09.07.10 CCR. "Travelin Band"

havent been inspired or awake enough to write much as of late. Here is my quick and dirty summary, emphasis on facts over style. I took the greyhound bus from denver to kalispell, mt with an overnight stop spent in glamorously cosmopolitan Billings, MT, where you're never far from a strip joint or a gas station, but always need a car to reach a grocery store. More on that ride in a later entry.

I went with the intention of meeting a fellow traveler as a safety-in-numbers bear deterrent for my hike down to Yellowstone. I would hike a few days in the park and meet him in East Glacier, MT the northernmost montana amtrak stop and where indians drive drunk on the 4th of july and make a game of targeting white pedestrians. Its an adorable place.

On the fourth of july there is no organized fireworks display, the community simply ignites private stashes from the center of the one road through town. There are some fairly professional pyrometrics. When they explode 20 feet above my head I only see half the explosion, I forgo the second bit any shrapnel in my eye. The kids in the town run around gleefully shouting at the exploding lights, they parrot their parents words, "the north koreans are shooting at us! Return fire!" " Blow those iranians back to allah!" "Give those sudanese hell!" And so forth. Sudan? I think they believe darfur has nuclear weapons. See, adorable.

But its not all shock and awe and cringe at small town life. The hostels are good places with honest people. I met paul, the vietnam vet who has ptsd and won't sit anywhere except in a corner so he can take a good view of the room. Paul hates the government. Paul is classified as 90 percent disabled and is compensated at that level from the VA for his injuries. He also recieves - and paul is very proud of this - a free national parks entry card. Paul showed this to me 3 times. The VA gives handicapped people with no money free national park passes as a goodie bag. Isn't that like giving chemo patients free shampoo? I don't recall seeing any wheelchair ramps in tulomne meadows. Sorry we sent you to war and you got hurt and you can't work. Here's a free pass to something you probably can't use. But paul was finding a way. Paul wants me to know again that he hates the government, but he'll take their money.



I'm now sitting in my tent typing this entry 7 days after leaving East Glacier. Its a long trip to the next town of Lincoln, MT: 170 miles. This will be my 5th night camping alone. I last saw duane, or merlin his trailname, at the top of a switchback-less 500 foot climb, adjacent to a rock formation on the continental divide known as, the wall. Merlin was catching his breath, his white asymmetrically trimmed beard heaving with his exhalations. Merlin is probably about 50 but in excellent shape. I can feel confident in saying this because merlin favors hiking in all black spandex asics running tights. They leave little to the imagination.

I started down the other side of the hill. When I hit the valley I waited for an hour and a half and he never showed. I cooked a meal and patiently waited in the chilly 4:30pm wind with my mosquito headnet wrapped tightly around my face. When I realized merlin would remain up at the top of the rise, wordlessly, I turned and kept going. Now, if this had been the first time he dissappeared, my callousnesses to his absence would be questionable. But that is not the case. Merlin is good at making himself dissappear. Over the first two days of hiking my companion would constantly stop and take breaks. Stop and take breaks without telling me. On a number of occaisions, I would have to backtrack 30 or more minutes to find out where he decided to rest. I, for one, am unopposed to taking breaks. I love sitting down. I would have happily said yes if he requested a break. I made a point of requesting permission each time I felt like pausing and having some water. When asked if he would reciprocate this communication, merlin would smile and hmmm quizzically with a blank expression on his face. This was about as much verbosity as could be expected from merlin. Hiking with him was all the disadvantages of being alone: crushing silence and the accompanying tedium, with none of the perks of solitude: freedom, self-reliance, man alone and against nature, all that stuff.

I haven't seen him (or anyone save for the folks at a backwoods cabin that I sent a resupply package to) since. Maybe ill regret this decision when the search party recovers my Blackberry and these are some of my last written words; so it goes.

No grizzlies spotted yet. Although I did see two Black Bears on the same day within 3 hours of one another. I only was only a quick enough draw for one of them. They spook easily.



Lots of elk.




Herds even, if you define a herd as 6 or more elk. As an aside: what is 5 elk? An elk cocktail party? An elk board meeting?

I also know how a defenseless mouse feels. Gossacks aggressively defend their nests from would be predators. A piece of advice, if you happen to find yourself in the woods and hear a sound like a woman screeching in short, staccato bursts and this noise draws closer, duck. You are about to be divebombed by a taloned gosshawk parent with a wingspan longer than your own. His or her nest I nearby. And I thought my mom was overprotective.

I try to speak in generalizations, to give a sense of what it is to walk in the woods. I can't. Its too overwhelming. The accumulation of memories is too much, the moments of frustration and then elation and back to frustration, too much. I can only try and pour this collection across the table, pour through the wreckage, and salvage what description I can. Ill allow it to trickle out and when it does, ill catch as much as I can. The postmortem will be blogged. But when? Until then.....I'm off to Helena


Song Honorable Mention: Garfunkel, Simon. "The Only Living Boy in New York"