It seems so long ago...oh wait, it was...

Session 1 of my MCC summer went great. It went from June 13-July 10, 2010. I had a crew of all high school age boys. When you are the only girl...you get picked on...but I guess I am used to that from guys. Go figure. It was good picked on though. The fun, sarcastic stuff, so no worries.

WEEK 1: Whitefish Recreation Trail
Our first week we worked on the Whitefish Recreation Trail. It is a trail that goes around Whitefish lake. We helped build drainage systems on the trail, brushed off limbs that would hit faces of horses and people, built rock benches on a bump out, and pulled dirt down the downslope side of the trail. It was nice to see people already using the trail and thanking us as we did our work. (always motivating) It was our first week of work, so it was a bit of work hardening...getting the boys to wake up, get breakfast, make their lunches, get to work, work the whole time (and in the rain), and get back and make dinner, etc. It was something new for all of us.

We camped at some open valley that we at first weren't sure it was the right spot...but it was. As the only girl, I would have to go off a bit away and find a hiding place to pee at. On my way to a random pee spot, I found fur scattered all around this one area...yes, an open kill by a carnivore. We had already found random bones scattered around the area we were camping, so obviously there was something out there and with the way that fur was, probably a mountain lion! :)

The week went pretty good for the most part. We had one kid with the wrong attitude to be out in the woods doing this kind of work, so he ended up going home anyways. They loved making the fires at night, and it was teamwork to figure out the how to get dry situation when it rained the whole time.

I should probably explain this car wreck...So, we drive these big ol' rigs. Ours was a GMC Yukon named Zeus. We drive on a lot of mountain sides and such. And if you know me, I may drive a bit fast sometimes...still safe, but a bit fast. Anyways, we were going around a corner and all of a sudden there was a big rock in the middle of the road. So, I tried braking, but it wasn't going to stop us in time, so I turned the wheel real sharp...and this is what happened. Our rig turned over on itself several times, but before the ambulance came, I was able to hand over my camera in order to get a picture of it. Noone was hurt!

This is the story we told one of the adult crews we worked with on the last week. AND THEY BELIEVED US! The real story is that on the trailhead where we were working there was a totaled car just sitting there. Somehow I was able to convince a crew of boys to take a funny picture... They didn't do many more random funny pictures, but I got at least one!

WEEK 2: East Glacier - Fencing and Weeding

I am so glad we had the opportunity to work in East Glacier because that is now my favorite area of Montana, of the Northern Rockies. Our work here included fixing barbwire fencing on the borders of the park. Glacier National Park borders the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. There is still a dispute on where the boundaries really are. The Blackfeet think their land goes in further, while GNP has it down as another boundary. We were hired by GNP to fix the fences that have either been broken by fallen down trees or cut by the Indians to allow their free range cattle and horses to graze on the grass. GNP wants to stop this to stop the infestation of noxious weeds in the park. It's been an ongoing battle apparently. I'm not sure where I stand with it, but we were hired for a job and we did it. Most of the fencing was done before we got there, but we still got at least 2 days of fencing. Then we had to try to decide what was weeds and what was not...I still probably couldn't tell you.

We stayed at Cut Bank campground which was right be a creek/river. Unfortunately, the water is freezing! I guess when they are fed by glaciers, they tend to be a bit cold. There weren't many girls for the boys to stare at, but they still seemed to have a pretty good time. We played some rugby tag, they did some wrestling, we went bushwacking down by the river, they widdled some wood, etc. I even had them do the popsicle pushup thing where they made a square with their bodies and only hands on the ground to do the pushup (look at the picture).

Cameras don't really capture all that I saw in East Glacier. Most of my pictures here are in Many Glacier, a must visit. We hung out at this lake one day after doing some weeding. When we were done with the fencing, we went on to weeding. Weeding included going on hikes in East Glacier where our sponsor told us weeds were becoming a problem.



We took an hour lunch at this gorgeous spot in St. Mary's.

One day we were picking weeds up in Chief Mountain at a trailhead directly by the US/Canada border patrol. The boys stated they would really love to go to Canada, even to just step a foot in Canada. Why not? We could just run over there, step a foot in, and run away. They wouldn't catch us, right? As long as we were fast enough! JK Don't worry, we didn't try this approach. Instead, I went into the US border patrol office and asked them if 8 of us from Montana Conservation Corps could go into Canada and get back and without documentation. The US side had no problem, so they called the Canada border that was about 50 feet away. They had no problem, so I walked back to the rig and told the boys to come to Canada with me. We brought our helmets as our "documentation." They let us walk in a good 200 feet to get pictures by this sign. You could totally tell a difference in the people on the 2 sides. On the US side, nobody even tried to talk to us. They didn't seem to care. We got to the Canada side and one of the guy's was already joking with us that he didn't want to see us run off in different directions. Then on our way back to the states, we stopped and talked to the Canadian border patrol for a good 10 minutes. Just a difference in hospitality...

This is Chief Mountain itself. I could see a chief being up there...

This is just one of the greatest views while driving to and from work everyday.

WEEK 3: Hungry Horse National Recreation Trail
You know how our grandparents talked about having to walk to school in 10 feet of snow, uphill both ways? Well, I'm not going to exagerate quite that much. We had to hike 5 miles up the mountain side just to get to the start of our worksite. It took us about 4 hours to hike up the worksite, giving us about 1 1/2 hours (maybe 2) to work, and then head back down to camp. In other words, we didn't actually get that much work done. And on top of all that, the mosquitoes and the flies were really beginning to come out for the summer. We got to use a single handle crosscut to saw trees out of the path (probably a good 10 trees were down and in the way). We used pulaskis and pick-matticks to retread the path in different spots where the path was not quite as visible. We even got to hike through some snow during this work week. The hike was hard, but our boys did a good job...just took a little bit of motivation to hike it everyday.

On Thursday, we got stuck in a horrible windstorm on a ridge. We saw it coming, but it was hard to tell how bad it would be. But, then again, the weather changes every 5 minutes in Montana, so we should have known... Anyways, we decided to head back due to what the weather was doing, and on our way back down, the wind really picked up. Just our luck, it picked up right when we were crossing a ridge. I almost thought our smallest guy was going to blow away! "Hold on to Stan!" We all had to hold on to our helmets so they wouldn't all blow away.

Camp was nice because it was less than a half mile to walk to the trailhead to begin work. We had our pet deer, Sumpy and Sumpster, who always drank from our kitchen sump. We did Monster Races where they had to cross from line to line following certain rules. We conquered K2 and Everest at this site and found a caveman who was in hiding. Yes, that is right, a caveman. One of the boys would have marshmallows, providing him this sugar high and he would walk around camp, dragging a 'club' behind him and make caveman noises. He was good at not breaking character. Question is, did he practice at home before coming out to work with us? No one will ever know...

The fun thing about being at a camp place that is not public is that everybody seems to be more comfortable. For instance, our caveman only became a caveman in camp spots where nobody but else was around. In a picture above, one of the boys is just in his long underwear.


WEEK 4: Swan Mountain Range - Cold Lakes Trail

It was hard to believe that this was our last week of work. It was a great last week for us also. Apparently the Cold Lakes trail they had was very wet and crossed a creek several times. The Forest Service decided it would be worth it to reroute the trail up the hill more and then prevent the creek crossings and wet ground. An adult crew was already working on this trail, so they were able to show us what we needed to do. Paul trained us in using a two handled crosscut...you know, like the saw they would use in cartoons. So, we had to cut down a lot of trees and do a lot of brushing. Lots of work, but we felt productive.

On the last day, Friday, we only had a half day, so we decided to work the morning on chopping this huge root out of the path. The root was at least 6 feet wide and 5 feet high off the ground. There was no way it was going to moved by hand only. We needed our pulaskis and pick-matticks. We all took a spot around the root and began swinging our tools. Then we also began singing. We belted it out in our own random songs that came to our heads. Eventually, we all began singing together as loud as we could as we swang away. It was the best day of work in my mind, and it happened to be our last.

To start off the week was the 4th of July, so I made everybody red, white, and blue pancakes (blueberry pancakes with strawberries and whip cream on top). Then we went to the big 4th of July parade in Bigfork, the closest city to us. The parade even provided a free BBQ (hot dog and chips). They had a Santa driving a corvette. They had some small kids dressed as Superman, Spiderman, or Wonderwoman and tied them to the top of a golf cart, and so on.

We also played a game of Kick the Can at camp which was really fun. The game involves a can in the middle of the place and one person who is "it". Everybody else goes to hide in the woods around. The "it" comes around and tries to find you. If they find you, they say "Over the can on ____" and has to jump over the can before that person can kick the can. If they go over before it's kicked, the person found is in prison. They are freed from prison if somebody else is able to kick the can at any time if they are not in prison. It was pretty fun to hide in the woods, but we never got to play when it was dark because it didn't ever get dark until 11, and we needed to be in bed by then in order to wake up and work the next day.

Where Do I Begin?

Just in case anybody remembers that I have a blog... or that I still exist... I'll write one... finally...

Where do I begin?

I started the blog of my adventures in February. I was just scrolling through my previous entries and its wierd to believe how long ago that was. All the way back about my train ride to Montana, my impressions of Whitefish, work, where I lived, and so on. It's like a life away, but yet it was like yesterday when I met all my new friends having a beer at our favorite local bar, Moose's Saloon, in Kalispell. It doesn't even feel real that I'm not in Montana, that my new adventure is ready to begin. The big question here, am I ready? Yes, but I do miss Montana, all those friends, and all the youth I worked with.

Okay, so what have I done since my last entry? Well, the part of Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) that I signed on for and spent 4 months training for finally came (and went). That is, the past two months I have spend in the woods in Northwest Montana with two different sets of youth working trails and such. This all reconfirmed again my desire to always work with youth. Who couldn't love all that energy, enthusiasm, and imagination?

The way the youth crew works for MCC is that we have two four week sessions during the summer where each set of leaders takes out 6 youth. It's four weeks straight for them, no going home, etc. First session was June 18 to July 10. Second session was July 18 to August 14. The Youth Crew Leaders (YCL) (me included) did all the recruiting, interviewing, and selecting of the youth members. How the four weeks works is like this:
We work 8 hours a day Monday to Friday on the trail. Saturday morning we pack up camp, go into town to exchange any tools needed, go food shopping, and set up camp at our new worksite. Sometimes on Saturdays we went swimming or bowling. On Sundays, we mostly chilled at our new camp, sometimes exploring a bit. Then we work at our new site Monday to Friday, and the month goes on as so.

Setting up camp means setting up a tarp to have our kitchen, digging a sump hole for the kitchen water, digging a latrine for our bathroom away from where sleeping and cooking, and setting up our personal tents. Tents shouldn't be near the car or kitchen area to avoid bears near us at night. The latrine was one big hole, either deep or about 3 feet in length that we would all poop in.

Each session definitely had different dynamics and personalities. Of course, I'm going to say that the 2 crews I had over the whole summer were the best 2 crews, far better than the other 2 sets of youth crews. (I'm definitely not showing any kind of bias with that statement...:)) First session, my crew was only boys. Just imagine being the only female in a crew... Yep, picked on! :) Second session started off with 3 girls and 3 guys and ended with 2 girls and 2 guys...explanation later...:)

Besides working with youth as a plus to this job, this job also moved us all around northwest Montana. We worked in East and West Glacier (Glacier National Park), we worked down in the Swan Mountain Ranges, we worked in wilderness areas (pretty close to the Bob Marshall Wilderness), and we worked on recreational trails in Hungry Horse and Whitefish. I got to see so many different parts throughout northwest Montana. What other kind of job could provide such an amazing office? With fantastic lunch spots?

So, I think how I'll go about talking about each session is write 2 seperate entries and having pics with them. Meaning, this is all ya' get right now... just a tease... no big deal. :)

To Be Scared or Not To Be Scared...that is the question....

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!

So, I have been 100% awful at updating my blog. To answer some questions about me that you may be having: 1.) Yes, I'm still alive; 2.) Yes, I'm in Montana; 3.) Yes, I will answer the question of what I am doing here.

As I have mentioned before (and I'm mentioning again in case you have forgotten by now), I am working through the AmeriCorps in a division called Montana Conservation Corps (from now on referred to as MCC). It's pretty much exactly as it sounds. I conserve things in Montana. I am still in training right now. I've only got a little tease on using a chainsaw. Most of my training so far has been working with youth since I will be a Youth Crew Leader through MCC. One experience with youth here has been leading field trips at a local state park. The other one has been with the Center for Restorative Youth Justice (CRYJ). Both have been really cool experiences. We have also been building these garden boxes for senior citizens. They are basically 5' by 3' boxes raised up high enough so that the elderly don't have to bend over. They can garden from chairs/wheelchairs. It's actually a really cool thing. Everything we do is based around community service which is pretty cool (also makes sense since we are 'volunteers').

In a couple weeks I'll be training for trail work, chainsaws, fencing, etc. All the technical work basically. It's actually quite exciting. My dad never taught me any of that nor probably wanted me to be working with that. Although, he would send Kari and I out with an ax and shovel so we could dig us a lake. (Then, of course, Kari and I fought, so we both dug our own 'lakes'). It makes me nervouse on how to 'fell' a tree, but it will be cool to learn for sure. Then starting in June, I'll be doing all this training will be good for. I'll be building fences, constructing and maintaining trails, habitat enhancement, watershed restoration, planting trees, etc. All of this for 2 four week straight sessions with youth. It will be the same kids for one four week session and then a different set for the second session. It's definitely going to be a different experience then I've ever had, which is pretty exciting. All good professional development for myself and I get to spend some time in Glacier National Park!

Well, that's all the work aspect of things! I hope you haven't fallen asleep yet. I know I have been asked that question, so I thought it was time to explain. Plus, I didn't really know all what I was doing before I left for Montana. At least training has done something! :)

The people I work with are pretty fun, but only like 1 or 2 of them are actually from Montana. A lot are from the Midwest (go figure!). We also have one from Georgia, and on from Alaska. Some random places. And don't get me wrong when I say this (cause I love hanging out with these people also), but it's really hard to make friends outside of work. That's something I really loved when at Purdue. I had a variety of friends (which guaranteed somebody would want to do something at some point). I had my Triathlon friends (for at least some time), I had my rugby friends, I had my friend(s) from freshman year, I had a friend from since I was a year old, I had my high school friend. I had a good variety. So, I have been trying to create that here. Unfortunately, there is no good community sports for adults to get involved with that I have found. So, what do I do? I try to make something. I have been trying to start a women's rugby team here in Kalispell, but my hope for the team's dying. I had one girl show up once and she was SO excited to get a team going. I contacted the men's team in Kalispell, the women's team in Missoula, and the Montana Rugby Union in general. I placed flyers all around Kalispell. I had the one girl show up once, and there has been nothing else. I've definitely gotten a lot of info, even found a rugby pitch here. With my short period of time here, my hope of a team getting going and lasting after I'm gone has died. I would just be happy having somebody show up to play with, especially on these nice days. Perhaps my next step should be to see if the guys would let me play on their team with them! :)

I've also taken a couple dance classes for the West Coast Swing. The girls do a lot of spinning in that class! A lot of the people there are older married couples that came with other friends, so it makes it difficult to actually make friends.

I got myself a tennis racket and I go serve by myself at the tennis courts here. That's been nice, but nobody comes to play with me randomly (I will give you that one, that was a far fetched hope).

I'm definitely still having a great time here and I will continue to try to make other friends while still having a lot of fun with my work friends. Basically, I have almost found it best to make friends by going to bars with my roommate who is from Georgia cause she seems to know everybody (if you thought I was a social person, meet this girl!) :)

Other things that have been going on:
1.) I actually used my Wilderness First Aid
2.) I had a friend come visit
3.) I have hiked at Glacier and in snow up to my hips
4.) I have snowboarded 3 times here
5.) I have yet to see a moose or a bear

Probably not seeing a bear or moose is a good thing. A little FYI, how you treat grizzly bears is different then black bears. Moose is a whole nother story. I heard the best way if they charge is to run in circles around a tree (apparently their antlers inhibit their mobility around a tree) (Oh, and if a grizzly bear charges, most likely they are bluff charging so you are suppose to stand your ground.) Sounds silly! I'll let you know what happens...if I can...:)

I loved the snowboarding. I loved the hiking. Glacier is just as pretty as the books and people say. My friend's visit was awesome (I DO have friends!)

Are you on the edge of your seat yet? Are you like, "She used her Wilderness First Aid training?!?!" Well, yes, yes I did. I definitely realize what I could have done better...but I wasn't actually in the wilderness at this time. It was actually across the street from my house. Ready?

I was in my room talking with Jenny, my friend in town. We both heard something that didn't quite sound right. I didn't think much of it, but I looked out the window and low and behold, across the street was a wrecked car. I ran out of my room, told my roommates to look out the living room window. Casey called 911. I slipped my shoes on real fast. Sarah told me not to run. I told her I wasn't going to get hit by a car. I saw a bloody person lying by the house about 20 feet from the totalled truck. I still ran to the truck first. Sarah was going towards the bloody guy. I checked to make sure nobody was in the car. The car was smoking and tons of fluid was pouring out the front of the truck. Would that be gasoline? Who really knew, but the car was still on and most definitely smoking. In my mind, that car has the chance of exploding. I went over to the guy. He was conscious, so means he had a heartbeat and was breathing. Check, check, check. Blood covered his hands and his head. He obviously had to have been thrown from the car. Probably through the front windshield when the car rolled over and somehow landed back upright. The guy was moaning and rolling back and forth with his hands by his head. None of us approached him at first. Sarah ran back in to get gloves. Looking back at this situation, the first thing I should have done was introduce myself and explain how I could help and then hold his spine and neck in place. Instead, I did try to see how awake and oriented he was. He obviously had a concussion. He kept looking at his hands and his truck very confusingly and was asking "Why I have all this blood on my hands? What happened to my truck?" He finally gave me his name and age, but he didn't know where he was, if he was driving or if anybody else was in the car. I began to check for other victims just in case they got thrown somewhere else.

The police actually showed up pretty quickly, and this experience with them gave me so much less respect for the cops. The cop approached and his first questions where "Were you drinking? Were you on drugs?" What happened to the "Are you okay? We are here to help you." Or going through an actual medical emergency procedure versus those questions and moving him around to say the huge scratch on his ribs was "only a bruise" and to have him lean over enough so the cop could get the guy's wallet. I know the cop was only "doing his job", but there are some moral values that need to be thought of. If he was drinking or on drugs, that could have been tested at the hospital. It doesn't make him have a less of a right to treatment. Those concerns of the police should not have been the first concern. It's also a very negative way to look at things. But, of course, I did not say anything. Perhaps I should have, but I wasn't ready to take on a policeman. I guess it could have been my one time experience of life behind bars? :)

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what happened to the guy. I'm guessing (and hoping) he's all right. Here's how I think the accident happened:
He was going way too fast and his right tire must have gone off the road some so he overcorrected too much and too fast. This caused him to roll the car. He had no seatbelt on, so he was probably flung through a side window or the windshield.

it was my first time ever responding to an accident where I had to use my WFA, let alone being the first time to ever see an accident first hand without cops and ambulance already being there. Someday it would be nice to get my WFR (Wilderness First Responder)...

On another note, my Peace Corps medical and dental have been cleared. I am healthy and good enough to go to Africa according to the American government. It's all coming together! I still don't know where in Africa, but I have decided to try to learn some Swahili anyways (randomly found a used Swahili learning book at a used book store). I'll go from being surrounded by white people galore in Montana to being surrounded by black people and sticking out like a sore thumb. Sometimes I feel like I always stick out like a sore thumb. To tell you the truth, I kind of like it. It's nice to be different!

Story of my life in Montana in a nutshell so far. I love it here. The mountains are great, people are fun, weather's been pretty good, but it's getting to the point where it's time for me to get out of AMERICA!! :)

Pics of where I am

This is my home here in Montana. I have mountains surrounding me in the valley that I live in.




This is my view out the back with an old train track bridge (they are making it into a trail to run around the city)




I forget exactly where I am, but it's definitely somewhere around here and I see this kind of view a lot. (I am just trying to make you all jealous right now)




Kiss the snowman...Snowman love




That's me and you are now looking down the dam.




There was a Hungry Horse who ate Whitefish with a Bigfork. . . (BTW, those are names of some of the cities close to around where I live)




Bringing the leg hug around the world! This is one of my four roommates. We are working on the leg hug...its nothing like the Lindsay Potts leg hug (when she's not pregnant anyways) :)




Getting up to see the sunrise at Camp Mak-A-Dream (a place where we did a week of training on youth behavior, learning styles, etc.)




We made it to the top of the summit at Camp Mak-A-Dream that same morning as above, and we made it in just the right time to jump on the sun!




So, I actually do work here and not just enjoy the scenery. Here I learned how to make lumber from logs. They have taken the American Elm that have all died here due to a beetle and we are going to make box gardens for senior citizens here who can't bend over to tend garden. Long story short, I am working at a small sawmill in order to help the community. :)




Favorite tool name: Pickaroo, but this is not a Pickaroo I am posing with. It's a PV.




I was looking through my camera and forgot I had these on there and was so excited to have an awesome picture of each of my nieces! Here is Aliza, deciding to put on her dad's boots!




And here Marissa is making out with a Mexican coke bottle. MMMMMMMMMMM




I can't say much more than...cute.