inally, we landed in Great Falls, Montana with a car full of treasures to store at Dave’s parents’ house while we are gone. They welcomed us with many meals, a waiting hot tub, clean sheets, and open arms. It has been fun to be part of their life for awhile. There were many "projects" around the house awaiting Dave - landscaping, tree pruning, and even some masonry. All this occupied his days while I slept off the case of Giardia I had dragged with me from the Snow Lakes area to Canada and then to Montana. Here it manifested itself in so many nice ways. Yes, I claimed the honor of having the first of many G-I issues along our journey.

fter one false start - I fell asleep filling up my pack in the living room and slept for the next 3 hours - we left a couple days later to enter the Bob Marshall Wilderness and meet our friends. The "Bob" makes its home to hikers AND horses so the trails are wide, muddy in places, occasionally smelly, and very well used. Our trail was the most traveled trail in the Bob and we didn’t expect to see a lot of wildlife along the way. Most animals prefer to avoid human contact, and in the Bob where animals can be hunted, they really enjoy NOT seeing humans. We had hiked for about 1.5 hours crossing streams, meadows, and two pack bridges. It was after the second pack bridge that Dave met a small rattler on the trail. Dave stopped as this baby snake coiled up in attack position. It was small enough that one big footprint could have been the end of it, but big enough to make Dave take notice of looking for other snakes in the area. We watched the snake slither into the tall grass and off we went. Dave led the way with me following close behind. We had passed through a number of beautiful meadows, but the one we approached next was different. Intent on searching for snakes, we crossed the meadow heads down in the grass. As we reached the far end of the meadow, Dave suddenly spoke directly to me in a very deliberate voice, "Jill, Stop!"

stopped and looked down the trail. Ahead of us not more than 50 yards was what at first glance looked like a large woolly sheep ripe for a shearing. I quickly realized we weren’t looking at a future Christmas sweater, but instead were being eyed by a surprised bear. Not just any bear, but one with the classic round face of a grizzly. We began to slowly back up as it watched us with its own curiosity. After what seemed like a long enough time, the bear made a loud "hurumpf" and stormed through some nearby brush, only to get a better vantage point of us from a higher spot in the meadow. We kept our distance until he meandered far enough out of sight and then we circled around the area to pick up the trail down the way. An interior park ranger that evening told us that we had "the first grizzly bear sighting of the season". As I lay awake that night, I thought I would be more than happy not to have claimed that "first".

ara and Dan arrived the next morning while we were eating breakfast. It was fun to see them approach on the trail above us, and to share our adventures. They joined us for an evening in Great Falls to give their tendonitis a break, and to wait out a nasty storm that embraced one whole day. As we drove them back to the trailhead, my thoughts turned to planning out the next part of our adventure - visiting the Midwest, finalizing the oh-so-many visas, purchasing plane tickets, and whittling down all the "necessary" gear to determine just how much we will take with us when we leave the United States.

have enjoyed the luxury of spending so much time with my husband where there are none of the normal distractions of life to crowd our time. We want to spend more time deliberately talking about our lives, our marriage, and the future while we are on the road. You know, all those great suggestions for setting goals and priorities that people tell you to do when you get married, but never find time to accomplish. We are hoping that we will make time during these next months ahead of us to do just that.