The Secrets of Hills - Part 1: Finding Charity

Call me crazy (many do) but I am a glutton for hills.  As I was pedaling up yet another pass - a relatively modest 2,200' (vertical) ascent over an unmarked Badger Pass west of Dillon this morning, I was trying to sort out and understand this passion.  And I think it is this: hills hold their secrets well.

One of the most intriguing aspects of hills is the lack of knowledge as to how they truly end, and how all the twists, turns and subtleties of slope and pitch manipulate their secrets.  After all, one typically has a lot of time to ponder them as one is grinding up on  bike.  There is only one certainty about hills that we all know: what goes up must come down.  But how will it go up and down, for that matter? And what hides among the curves awaiting the moment to surprise and delight?  A view? A perspective?  Wildlife? Even a change of weather?

While the trip is not over yet, there have of course been many hills, nay MOUNTAINS!  This is Montana after all.  But these mountains many, have valleys many, and the pathway up and down is not always clear.

Logan Pass was not a true surprise for I have ascended twice previously, but this time the surprise was in the weather - cold, rainy, snowy and showing a mood altogether different and unexpected. But I have already spun that tale.

Take Old Woman's Grave Road.  We were spinning quite easily from Helena last Sunday June 26 along the long, Missouri headwaters valley toward its true source at Three Rivers State Park, when we departed the main road.  Indeed, this Old Woman Grave Road was not well marked. A local resident walking her dog confirmed that this gravelly road was indeed the correct path, given a few twists and turns up ahead, with an emphasis on "up", and a vague description where one can actually find the old woman's grave.  This apparently a story of an early pioneer woman jilted by her runaway fiancee, eking out an existence within these hills, and ultimately being buried here.

Old Woman Grave Road - main coach road between Radersburg and Springville back in the day

Now this is intriguing, as well the condition of the road being a mix of exposed shale ridges, gullies, and packed gravel and clay.  Not an easy ride up, and even the perspective from the main road was deceptive as the hills did not seem that high.  But in this slow passage upward we were rewarded with some stunning views of the granite ridges and visually soft sagebrush uplands, requiring careful navigation of the ruts and gullies, not unlike some old pioneer wagon - as this was the main pioneer road between Radersburg and Springville.  And yes, we finally crested, having paid our respects to the old woman - Charity Dillon (deceased 1870, though the marker states 1872) - in this single spot, high up in these mostly barren hills, with an array of memorial offerings quite unexpected, that we would never have experienced on the flat road of the valley.  The story of Charity Dillon, as expected, is not assured as there are many stories, a legend perhaps, as she kept a travelers house near this location. (Consider this source for more information on her history, whatever you can or want to believe).

Grave of Charity Dillon, aka Charity Allen, and perhaps not even "Charity"

And therein lies just one intrigue of one set of hills, when upon descent, absent the labors of the uphill grind, we can take in the artistic lines and play of light on the landscape, another fleeting capture, perhaps?

Descending - taking in the play of light on the velvet sage.