Blackfoot Recreation Area

Yesterday Ben and I were just leaving my place to climb when we both decided the only reason we were climbing was because we didn't know what else to do.... Three blocks from the house I turned around with new plans.....float the Blackfoot.

Temps were forecasted to reach around 80 and where better to enjoy that than on the river. Ben knew of a good fishing stretch about 50 miles from town near Ovando. Last minute, Linsey got ahold of me and she and Elum joined us.

It was about 4:00pm when we put on and the river was so low that it resembled a large creek. Unfortunately it wasn't the mindless float we were hoping for. Strainers and exposed rocks kept us navigating the entire way. At times Ben and I were able to throw a fly trying to catch something.

As the sun crept closer to the horizon, we began to wonder where we were. We had been floating for hours. Eventually we saw a river access point and took out there not knowing where we were. Ben saw a man fishing down river and went to ask him our location. Turns out we were only half way and it was already 8:45pm.

Ben starting jogging to hwy 200 with hope of hitch-hiking back to the car. After just a short while Ben returned and our mini epic ended.

Tourists at Home

Two weekends ago Sage thought it would be a fun idea to do the tourist thing around the Missoula are. After twisting my arm a little, we were on our way. We decided to check out Phillipsburg, Anaconda, then head to Butte.

P-burg is a nice little rustic town, but unfortunately everything was closed so we didn't get to experience much.

Anaconda didn't even turn out to be a place worth stopping. I don't even think I would want my car to break down there. On to Butte....

Butte was a little better, but like the other towns, nearly everything was closed. We walked around the historic downtown checking out the old buildings and trying to imagine what it was like when Butte was one of the wealthiest town in America. Unfortunately, Butte now isn't much more than a died up mining town with the worlds largest and most god awful open copper pit!

We headed up to the mining museum but didn't have time to take an underground tour. Looked like it would have been fascinating. After that, I had about all I could handle of Butte and we were quickly back in the car heading home.