We woke up to knocking on our tent and a voice saying, "You can't camp here.. should have read the signs..." It trailed off, but I acknowledged the man and we began to pack up immediately. If the only punishment for free camping at a rest area is a wake up call I think it's a good deal. We hopped back on the highway after brushing teeths, continuing into Montana on the long, flat road.
Our research led us to Makoshika State Park's disc golf course. We parked, hung the tent's rain guard on the bike rack to dry, and then walked up the hill to this amazing scene. It was a beautiful mix of desert, mountains, and greens. The first few shots were over the tops of these little plateaus rising up out of the sand washes. The course basically followed the washes around the larger hills and back.
There were a few prickly plants to watch out for along the way. The website suggested watching for snakes so we were trying to be wary of that, but we never saw any.
Some of the later shots were from tees on the tops of plateaus to the large slots around blind corners. There were quite a few times I had to wander around looking for my disc in the brush.
The course was really unique and awesome to play. I liked shooting through a tiny opening between two tall rocks and around the narrow washes. We went to the visitor center before leaving where I picked up a new Buzzz for my bag. I just really liked the pink disc with a dinosaur on it.
We continued down the road to Billings, which turns out to have quite a few microbreweries on its map. We got there just in time for Montana Brewing to be opening. I went ahead and did a full sampler, which seemed like a good idea at the time. I enjoyed everything I tried, especially the Golden and the IPA. We were there for a while as I sipped on 40 oz. of beer.
We decided to walk to all of the breweries because they were quite close together. It was a nice day and good town for walking. Along the way this little guy was on the sidewalk, just chilling. He didn't run away when I got close so I'm not sure if he was hurt, but he sure is cute/ugly.
We went over to Carter's Brewing next, where I got 4 samples of their offerings. This was another case of them not having any of the beers I was excited about from reading their website. People need to update their shit! Their De-Railed IPA and the Black Magic Porter were both quite good though. When a woman was smoking and throwing her cigarettes on the ground right next to me I decided it best to leave before talking to her. On our way around we stopped at another brewpub that had a cover in the middle of the day so we turned around and skipped that one. Angry Hank's was our last stop, where I got quick sips of all of the beers, enjoying their red ale the most so I got a pint because, again, I felt like I had to.
I was a bit drunk by the time we got to Diamond X DGC which is just outside of town. We almost played this last time we were here, so this time we were in. The course is a huge expanse with long fairways on the side of steep hills. There were uphill shots, dropoffs, and some just really precarious shots on the edge of the plateau.
The middle of the course had us shooting up a steep hill and the next shot was directly on the side of the steep and rocky landscape. Once we ascended to the top it was a little hard to follow, but we did what we could. It was starting to get dark and we could hear thunder in the distance so we started to pack it in when we came across a couple of crazy guys who had found a rattlesnake and then beat it to death in front of us as a trophy. These same guys showed us the absolutely crazy shot off the side of the several-hundred-foot-high cliff. It might have been 1000', but I'm not sure. They shot several discs straight down to the desert below, sometimes coming pretty close to a good shot on the basket. We decided to pass on this, although if it had been daytime and not about to lightning I'd have thrown a lot.
The rain fell hard after we got back to the car with lots of lightning. We stopped at a grocery store for a few things and then headed to Bozeman, where our couch surfing hosts for the night had a spare room with a bed for us. Their kid was very talkative and friendly, as was their cat, who spent a lot of time with us.
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