Day: 116

Km Travelled: 20,470

Recoveries by Envy: 2

A few days ago, Tom and I crossed over into the lower 48. Montana, to be exact. After a few beautiful days exploring the East Kootenays, and being, yet again, unsuccessful with the weather most of the time, we were ready for a change of scenery.

So far, Montana is everything I expected it to be. At this time of year the hills are alight with golden grass, dried out from the hot summer months, and the afternoon sun hangs low enough to throw long, warm shadows across the ranch land, still summer-warm, but golden in that particular way that only comes with fall. The ranch lands surrounding the major towns are tranquil, with not-so-small log cabins sitting amidst tall western red hemlocks. The numerous deer we see flash their white tails as the leaves quiver in the warm breeze, dancing between shades of burnt red, dusty rose, vibrant orange, and lime yellow.

Oh wait, scrap that. It's still raining.

It was all sunshine and rainbows when we crossed the border and spent our first night nestled among tall trees next to Grave Creek. As we took our post-dinner stroll through the forest we spotted young pink salmon in the deeper pools. The next day we planned to drive through Glacier National Park. When we woke to pouring rain we decided, heck with it, we'll do it anyway even though we won't be able to see a damn thing. As we drove through the National Park we noticed how awfully busy it was, cars parked everywhere. I thought to myself, wow, even though it was teeming from the heavens, people were still gung ho about getting out into nature. Naive thinking. As we reached the halfway mark, the road was in fact closed. The reason there were so many people is because everyone and their grandmother had to turn around and head back out the way we all came in. The ranger at the closure said they were expecting four inches of rain that day, and the road has a tendency to flood.

A sign at the beginning of the park would have been nice.

Feeling very sorry for ourselves, and honestly thinking we were cursed for the amount of rain that had followed us around since May, we decided to drown our sorrows in pizza. Just outside Glacier National Park you’ll find a small log cabin restaurant called Last Best Pizza. We devoured some of the best pizza I've ever had. No lie. But the name concerns me. Is this the last best pizza we’ll ever have? Tom didn’t seem concerned.

The next day we made headway down the Thompson River FSR, still doing our best to stay off main highways and roads, continuing south to Missoula, the Kelowna of Montana, as we were told. This large town somehow managed to remain quaint even with its size. We didn't stay long, heading for the hills, literally, making our way up Blue Mountain. This recreational area south of town houses a bunch of beautiful views, walking trails, and, lucky for us, a spicy little single-track off-roading route that heads out of the park into the backcountry.

In classic Anna-and-Tom fashion, we found ourselves at the start of the technical climb just before dinner. After Crown Point Mine in Alaska, and a few other evening escapades on the trip, we'd told ourselves we wouldn't start any tricky off-roading trails after 5pm. We honoured our word and set up camp near the start of the trail on a beautiful lookout, with 360-degree views of Missoula below and the golden hills in the distance. And would you have it, the sun broke through the clouds and delivered us a wonderful sunset, basking the mountains in a golden light. This state is truly picturesque when the sun decides to shine. It's evenings like this that make me romanticize the life of an American rancher.

The Grave Range track takes up 20 km along a forested ridgeline to Telephone Butte, standing at 6,889ft. The road had just the right amount of technical fun with off-camber sections, steep rocky climbs, a few big puddles, and a whole lot of dreamy forest, beginning to show the first signs of the changing season.

On our way back down from the day's adventure, we came across two teenagers who waved us down. They'd driven their Tacoma off the road while distracted. We immediately pulled over, and after one of the boys was picked up by friends and taken to the hospital for an injured ankle, we set out getting Envy ready for another recovery. Though the truck was tipped over on its side, we managed to right it again fairly quickly, winching it out of the ditch without any trouble.

Since rescuing the young man on the Dempster Highway in the Yukon, we were feeling all the more confident with what Envy is capable of, and how to tackle a truck in a ditch. A little digging, some reorganizing of where Envy was winching from, using our recovery boards for extra traction, and we succeeded. Not only that, the truck started fine! That's a Toyota ad if I've ever seen one… tipped over in a ditch one moment to driving home in time for supper with mother the next.

As a thank you, we were kindly invited over to the family's house for dinner and a hot shower. By the time we finished chatting and eating some delicious homemade tomato soup, it was too late by then to find camp elsewhere, so they let us park in their alley for the night. We drove off the next morning gifted with fresh eggs, huckleberries, and Montana beef. Though we helped the son out of a sticky situation, the immense kindness of this family has us feeling like we were the lucky ones.

Tomorrow we head south to meet Patrick and Orla, our Dutch friends from Alaska, for a weekend of wheeling and catching up. They've been in the States for some time now, so we're sure to have some stories to share, and hopefully some recommended spots for Tom and I to visit next.

As with every day on the road, you never know what’s waiting around the corner and who you will meet along the way. Montana has already delivered. We can’t wait to see what comes next.

Ditches and dinner invites

Falling behind