Hiking, Rafting and Socializing in Montana…

What a grand adventure we have been having here in Montana… or as one of my facebook friends commented “Sharon and John’s most excellent adventure!” We have been able to do a lot of hiking while staying in the Flathead Lake area but we have also been mixing in some social activities.

Some of our RV’ing friends we met in south Texas (Bret and Darla) were staying in nearby Great Falls and came over to Bigfork, Montana to visit some of their friends, (Arlene and Gary), and called us up to see if we wanted to go with all of them to pick some huckleberries. I knew what huckleberries were but had never tasted them or picked them until we came to Montana. Related to the blueberries, huckleberries (the state fruit of Idaho), have a unique flavor and are not grown commercially but researchers are getting closer and closer to domesticating them. Man we picked a lot of these tasty treats to Sharon's delight as this was her first experience with huckleberries. She has had fun making huckleberry bars, huckleberry macaroons and pancakes as well as popping a few in her Happy Hour beer or wine.

Another set of RV’ing friends we first met at Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana, Bernie and Dodo, are staying at the same RV park we are. They are the ones who suggested we visit the Flathead Lake area and we are indebted to them for this most fantastic suggestion! Bernie and Dodo love to hike so we went on a great hike with Bernie in the Jewel Basin up to Mount Aeneas.  A nice 6 mile or so hike up to the top of the peak where the views of Flathead Lake on one side and Jewel Basin on the other side were simply stunning… Evening happy hours and a couple of dinners at each others homes have certainly been a highlight. They love hiking so much that they even took us on one more hike the morning we were leaving Kalispell!  It was a short hike at Lone Pine also packed with amazing views of the mountains and valley below.  Fantastic!

And of course we have been lucky to meet new people (at Kalispell Brewery) and these new friends invited us over for a wonderful dinner of Salmon and salad made from their impressive garden. They are about to embark on the RV journey and wanted to pick our brains a bit. We had such a great time over dinner with their friends and family that they invited us to go rafting with them as well. What a wonderful float we took down the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. Such amazing blue and crystal clear waters were enjoyed immensely by us. This 2.5 hour float with a nice stop on a rocky island to look for “treasures” was another of many highlights of our stay in Kalispell. We were even treated to seeing a black bear that we thought was sleeping on the river bank but after watching her for a while noticed she had two cubs that may have been nursing… how cool of a sighting that was!

To round out our amazing adventure a blog reader has invited us out to her home where she has room for our RV beside hers and has a 50 amp hookup and water for us.  So it looks as though our Montana adventure will last a little longer…