The Art of Puppy Scooping

Odometer: 75,352.2

Good evening! We are back in Bozeman, or still in Bozeman depending on how you look at it, and we love it here! The weather is beautiful; the views are spectacular, with mountains on almost every side; and we love the feel of the place as well.

First of all, Bozeman is home of Montana State University, the state Agricultural school, so the college here has a similar feel to Davis. Second, with half the population of Davis, Bozeman has twice the square mileage. What does that translate too? Everything is spread out, with plenty of space, and there are mini-parks everywhere.

The people here are very nice, too, on average, and, as I said, the weather is awesome!

So, what has been happening recently? Well, we took a trip up into Hyalite Canyon, where we stayed for several days. The first night we made soup over our fire pit, and got back into the RV just as it began to snow.

It was a brisk night, but not unpleasant, and we woke to a light dusting of snow across the forest. It was pretty amazing. That first day, we wanted to hike up to the nearby Palisade Falls, so we packed our backpacks, as well as our lunch, and took off.

Now, you have to understand that we are 12-14 miles down a forest road, the last half of which is gravel, so when we arrive at the trail-head, and find it paved, imagine our surprise! The hike turned out to only be ¾ of a mile. We decided that that was not nearly enough, so we scouted around, and found a deer trail leading away from the falls, and around back to get above them.

The ascent was almost rock-climbing, though it was varied enough to make the puppies traversal quite easy.

At the top, we were greeted with fabulous views that our cameras refused to capture adequately.

We, then, decided to follow the river/creek which fed the falls up further into the mountains. We followed it for nearly a mile past many mini-waterfalls before deciding to head back.

By that point we had forded the river a couple of times, and found that the deer trail scaled many a muddy slope that people would do better to go around.

The trek back down the river/creek was uneventful, and once we reached the falls we turned to begin our reverse climb down the steep grade; herein lies the art of puppy scooping.

You see, with Naga well ahead and moving easily, I was in the lead of the three beings following. What that meant was that when Cal would get too ambitious and start running down the mountain, unable to stop, a look of panic on his face, I had to reach out, and scoop him from the mini-avalanche he was perpetuating.

This resulted in a series of scoops that went something like this:

Calcifer makes eye contact with me, his ears back, his eyes sorrowful, as if asking, “Must we do this again?”

I would smile and say, “It’s ok, buddy, I got you.” And he would lower his head, let out a little breath and dive down the mountain. Inevitably, he would choose a bad path, and his speed would increase past the point of his control, so I would reach out, palming his chest and directing him to the side.

Then, safely at my feet, he would look up at me, excited and glowing with happiness, before looking down the mountain and grinning, almost asking, “Again! Again!”

When the hike was at an end, and all scooping behind us, we returned to the RV with no injuries and enjoyed the rest of our time in the National forest without significant event.

After another day or so in said forest, we realized that we really like Bozeman, and if we are to truly see if this is the place for us, we must actually spend time in the city.

Back down the mountain!

Thus, we have spent the past couple of days in Bozeman proper, exploring, walking the streets, meeting random people, and in general getting a feel for the culture and environment here.

Result:

We love it! We have not found a single thing that turns us off of here, and there is so much to love. We haven’t fully decided yet, but we are ever so close to making a decision; please be praying that God leads us to the best choice! :-)

So, with that in mind, we have chosen a church to try out tomorrow, and are excitedly seeking out more and more info about this place. Who knows, our next post might name Bozeman home. ;-)

May your mountains be snow covered, and your roads clear and dry. Good night, and God bless.