INTO THE MAGICAL FOREST

May 26-27

This working stuff is getting in the way of my vacation!! At least I can use the commissions to pay for the vacation in Montana. I spent most of the day dealing with rentals, checks, month end closing, etc. But I did get out for about a 3 mile walk. And then I went to Whitefish for a Farmer's Market, held every Tuesday during the summer.

I was amazed it was so large -- there were probably 100 vendors at the market, with lots of great crafts, homemade goodies (or as they call them, "artisan" bread and cookies), and vegetables (lots of rubarb -- they must grow it here). They also had a band, and last night was the dedication of a fish sculpture that was put in the large park. It was very pretty -- sometimes I wonder if the $70K + that it took to get this sculpture might not have been spent wisely somewhere else, considering the recession and all.

And today, Wednesday, I drove past Libby, MT (remember -- asbestos capital of Montana), to the Ross Creek Cedar Forest. The drive into the forest was amazing. A fairly narrow road winding upward through this huge cedar forest. I have a large picture in my bedroom of a bear walking through a forest, over fallen trees. This was that scene, but for real. I kept an eye out for a bear as I drove up the mountain. In this terrain, there have to be bear and moose.

It is the most beautiful, magical, ancient forest of cedar trees -- and I mean gi-normous cedar trees. It was almost fairy like -- incredibly quiet and scerene with the sunlight breaking through the branches and illuminating fallen trees and plants. As the sign said, the Ross Creek goes through the forst with 4-5 branches taking various paths through the forest -- little waterfalls breaking over the cedar trees that had fallen, bubbling and splashing the entire way. Absolutely perfect for the setting.

Truly.....I thought I would look up and see Bambi and his mother jumping the fallen trees. Or Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee running down the soft, cedar covered paths. And these huge trees would turn into a bunch of "tree beards", stomping Orks with their trunk feet. Some of these cedar trees are over 500 years old, and massive. Did I mention I was in the forest -- by myself?

It was hard to get pictures of these 500 year old cedar trees that can accurately show their size. Here I am standing next to a particularly large tree -- as you can see it would probably take 7 or 8 people with their arms outstretched touching fingers to get around the trunks.

I did stop to take a picture of a small flower, and there was bear scat (or poop for those not acquainted with wild animal terms). This was a perfect spot for them.

If you come to Montana on vacation, I highly recommend going to Libby, MT and see both the Kootenai Falls (and the swinging bridge over the river), as well as the Ross Creek Cedar Forest -- only about another 1/2 hour to get there. It would be a day well spent.














I've included just a couple of other more "artsy" pictures I took that I thought were worth looking at. Hope you enjoy.