I believe it's time for you to see some pics cause I have a lot on my camera I have finally been able to get off and put on a flashdrive. I actually have access to a computer with internet and that allows me to attach external drives! Woohoo! Count yourselves lucky! :) So, the snow is gone for the most part. Yes, we still are seeing snow up in the mountains, but not on the ski mountains. Columbia mountain still has some, but we might be able to make it up there if we tried again. I just thought I would include photos from throughout my stay here. And who really poses normal? Obviously not me.
It definitely took me a while to really believe where I am living. I have mountain peaks on one side of me where the sun rises and rolling hills on the other where the sun sets. But, then again, once you stay in a spot for so long, you start to get accustomed to what you see. It's going to be wierd to be leaving this place, and only in a couple months really! I do enjoy going on my morning or evening runs and looking up and just seeing the high mountains with snow still on them. What a good motivator to keep going!
I'm pretty sure I have told you all about the bears in Montana. I have had encounters with bears before, but they were black bears in Southern California at my summer camp. Is it something we should be scared of? NO. Is it something we should be aware of? YES. Black bear and grizzly bears are VERY, VERY different in how you treat them. Black bears, just act big, startle the bear, and they run away, unless of course, they have cubs and you are threatening them or something along those lines. BUT, with grizzlies, that won't work. You don't want to make any sudden movement. SO DON'T RUN AWAY!!!! Talk firmly and matter-of-factly to a grizzly so it starts to understand you are a human. Make sure they don't think you are threatening in any way. Wave your arms around slowly. All as you slowly back away. If you think that all sounds crazy, wait til you here this! If a bear charges you, 80% of the time it is a bluff charge meaning they either run by you or stop right before you. Yes, I know what you are thinking. I'm in deep shit! No, stand your ground. Yes, you read that part right. Stand where you are. Perhaps you are so scared out of you mind anyways that you have already pissed in your pants and your legs are frozen. Your body in that case knows best than what your mind might be thinking to do...:) haha Also, if the bear is still checking you out and is real close to you, it might stand up on it's hind legs to get a better feel of you and what you are. They aren't trying to intimidate you. Again, stand your ground. Of course, if you are being attacked, lie down on your stomach, legs apart and arms and hands over neck. Try to stay on your stomach since that is where all your vital organs are anyways. Here's the killer part of it all, black bears are not always black. They can be brown, black, cinnamon, or even white! So, there are five features that distinguish a black bear from a brown bear. Brown bears have a lump between their shoulder blades, have short round ears, have a curved face out to the snout, have 2 inch claws, and the paw print shows the length of the claws. Black bears have 1 to 1 1/2 in claws and much pointier noses. If you are really curious, look this up on the internet. Bears do require us to make sure our 'smellies' are either in the car or hanging from a tree before we go to bed! :)
The start of our hike up Columbia Mountain did not start on solid ground. Well, I guess ice is pretty solid...I definitely slipped down the path for half a second like it was a slide. Even on our way back down the mountain at one point, we all sat on our buts and went down the ice slide. Pretty sweet actually. Not REAL serious, but kind of serious, we almost lost one of our buddies. He slipped in the same spot twice, but luckily that same tree was still there to catch him from really going down the mountain. The first part of the hike definitely could have used some Yak Traks!
One of the great things about living in Kalispell, MT is that we are so freakin' close to Glacier National Park and one of the great things about working with MCC is that I get to work IN Glacier National Park. What an office. I bet all of you sitting in your office right now reading this blog are really jealous that I might be in my office which is what you see in the distance in this picture. But, don't get too jealous. You do have a steady job most likely and you might have a clue where life is taking you. Me, on the other hand, we'll see! Oh, the anxiety and excitement at the same time!
The start of this hike on Columbia Mountain started off on ice. Then we were getting so high, the ice was gone, but the snow appeared. It's hard to say exactly how deep of snow we were walking on. But we trudged on...at this point Snow Shoes were needed. We went so far, we didn't see footprints in the snow anymore, but we kept going. We think we were on the right path, but the mountain seemed to get steeper and steeper. Again, pictures don't always tell you exactly how it is, but I think this one gives you a pretty good idea. Just think of Lord of the Rings when the Fellowship was stuck on the side of the mountain of snow. If only we could all walk on the snow like Legolas. Definitely sunk more and more as we went up, at least up to my hips. Needless to say, we decided to turn around at this point.
My co-leader and I stopped at Kootanai Falls for our lunch break. This is where we stopped to eat. Unfortunately we only had like 5 seconds, so we didn't make it to the swinging bridge, or the falls themselves. Dang responsibilities. We were on our way to recruit some kids from Libby and Troy.
I wanted to add this one because I think this tree has some great curves. Don't you think?
I am thinking that perhaps this picture needs a little explaining. It all comes from this hilarious inside story with my co-workers here at MCC. So, one of the leaders was doing a lesson for us all on "How to Shit in the Woods". It was, first of all, hilarious because shit happens. Anyways, she "randomly" picked volunteers from the crowd to show everybody their favorite pooping positions in the woods. I am a "volunteer" and show that I like to lean my back against a tree. Elaine goes next and she likes to hold onto the tree trunk and lean back. Eric likes to hang over a fallen log. But here's the one that got us all going even more...Dan said this: "I like to find a branch at the right height and hold onto it. Then I get myself aimed over the hole and lift up my legs. I like to call this one the Orangatang Hang. It takes a little bit of practice and aim to get it in the hole. If you want to challenge yourself even more, you can try bringing your legs up in a pike position." Hence, this picture now. Don't worry, I do have underwear on!!
Like my beard? That's only part of the surprise for you all...:) haha Anyways, I am in Glacier right now with a couple of friends. I became the tour guide that day and tried to teach a couple of non-Montana-ers about all that I have learned in the last 3 months or so. Hopefully I did an all right job...except I didn't even get the name of this moss stuff correct (what my beard is made up of). So, I told my friends it was Witch's Beard. Sorry, Jenny! It can have one of two names. Some people call it Witch's Broom...some peole call it Old Man's Beard. I just put the two together. I like it better! :)
In the end, who doesn't like jump pictures. So, these are some of the people I work with the most. To the very left is Ahmad, he is my co-leader. Then it's Alicia, a fellow youth crew leader (YCL), then Kate, our Senior Youth Crew Leader, then Julia our regional supervisor person, and then Matt, YCL. We are coming down from a backcountry hitch training. Just to let you know, we never even made it to the trailhead. We had to park 6 miles or so away because our rig would have never made it through all the snow we could barely walk through. About every 5 steps, I fell through. So, yes, we camped on at least 3 feet of snow on a road. The neat thing about the snow, though, was that on our way out we saw mountain lion prints, bear prints, and moose prints. It's neat all the wildlife that can be found here!
I know Jill, my camp Mom, will be a little worried. My history shows that I am not the greatest with plants. A nickname of mine this past summer was Poison Oak...and, I must admit, well deserved. BUT, I do know that you can eat these flowers. They are called Glacier Lillies, but like anything you eat, you don't want to eat too many of them. :) They would probably be pretty good on a salad...
So, how Montana Conservation Corps works is that we are a company that other places hire to do a certain job of sorts. We are hired out all around our area here, even all the way down in Missoula which I will be getting a really cool story from there here soon! Anyways, I am in Noxon in this picture and, it is once again a lunch break for us. I didn't realize, but I am blocking the peak behind me. Kalispell and Whitefish are kind of pretty, but nothing compared to this place. Noxon is a VERY small town, very unspoilt and that's, I'm sure, what made it even more beautiful. The town is made up of...200 people. Maybe 250. Everybody literally knows everybody. I got to use a pole chainsaw, drive a 4 wheeler, getting it up to 40 mph, and see some gorgeous parts of Montana.
This is still in Noxon. This place is a reservoir, a water source. They built a dam where a rive once flowed through. It reminded me of Tehri Dam in India where they flooded out a village in order to have a dam. They did the same thing here. They closed down a small town and built a dam, which has created this amazing landscape which you see here.
And here I am showing it off, just to give you a bit better show of how magnificent it is. But, to tell you the truth, the best way for you to see it is to come see it for yourself. I don't have one of those cameras that can capture everything. In fact, it captures very little. BTW, this is another one of my lunch break areas.
As we all pretty much know, America's national bird is the Eagle. I think I may have seen an eagle or two before coming to Montana, but they are abundant here in Montana. So, while we stayed in Noxon, MT, we stayed at the local park/recreational area/baseball fields. Eagles come back year to year to their same nest, so they have had this local Eagle for a while. It's really quite neat to see this huge nest so far up in the tree, and while I was mowing the baseball field on a big mowing tractor, I saw the babies heads come up. I'm sure I was not the only one watching something else. They all definitely had their eyes on me also.
And there's the mama...or the papa...Not really sure, but they were always around and ALWAYS watching. :) They had so many birds flying around the place. We saw Osprey and a Turkey Vulture. I might as well bring my kids this summer there so I can do the bird lesson there. Forget making paper cutouts of them! Gees, what a waste of time! :)
So, on our way back from Noxon, we drove right through Kootanei!! Yeah, we made it to the swinging bridge. Sweet! The water was raging!! Did you know that A River Wild was filmed here? Well, now you do! The rapids look crazy. Only a pro would go through it, and even then, it's pretty crazy! Who knew Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon would be so good at getting through so crazy rapids!
Just imagine with these two pictures that I am Harrison Ford on a sketchy swinging rope bridge...then you have seen where my mind takes me sometimes...
Now you can see a bit more of A River Wild. The glaciers are definitely in the process of melting which makes the color of this water so amazingly brilliant! That water also has to be SOOOOOO freezing. It looks good to drink, though! I can't say that this is one of the prettiest places I have seen so far in Montana cause, as mentioned just before, Noxon was absolutely gorgeous. It seems like I get pretty lucky with hitting the right places to see.
It's also pretty crazy that many of these places that I get to see and be in are all a part of work also. I leave in less that a week to go out with kids to even more places and see more things here in Montana. What a good goodbye to America for a while. Thanks to my old college roomie who told me I would like Montana and Glacier National Park. She knew what she was talking about! BTW, these are the youth crew leaders again.
This was last week in the Rattlesnake Wilderness in Missoula, MT. We worked alongside the youth crew leaders from Missoula. MCC has 5 regions in Montana. I will have to say, Kalispell is one of the best regions. Although, Missoula gets the Rattlesnake Wilderness which is pretty cool. So, here is a great story from last week and our work:
We worked in the Rattlesnake from Tuesday through Friday. Our sponsors were funny and kept bringing us random stuff each day. We got brownies, cookies, hummus, garlic-parsley butter, german chocolates, etc. The list goes on, but they were great! Anyways, on Thursday night, Val, one of the Missoula YCLs, was heading to the latrine, our hole in the ground in the woods. She likes to sing as she goes anywhere by herself, cause I have mentioned before, there is a lot of wildlife in Montana. Anyways, she's singing, and then about 20 feet in front of her, a cougar runs away. Yes, a mountain lion. She didn't make it to the latrine. She dug herself a cathole and got out of there. So, we decided from then on, nobody goes to the latrine by themselves. We need buddies to sing with as we head back there. Well, about 11 that night, Jesse, from Missoula, goes to put something in the rig, some smellies so the bears don't show up on camp also. As he is walking to the rig, he sees 2 cat-eye eyes kind of walking toward him. He goes "Oh, shit." and screams bloody murder basically. Harry, from Missoula also, heard this. He was already in his tent but just reading. Apparently, all of us from Kalispell slept through the bloody scream. Harry, anyways, heard it all. He thought his friend Jesse was just attacked by the mountain lion. He thought that was his dying scream. He froze for the longest minute and a half ever! Then he finally got out of his tent and luckily found Jesse by the campfire with Chris. Jesse still needed to get the smellies in the rig. No way did we need a bear problem also. So, Jesse and Harry both go to the rig with their headlamps and put the smellies in the rig and search their lights around the area. They see what looks like eyes staring at them, but half-assed convinced themselves it was the shovel tips shining back at them. Then Jesse looks away and at that moment Harry sees the eyes go down and move away. This is when I woke up. I heard them walking or running back to the campfire, Harry saying "Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit." I tried to strain my ears to hear what was going on. I got a tiny drift of it, but I went back to sleep. It freaked me out a bit...not going to lie. Luckily, everybody was fine. The next morning, though, the sponsors came and they went up about a mile, if that, to turn around at this bridge area. On their way back from the bridge, following the same road back, they found a bloody pelvis in the middle of the road. No, it was not a human pelvis, thank goodness! :) It was pretty crazy!!!
Side story from all this, completely unrelated: I put my tent up about 15 feet from the creek running by. I woke up one morning and saw that I was only maybe 6 feet from the water. Guess I could have got washed away in the middle of the night...haha
Well, don't take these stories and worry about me. I'm not. It brings excitement to have these things going on all around me. It's the world. They don't really want to bother us. They are probably more scared of us than we are of them. As my camp director says every year to the kids. "Is it something to be scared of?" NO "Is it something to be aware of?" YES. Just always keep that in mind. And we always have bear spray with us. Which is like Mace but 100 times worse!
