The Adventure Begins

Our family moved to Montana a year ago. We left a big city and all the big city ways and moved to the mountains and the wild kind of life. The very first thing I noticed when we arrived was the temperature. We drove our moving truck through a cold January night. It was so cold that frost kept building up on the inside of my windows. It was -13 outside and my newborn baby lay asleep in her carseat while the ice froze on her window. We arrived at our new home at 4 am and slept on the floor with no blankets.

We awoke to bitter cold and feet of snow outside. The truck needed to be unloaded so we could return it. Unfortunately for us, the high was -2 that day. We had no coats, no boots, no gloves. We had arrived at the wilderness unprepared. I kept thinking that day that if we had acted this way 100 years ago, we would be dead before the morning. You cannot be unprepared here.

Another thing I noticed right away was how much more hardy you had to be. Shoveling snow and gathering firewood will surely wind you if you are out of shape. It requires much more effort to do simple things here in the winter. I am not in bad shape, but I am not that fit either. I don't want to be winded while shoveling. I want to be up to the task here whether it is pure survival or pleasure. We don't have big malls and movie theaters. The things to do for fun in Montana are all outside. Skiing, skating, snowshoeing, fishing, hiking, hunting. All things that require you to be in shape to enjoy.

I started running this week in order to be up for the challenge. I want to spend this summer learning to do all the things that make living in Montana so awesome. I want to learn to fly fish and shoot a deer, hike a glacier and ski down, anything I want to do. That takes being fit and getting out there and learning. That is my goal this year.