The Story of the Sinkhole

Saturday was a pretty day for us with a cool morning to start out with (cold by my standards with the crisp morning air starting out in the 20's and highs projected for about 38-40 that day).  Wesley and I enjoyed a light breakfast that morning because we were heading to Miles City that afternoon to pick up the truck (18 wheeler truck) and finish up some errands in Miles City afterwards.  We headed out about 8 that morning and noticed the neighbors horses were in our pasture (mixing in & stirring up our horses that we had turned out in that same pasture).  So, with a bucket of "cake" (feeding cubes for the horses & cows) we headed out to catch & move our horses so they didn't get all wound up with the neighbors horses being in with them.  It didn't take us long to gather the 5 head we had out there & move them to another pasture on the other side of the ranch. 

Saturday was supposed to be a relatively "easy" day by Davenport standards.  A little work in the morning, a little town action in the afternoon, and homemade fajitas in the evening.  Supposed to be are the key words here.  We had to do some range monitoring for our books and I wanted to go with Wesley to take some pictures of the different locations around the ranch.  We started out way on the east end of the ranch and in an area that is one of my favorite spots on the place; the North Hunter is what we call it.  It is secluded, the views are amazing, and its miles away from home.  Miles.  Wesley got done with his range monitoring for that particular section of the ranch, and I decided I wanted to get some 100 year old barn wood from some old homesteads that were built in the early 1900's on the ranch to make a few projects around the house.  We gather the pieces I wanted, got in the pickup, and were turning around to head to the next range monitoring sight.

That's when it happened...

What you might ask?  Well, we hit a bump with the front tires of the pickup, and we didn't think much of it because, well, we are in the middle of a pasture!  Then, the back tires hit the same bump.  Only when they hit it....they SANK.  That's right...sank.  After a few holy you-know-what's and us looking at each other dumbfounded, we got out of the pickup to assess the situation.  And that's when we saw it.  The sinkhole!  The land literally fell out from underneath us and we were stuck.  I don't mean maybe either.  I'm talking front-tires-off-the-ground stuck!  Of course neither of us brought our cell phone with us (because we never get service anyway) and we are miles from home with nothing else to do but start walking.  We gather the dogs, and start our walk.

At least it was a beautiful day (it could have been worse...it could have been snowing) to take a walk, but definitely not how we wanted to spend our afternoon with other things on our agenda.  We hiked it about 3 miles down the main road (which hardly ever has a car going down it but we figured what the heck a hunter might show up eventually) and then we had a choice to make.  We could either continue down the road and hike another 8 miles home and hope we see a car, or we could take a short(er) cut through the pasture & make it home in another 3 miles or so.  Since we hadn't seen a car in the first 3 miles we opted for the pasture.  Granted, this was the more hillier (is that a word?) version, but it was a short cut.  Off we went...with our two puppies in tow.  We get halfway up the pasture and far enough from the road where no one could see us and what do you think happens?  We see 5 cars go by!  Count them...1, 2, 3, 4, 5!  All in a matter of about 5 minutes from each other.  Such was our luck for that day!

It took us about 2 hours to walk the 6 or so miles back to the house to get a tractor and pull the pickup out of the sinkhole.  We actually had to lift the pickup out of the hole because it was so stuck that you couldn't just pull it out.  But, we were successful in the fact that we were able to get it out & nothing was wrong with it.  Both our legs were tired by the end of our trip, but after we got over the initial shock factor (and lets face it...the pissed off factor too) we made the most of our walk together.  We talked and laughed our whole way home.  And after we got the pickup out, we were able to carry on to Miles City (although a couple hours later & certainly a lot more tired) and get our errands done.

Wesley & I have been through some adventures in the 2 years that I've been up here...and not one of them would I ever want to take back.  We always make the best of the situations, and this particular situation is one that neither of us will forget!