Montana

What makes this country great? The freedom to go camping on a Tuesday. My friend Sky and I met each other last friday on campus. We had agreed to go camping together at some point, but neve made definite plans. He suggested we go out this week. I don't have a phone, so we could'nt micromanage ourselves on the fly, and so we agreed to meet at the trailhead of the Rattlesnake at 5:00pm the following tuesday, which turned out to be Earth Day...

I rode my bike up the miles of hill to get to the trailhead with a light pack. The sun was shining and even though I was slower than the cars, i think they could probably see my happiness shining through the wool and plaid; much brighter than that shining through their car windows.

I laid down under some Ponderosas at the trail head, without a timepiece, I had no idea if I was early or late. So I just waited. Sure enough Sky rolled in on his bike, it was the first time I had seen him since we decided to do this. It really pays off to be old fashioned sometimes. We marvelled together in the instant relief of the forest. No stress at all. Then we locked our bikes and hiked up the creek.

We joked and joked and joked. We imagined if there was no civilzation at all. The only food I had was quinoa and lentils with no flavoring, he had stale bread and cheese with some hard nutella. We had a camp fire, which I lounged next to with my wool blanket. I went to get water to boil and I stepped in the creek, which made me laugh very hard. Sky made straws out of snake grass for us to drink hot water with. We watched the stars. We spoke french at length. We ate very slowly since our food was nothing to get excited about. As I was drifting off I saw the clouds start to roll in. We had no tent.

I woke up in a snow flurry. The clouds had closed up but it wasn't very cold or windy. We just packed up and hiked out. Scattering and disguising the remains of the fire. We decided to jump in the creek. As we approached the water, stepping over hard patches of dirty persistent snow, I saw a bald eagle soar downstream just thirty feet away. That kind of thing happens in Montana. We stripped and dunked. The water was so cold that I felt I was being reborn as a fish. We then proceeded to bike to campus for our classes. I had missed my first two, but I reckon if a man worries about missing class when he's out camping, he's gone soft. The blizzard picked up during the bike ride. I'm snow soaked even as I write this, sitting in the first building since leaving home yesterday, the UC. Now I'm off to microeconomics, Maybe I'll give those business majors a whiff of Eagles, grass, and smoke as I sit next to them in the dark lecture hall.

This is why I came out here. I can't wait for eight weeks of camping this summer.