We awoke to a charge of electricity. With the luxury of walls to block out the morning light, our morning czar Patrick had no choice but to resort to a flip of the light switch to get us up. After two weeks of subtle awakenings by the emerging sun, a fluorescent light bulb instantly shining in my face was not exactly welcomed, no matter how efficient the thing was. After packing, mopping and a last minute dough nut face stuffing, we cycled out of Townsend and headed to Canyon Ferry Dam.
Thirty-four miles began with a truly cherished stretch of flat valley and into the equally beautiful but less appreciated steep rolling hills. Huge osprey nests, forested hillsides, buffalo, prong horns, old farmsteads and changing vegetation were all fully appreciated by our smooth cycling pace and a long awaited wash of sunshine that replaced the previous day of rain.
Rain.
The sun scoops you out of the ocean and you fall onto our mountains and valleys to grant us valuable drinking water, irrigation, recreation, much appreciated showers and power. My Oregon roots have given me conflict over hydro power. Dams block ancient spawning grounds for salmon, change fragile habitats for riverside species while inundating lands and displacing people and animals from their homes. All the while, the power produced is cheap, renewable and climate neutral. right? Maybe not. I was shocked that even hydro can have large climate changing potential. By inundating vegetated lands, organic matter rots under water and produces carbon dioxide, methane, and sometimes nitrous oxide at amounts that recent studies suggest are comparable to other forms of electricity.
So, we cycled out onto the dam, and had a long warm and sun filled talk with Chuck McGraw about everything Cycle the Rockies is about: energy, climate, policy, and how Montana and the other western states are gearing up for the challenge. An interesting hydro point caught my attention. Unlike fossil fuels, which have been stored away for millennia, emissions from rotting plants are in the current carbon cycle. This makes a difference in the future of sequestration. We cannot take back coal emissions by putting coal back in the ground, but hydro is different. When a dam is no longer valued and is removed, re-exposed grounds can begin to again support habitat and vegetation that will sequester much of the emissions previously released and perhaps give us another tool in abating climate change.
Okay, sounds like a full, well traveled, well educated day right? Of course! So naturally we continued another 26 miles to our lovely apartment in Helena where we collapsed upon the carpet. The day was drawn to a successful and contented close by the consumption of copious amounts of home made pizza and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Yes Phil, I also love Vermont.
With another flip of the switch – Lights out.
–JJ Green, University of Oregon
Another batch of postings. How welcome!
I have long thought of Montana’s weather as possessing “Magical Reality.” It’s the kind of weather you might find in a Gabriel Garcia-Marquez book, where the magical is everyday, and the everyday is magical.
That’s why we see very sudden dramatic changes in temperature, and weather systems have distinct edges to them. (I recall sitting in my parent’s dining room and seeing rain pouring down on one side of the house and clear with sunshine out the other side.)
Nonetheless, I can’t recall the last time I’ve see snow in Montana cities in June. You guys have been real troopers to put with everything the Big Skies have rained down upon you this year.
Cheers,
Ed