to drive the highway up to the exit into the mountains at Frenchtown and decide there where to go next.

When I arrive there, it is already 5pm. Now it doesn’t make sense to start another bigger trip. A little bit frustrated, I turn onto Frontage Road in direction of Missoula. At least, I don’t want to drive this short stretch on the Interstate.

Highway 10/W Broadway St, Missoula, MT

N Orange St, Missoula, MT

But I miss the Motel 6 exit and end up in downtown Missoula and must force myself through the evening rush hour traffic. Eventually, I am back on the Interstate. Slowly I start to miss my laptop with my navigation software for orientation. Not even my handheld GPS is helpful now, because I also don’t know where the Motel 6 was exactly. And the motel guide is somewhere buried deep in my truck.

Back on the Interstate, I try my luck by just driving west and already fear that I have chosen the wrong direction. But to my pleasure I see the Motel 6 sign along the highway. So I am on the correct road. Now I get my orientation back and start to remember the area. Around 6pm I finally check in at the Motel 6.

Then I start again my laptop in the room: The connector at my laptop still works. When using the power supply, everything is fine. That’s at least something. First I start to search around which kind of computer shops are around here. I decide to try Staples and after this at Walmart. Maybe they have a cheap power adapter.

So, first I drive over to Staples. But just next to it is a Best Buy, which the guy at another Walmart recommended to look for a Firewire cable once. Therefore I take a look at this store first. Of course, they don’t have any car adapter or this special Kensington adapter. But they have charger, which cost between $70 and $150. This is just a bit too much for these last couple of days. Therefore I drive on to Staples. But they have even less stuff and the prices are around the same. There were even Firewire cables also at Best Buy, but they run over $30! Anyways, I receive at Staples the recommendation to look at a Radio Shack — really, there is one around here?!

I must just cross the street and the store is directly next to the Outback Steakhouse. It is directly integrated in this building. I say thank you and drive over. Actually, I don’t think they are still open just before 7pm. But to my surprise, the store is still open. As usual, there are again these typical sales guys, who want to sell you all kind of stuff. But they also don’t know my adapter. After he has taken a look at my open adapter he says that this part is probably broken. I skip my comment to explain him that it is not broken because it is open…

He tries to sell me a regular car adapter, which I wanted to look for at Walmart. This one I will most likely not buy at a Radio Shack. There I will probably pay between $100 and $200. I say thank you and tell him, that this is not worth for these last couple of days.

Then I drive on to Walmart. There I am indeed able to find a 150W adapter for only $30. Well, this is exactly what I was looking for. It seems like this adapter is only able to deliver these 150W for minutes. But if I am not forced to charge my laptop battery and there is only the navigation software running, this should be sufficient. Again, I will be stopped at the CD shelf and buy a lot of them, which are still missing. It is really good that they have increased the toll free limit this much. Otherwise I would be in real trouble. Let’s see what the Silversmith will also have for me.

Then I drive back to my motel, get my stuff for reading before I drive the same roads back. Actually, I could have taken everything with me before. But this way I had the chance to wash my hands before dinner.

To my surprise I must wait for a table at the Outback Steakhouse, even when the clock shows almost eight in the evening. So I just write a text message back home that my planned route is changed a bit. But even during writing, my table gets ready and I can walk over. But somehow my server does not show up. Another one simply takes care of me and gets me something to drink. Then, after a while, my server shows up. No one has told her that she has a new guest! She apologizes very much and offers her hand as apology.

Somehow, she is really nice and really tries everything now to make things perfect. Even when my Coke is just half empty, she already brings the next one. For my semi–celebration of my trip, I order a filet. All in all, I will (hopefully) reach the end of my trail, the Flathead Post at Thompson Falls, tomorrow. Then I will just take highways instead of backroads tomorrow. Then I should also be able to reach Bozeman.

Around a quarter past nine I pay and drive back to my motel. There I do my bookkeeping first and throw in the next CD. Then I check if I have accidentally bought the same CDs again. But everything is fine. Then I start writing my diary. Today I must go to bed earlier, because somehow my throat is starting to ache. But I must still reroute my trip at the laptop. It seems that I should be able to make it within nine hours. That should work out. Then I will also pump up my tires tomorrow because the driving on gravel is now finally over. Here in Montana, it is pretty annoying with the washboard and rocky roads to drive on!

While doing my tasks, I watch again the Weather Channel. Texas is still drowned in heavy rain. Lucky me, that I am still driving this far up north. It seems like I will catch the rain not before the end of my trip, maybe one or two days before I get home. This is still okay. And it is also still hot. Temperatures up to 90 degrees is very unusual in this region at this time of the year. When I think back that I had the first snow around this time in Evanston…

Around eleven, I am laying in bed today. Because the water in the bathroom runs very noisy, I decide again to use my ear plugs during the night…

The next day is in preparation…