Saturday, August 9

Today’s major accomplishment was eating homemade guacamole on the road, made by Amy EN ROUTE home. It’s true, folks.



We have many people to thank for making our journey west possible:

Vitamin Water – for sustenance and good tastes.



George W. Bush – for enacting the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 – your goal was met in our sinking part of it back into oil companies straight across the country.




KOA Kampgrounds – for the swimming pool and hot showers

Ted Turner – for some scrumptious buffalo meat after a long hard hiking journey



Lewis & Clark – for inspiring in us, the spirit of discovery.




Sacajawea – for being cool about the whole thing



The state of Iowa – for staying out of the way.

The Hyundai – for keeping on keeping on



Great Northern Tire – for allowing the Hyundai to keep on keeping on

Jeff and Renee – for blog inspiration




The neighbor girl we haven’t yet met – for picking up our mail

Brutus the Grizzly – for staying in your cage

Precambrien Geological Forces – for giving us the Beartooth mountains

And finally, one last sunset out the back window of our messy car…



p.s. we captured you, you little sucker...

Friday, August 8

We were sad to leave Bozeman this morning. However, the day of driving held more adventure than we planned on…

We allowed ourselves to fall into a tourist trap right outside of Bozeman that advertised Grizzly sightings…we’re always game for wildlife refuges. We were within feet of five grizzlies that were saved from the circus and other places. They are amazing creatures and we were so glad to see them behind in the cage and not on the hiking trail!




If you haven’t noticed yet, we’re suckers for tourist traps. If there had been a ‘Mystery Spot,’ en route to Montana, we would have stopped.

This is the Stockyard Calfe, where we hoped to dine but it was open only on Sundays. It’s on old café next to the Stockyards that has some kind of special old charm. Believe it or not, this place was featured in Martha Stewart Living a few years back…





We also stopped at Pompey’s Pillar National Monument. Believe it or not, there lies a huge boulder that still holds the signature of William Clark (you know, of Lewis and Clark), dated July 25, 1806. It is the only remaining physical evidence of the journey of Lewis and Clark. Around it are the signatures of early pioneers.









In this picture are William Clark, his slave York, Sacajawea, and myself. Can you tell who's who? I had a little too much fun in the museum. Don't ask me why, but I really enjoyed wearing this:






Best of all, we were finally able to give name to the little s*** that injured Bryan on the way here and Amy in 2002. Straight from the mouth of Meriweather Lewis himself:



We were sad to leave Big Sky country. Somehow, around here, the sky looks ten times bigger than it does anywhere else. It’s beautiful. We're gonna miss this place.

To begin with, a sunrise....



Today we went horseback riding in Big Sky Country! It was a great afternoon with some of the best views we've had here.




Here's Bryan looking relieved that his horse was able to ford the Gallatin River.



Here was Bryan's view for the afternoon:



We came back to the KOA (every day is a great day at the KOA) and enjoyed the swimming pool. There were some huge storm clouds rolling in, so we headed into Bozeman and enjoyed pizza and spent a couple hours relaxing in a coffee shop.

Wednesday, August 6

Thanks to Amy’s knee, we knew we had to head back in, rather than go further into the mountains.

Somehow, today was a much easier hike, as our bodies had gotten into the swing better. Today’s greatest difficulty was dealing with mosquitos and the giant horseflies that were about the size of a quarter.

It’s easy to over-idealize time spent in nature. It always sounds nice when you’re back home, but when you’re in it, you’re often swatting the many things trying to bite you, pushing your muscles past their limits, doing things that require more oxygen than your body can hold, slipping on rocks and getting owies in your left knee (Amy) and on your left knee (Bryan).

The mountains remind you not only how little you are, but also how challenging it is to exist on earth without any infrastructure, technology or conveniences. It’s a good reminder. Maybe we need a little pain and frustration, otherwise we might get too comfortable and start to think things about ourselves that aren’t true.

Though our short trip wasn’t the most successful, there’s still a deep satisfaction that comes from hiking into the woods with everything you need on your back (regardless of life-sustaining backpacking technology). You know you could survive for several days with simply what you’re carrying with you. There’s some kind of freedom in that.

Here’s some Indian Paintbrush. If we had been here about a month earlier, the hills would have been covered with it…



We searched for cool rocks by the water, took a couple (don’t tell the national forest district), and pumped some cold, delicious, snow-melted water from the river. Nothing beats fresh-pumped water.




Here’s a rock that I think closely resembles the “foot on a stick” at Cone City, right, Mom/Dad/Jeff??



Bryan managed to injure himself again. This time, he was simply walking on the hiking path and he slid on the rocks and his feet separated under him. He managed not to pass out this time at the site of his own blood and was therefore able to act real tough about it:



We hiked about 3 miles back to our car, drove through beautiful Big Sky country, stopped to see Rockhaven Camp, where Bryan worked in 2004, and ended up back at the KOA campground swimming pool. Mock it all you want, but after being kind of beat up by the woods, the pool felt amazing.



We also decided to celebrate our short jaunt in the woods with a steak dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill. We stuffed ourselves with buffalo pot roast and burgers, and returned home to our campsite fat and happy.



The perfect ending to a short but hard journey.

Tuesday, August 5

Today we headed out into the Gallatin Mountains. Bryan had been hoping we would hike in at the same place he had done so a few years back, but the area was quarantined due to some buffalo contracting anthrax. Stupid anthrax. Apparently it’s something that can happen in nature when there are certain sudden extreme temperature changes. So, we had to move on to a new trail head.




A couple things we’ve learned. 1) South Dakota doesn’t like us (broken car, jumping cacti) 2) The trail to Beehive Basin doesn’t like us. We’ll be honest. We kind of got beat up by the outdoors. We were still adjusting to the elevation and hadn’t been hiking in about a year. It was difficult to get into the swing.

Amy had problems with her left knee about three miles in (ref. Amy’s knee, Glacier, 2002), so we had to set up camp for the night. On the side of a mountain.



The worst feat of all was having to hang up our food/toiletries in a tree from the bears. It was an area known for grizzlies, and the bag has to be hung 10 feet off the ground and 4 feet from the tree trunk. Having never hung this type of bear bag, (suspended between two trees with two ropes) the hour and a half it took to perfect the technique was nothing. Who knew the sun sets at 4:30 on the dark side of the mountain? (Amy learned this the hard way with April when the food was 10 feet from the ground but up against the trunk. Those raccoons enjoyed our chocolate fondue.)

Here’s a picture of Bryan’s hard-earned hung bear bag.



The sun sets early in the mountains and we had no sitting area outside of the tent. It was an early night and a much needed night of rest. (Amy was asleep in 3 minutes. The first night in the woods, Bryan usually spends an hour and a half having a heart to heart with Jesus about why bears should leave them alone for the night) Due to the incline we both woke in a heap at the foot of the tent…

Monday August 4

Not an overly eventful day, mostly hung out in Bozeman – however here are some pics we’re sure you’ll love.

We spent the afternoon at the Museum of the Rockies. We walked through a 19th century home with reinactors playing the part by going about their daily business on the early Montana homestead. There were old ladies sewing quilts, spinning wool, others cooking in the kitchen or working outside. We were very impressed by their authenticity until the lady spinning noticed Amy’s Chicago t-shirt and started talking about her recent flight to Ohio. So much for 1893.



The museum is also the base for famed palaentologist Jack Horner. Lots of dinosaur bones that were discovered in Montana. Famed dinosaur digger or not, we're not so sure we buy the dino-mullet.






Now we’re gearing up to backpack the Spanish Peaks in Gallatin National Forest. The movie “A River Runs Through It” was filmed on the Gallatin River.

And now, from our campsite to yours, goodnight and good luck.



More in a couple days!!

Tonight's sunset:

Sunday August 3

We left Red Lodge this morning for a gorgeous day of driving. We drove on through the Beartooth/Absaroka mountain range. The pass was built in the ‘30’s to open tourism in the area, and is now called one of the top scenic drives in the country.



We made several stops along the way to take it all in and took plenty of pictures to share the beauty with you!

Took a short hike up to a rocky area. Picked some wildflowers. Took some pictures of Bryan trying to look taller than the mountains. Then we kissed while falling down the mountain.






The stopping point between the Beartooth range and Yellowstone is Cooke City, which is a cute little REALLY old town. We stopped in the general store, which has been operating since 1886, several years before the Beartooths were even considered passable.


-do you see the short spiky peak? that is the 'beartooth' for which the range is named!



We enjoyed our lunch at a picnic table in the Cooke City area – our quick and easy lunch of choice on this trip has been a hunk of fresh bread, salami, and cheese.



Enjoyed Yellowstone and actually saw some wildlife up close. We were lucky we didn’t get gored by this buffalo – apparently he prefers traveling by pavement rather than by prairie.





This bear was walking around, and was actually fairly active while we watched it. It stood up to pull apart an old log, probably looking for bugs to eat.



And these elk were just chilling in the grass.



There were at least a dozen elk just standing around the visitors center in Gardner, on our way out of the park.





We drove through Paradise Valley (aptly named) arrived at Bozeman, MT in the evening and are excited to be here. This is a fun city with lots to do and we plan to meet up with a couple different friends, and then the two of us will head out from here to do some backpacking in the next day or so.