Day 10— Montana
Today was a pretty great day. Compared to the last few, there is nothing stressful or concerning to report and no new obstacles were thrown in my way. First, I did manage to get my oil changed this morning and all is well with the car. This was a little complicated because I couldn’t find any Jiffy Lube-type chain places up here—maybe it’s that ‘do it yourself’ Montanan spirit, but all I could find were “Al’s Garage” type places and the first two I went to didn’t have time to help me out any time soon. But the third place, they got me squared away. Mason stayed in the back of the car, I got some stuff done on the internet after the blackout of being up here at the campsite for 12 hours, and there was nothing wrong with the car to account for that brief flicker of the oil light yesterday.
From there, we ended up taking a trip back down toward Yellowstone. We didn’t go into the park, but instead went into the Custer-Gallantin National Forest, which borders it on the North. The trails there allow you to take dogs out on the them, so we did the six mile round trip Lava Lake trail. It was more challenging than I thought it was going to be based on what I read online--- the three miles up to the lake are all uphill over some pretty rocky terrain. Mason had a great time, especially because he got to wade through several streams on the way up. The lake itself is amazing—it’s up at the top of one mountain but surrounded by other even taller mountains and socked in with all kind of green growing stuff and dramatic rocks. Mason did a little swimming, though not necessarily on purpose—he kind of fell in a few times playing with a tennis ball he found at a campsite up there, and it was so deep right away he had to swim. I stayed dry. The walk down was much easier, obviously, but I hadn’t brought any water since I thought it was going to be an easier hike, so I was struggling by the end. I promised myself ice cream at the end to stay motivated, so we had to go to Dairy Queen afterward.
After that, we made it back to camp at around 3 in the afternoon and have just been hanging out here. No internet, no cell service. I’ve read a huge chunk of my book and kept an eye on the sun as it moved across the sky, and there was literally nothing else for me to do or anything to distract me. I wouldn’t want to spend every day like this, but every once and a while it is pretty incredible. There has been a vicious wind storm blowing all afternoon and now into the evening--- it’s not uncomfortable, but I had to rotate the tent 90 degrees because the front peak of the rain fly was catching the wind like a sail and the whole thing looked like it was going to blow away or get torn to shreds. But, having successfully rotated the tent, all is once again right with the world. Also, when I was in town and had internet service I got the satellite thing set up on my phone and have been able to check in at home, so if there’s any ax murdering on either end, everyone will be up to speed on it. So, there’s that.