Biking The Canal Road

Nothing beats a peaceful bike ride along a quiet little path, and nothing works better as a magnificent biking trail than the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project’s Main Canal road. This meandering gravel roadway along the edge of the main canal provides miles of hassle-free biking. I meet a vehicle or another person on that road perhaps once a week, and considering I spend a lot of time all spring, summer, fall and in winter until the snow gets too deep walking or pedaling a bike on portions of that little used track around Crane, traffic and unwanted company presents no problems.

I love the canal road as much or more than I enjoy walking the rails, and walking the railroad tracks has always been a favorite of mine, so that tells you the pleasures I derive from using the path along the main canal. The trek along this waterway provides great scenery, open spaces, very little contact with humanity, and I always see something new.

Water fowl nest and feed on the water and along the banks. Beaver and mink call the area home, and I see endless creatures skulking along the banks, slinking through the grass, or darting among trees. The list includes birds of all description, from small sparrows to large birds of prey, deer, fawns still sporting their spots, skunk, fox, coyotes, snakes, and on occasion a sighting of a blue heron or other relatively unusual animal or bird.

One year two cranes stayed for nearly a month in the grassland near Gartside Dam, feeding along the canal and screeching vociferously at me and my dog when we ventured too close to their territory. Another time I saw an eagle resting in a treetop, surveying the countryside beneath him.

The Yellowstone’s waters that fill the canal all summer tells me about the weather upstream. Sometimes the waters run dark and opaque, quite refreshing-looking on a hot day. Other times because of rain upstream or a recent local rain, the water runs coffee-with-cream color, muddy and unhealthy-looking. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to swim in the canal at all, as it has undertows, eddies and all sorts of unknown objects resting near the bottom, but I truly cannot fathom anyone even contemplating a swim in such dirty water. However, I have seen teenagers taking a swim when the canal waters run brown and choked with mud.

I do enjoy packing my pistol along with me and taking pot shots at the twigs and debris that floats along the water. This detritus makes great target practice.

The terrain varies as I ride along on my bike. I see farm fields growing green with lush crops. I see pastureland, swamp areas, manicured lawns, and places where Russian Olive have taken over, offering shelter for all sorts of creatures that prefer that I don’t catch sight of them. They move so quickly that catching them on camera has proved next to impossible for me. The scent of the breeze changes constantly. Depending on the season, I may smell plum blossoms, plowed earth, fresh cut alfalfa, newly dug beets, the odor of pine, catch a whiff of manure, or any other of a host of scents that let me know I am outside in the fresh air.

Just pedaling along the track gives me pleasure. The warmth of the sun on my back, the breeze lifting my hair from my sweaty forehead, the scenery and the multitude of scents that reach my nose as I pedal along make each and every bike ride more than worthwhile. My trusty bike, a gift from my sister and brother-in-law several Christmases ago, has carried me faithfully for miles and miles and miles, most of them along the main canal road and its laterals.

When I can no longer ride a bike or take my walks, it will be time for me to cash in my chips and call it quits.