After making it through the night without any interruptions from a possibly displaced bear, we set out on our drive to Missoula, MT. Missoula had seemed like a strange stop for us, especially since it was the furthest northern location (by almost 4 hours) on our whole trip. However, with my cousin Amy living there and with the Shlansky family there on vacation there seemed good enough reasons to make it a destination. The drive from our campsite to Missoula was just over 10 hours. This isolated and remote drive through “Big Sky Country” proved to be worthy of its name. Small clusters of civilization were scattered, rarely closer than 30 or 40 miles apart, among huge, wide open space and sprawling peaks. As we approached western Montana we were met with our first views of the rugged, snow covered, Rocky Mountains. The sprawling green landscape with the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains provided views only appropriate for Montana. With every aspect of the landscape so large and dominant it’s difficult to feel as if you’re anything more than just a fortunate visitor being allowed to pass through.
Helped by the minimal emphasis on speed limits in Montana, we arrived at the home of Amy and Lucas around 7:30 pm. Amy works at an advertising and marketing agency in Missoula and Lucas has recently started his own architecture firm which focuses on sustainable residential development. After catching up and taking the tour of the house which Lucas had built himself, we sat down to a dinner of sweet potato quesadilla’s. We were also introduced to Amy’s latest pet, Simon. Simon the hedgehog spent dinner rolling around the house collecting coins. But seriously, they have a pet hedgehog, it was awesome! The house, familiar people and a home cooked meal brought a welcomed feeling of comfort after having camped out the last three nights.
- Alex
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