The Narrator Is Surprised To Be Moving Steadily Upward!
" .... then upward again higher and a little higher each time. .. Some shrubs appear. Then small trees. The road goes higher still into grass, and then fenced meadows. “
Twenty miles East of Mile City, MT. Clearly we have left the high planes behind and are getting into mountains! I remember a relatively straight long climb which is somewhat at variance with the Narrators description above. Has the road been improved since 1968?
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(Photo = 104-0488 ...... ZMM Page = 078 ...... WayPt = 095`|w|' 3000ft)

Suddenly Everything Has Changed.
"Overhead a small cloud appears. Rain perhaps? Perhaps. Meadows must have rain. And these now have flowers in them. Strange how all this has changed. Nothing to show it on the map. And the consciousness of memory has disappeared too. Phædrus must not have come this way. But there was no other road. Strange. It keeps rising upward.“
Eighteen miles East of Mile City, MT. The Narrator has been surprised by the turns of the highway and says it is strange and has no memory of this. Ahead, in Miles City he answers this puzzle and his lack of memory of the park: "On the way out we pass a city park which I noticed last night, and which produced a memory concurrence. Just a vision of looking up into some trees. He had slept on that park bench one night on his way through to Bozeman. That’s why I didn’t recognize that forest yesterday. He’d come through at night, on his way to the college at Bozeman."New Topic: Recall that 4 photos previous the Narrator stated: "We enter a low-rimmed canyon. Before long, a roadside stop I’ve been waiting for appears. This means that they have been in this canyon ever since the rest area and are not coming up the West side of it. So we learn here what we may call a wide valley, the Narrator calls a low rimmed canyon. "
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(Photo = Summer2006 0368 Clouds near Baker MT. ...... ZMM Page = 078 & 091 ...... WayPt = 093`|k|' ~2900ft)

Finally Delightful Relief, After Their Day of Torturing Heat! Also a Wonderful Ending For Part I: The Turn Of The Weather Tells Us That Things Will Be Better, Especially Since the Narrator Has Got Some Confessions Off His Chest!
" The sun angles toward the cloud, which now has grown downward to touch the horizon above us, in which there are trees, pines, and a cold wind comes down with pine smells from the trees. The flowers in the meadow blow in the wind and the cycle leans a little and we are suddenly cool. .. I look at Chris and he is smiling. I am smiling too. .. Then the rain comes hard on the road with a gust of earth-smell from the dust that has waited for too long and the dust beside the road is pocked with the first raindrops. .. This is all so new. And we are so in need of it, a new rain. My clothes become wet, and goggles are spattered, and chills start and feel delicious. “
Sixteen miles East of Mile City, MT. Of course the rain has delightfully cooled off everything, but they have also come up 620ft in elevation. Even small elevation changes, also help in providing more cooling. New topic: The Narrator told us in the previous photos how he doesn't remember and how strange. He has similar loss of memory various other parts of the trip, and how unsettling this is. He is probably telling us this so we under the how bad his condition is. And this probably is also true, but typically the Narrator usually has additional reasons to tell us things like this. This kind of un-certainty, helps to heighten the readers tension, thus creating additional awareness and involvement. Properties of a good novel! They keep wondering what is wrong with the Narrator and what's going to happen with all this strangeness.
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(Photo = Summer2006 0359 Rain at Baker MT ...... ZMM Page = 078 ...... WayPt = 095`|m|' 3000ft)

After the Top of the Pass, The Highway Follows The Cut of the Canyon, With a Few More Twists, Steeply Down .
"The cloud passes from beneath the sun and the forest of pines and small meadows gleams again, sparkling where the sunlight catches small drops from the rain. .. We reach the top of the climb dry again but cool now and stop, overlooking a huge valley and river below. .. "I think we have arrived," John says.“
Ten miles East of Miles City, MT.You are looking into the Yellowstone River Valley
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(Photo = 104-0489c ...... ZMM Page = 079 ...... WayPt = 096`|w|' 3127ft)

We Have Arrived.
"Sylvia and Chris have walked into the meadow among the flowers under pines through which .... “
Ten miles East of Miles City, MT. From here the Pilgrim can turn away from his walk in the pines, and look back into the Yellowstone River Valley. On the way up and just prior to the top, the Pilgrim has a grand view of the barren land back to the East.
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(Photo = Summer2006 0267 ...... ZMM Page = 079 ...... WayPt = 096`|w|' 3127ft)

The Promised Land..
" .... I can see the far side of the valley, away and below. I am a pioneer now, looking onto a promised land.“ [Thus ends ZMM Part I, Chapter 7.]
2Mi East of Miles City, MT. where Rt12 goes over I-94. You are looking over Miles City into the Yellowstone River Valley which flows towards the Northeast (right in photo) to the Missouri River in the Northern Montana. View ZMM All Four Parts. Then click on Photo for Part II in new browser window."
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(Photo = 104-0489c ...... ZMM Page = 079 ...... WayPt = 096`|w|' 3047ft)