Addy’s Guest Blog!!

I just have to say before I let Addy take over that she introduced me to blogs, blogging and the weird world of bloggers. She is an avid reader of many of the best, but this is her first foray putting pen to paper…And she is damn good! (golf clap) I hope that she offers many more guest blogs in the future, and maybe her own someday. Enjoy!

Big Sky Indeed!!

From Missoula, to the yurt at the base of the Mission Mountains, to Poison to Bigfork and Whitefish, I saw as much of Montana as one can see in just 6 days!

I had been planning this trip to Montana the moment TK and Matt drove off in the U-Haul I helped pack. I knew I wanted to go in the summer, I knew I didn’t want to brave the Montana winter just yet. Turns out the weather in August is just perfect, near 100 degree days, with no humidity and perfectly cool temperatures at night.

Once my luggage finally arrived, we began our first adventure tubing down the Clark Fork River. The river runs right through town and makes it an easy afternoon activity and I think everybody in town takes off Friday afternoons just for it! All you need are a few tubes – one for you and one to carry your cooler full of beer. Watch out for Whitewater – not a place for cameras I am afraid.

On Saturday we headed north to the base of the Mission Mountains to celebrate Mo’s 30th birthday. We camped that evening outside of a Yurt with about 25 people and almost as many dogs. Blue was by far the coolest dog there, hands down! We had some yummy bratwursts and Italian sausages, venison burgers and zucchini relish. No campfire because of the potential forest fires, but we did get to enjoy the amazing sky at night – the entire sky is filled with bright stars, you can even see the Milky Way.

After a fantastic night in the wilderness, we headed to the town of Poison (not to be confused with the glam metal band). It’s actually called Polson, but when I first saw it on the map, I thought it was spelled Poison – and now it will forever be that in my mind. Driving north, this is the first town you come to on Flathead Lake. We shed the 15 other dogs that were camping with us and only had 2 left with us, the wonderful Blue and another sweet dog named Zorra. Zorra likes to swim, Blue not so much, her butt sinks. But Blue surprised us and decided to jump right into the lake over a sea wall without any of us snapping a picture. Matt had to strip down to his undies and jump in, grab Blue and hoist her back onto the wall. The pic we do have is Matt after the rescue, telling Blue to not try those shenanigans again!

Post swim in Poison, the ladies (TK, Blue and me) headed up to Bigfork for our two night stay at the Islander Inn. We stayed in the plush Zanzibar room.

We ate dinner at The Raven which is across the street from the Islander and owned by the same people. We got to enjoy the amazing sunset that evening!

We wanted to spend some time on the lake while we were there – and had the grand plan of canoeing. Of course, we wanted Blue to come along and join the fun, but we needed to keep her safe. So we set out to find her a doggie life jacket, the closest we could come to finding one was in Whitefish (40 minutes from us). We drove to Whitefish for the life jacket and rented canoe there to take on Whitefish Lake.

Our fearless pup was not one for the canoe. At any moment I was ready for her to jump out and tip us over. Alas, she was a champ and made it through the wake of the jet skis and motorboats and our haphazard paddling.

After relaxing on a beach for the majority of the afternoon (canoeing kind of tires ya out!) We canoed back to our put in site and Blue was safely returned to land for good.

Back in Bigfork, we went back to the Raven for Margarita Monday where they have made Tuesdays tough for 14 years – that’s an official slogan and I have the t-shirt to prove it. Let’s just say we drank our fair share of margaritas (pitchers).

Enjoyed another sunset

And even tried a Salmon Run shot. The red drink is clamato juice – Warning: if you don’t like tomato juice or clams – do not try this!

We continued to enjoy the two man band at the Raven and then peaced out with our 4 Coronas to go…We may or may not have been too drunk and tied to drink them.

The next morning we headed back to Missoula by way of Swan and Seeley Lake. It was a beautiful drive – TK got to use her new forestry expertise to teach me about all the different trees we were passing.

After reading about the Lolo Creek Steak House in a previous blog post, I couldn’t wait to try it for myself. TK is not lying folks, it’s some of the tastiest beef I’ve ever had – and all the animals on the walls were, um, cute!

One last walk with the Blue dog and some tasty ice cream from the Big Dipper and my trip to Montana came to an end.

It’s an amazing place, everybody should visit when they have a chance. Many thanks to TK and Matt for hosting me in their new town. And to Blue, thanks for being a sweet pal during my visit!

Kate says: We miss you Addy, come back soon!!