We weren't the only ones catching fish in MT!

Kind of a cool nature moment caught with a camera, I thought. Along the river outside our Missoula hotel we came across this snake (I'm told it's a Wandering Garter) with a fresh catch! This particular meal could not have been a particularly comfortable one, though. I'm thinking scales would dictate eating fish head first, but it's possible this is how he caught it, and he was just bringing it on land till it died and then he made the switch.

Montana: Chapter 1, The Cabin

My friend Joel and his wife Debbie graciously invited my wife and I to their cabin on a remote Montana lake to stay for a night. It was an absolutely perfect way to immerse ourselves in the beauty and wilderness of Montana on our vacation. This was my second time to the Big Sky state, and my wife's first.

This cabin sits at the end of a sixteen mile road that begins as gravel and steadily gets worse. It seemed to take almost an hour to get up there, although coming back down the next day was not as harrowing, maybe because on the way up we had no idea how far it was. But the payoff is amazing. We cooked burgers on the deck and toasted the start of our vacation with excellent microbrews, complements of our generous hosts. Then they headed back to town and left us there at the cabin for the night. Probably the furthest from civilization I have ever been, but it was exhilerating.

In the morning we took the boat out for a few hours and I caught two absolutely beautiful brook trout. It was just the perfect start to our trip, but we had to hit the road, there was much more to see and do. Luckily, Joel and Debbie will make another appearance in our vacation recap. Stay tuned for Chapter 2, The Rodeo...

Giant Montana Rainbow

As if I wasn't excited enough about my trip to Montana in just over two weeks, my friend Joel sent me this picture from Big Sky Country. This is his friend Clint and a truly impressive rainbow! That's crazy big, man.