Hidden in this Montana forest lies Americas Best Preserved Ghost Town | S1E46

Alright, let's go down and check out Garnet Ghost Town A little outhouse here, is it? It's gotta be an outhouse, no? Oh, yeah My journey begins at North America's most northern drivable point The plan is to ride through Canada and America before crossing over to Europe From there, I'll make my way across Asia and down to Australia New Zealand's southern most drivable point will mark the end of my journey I'm calling it the Big Spiral Good morning from Flathead Lake, Montana I so lucked out in this place It's like 50 bucks a night and it's this giant, giant place It is supposed to be a shared place but there's nobody here and it's right on Flathead Lake here Looks like it's a bit windy today I actually took two days here because it was such a good deal but also, it was raining yesterday so I was just, well, I thought I'd get a little work done and avoid the weather at the same time But today, we're going to head south Southwest, I guess Mostly south So, I want to get to Garnet Ghost Town So, this is one of the most well-preserved ghost towns in America, apparently and, yeah, it just looks really cool So, um, and then I think on the way down I'm going to take part of the Continental Divide Trail Um, which is basically that route that all those cyclists take when they're going from Banff all the way down to Mexico It's kind of like a big race It's kind of famous amongst cyclists So, I thought I'd be able to ride a little bit on my motorbike and then we'll get to the ghost town So, uh, kind of excited for that Alright, let's see if the bike starts It's been sitting for a little while and, uh, the battery's been a bit weak So, let's see how this goes There we go Okay Yeah, the battery's been a bit weak because it's I've been charging off of it So, when the bike's not running, the battery still uh, charges my stuff until it drops below 12 volts and, uh, I think it's just been a bit tough on the battery I had that moment in Fort Nelson where oh, god where the the bike didn't want to start after a night sitting out or actually, maybe two nights but, um I'm guessing this way cause all the tracks are going this way Yeah, we'll get a little breakfast and then we'll head down Continental Divide Trail Wow, when I came in it was dark I didn't realize how close I was to the lake I also forgot what it feels like to sit on a motorbike I feel like I should have a seatbelt on but, uh that's not how it works with a motorbike, so Concrete teepee Is that the most American thing ever? Maybe Hmm, let's go to this grocery store I'm sure they've got some kind of sandwiches or something Okay, I just realized why I felt like I should be wearing a seatbelt It's because I kind of wasn't I forgot my backpack at the hostel It fits like a harness except it feels like a seatbelt, so I'm like, oh I knew something wasn't right Uh, so I'm going back Alright I hope it's still there Yes, it's still there That was stupid With the camera still attached There's this cute dog here Hi You need some petso? You're so calm Okay Alright, time to go Okay Now I feel like I'm belted in Oh, geez I need to take those moments and recognize them You're not wearing your backpack, Eric Wild turkeys It's weird You never see them in Canada You only see them in the States I don't I don't know what that deal is Oh, there's some gravel bikes So we're on the Continental Divide route now And Yeah, there's gravel bikes, so maybe people are doing it Alright, hit the gravel Hunter I think I'm going to eat my sandwich I'm kind of hungry Got squished a little bit My name's Gary I'm Eric Eric, nice to meet you, man Nice to meet you What are you doing in the Divide? No, I'm not, are you? Uh, no I was just going to go down to maybe I want to get the Salt Lake Bonneville Salt Block Oh, okay Yeah I just got some new tires on last night So I'm just playing with them a little bit Oh, nice, I got new tires too Yeah What'd you put on? I put the Mitas Dakars Oh, yeah They're heavy duty They look pretty They're very similar What are you running there? Dunlop in the rear and then Pirelli MT21 in the front Okay What is that, a Tenere? No, no, it's a Kawasaki It's a Kawasaki Yeah It's a 650? No, 300 Oh, wow Boy, it looks big Uh, it's got a kit on it So it's got a big tank and stuff So, yeah Pretty cool Where are you from? Uh, Canada Yeah No, I've been up to Prudhoe Bay No kidding And then I've come down Then I'm going to go east And then ship over to Europe You ever watch Itchy Boots? I do, yeah Yeah, she's a pretty big inspiration for me Yeah, she is Yeah She's incredible Yeah Well, good luck on your Yeah, will do Enjoy your ride Alright, off again I just met a guy named Gary A nice guy Out on his BMW How's it going? I just thought I just felt Oh, one sec, I can't hear you What's that? I said it just felt weird So I wanted to check my tire pressures Make sure I wasn't Oh, yeah It's a good idea I don't know, it just was weird But everything's fine It's probably me Yeah New tires too Yeah, they're definitely different Cool We're almost down to the bottom, I think It looks like it, yeah Getting to the lake Yeah Do you actually get to the lake? Well, no, not really You kind of don't see it very much You gotta, if you wanted to see it You gotta go out on the highway and go back Oh, okay, gotcha It's a pretty lake though Real pretty Alright, well, enjoy your day Yeah, man, take care Yeah, you too Enjoy it Gary Nice gag of that, Gary Hi Clearing the road? Oh, I just need some weight Oh, yeah, some firewood Yeah Nice Oh, great I seen you up Crane Mountain? No, I've never been here before Oh, okay What are you doing, just goofing off? Uh, no, I came from Alaska Oh And now I'm going south, so Really? Yeah You going down to Lincoln? Uh, I don't know where that is But I want to get to Moab In Utah Oh Yeah Not today, though No, I don't think so Maybe just to Helena today Oh, okay Yeah, yeah Alright, anyways Have a good one Oh, I'm meeting some nice people along this road Lots of trees down Oh, is this pretty? I see a bicycle mark So someone's riding this trail And, uh I'd love to meet them I'd like to kinda see how How the trip is going Who knows, they may be going to Mexico So I just realized I should've Filled my tank I've done 405 kilometers And on average, I've been doing like 422 Before the light comes on So I'm just gonna see how much longer this road is Yeah, there's an intersection here Fatty Creek Road! Good name! Fatty Creek Okay, let me just figure this out So My route wants me to turn right I have 90k left on it But I could turn left and go to the highway A safe way Okay All this gas there Okay, I guess I should go to the road Cause Otherwise I'll get into trouble here Hmm, it's still 72k to the gas station Uh, this is not good Still 72k by the highway Why do I always do this to myself? Okay, I made it to the highway Uh Yeah, I don't have a signal here Hello Do you know where the nearest gas station is? Uh, probably not How far? Oh, it's about 11 or 12 minutes 15 miles? Okay, that's good Yeah, you can't Okay Cool, thank you 15 miles, I can do 15 miles Yeah, I'm looking at my map And it doesn't show all the gas stations And the closest one was actually back the way I came And I was like, I don't really want to do that But This is America And they like cars here So they also need to fill them up So what's 15 miles? Like 20 something kilometers? Oh, missed my gear Alright, I should be good then I think I see the gas station And my light's not even on yet I'm at 427 kilometers, so I'm doing not bad Oh, there's that gravel bike again Kind of want to talk to these guys And see what they're up to Hey What's happening man? Oh, are you guys doing the divide? No, these guys are more just kind of on a roadie paved route Oh, okay Yeah, yeah, how about you? Well, I was just doing a bit of my motorcycle But I'm gonna end up going east later on, so Oh, you are? Yeah, yeah Which way are you heading, north to south? Uh, well, it's a bigger trip I start in Alaska and then I'm gonna head down to Colorado And then I'm gonna go over to Halifax And then ship it over to Europe And keep going Oh, really? Yeah, yeah Wow, gave you away Yeah Sounds like you got a pretty sick adventure going, dude Yeah, both of us, yeah I used to mountain bike, well I still do But my life is this right now But yeah, I mountain biked for like 12 years or whatever Yeah, yeah Spent a lot of time in BC and stuff, riding How much time you got off? Oh, it's kind of like a Yeah, a lot of time Yeah, it's kind of like a full time thing now, so Are you Canadian or American? I'm Canadian, yeah I'm from Vancouver area, yeah Be safe out there, brother Yeah Have a good trip, man Have a good one Everybody's on their own little adventure, huh? Sweet, I got some gas And I think I have to keep going this way I didn't actually look at my map Seeley Lake Can you imagine what this town is called? Yes, it is Alright, making our way somewhere Cow! Oh, I scared him Sorry Hello Pavement Ends I've been climbing for a while now It's, uh It's a ways up here Hmm, I think we're here Alright, let's go down and check out Garnet Ghost Town I climbed up quite a ways and it actually got quite a bit colder Oh, yeah, we're getting a decent view here Oh, there's even You can go in the buildings So this is actually one of the best preserved ghost towns in America But at one point it was completely overgrown But luckily the buildings were still decent shape So they actually cut the forest back and opened it up again And now it's a pretty cool place Visitor center Hello Hello, how's it going? Good, I just thought I'd pop in and see what's in here Wood and gold My first season up here, a lady Probably in her mid to late 80s came up and she said, oh, I was born in here I was like, oh, we're in Garnet And we were in the Kelly Saloon She was like, no, I was born in here I was like, oh Where you're standing I was like, what a great story But it's still It's very interesting to see the that history Yeah, I find these old gold towns so fascinating, yeah So you rode all the way down, like Dawson Yeah, well I went up all the way up to like Prudhoe Bay, which is like Oh, that's awesome Yeah, and then I rode back down through Dawson How long have you been? Oh, I started in July Oh, that's not too bad Started July, so I started in Vancouver and then went up and then went down Okay Alright, I'm gonna wander around a little Yeah, enjoy! Thanks for all the questions Yeah, no problem Thanks for answering them Oh, yeah, no problem Yeah, see ya Oh, they're super nice Okay, what's this one? The hotel Hello Any beds available? Yeah There is? Yeah Oh, really? Wow, look at these walls It's old wallpaper here I don't want to touch it You can see these patterns in the wallpaper Can you guess what these things are and what they do? Alright, this looks like the edge of a bathtub or a stove maybe for a stove Stove-like Alright, there you go This looks like some screws there The bottom of a chair like a barber's chair Oh, school desk leg Nice What is this? Oh, I think it looks like a seed spreader or something Because you turn this in and flick the seeds out Oh, yeah Okay, I'm better at this than I thought Alright And then what's this thing? It looks like a speaker or something Oh, car horn That's not too far off This looks like a sifter or like a colander or something A sieve, yeah That's basically it What's that? Oh, it's got little wheels on the bottom Maybe it's a child's You know, the thing you would stick a child in to kind of keep them stationary and they can kind of walk around Let's see Baby walker Oh, yeah Okay, I did better than expected on that At first glance, none of those made any sense, but It all worked out This place is so cool Like, look at the stove Like, look at all the detail they put into it It's so amazing Oh, there's wood in there too Oh, what else can we see in here? So this is the kitchen This place is amazing! Like, look at all the detail It's just, this is the door on a stove, I guess Just a beautiful detail Although their frying pans weren't quite what they are today This is like I don't know, like a couple mil thick metal Oh, that's a well used cutting board Look at that Alright, let's go upstairs This place is fascinating This is really cool Alright Okay, I feel like these stairs got an upgrade for sure, cause it's definitely a newer, newer wood here So this hotel didn't have that many rooms, I suppose Oh my god, look at that I could sleep on this, huh? Probably not too bad I think we all know what this is for These old crutches Actually, really beautifully made It's just one, one basic stick that's been split to create that It's really cool Look at these boots I don't want to touch, but I want to touch a little bit Oh, they're rock hard Back in the day when you had to break in your your shoes You still kind of do, but not like back then, I imagine Check out this sewing machine I can't believe they just have so much of this stuff just floating around, like I can touch it, if I want Okay, I'm not going to sit in that rocking chair but obviously, it's just right here I'm afraid to break it if I did sit in it Alright, let's, let's head to the next building So this is apparently the blacksmith shop And, uh, not a ton of stuff in here, but Look at this thing Oh, it's still working Oh, it feels so satisfying to turn that It's so mechanical I don't know what it does, cause it just turns this and that turns that, but Oh, is it a drill press? I think it's a drill press, cause this would have been where the chuck is, and then you have a drill bit here And then, oh yeah There you go Drill press And then this looks like Yeah, a blade sharpener? Of some sort I would Maybe not, no, that doesn't turn, that doesn't turn What is it? What is it? So it's a blower, actually So you turn this And then you'd get air blowing up into here And then, yeah, you'd be able to get your Whatever you're working on really hot And you'd be able to form it And shape it into what you want So the intake is on this side then, I guess Yeah, there's a hole here, under here Oh, look at these bellows Look at those bellows Look at how big those are Wow So basically this is I'm sure the older people would know what this is But basically, it's a big pump It's a big air pump Actually, younger people would know what it is too You know, if you have like a foot pump for inflating your mattress This is basically the same thing, but it's way bigger So Yeah, what they would use this for is to To stoke the fire And just get it super hot They've got a lot of really cool stuff here I highly recommend coming here And it's It's really cheap to enter And it's kind of a self guided thing Which I kind of like, so A little outhouse here? Is that? It's gotta be an outhouse, no? Oh, yeah Well You can have a nice chat while you're in here, I guess Can you imagine that though? Like Nowadays, you could never think of Using the bathroom next to somebody else, but Back then, it was just normal I think Excuse me Yep Hi, sorry Did you come off the road from I-90? No, I came from that side Can you pause that? Uh I think so, I don't know I'm just following the map Yeah, because we followed the GPS And it brought us on 8 Creek Road Which was like a Oh Quite an adventure Well, I heard it's rough on this side Yeah Okay, someone was saying that too That side is way smoother Really? Yeah, it wasn't really a problem If you drive out of the parking lot, turn left Okay, okay, perfect Thank you very much No problem Oh, these old wagons These people are complaining about the ride on the road up, but This uh This would take the cake, I think Okay, so that place was awesome I really You don't really know What uh What a place is going to be like until you go, right? But I have to say, this was Definitely a good one Okay, so in other news I've had three Separate people ask me about the way I came in Which was over there All the people that asked me came up this way They're like How did you come in? How's the road? Apparently this way is Really sketchy And uh I'm actually quite curious to see what it is like now But I'm sure it's not too bad It's just people in like SUVs and stuff But anyways Uh Somehow they all found me to ask Maybe they were like, he's on a motorbike He's probably uh Taking smooth roads or something I don't know, but uh I just saw a sign Warning, steep grades not recommended But yeah, I guess Their GPS's are sending them up there And they're like Uh So far it's not bad Starting to rain And it's raining pretty good now But it's blue sky over there So I'm not gonna put my rain jacket on Oh, back to the pavement I think they're They kinda know to stay off the road, I think Except for this guy Hello I have to say, like The western states are really good But Montana Montana has something special for sure And it And it's not, you know It's not as well known as like California or Colorado or Arizona even But man, Montana is I really love Montana Really special place I met so many interesting people today It was kinda fun actually Um I don't I don't wanna be biased or anything But I think in America It's easier to talk and To meet people Than it is in Canada I think Canadians are a little bit more introverted I know I'm fairly introverted But when you travel alone You're kind of like Oh, there's a person to talk to I'd like to talk to that person So It was actually I really enjoyed it To be fair, it can be a little lonely At times, like yesterday in a hostel I was just there By myself and I'm like Oh, jeez, I wonder what my friends are doing Or things like this There's like no distractions Nobody to talk to Which is in a way a good thing because I had a lot of work to do But um, anyways Um, and oh That Garnet Ghost town was So cool, so authentic I really enjoyed it I thought it was gonna be Who knows what it's gonna be And then you get there and you're like, wow, this is actually A pretty decent little ghost town Here So I'm in this hostel here Which I actually lucked out again So I have this whole room to myself It seems like there's barely anybody here Uh, which To be fair, I'm quite happy about Um, but I was also thinking Well, I need a map Because I ordered that Montana map from Amazon It just never showed up in the package So I poked around And obviously at hostels I always have these Things to do around So I figured there might be something here And I did find a map But it's a little bit unusual So my map is Is actually a plastic bag But it'll do It'll do because You'll see what it'll do So I entered Canada From here Uh, or I entered from Canada There Through Eureka and then I went down like This Uh, I kind of skipped Whitefish Okay, my map is kind of slippery And I went like this And then went to the wrong hostel And then it turned out to be a good thing Because the next one was really good And then what I did is This morning I went back up here And then I believe I went on This side of Swamp Lake Something like that And then I just kept going down the highway Kept going, kept going And then I Popped off the highway Ended up at Garnet Ghost Town Which is actually on the map And then This is where I am now I'm in Anaconda Which is a crazy name for a town in Montana I don't think there's any native Anacondas here but Yeah, okay, well, that's fine Maybe it wasn't the best idea To buy maps per state Because I'm already more than Halfway through this Beautiful plastic bag map Because like, Alaska Yukon, BC, they're massive places So it kind of makes sense to have a map For the whole thing But I might be through Montana In two days here But anyways, yeah I hope you enjoyed this video I know I really enjoyed That ghost town And if you did You might consider Subscribing? You might consider subscribing? I don't know, it's up to you But anyways, thank you so much For watching this video, I really appreciate it And I hope to see you In the next one, bye!