12APRIL2016 @ Huntley, MT

Today my first indication of sunrise was seeing the sunlight reflected from the light underside of the Canadian Geese flying overhead.  That set the tone for a great day ... one of the best I've ever known.  The current was smooth, the wind was light and over my shoulder, the temperature was in the 60s and the river was gorgeous.  Even the river banks were pretty.  No ... all river banks are NOT pretty, but for the entire day I saw zero discarded bottles ... zero Styrofoam anything ... zero aluminum cans.  Yellowstone County folks treat the river right.  There ARE concrete chunks used as rip-rap and old brown iron can be seen but none of the discarded items are new ... even the concrete chunks show meaningful water rounding.  I saw turkeys, one coyote, bald eagles, osprey, marmots as well as ducks and geese.  Almost every duck is a mallard, the most beautiful duck extant.  I was surprised to pass Pompey's Pillar in the morning, not knowing that it is close to Billings.  My first river view of it was awesome and felt somewhat similar to my first view of the leaning tower in Pisa.  Later I came to the Waco dam.  It was as uneventful as the Huntley dam and for the same reason ... it had a bypass channel.  I love those bypass channels.  As day was waning I found a farmer's irrigation equipment and spread my tarp over it, staked down the edge and had a very pleasant bed.  Sleep found me hearing both trains and the river gurgle.  With no roads to intersect, the train sound was just the pleasant rumble.