Montana

Last week, I was in Montana for training. Missoula first, which is where one of our partners are located. They are a fun bunch, very talented considering their location. Of course, they were pretty hospitable too and had planned activities for us after training was over. Here, we all are on a pedal pub crawl. We all get on this wagon that has like 8 bike pedals attached to it and go drinking from bar to bar.  It is a good thing downtown Missoula is dead flat. 🙂

After training was over, Marissa and I had planned to go to Glacier National Park afterwards.  We figured we had very few chances to go to Montana, and Glacier was only 2.5 hours away. Also, Marissa’s roommate, Kristy, had work up in Montana, so she joined us in the adventure. 
Little did we know, however, that a roaring fire would happen in the park, and basically close down on of the main attractions to the park: The Going to the Sun road, which apparently, is an engineering marvel. The fire was furiously burning thru 4000 acres of land, and we were frantically trying to figure out if we were going to be smoked out or not. 
Good thing as that it seemed fine in the areas we want to go, so we went. 🙂
Saturday We made it up to Grinnell Glacier. About 30 minutes after this photo was taken, we saw a grizzly with two cubs on the road. They had come from above the trail, across it, and down into the valley.  Apparently it was close enough that people from the other side of the trail were motioning us to stay where we were while the bears crossed down. 

Sunday, we booked a two hour horseback ride. Marissa is a seasoned horseback rider while Kristy and I were totally newbies. Kristy promptly turned into a twelve year old girl and squealed at the sight of the horses. I, however, was completely cocky and told Marissa that I had never fallen from a horse before.  Of course, ten minutes after this horse photo was taken, Ike – my steed – tripped on a log and sent me tumbling off the saddle.  Good thing I was A) wearing a helmet B) in a grassy field, and C) kinda used to crashing from mtn biking so much. Now, I have a perfect record for falling every time I have ridden a horse. 

One thought on “Montana”

  1. If one standing at the town center of Missoula with careful observation, one can see surrounding mountain sides with ancient water line marks on them. And I did. It actually was a lake during many earth ice ages. The ice dams were all located at current location of Coulee Dam (man made not made with ice during ice age).

    When the earth warming up, the ice dam broke suddenly. It sent water rushing down toward Portland, Or and flooded the entire central of valley of Oregon. The highest water line was estimated to be at least 100 feet higher than the tallest building in Portland. It also created the mighty Columbia River.

    The gentleman first proposed this idea, by observing many large boulders along the Columbia River, was a layman in geology. He was ridiculed by many, many so-called experts all along. But 50 years later, he finally received the highest award in geology.

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