I have always loved the outdoors. I grew up with my father pied pipering me and my siblings through the middle of the forest far from any road, trail, or other humans. We saw so many of the amazing things that nature has to offer in the wilderness. I fell in love with wilderness through these adventures.
As a young adult, I found myself planning my own trips out into the wilderness by myself or with friends. After a while though, I became a little bored of what was on offer immediately near me. I began to dream of visiting even more wild and scenic places like Alaska and Montana. I discussed my desire with my friend Matt who was all for a trip to Montana.
We did some research online and found out that we could rent a cabin maintained by the National Forest Service. It was an old cabin without many of the creature comforts of home so for us it was a perfect place to start our adventures. Immediately, we ran into a snag. The cabins were fully booked except for the winter.
We decided that we weren't going to let the cold keep us from our dream so we booked the cabin for early November. I mean how cold could it possibly get? We were about to find out. We arrived at our cabin after dark with the temperature dropping fast. It was around -7 Fahrenheit two minutes prior to arrival but -9 Fahrenheit upon arrival.
The temperature became a real concern as our cabin was not equip with electric or gas heating. The cabin had an ancient wood cook stove to provide the heating. People that grew up with extreme winters would no doubt laugh at us as we thought we were in real danger of freezing to death. We had to scramble to start a fire in a contraption that we had no clue how to operate. With some luck and determination we had the wood stove up and running. In fact, we had it running too well as we soon found ourselves in a sauna of our own making. Our sleep was postponed until finally we mastered the stove, well after midnight
Our time at the cabin was spent drinking good beer and whiskey, barbecuing, and hiking the local nature trails. We saw many beautiful birds, a red tailed fox, a big horned sheep, a bobcat, bear tracks, and cougar tracks. Much of our fun was found in the simple task of keeping the fire going. The cabin came with a wood shed full of dried wood that needed to be split. All in all, I would highly recommend the experience to nature and adventure lovers.
Once in Montana the drive was easy going. You just need to watch for wildlife.
View from the highway
The cabin
Functional kitchen
Sleeps four people
Or three people and a dog
Don't let the simplistic look fool you. She is a complex demon.
Hiking Galore
Cold wood explodes at the end of a maul
Even the hot campfire cannot melt the ice
The beer never gets warm
Beer and a campfire so of course he is content
