Hi, everyone! I know it’s been about two weeks since I last posted, but I’ve been traveling and enjoying nature with Brian in Montana!
We flew out there on June 25th and arrived really late at night in Missoula and slept in for a chunk of Thursday. The time change threw us off, but we managed to go pick up the car and had a suggestion from our uber driver to the airport car rental counter to go check out the Bison Range that was about 45 minutes down the road from Missoula.
It was a really neat place. There is a road that surrounds the park and you drive around, looking at the views and, of course, the bison that inhabit the land there. It’s a refuge for them run by the Flathead tribe in the area and they do an excellent job of telling the story of what happened to the bison over the years in the region. I still can’t imagine what it would look like when huge herds roamed the western plains before they were hunted to near extinction.
There were also some trails you could hike in the park, so we hiked the two small trails. I was a little concerned when I first saw a sign saying that bears had been spotted in the area. I eventually learned that this was part of being in Montana. Grizzly bears rule the land and you just do your best to avoid them and they recommend that you carry bear spray. We didn’t, but I carried a stick, not that it would do a whole lot of good! We did see one grizzly bear while we were in Montana, but it was very far in the distance and we only saw it because a park ranger pointed it out.
The main reason we were going to Missoula was to run the Missoula Marathon (Brian, state number 38) and Half Marathon (Me, state number 5). We ran the race on Sunday and the first part of the race was gorgeous since it was out in the more rural part of Missoula. By the end of the race, you were running through neighborhoods, which provided some entertainment, but was not nearly as stunning as the views were in the first half of the race.
We both finished! I beat my time from Salina last year by about an hour, so I was super happy with that. The difference between that race and this race was that I actually ran some of this race where I walked the entire way in Salina.
After the race, we crashed out and then headed to Whitefish, Montana on Monday. But that is a post for tomorrow!
Oh, and in case you wanted to know, I did do some crafting while on vacation. I knit on a pair of socks while on the airplane. I also wore my Mr. Greenjeans cardigan while on the plane since I always get cold.
Stay crafty!
And if you want to flip through pictures, here’s a slideshow from the first part of the trip.
