17APRIL2016 near Rosebud, MT

The day started with ice and ended with a bedbug (or something ... vermin anyway).  Throwing off the covers I emerged from Zane's camper feeling refreshed ... and thankful for not only a great night's sleep but also for being able to get back on the river without the delay of breaking down a tent.  So everything was icy ... even a puddle on the way to the canoe.  At the canoe I was quick to secure the gear and get underway.  My paddle was encrusted in ice ... and me without gloves.  Ay-yi-yi it burns to grab that thing and get going.  The sun was four fingers high when I pushed off but it was my first view of it.  Throughout the day the sun appeared through thin clouds then disappeared for extensive periods ... for over half the day it was totally obscured.  As cold as it was there was very little wind until afternoon and of course, the temperature climbed steadily as the day went on.  Wind got serious after noon and in the final two miles I paddled backward rather than attempt to keep the front end in any particular direction.  Early on I saw twenty whitetail deer and through the day I saw pelicans, bald eagles, osprey, geese, ducks and a coyote.  On one other occasion I again saw several deer.  The river continues to grow so the current continues to be benevolent ... and that is evermore fun.  Rosebud is a beautiful little town.  It hugs the river and compliments the river.  It's on a 20-foot bank and is Rockwellian.  Three ladders help the citizens down the bank for fishing, strolling, sitting, coffeeing, rock skipping.  Atop the bank are a couple of coffee-and-view tables.  There is also a unique sign - UGGA BUGGA - painted across a red garage-sized building.  Yep, there is a story there.  At 1PM I pulled in and stretched at Mike Whacker's ranch.  Some people you just immediately like and that is Mike Whacker.  His device told us to not expect rain until 5PM ... and his machine was right.  Only double-digit yards above the Miles City water intake is a side channel and an easy place to park a craft ... which I did.  I slid it over drift logs and completely out of the water, climbed the steep bank and hoofed into Miles City.  The Olive Hotel - stayed there many times in the 1980s - welcomed me and in short order I had dined (yes, first) then bathed.  Bathed, not showered.  A cold day on the river ... phiwh ... soaking does best and soak I did.  Totally naked I stretched out under the sheets ... all who know a cold day on the river understand that, too.  It was maybe ten minutes when I rearranged myself and saw the bug.  Sure that it was a tick I could not catch it ... it's not a tick.  I caught it, looked at it and wondered "Is this a bedbug?"  It looks like the internet pictures.  I affixed it to a sticky part of a note pad, wrote my name, room number and date on it and delivered it to the desk personnel.  They assigned me a different room in a different building.  Bedbug?  Well, it was a bug in a bed anyway.  My stiff shoulder and the rest of me welcomed sleep.