Snow Day

If your surprised about the weather on Memorial Day weekend, you ain't from around here. Early Saturday morning found me bundled up and high in the mountains. I ran into the same spike elk from last week. Last week I made sure I had plenty of sun block on, this time, lots of layers. The elk were not in a big hurry to light out, but when they did, the snow went flying.

     My first year out here in Montana, I was living in a hotel, waiting for the rest of my belongings to be moved out. It was a warm week, the last week in May. I decided to head up to Glacier National Park for Memorial day weekend. Since I did not have any camping gear with me, I definitely traveled lite. With no tent and no sleeping bag, I commandeered the cover from under my hotel bed spread. I packed my small cooler with hot dogs, chips and a few cold beers. What else would anyone need?
     Upon arriving at Glacier, I found out the main road was still not open. I decided to drive into the National Forrest and find a remote area to spend the night. As I parked the car and headed off into the woods, I found a secluded opening along side of a small creek. I began to collect fire wood for the night and when I thought I had enough, I built a small, rock semi-circle to help contain and reflect the heat from the fire. After I got the fire started, I laid my blanket out on the ground and began to stack the wood neatly all around where my pillow would be. (If I had brought a pillow) I wanted to be able to simply reach over my head, while sleeping, and place another handful of fuel on the fire. It wasn't much, but it would be home for the night. After a few hot dogs, one bag of chips and a few beers, I turned in for the evening.
     The small reflective stone wall worked well and the wood within easy arms reach turned out to function flawlessly as well. As the night rolled on, the temperature dropped steadily. Like a well oiled machine, I continued to stoke the fire. Every time the fire began to die down, I would awaken long enough to pitch in a few small logs. Alas, I woke to no more wood, no flashlight and even colder temperatures. I decided to pull all the hot stones in towards me. With a few flannel shirt arm sweeps, I drew the rocks in like freshly won poker chips. I snuggled up to the warmth and pulled the blanket over my head to capture all the heat I could. Ahhhh, I slept like a cozy baby;that is until I awoke to the chill of a cold blanket, now weighting me down. In a small morning daze, I worked to fling the cover off and to my surprise, I had received an additional blanket during the night. It was a blanket of snow; 16 inches to be exact.
    When I say, "I broke camp", what I really mean is that I shook the blanket off, grabbed my cooler and headed back towards the car. Still in amazement, I brushed off the snow from the windows an started my car. Once I got it moving, I was afraid to stop, for fear of becoming stuck and having to spend another night. My ride home, over McDonald pass was one I will never forget. Snow in May and me driving around without chains or snow tires on my car. Who would do that?