Stuck In A Storm: The Adventure We Needed

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Stuck In A Storm

It’s been awhile since Kathy have gone on one of our adventures.

Oh, we’ve been to Nashville and back to Oregon but I’m talking one of those mishap adventures where you aren’t in a city but out in the middle of nowhere and could actually find yourself in trouble.

I turned 64 last week and as much as we tried to celebrate and do special stuff it flopped.

We had an unpleasant experience at a couple of establishments then drove to Missoula for a doctors appointment for Kathy.

The plan was to spend the night and go out on the town.

We got to our hotel and it was gross.

I won’t say where but we had higher hopes that were dashed.

We looked at each other and said, “Missoula is nice but I don’t want to stay here….too busy.”

So we drove home.

Kathy threw out her back a little at the gym Friday.

We wanted to go on a bike ride but thought a hike would be better and it was.

We’ve wanted to go to a place called Crow Creek Falls so today we did.

It took more than an hour to get to the trailhead.

It’s not THAT far but the roads are that bad.

We hiked in 3 miles and the falls were beautiful.

But as we got closer to our destination, big black clouds moved in and so did the thunder, warning us of a storm looming.

There were a couple of young families there as well and a large group of Amish Folks from a community near where we live.

All of the sudden the sky cracked and rumbled, the rain started pouring, wind pounding, ground shaking and hail followed all of that.

We were all cuddled up under separate trees, no one prepared for a storm, all dressed in 80 degree weather attire as that was the forecast.

John Paul, one of the Amish guys started gathering old dead tree’s and twigs.

We followed.

They had a lighter and a cloth bandana which after about 10 minutes we finally had a roaring fire going in the middle of the Elkhorn Mountains.

There were about 25 of us huddled around the fire warming up.

We talked, exchanged names and laughed about the “unplanned adventure.”

One of the women lives in our town and works for the state chamber of commerce.

Yes, I got her name as a contact for future stories, you know that’s how I operate.

I also got on of the Amish guys name and a community phone number he said I could call him on.

He won’t do an interview, yes I asked, but said I could come out on my own and he’d explain how the community works.

Also, I shot some video of them at the fire and they said that was okay as long as they weren’t posing….which they weren’t.

The rain finally stopped so Kathy and I said goodbye and took off.

I told her the other day I missed our adventures we used to have exploring the wilderness of Montana.

As I sit here thinking about them the adventures were usually day trips that went sideways….huh.

Lately we’ve gotten too wrapped up in yard work and traveling that we misplaced some of the magic of Montana.

The danger, the spur of the moment mishaps, you know, the good stuff.

Best lesson of the day, you can plan fun and miss the adventure.

When things go bad it’s actually good and usually leaves us with the best memories and the greatest stories.

As we walked away I thought, the kids of those families will never forget the day they went hiking to the falls and the people with the funny clothes built a fire to keep them warm.

When I speak of funny clothes, we were all dressed a little differently, and not prepared for what happened.

Now, what shall we do tomorrow?

Perhaps something on a mountain bike?