The Beautiful Montana Scenery

My visit to Montana has been great. I haven't really been here before. I remember in 8th grade my family took a trip to Wyoming for a family reunion and did the whole Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower, and Yellowstone thing. We went into Montana briefly one afternoon and stopped at a family restaurant for buffalo burgers. Cliche? Yes. I don't even think I had one. At that stage in my life I refused to eat beef, and buffalo fell into that category for me. Even now I am proud to claim I have never eaten a fast food burger.

This week the chapter I am working with has been busy doing pre-recruitment workshops. Their days are booked from 9 AM-4 PM each day, and then I have been meeting with individual officers after dinner. I can't really complain about my schedule. I'm still letting my body run on Eastern time zone, which has led me to going to bed by 10 PM and waking up at 6 AM. I am a pretend morning person now.

In my new-found mornings, I have taken to hiking a mountain that lies on the edge of the University of Montana's campus. This mountain, called the M, is the most hiked mountain in all of Montana. I used Monday morning to catch up on my lack of sleep from the weekend, but Tuesday I was very excited to get up and hike early.

I woke up on Tuesday morning before my alarm, which had been set for 6:30 AM. This is really a new concept for me. I checked the weather on my phone, and the current temperature was 48 degrees. Brrr! I hadn't really intended on "cold" weather like this, but I managed to pull together a decent outfit. Leggings (the nice kind, not the workout kind) under shorts, a tank and a t-shirt over it. Believe it or not, I did not pack any sort of long-sleeve shirt or sweatshirt. My only long-sleeve option would have been to go jogging in a cardigan. No thanks.

It was still fairly dark outside when I left, because even though the sun had risen, it was behind the mountains. As I hiked up the M, the sun got higher, and watching it rise over Missoula was breath-taking. Here are some pictures.




I also went hiking yesterday afternoon and took this picture of the valley. You can see the river running through town. There's a beautiful path along the river that goes for miles and miles. I would really like to run it, but I am too obsessed with my mountain to try something else! I will have to check out the path when I come back in a week and a half.


Tomorrow morning I am leaving for a weekend in Denver, CO. I am meeting up with two of the other Leadership Consultants, Madeline and Allie, and we are staying with an alum in the area. Hopefully I'll get to have a relaxing weekend and maybe get to see Ashley, one of my sorority sisters from Creighton! I am a little sad to leave Montana, but knowing that I am coming back in a week makes it much more bearable.