In September and October, 2014, Elaine and Mike Von der Porten

embarked on the second part of a venture to Montana. Here are

some notes and photos.

Day 1, Tues, Sept. 23

On Tuesday, the bus to Martinez was fine.

It starts north of Eureka, so we're one of the last pickup points.

In Martinez, we met our friend, Leslie, for a stop to see the Martinez Beavers (didn't
find any) and for a great, leisurely dinner.

The Coast Starlight north was an hour late into Martinez, so not so bad. Then, it
lost an hour between there and Sacramento! I don't know why.

I awoke to the train wheels beginning to screech as the track changed from the straight
Central Valley alignments to those of the mountains around Lake Shasta.

Since we were late, we got to see that part in daylight. It's very pretty and areas we
knew about from our visits with friends Bruce and Cindy out of Weed. The train has
some dramatic areas including the switchback around Dunsmuir and we saw where the freight
derail happened a number of years ago (Cantara Loop, see page 6).

At Klamath Falls, two docents came aboard from the County Historical Society. They
provided on and off narration through the crossover to Eugene, one of the best rail
trips in the west. The docents got off in Eugene for a planned 5-hour layover, then
headed south for the same. The Society does this 365 days per year. That's quite
a volunteer commitment -- a 14 hour assignment!

Day 2 - Weds, Sept. 26

We had a bit of rain through the Cascades, but otherwise, nice.

Arrived Portland a couple of hours late - early dinnertime. We headed to an Italian
restaurant we know - streetcar out and back.

Day 3 - Thurs, Sept. 25

A bit of rain overnight, but clearing.

We took the streetcar to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It's almost all
hands-on. Clearly, it's attractive to kids 4 to 18. We found some of the labs most
interesting. They're staffed by volunteers including docents separating fossils from
their matrices. No glass walls here, just tables, so you get to talk to them all.

Back to the streetcar and to Portland Union Station.

The Empire Builder starts as two sections: one from Portland and one from Seattle. The
Portland part isn't very busy. We spent the entire daylight hours in the Observation
Car. This part of the trip is on the Washington side of the Columbia River, so
we were on the right (south) side of the train with great view of it all.

The one thing to check if you're taking Amtrak is whether there is a dining car
on the train! It turns out this leg has the dining car on the Seattle part of the
train, so food options were not what we planned! We always carry back-up, so
we were fine.

The observation car overlooked the locomotive, so it was almost like riding on top of the
locomotive!

We arrived in Spokane around 9 PM with a 10:30 departure. We got a bit of a walk
around that area of the city and then watched as the Seattle train (no. 8) came
in and joined up with our train (no. 28).

It's a bit of uncoupling, switching, coupling and connecting to make it all
work.

Day 4 - Friday, Sept. 26

We arrived about 20 minutes late at Whitefish, MT. The bad news is that
Amtrak adjusted its schedule (we knew this a few weeks ago), so the arrival
at Whitefish was 4:45 AM.

Our dedicated friend, Dick, had driven through rain to be there to
pick us up! Then, an hour-plus south (through not so much rain) to
Polson and a chance to catch up on some sleep. Dick is out this late AM
doing food deliveries for elderly who don't get out, so we'll catch up with him shortly.

flowers hanging at a Polson market -- and around town

Then, off to Whitefish to see the town. It's a great tourist mecca which serves the nearby ski
slopes. We even found a local Octoberfest with fun food and music.

Then off to Big Fork for dinner with Dick and his friends who are involved with

environmental research led by Notre Dame University.

Day 5 - Sat., Sept. 27

Off to Missoula. This was the day of the homecoming game. We didn't get there in time
for the parade, and seeing the downtown area was easy because the crowds were at the game
or inside watching the game.

Out to the Joosts just outside of Alberton, MT. Great to see them again.

Day 6 - Sun., Sept. 28

Headed east. Stopped at Deer Lodge. This is a small town right off the freeway that has
several museums tied together. The old prison museum is the cornerstone. They have prisoner
made items for sale and the crafts store across the street is the same, but the "crafts" are
fine ones including horse hair belts at $495.00.

The main stop was the early cattle ranching National Park site. This is the

Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. The family originally ran
cattle over 10 million (no error!) acres. The buildings are well preserved. We took the
ranger-led tour of the home.

Off to Butte where we stayed in the Copper King Mansion - home to Mr. Clark who became very
rich from his mining and other investments. The home is owned by a family which has been running
B&B rooms for 23 years. It's like staying in a museum. In fact, we were ushered out after
our tour because a VIP group was coming through.

Some of the details such as the plaster treatments are really interesting.

We visited the big pit which has consumed much of town and then headed up the hill to a monument
to the biggest mining disaster in the area.

Day 7 - Monday, Sept. 29,

Butte then to Bozeman.

We spent most of the day at the World of Mining Museum in Butte. There is an underground tour
which takes people into the mine. The vertical shafts were sealed off, but then the Montana
Tech classes dug a horizontal entrance into the 60' deep level, so you get into the old mine.

Much to see in the headframe, equipment, reconstructed town, etc. This place must be a magnet for old
items found in the region.

We had lunch at Montana Tech just up the hill.

On our way out, we stopped at the Minerals Museum at Montana Tech.

Then, off to Three Forks where we had an appointment at the Imerys Talc operation. What we didn't know
was that our tour guide would be Jake Stakke, the manager of the three Montana operations. It's
quite a plant. Did you know that baby powder is among the coarsest talc products made?

Then, off to Bozeman where we're staying for the night.

Montana Trip header - and link to MS Word File