There was more to my trip to Missoula last weekend than just Obama. It was actually Hilary’s birthday on Friday. Happy Birthday Hil! Now she has joined me in the 28 years young club. It is fun to have a friend from North Carolina living so close. 2 and a half hours away is basically next-door in Montana terms. If everyone I knew lived out here I’d probably never think twice about moving back east.
I met her posse, a nice, down to earth group of folks, and we went out and experienced some of the Missoula scene. Good times. I don’t go to bars in Bozeman much these days, and If I’m not in bed by midnight I probably turn into a pumpkin.
The two city shots were from a short hike Hil and I did on Sunday, which offered some good views of Missoula and the surrounding area. Even with the clouds (basically a given in these parts recently) the weather was decently warm and it wasn’t snowing and we weren’t walking in snow, all of which I was thankful for.
On a warmer note, the high is supposed to be 67 in a couple of days, and since it has been snowing basically everyday for the past week that will be a nice change.
One last thing, I’ve been making the pictures a little bigger these day, if they are too big let me know.
As of tomorrow at noon it will officially be Spring Break for us Montana State folks. Kez and I are driving down the the Grand Canyon and plan on stopping by Bryce Canyon NP as well (I’ve never actually been there.)
We have had a bunch of snow up here and I’ve been enjoying it, but it’ll be nice to get to somewhere a little warmer and less snowy.
To tide you over until next week here are some random picture I’m pulling out from the vault. Except for the picture of the pine needles which I took today.
These pictures were all taken in and around Gardiner. That little town really grew on me. Usually we just pass right through it and it was fun to be able to hang out for a little while. It doesn’t hurt to be with such a swell group of folks too.
Luke, Kez, Hilary, her friend Stephanie and myself went down to Yellowstone by way of the northwest entrance in Gardiner, Montana. Here are some pictures of Gardiner. It is a nice little town, especially in the winter when it isn’t overrun with tourists.
When we rode up into town that elk was just hanging out in someone’s yard. They said that they will tag elk only if they are troublemakers. So I thought keeping my distance was a smart idea.
Yesterday, to kick off the 3 day weekend, Kez, myself and our friends Elizabeth and Kelly drove to Dillon Montana, a bustling little city about 60 miles south. It is a really nice drive and these pictures do it absolutely no justice. It was a nice sunny day which I feel like have been in short supply recently.
I just found out Microsoft Live has a nice map of the area here. If you hit the magnifying glass in the upper left to zoom in about 4 times the map looks really awesome. There are a lot of farms in that area.
The entire trip to Seattle from Bozeman consists of driving 5 minutes to I-90, staying on that interstate for 10 hours or so, and then exiting in downtown Seattle. About 200 miles west of Bozeman lies the great city of Missoula where my friend Hilary just moved to.
My traveling companion Luke and I stopped for a little while and visited Hilary and Missoula’s fairly vibrant downtown. It was a good stop, unfortunately we had to carry on before the snow overtook us.
Yesterday some folks got together and took a tour of the Lewis and Clark Caverns organized by the ever-vigilant Luke Shorty. It was the first time I’ve been in a cave in a long time and a really excellent experience.
It was the last day the caverns were opened for the season and as an added bonus the 2nd half of the tour was conducted by candlelight. They were nice enough to provide cookies and hot chocolate in the visitor center and before we left our multi-talented tour guide was nice enough to sing us a few Christmas carols as well.
I’m back in Bozeman after a visit to the East Coast. . It was a wonderful visit with the time going by very quickly. It was awesome to see my family and friends I hadn’t seen since Christmas.
Here are a couple of shots of the Sulock’s kickin’ it extreme on lake Chatuga in northern Georgia. .
I woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground and snow falling rather rapidly. That was certainly a first, in Breckenridge it snowed a foot when we left on May 1st but up until now that was the latest snow I’d ever seen.
The town hosted the 22nd Bozofest this weekend, which is an Ultimate (frisbee) tournament. Technically it is just called “Ultimate” because the word “frisbee” is copyrighted. Teams came from places such as Salt Lake City, Portland, and Edmonton (in Canada), quite a drive for some people.
It was a exciting (and tiring) weekend of Ultimate and revelry in 2 days of warm and sunny weather. This was mildly astounding considering that the weather was cold and rainy all last week. It then proceeded to be about as nice as you could possibly want for exactly two days, then Memorial day was cold and rainy, and today it was snowing. Mother Nature must have wanted us to play some frisbee!
There was a fun party for the tournament (this an Ultimate tradition) about 30 minutes outside of town with kegs of beer, a bonfire, a live band, and spaghetti dinner. It was out in the country with horses and cows, and anyone that wanted to could camp in a nearby field. I managed to get my honda stuck in said field after I slightly overestimated its off-roading capabilities. But luckily thats what teammates are for isn’t it? Especially largish Ultimate players. Thanks to all the Bozos that assisted in unsticking me.
Mom and Dad are going to be here in a week. Also of note I now have a plane ticket to go visit Davy during the beginning of July.
After that I’m going to be back in Asheville during the first couple weeks of August. It should be a good summer.
Here are a couple of totally non Ultimate related pictures of a hike Kez and I did last week up to the top of Baldy Moutain. The last time I was up there was in September of last year, it is a tough hike towards the end but once you get up there it has some good views.
Here are a couple of shots from the climb Joe and I did Monday afternoon. The climb is called the Gallatin Tower and is located down Gallatin Canyon as you go towards Yellowstone NP and Big Sky ski resort. It was a great way to spend a relatively warm afternoon in Bozeman. I recognize the beard is getting a little out of hand. I’m going to do someting about that one of these days.
Its been a good week. Busy, but good. On Thursday I went rock climbing at one of the closest local areas, Practice Rock, with Joe and Luke. I had been there before but not since winter had arrived. I was quite proud of myself as I did my first 2 lead climbs using “traditional” protection. (You climb up with the rope trailing you, place protection in the rock, clip yourself to it, and keep climbing ) Leading a climb is more difficult (and scary) than being the 2nd person up. And trad climbing is another level of difficulty above just sport climbing (sport is where there are pre-placed bolts that you the clip the rope to as you climb)
It was a lot of fun and makes me look that much forward to summer where hopefully I’ll become familiar with all the local areas around here. I found out that the class I’m teaching is only 3 days a week. I did a fair amount of climbing when I was going to school in Chapel Hill, and not much since then. It has been a good to return to something I enjoyed so much.
There was also a “Pow Wow” here at MSU this weekend, about a block from my house in the basketball complex. I’d never been to one but I believe they are much more frequent in the western part of the country. It was really interesting, and I could go on for awhile about that as well. However, for the sake of brevity here are a couple of low-quality films shot by my camera and then sent through You Tube to make sure they end up looking extra cruddy.
Here are a couple pictures of the Blue Ridge Parkway I took from the plane on the way to Bozeman. (I’m pretty sure this is the Blue Ridge Parkway, I don’t know what else it could be)
