Travel

Things have been busy lately, and not a lot of blogging happening.

To give you a brief idea, I am writing this from a hotel room in Orofino Idaho.  Yesterday I was in New York City.  Between 4 PM EDT yesterday and now I have left NYC, flew to Chicago, drove to the secret outpost and spent 10 hours with my family, returned to O’Hare, flew to Denver landing at minimums in a snow storm, flew to Missoula, and then drove 3+ hours to Orofino.  All that just to spend the weekend in the fresh our of Idaho working on my long range precision rifle skills at Boomershoot.

At at least two points today, I was standing in an airport wondering if it was worth it.  The travel, the time in the airports, hauling gear and rifles all over the country.  Then I got off the plane and started driving.  After getting out of Missoula proper the first thing I notice, a herd of Buffalo.  That’s right, American Bison.

The road from Missoula to Orofino is primarily US-12.  Funny thing, US-12 is a road I drive often in the midwest and here I was spending a few more hours on it, just a thousand mile removed from the midwest.

Once I turned on to US-12, it was two lanes almost the entire way to Orofino.  Through the Lolo pass, and winding along the rivers and creeks of Idaho and Montana.  There was very little traffic which made for a very pleasant drive.  As I was driving along, I was mentally comparing the road to all of the other mountain roads that I have driven in my lifetime.  Through Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, there was something very familiar and relaxing about this drive but it took me a long time to pinpoint it.  Finally, it dawned on me how very similiar this drive was to all of the many drives that I made around Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams, and the Sisters, through Rainier and the Olympic National Parks, even over the Coast Range in Oregon.  The tall hills, in many cases snow capped.  The small towns and settlements.  Winding along the rushing rivers.  The remaining snow on the road as I reached the summit of the pass.

And throughout this whole drive three very distinct thoughts came to mind.

1. How the Hell did Lewis and Clark have the perseverance, and fortitude to make it through this same trail with only canoes, horses, and their feet?
2. Damn, I miss this part of the country.
3. Yes, the trip is all worth it.  Because as much as I enjoy Boomershoot it isn’t only about the weekend shooting.  The trip to this corner of the world does more to rejuvenate my spirit than anything else I have done in the past 12 months.

I need to get out here more often, and bring the whole family too.