Montana Trip - Spring 09 - Wrapup

Ok, so I have been doing blogs like "Day 1" etc, but I have been taking forever to get them out and now I am already preparing for another trip to Montana, so I am just going to wrap all of this up and move on to other things.

The fifth day of my trip, Paul and I spent a lot of time chilling out and working together sharing business ideas and what not. We did go out hiking though and as we were cruising down the street, we ran into a group of wild big horned sheep. We were able to creep up on them and I was able to get some good pictures from the SUV. The hike was very enjoyable as we spent most of it talking and discussing life and philosophy. It was really nice to be able to spend some one on one time with my uncle.

I am not really sure what we did that evening, but I think that is the night that we went out for sushi. The sushi place there was really good and they had this smoked salmon roll that was AMAZING!

Day 6 we did some more bumming around the house and then we went on an adventure. Today's adventure was a quest for Bruce. Bruce the Moose.

Bruce is a young, adolescent moose that lives in the Hamilton city park. From what I understood, he lost his parents while he was very young and has lived in the Hamilton city park ever since. Don't get me wrong, he is still very much wild. Keep in mind that "city park" may not be what you think. Hamilton is only like 5,000 people and while the city park does have all of the things you would expect in a city park, it is in Montana and has a lot of land with hiking trails. Bruce the Moose is not hanging out amongst the playground equipment.

We get to the park and Paul tells me of his run in with Bruce. Paul had been hiking around the park trails and turned a corner only to be greeted by a huge wild moose. This made me a little nervous since I have been chased by cows before. It is not really a very enjoyable experience and a moose is a lot bigger, so I would imagine that it would be less fun.

Anyway, after hiking through the park for a while, we did find Bruce. I was able to walk up and get pretty close. The pictures do not do him justice. He was as big as a large horse, but his antlers were really small since he is still young. He seemed ok with me watching him, but wanted to keep a close eye on me. After a bit, he went back to eating and scratching himself. I thought that it was kind of funny when he would scratch because he would bring his hind leg up to scratch his neck like a dog does. Is that normal for a moose?

Anyway, it was pretty neat getting that close to Bruce the Moose, but there is only so much looking at a moose that you can do.

We headed back to the house and played some games with the kids then Kasey called.

Normally, this would not be a big deal, but this time she was calling to let me know that Big-a-Toe and 4 of 7 were fighting all bloody like and had been for a while. She was not in a happy place at all. I had my dad go help separate them and told Kasey to lock them up for the night and that I would be home as soon as I could. I had to cut my vacation short a day, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I was bummed that I had to go home because we had planned to go snowboarding the next day again. Although the lifts were not running, we were going to ride up with a snowmobile. FUN!

I got home the next day and we enrolled the dogs in special training that cost an arm and a leg (which we have yet to use all of as of now). It was either that or we would have to get rid of some of the dogs. In retrospect, it has been way worth it since they are a lot mellower now and seem happier now that we have set the pecking order for them, but that is a whole other story.

Now, Kasey and I are planning another trip to Montana in the October / November time frame. We are going to both drive up and take some of the dogs with us. We will probably spend most of the time visiting hot springs!