Flying the headwaters of the Missouri

Perfect weather, so unloaded and fired up for a great flight.  Three Forks gets it's name from three rivers, Gallatin,  Madison, and Jefferson, that all join up here and flow through a gap to become the Missouri.  Flew around that gap and looked for the campsite where Lewis and Clark stopped for several days, trying to determine which branch of the tangled channels to follow from here.  Then flew downstream to the start of the first reservoir at Townsend, where the Missouri is already 'tamed' by a series of dams....

 The Missouri starts when these three rivers join and flow through the gap.

Lewis and Clark camped on that island between the channels.

 But very soon is the first dam.....

 That dam feeds the irrigation channels into the next valley.

 Which makes very productive agriculture.

A few miles further is the first big reservoir, and it doesn't feel like a river anymore.

Went to the post office to send the Arizona license plate back the previous owner of the van, and the lady at the counter noticed my name on the return address.  She said, "...We have a package for you that doesn't have a complete address...."  That was the spare part from Kolb that I had been waiting to arrive at the local aviation service by UPS!  Turns out that it had come by USPS (US Postal Service) instead of UPS courier as expected, and the aviation company's name had been omitted....    Sure was lucky that I'd had to go to the post office, and she remembered my name, or could have been days waiting for it......

Took the new aluminum tailskid back to the airfield and tried to install it, but couldn't get the steel fitting off the old one....  Took it to a car repair shop just before closing time, and they pressed it off in a hydraulic press, no charge!  No way I could have got it off without that press.....  Finally all repaired and loaded up just before dark.