Montana – Big Sky Country

Here are the kids Abigail, Marcus, Nikolai, nephew Mike

and Alivia, at MacDonald Pass, elevation 6,312 feet, west

of Helena, Montana on U.S. Route 12. MacDonald Pass is

one of three passes (along with Mullan and Priest) on the

continental divide used in the 1870s-80s for travel between

Helena and Deer Lodge, Montana.

By Allan Olson

It’s been a crazy whirl wind month and by the time this hits the press there will be only 12 days left of the month, in the first 21 days of this month we’ve been to Montana, helped host a successful geocaching event and celebrated surviving nine years of twins.

Our trip to Montana wasn’t one we had originally planned to do, the idea was appealing when we learned of a family reunion there, since my wife and I last visited that big state in 1998 for the same family reunion. In the end, through a variety of circumstances we decided to go, so on August 5, about 6:30 p.m. we set off on the road, we had three adult drivers and five kids our goal – Helena, Montana by noon, Thursday.

Now it’s not big news that I’m not a night owl, but I also sleep poorly in a vehicle so the odds were against me from the start, my mother in-law drove the first shift, my wife the next and I got the honors of driving across the border into Montana for the next several hours in the wee hours of the morning. At one point in the trek across the wide expanse of Montana I was ready to pull onto a field crossing and close my eyes for a nap. I was able to keep awake by watching out for all the deer that were in the fields and at one spot, I pulled over for a photo of some deer, however sometime during the night, my settings were messed up on the camera and in my tiredness I couldn’t figure out why the photos weren’t turning out.

We finally reached our destination around 11 a.m. Thursday and went to visit a relative of my wife’s family, went out for a meal and then found the hotel. The kids and I enjoyed a soak in a hot tub - the best we could do since there was no pool and then that evening we set out in search of some geocaches. Helena offered a geotour - a specific set of caches that visitors if desired wanted to find – if they found 25 of the 38 on the tour they would get a custom made geocoin.  In addition to all this, geocachers were given a discount on hotel lodging at certain places and given a free gift by the hotel. Our final location for the weekend was about an hour north of Helena in a little town of Lincoln, so my goal for the weekend was to get 25 of the geocoins, preferably before we left town Friday for Lincoln. We started driving around town Thursday and managed to only get eight. My wife said, we will try for the rest Friday, everyone is tired and it’s time to get some rest. I knew better than to argue, so we headed back to rest, I was tired too, but I really wanted to do this tour. That evening, I logged the ones I found and looked at some of the others. Friday morning, we were out of the hotel by 9 and working on the others, this was no easy feat as it required criss-crossing town, some hiking and some just difficult to find and by the time we needed to head to Lincoln, we had only logged 10 more. I was really hoping to get the rest, but it wasn’t meant to be.

We arrived in Lincoln, found our next two nights lodging –checked out a local gift shop, visited with family and the boys and I decided to find a couple caches in the town. There was four to find in the area and one of them looked like quite a hike so being in an unfamiliar area, with unfamiliar critters, I passed on that one. The other three looked more doable so we ventured out in search of them. A couple hours later, we managed to find all three, one of which was an extremely large ammo can – or rather a mortar can that the kids could barely lift.

That evening, I discussed with my wife that I really wanted to go back to Helena to finish the tour, I set a goal to myself of 3 p.m. – if I couldn’t finish by then, I would give up knowing I did the best I could. This time, I was a little more prepared when the boys and I took off, I had seven caches picked out to find and three alternates, our first stop on the list, was scratched off when our map was trying to get us to turn down a farm trail that looked wide enough for my vehicle with not a lot of room to spare. The next spot – was to avenge a previous did not find from the day before. The three boys and I went in search and we were climbing all over a pile of rocks before my nephew finally came up with the find. We all probably stepped over this exact spot several times, but never made the find, not counting driving time; it took 16 minutes on the second try to make this find.

The third stop of the day, my nephew gets out of the vehicle and said, “I think your tire is leaking,” knowing he can be full of mischief I momentarily dismissed him, but he was serious and Nikolai chimed in as well and laid the matter to rest when he moved his hand over the tire and then I heard the noise. I yelled at the boys to get in the vehicle and we booked it to town as fast as we could, with my nephew looking nervously out the mirror at the tire getting flatter at every mile. I finally was able to get cell service and my nearest shop was at least seven miles and I made it – barely. I thought my tour was doomed, I wasn’t going to get it finished, but the shop was efficient, and I left there $10 less, and my tire 30 + pounds more, I was a happy customer and all of this in under 30 minutes.

In then end after some extensive searching at several spots and thankfully some quick finds at others, we finished the tour and collected our geo-coin at 2:45 p.m. I was thrilled and the boys were happy also.

I made it back to Lincoln by 5 p.m. – just in time for the evening meal and to celebrate the completion of the geo-tour I bought the boys and I ice cream.

We departed for home, Sunday afternoon about 3:30 p.m. and we arrived back home, bedraggled and weary about noon and by 1 p.m. I was napping. That evening my nieces and nephew and Nikolai and I all went out to hide a couple more caches for the geocaching event.

Overall the experience in Montana was a great trip, the family members who I didn’t know before and probably most of them I won’t recognize again were all very friendly and hospitable and served us travelers several meals.

This weekend – birthday parties, Friday evening, a birthday celebration for my twins – Abigail and Marcus, Saturday a trip to my brothers for his 40^th birthday –man he’s getting old.

I hope everyone enjoys their summer vacation and is able to spend some time on the lake and in the woods. Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes. Remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!