[Disclaimer: In this entry, I will be talking about a location that I will not be naming. The reason for this is because this particular hike and location is one of Jarren's absolute favorite spots to go to when he's at home. It's a spot that not a lot of tourists know of and is mainly frequented by locals. In an effort to preserve this location, because I know he loves it so dearly and doesn't want to share it with the world, I will only be referring to it as the "Mountain." If you find it on your own, you find it, but at least you didn't hear it from me.]

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5 AM. An early morning. Necessary, because we had a few hours of driving ahead of us, then a few hours of hiking to get to the fishing spot. We left, groggy as all hell, and drove to pick up Brandin for the hike to the Mountain.

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Once picked up, there was one more spot we needed to go to: Walmart. Coincidentally, we all needed fishing licenses. One thing that basically the entire state of Montana agrees upon: they are not fans of outsiders. This was clearly exhibited when I paid double the price of Jarren and Brandin's annual fishing license, for a 24 hour license. Why? Because of my silly little New York state ID with my silly little New York City address on it. I commend them, though. Considering that there is no sales tax in Montana, I thought it was smart to charge outsiders outrageously more. So, I took my expensive piece of paper, tucked my tail, and walked out of Walmart ready to get to the Mountain and use it.

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On the drive over, Brandin told stories of his time as a kid at various ranches in the area, even helping out at Mel Gibson's ranch, which he pointed out as we passed. We looked for deer and horses on our way until we finally turned onto the [seriously uneven] road to get to the trail parking area.

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A week earlier, parts of lower Montana had experienced widespread, devastating flooding which destroyed cities, roads, homes, the works. Due to this, the upper end of the trailhead was closed, causing us to have to park and start our hike an extra mile away. None of us were happy about it. "I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna complain the whole time," I warned them, but they already knew that.

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We start hiking around 9 :30 AM as the sun was beginning to get high in the sky. As we start walking through the bottom of the trail, Brandin pulls over and comes back to us with a palmful of raspberries. Some of them were plump and sweet, some small and tart. We continue down the trail, going out of our way to pick berries as we went. 

 

Once we began our ascent up the side of the mountain, Jarren stops to take photos and asks me how I'm doing. Surprisingly, I'm doing fine. I'm keeping a decent pace, not huffing or puffing, genuinely enjoying the view. I was a far cry from the person I thought I'd be by that point in the hike. I credit all the time I'd spent for the past two months at the Penn State gym using the elliptical as the only reason I wasn't struggling.

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A little over an hour passes on the trail and all of a sudden we're doing switchbacks. While I'm not necessarily tired, this is the point where I complain. I hate switchbacks. Luckily, so do Jarren and Brandin, so I wasn't alone in my gripe. After we pass the switchbacks, we approach a rock that Jarren swears is always as cold as a fridge. We press our bodies up against it and sure enough, he's right. It was a welcome relief, considering the sun had begun to fully beat down on us now. We take a minute to enjoy the rock, then continue onward to a new terrain.

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What was mainly a dirt trail becomes exposed, jagged rock. Level-footing went completely out the window. It was worse than the switchbacks because it required so much more attention and effort, especially as we were almost at the summit and it would be extremely easy to fall off the side of the "trail" now. I couldn't wait to get to the top.

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A bit later, we arrived at the top and were greeted by the most beautiful view. It was like discovering a different world. At the foot of the mountain laid a perfectly blue lake, draped with trees on both sides and crowned with another mountain in the background. It was stunning. We stopped for photos, then began our descent down to the lake.

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After a few minutes, we made it down to the bottom, only running into 3 other people there. It was quiet and peaceful. We walked further down, spread out, sat on some rocks, and started fishing. Jarren caught a bunch, but most of them were small and needed to be tossed back. He caught two good ones and asked me to find some good tinder to start a fire to cook them on. 

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At this point, it had begun to rain slightly, but that was fine, there were still lots of branches and twigs that weren't too wet. He cooked the two fish on some foil above the fire and we all shared them. It was a nice experience getting to share that with them.

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After eating and putting out the fire, Jarren wanted to see if he could catch a few more, or if he could help me catch one, as I'd accidentally lost one earlier when reeling it in. Brandin decided to stay loyal to the spot he was in, so we went a little bit further away to try a new space.

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Unfortunately, the new spot on the lake did not yield any luck. It actually yielded the opposite for me when I accidentally snagged the hook on a rock deep in the lake and had to break the line, losing a lure. After this, we decided to call it and begin the hike back, as we wanted to make it to the bottom of the trail before the sun set.

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What's great about going up a mountain is that you know coming down will be a million times easier. The trek down was a breeze; I actually quite enjoyed it. When we made it back to the bottom of the trail, we began pausing for berries the rest of the way back to the car. We made it back to the car just as the sun had begun setting.

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As we begin driving away, we pass a pond covered in lily pads and I notice something big off in the distance, but can't really make out what it is. Upon my first few glances, it just looked like a really big, brown cow. "What is that?" I ask. No one sees what I'm talking about, and then the animal runs off into the woods surrounding the lake. "I swear I just saw like, a really big cow. But like, a really big... brown cow?" No one believes me. We keep driving. As we pass the end of the pond, I turn around and see it again. "Wait, that looks like a moose!" I exclaim. Jarren turns around and goes, "Oh, sh*t, that is a moose! I've never seen a moose here before." It was a great last view to end the trip.

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We get back to Brandin's house after dark, then go back to Steph's and immediately fall asleep, tired after a long day.