July 20, 2008 – My hiking comes to an end

Today is Sunday, and I’ve decided to check out another hiking trail. It is near a landmark called “Story Mill” in Bozeman, a beautiful old brick building with very tall silos. In 1883, Story Mill was the largest flour mill in Montana, and was the catalyst that brought the railroad into Bozeman. I'm sure this helped the development and population of Bozeman. There is a shorter trail called the Story Mill Spur which runs along the old railroad tracks and is an interesting walk.

But farther down is “Big Gulch Drive”. There is a huge piece of property with some cows on it (they “moo” every morning behind the property where I am staying – better than roosters to wake you up), and the owners have opened it up to hiking and mountain bikes. So I located the starting point, thanks to a local mountain biker, and started out. I climbed up the hills to get to the top, and then it was just a very long trail with great views of Bozeman and the surrounding hills. And of course, I’m always, “well I just go to the top of that rise” and before I knew it, I was a long ways and my hip was hurting. And now I had to walk all the way back. It was beautiful, but honestly, I think I have crippled myself. I could hardly walk this day. I had planned to do a lot of hiking before I drove back to Georgia, but have only gone on 1 small hike since this one on Sunday.