Breaking in to our car + Bison + Bears
A lot happened in the last two weeks
Let’s start at what I hinted at last letter: a rough start to the week
We’re locked out of our truck
How did this happen? We still don’t know. Let me paint the picture for you:
I was working in the studio, opening and closing the truck doors all day. I locked the doors after cleaning up. An hour later my partner went to open the truck and the doors wouldn’t unlock. Enter: the 24 hour saga of breaking into our truck.
Thankfully, we had just had an errand day so we were set to stay in place for over a week if need be. The biggest downside of this though was we were in the middle of nowhere. The closest town was an hour away and population 63. So AAA was not an option, tow trucks were expensive, and stores for materials were close to zero.
My partner spent the remainder of the day taking apart our fridge, acquiring metal rods from the neighboring historical mining lodge, and using our bike’s spare tire as a makeshift airbag to pry open the door — to no avail. By the end of the night we were discussing breaking the window if we couldn’t get it open the next day.
Thankfully, one of our new friends was only an hour away and had an airbag! So my partner took the dirt bike through the mountains to our friend’s camp, hit the population 63 town for some more materials, and headed back to our campsite. The airbag helped a ton but the rod to open the door was still too bendy. Which brought us to our last option: removing a rod from our side storage boxes, heating it to bend at the right angles, and using that to open the door. Within 10 minutes of attempts with the new rod, the door was open! 🎉
The best part? My partner reached out to the manufacturer of our storage boxes, told them the story, and they liked it so much they sent us a replacement part for free under warranty!
This was a total fluke — after breaking in, the truck started fine, the fob started working again, and the doors locked and unlocked correctly. It hasn’t happened again since! We’re chalking it up to weird Ford sh*t 🤷🏼♀️
Another silver lining: the spot we were at during this whole fiasco was beautiful —
Our camp was also right next to some natural hot springs! We celebrated the truck opening with a swim and a dinner at the neighboring historical lodge. The hot springs weren’t the best but they were still fun to visit and the lodge’s burger hit the spot.
After a few more days at this gorgeous site we began the long drive to our next destination:
Montana!
Montana has been on our list of places to go since the beginning. This was my first time in Montana and it did not disappoint! We may move here one day (if we can survive the winters).
Just look at our first stop:
Absolutely stunning.
Unfortunately it started to snow after a few days though, so we hit the road again earlier than expected. On to Missoula!
We were waiting for some packages to arrive in Missoula, so we found camp at a Hipcamp for a few days. The rolling hills? Trees? Grasslands? River? So beautiful.
When passing through Idaho into Montana, I picked up a silver restock I had mailed to a small town on our way. I had run out of a lot of materials that were holding up production! So it was nice to be in a spot for a few days + press play again on a handful of pieces.
After our brief time in and around Missoula, we headed north on to Glacier National Park. But first:
Bison!
There’s a Bison Range between Missoula and Glacier, so of course we had to make the detour. The Bison Range initially was a Native effort to preserve the plain bison in the 1800s when they were going extinct. There’s a long history of the stewardship of this land, but the Kootenai and Salish nations are the present day stewards and managers of the Bison Range (you can read more about it here)!
I will let the photos speak for themselves: 🦬
I highly recommend if you’re in the area!
Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica
Yes, I just referenced the Office. Yes, only the bears portion applies.
After the Bison Range we continued north to the west side of Glacier National Park! We spent a few days outside of the park on the Hungry Horse Reservoir finishing our work for the week, and then headed to the east side of the park for our last minute reservations.
This is our favorite National Park that either of us have been to. It is absolutely stunning, and the wildlife was incredible!
Our first day we went on a hike in the Many Glacier area called Iceburg Lake and the hike itself was prettier (in my opinion) than the lake —
On our hike back to the trailhead we also spotted three grizzly bears! They were far away (the best distance) so the experience was pure excitement, no fear or nervousness. My partner was able to catch a close up photo of a momma and her cub — it’s grainy, but recognizable proof of the sighting!
Our second day in the park we set out to do Going to the Sun Road. Unfortunately, Bruce is too big to go on the road (in all dimensions), so we planned for my partner to take the dirt bike and I to take the shuttle! (My head is too small for *literally* every motorcycle helmet you find in stores — including the youth sizes, so I have yet to buy a helmet i.e. why I did not ride on the bike with my partner) Unbeknownst to us, the shuttle service doesn’t start until July 1st, so my 7am wake up was fruitless. Per recommendation of the ranger on staff, hitch hiking was my best option!
After an hour and a half of standing outside the Saint Mary’s visitor center catching vibes and asking for rides, I snagged a spot in the car of a female solo traveler. Off we went to Logan Pass, closely followed by my partner on the motorbike.
The next time we come to Glacier we’ll be doing the entire Going to the Sun Road, but this trip we only had a half day to spend in the park so we opted for Logan Pass — a high altitude area of the park. The hike? A short 1.5 mile trek to an overlook. The surprise? *SO MANY* big horned sheep and mountain goats (with babies!)!
This was one of my favorite experiences to date. The big horned sheep stayed a good distance away, but the mountain goats got *uncomfortably* close. They kept walking toward us to the point that we had to move off the trail to stay at least 3 feet away!
The views from this hike were also absolutely stunning —
The trip back to Bruce and the dogs was with three employees enjoying the park in their off-time. The dogs did not enjoy this weekend as much as my partner and I did (dogs are only allowed in developed areas of National Parks), but they were comfortable in the camper with the AC running!
The last two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. Usually we move once a week, but we’ve been moving every few days lately! I’m excited to be in one spot for an extended period again, but I’m glad we did as much driving as we did; we wouldn’t have been able to see as much of Montana otherwise. We will for sure be back though for an extended stay in Glacier and to explore the hidden gems of Montana!
Next letter
We’re heading back to Oregon! Truck maintenance, an event, and a work trip are bringing us back into the Pacific Northwest 🌲
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Thanks for reading 🫶🏼
