Like every little boy, I dreamed of being out west. Cowboys and Indians. Alone in the dark in the Forrest. I've been out west many times. Traveling and fishing but thistrip I went alone for the first time. Somethings different. With only God
to talk to, you do a bit more of that out loud than normal, especially in the big brown bear habitat where I like to fish..
This photo was taken near my tent in the woods at Slough Creek. If you know me on Facebook, you can go back and see the GPS tracking on Google of right where this is.
Anyway. Here I was entering the wilderness and i find a little boys tractor left on a rock near my fire. All I cou
ld think of was, here was a boy, experiencing the magic of all God has left for us in this beautiful place. Like all boys, some ride in on horses, for me a Jeep Wrangler and for this boy, it was his little red truck. Left on a rock where I can only imagine he thought it might have a better life here than in his backyard somewhere..
Experiencing firsts..
The Milky Way at night runs like a ribbon from one horizon to the other at night. The tree lines all around you silhouette like a Christmas candle box and the constellations move all night in a circle around you if you take the time to lay and
watch them..
Well Monday night I awoke at 4am to lights... Not normal in the wilderness. Up out of my tent in 30 degree weather I saw something i didn't think was possible.
If you stood surrounded by mountain peaks Like a snow globe. Then starred straight up at 12o'clock, and drew a thin line across the horizon. from 12 forward to 6 there were a billion stars as bright as could be without a moon. Then... from 12 back to 6 there was complete black without stars and an incredible storm with massive lightening from horizon to horizon lighting up the mountains and black skies to grey then back to black. One side complete calm stars. The other this massive storm with thunder that shook the upper meadows. Well the storm did roll in at 5AM for 6hrs. and it was BIG.. like everything in Montana.
Slough Creek is magical place for me. It's the most remote of campsites in NE Yellowstone. Lot's of bear, wolf packs and bison. and the best and biggest Cutthroat trout.. "The only native trout we have here" I sit alone at a campfire till it's late and very cold staring at the stars, praying, crying, laughing and saying my soul cries to God in His private Garden in the Mountains. Good Wine and a Cigar's makes it even more special.
I came here years ago with my lifelong friend Bruce and we fished it one day near the hi
ghway. We encountered the infamous Mormon Cricket. A prehistoric looking monster black cricket the size of a mans thumb with a scorpion tail.. oh that's another story of near death for another blog.
Anyway I've come back and camped it with my son Jamison for a few days. Such a full-filling Dad/son experience. Now every time I pass a rock or a tree we sat and talked and stared at I'm reminded of how much I love him and I'll stop and talk to him in mind for a moment. That is the beauty of sharing things with others... The memori
es.
I've met so many interesting people alone in the woods. Shared life, food, wine, beer, stories, cigars AND in this setting somehow it always comes around to God and I'm honored to quietly listen to faith and non faith stories of people on their journey from boy and girlhood to man and womanhood. People share things with strangers in the wilderness that they don't tell their families, and what happens there stays there. It's a beautiful thing. No addresses, or emails, and when people share their innermost, they don't want anyone to know who they are. Just another person seeking to find God and make peace with Him in the best way they know how.
I'll write later about a guy named Mac. I'm with right now. 60 and single. what a storied life. Native Montanan, Done just about everything there is to do here and then some... ;)
There were the two doctors. A dentist and a radiologist. One a Mormon one a catholic and both converted to Christ and now Presbyterians. Really radical ones, I might add with salty language and a disdain for most of organized faith. The east coast man and his wife who owned a cigar company and left me with the bes
t rated cigar of last year.
There was the owner of a software company and then the man who said "Craig, I'm a pagan and that's just how I see life. I think I live more like Jesus than a lot of people however..". THAT, was a great conversation over a few days, and all I really wanted to do was listen and ask the Holy Spirit to radically move through my smile as he would talk and look at me. Oh, on and on I could go today fro
m this little espresso shop in Gardiner MT at the North Entrance to Yellowstone. I'm here cause it's just to windy to fish today.... so far:)
Then my new friend Mac, well I've got to go now and drive 20miles back to mile marker 17 to hook up and float the Yellowstone till dark. Then back to our tents to make our own dinners, start a fire, put on the best of Willie Nelson live and watch the stars dance over a hot and cold beverage around the fire. And in it all, I'm reminded everyone has little boy dreams that need re-freshing now and then somewhere, someplace, somewhere back in time..
And as I stood high above the Lamar River I could just hear..
"Better is one day in your house "Lord"than thousands elsewhere" What a house these there mountains are.. Till later... surprise me God.
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1 comment:
I'm sharing every step of this with you. Although I'm not as much into the camping thing, as you know, each experience you share is something I fully understand and have shared a parallel experience over the past 20 years going to Montana. I always say, God is everywhere, but especially in Montana.
One very quick story. I had fished all day in the Park and had a cabin to stay in that a friend of mine had offered to me to use for the week. But this night, something deep in my spirit said to not go back to the cabin but to drive to another town and get a hotel. Weird, but I did it. I found a place in Island Park, got up the next morning and had some devotions on the deck outside my room overlooking the river. An hour later as I was throwing my stuff in my car to leave, a couple came down the stairs. Turns out they were from Germany, were in Yellowstone to try to figure out and save their marriage. He was alcoholic, she was an atheist, and they were in rough shape. They told me all of this in the first 10 minutes! We talked for over an hour in the parking lot. They told me that they also were restless the night before and started driving, deciding to stay wherever they could find a room. That turned out to be next door to mine, and neither of us were even supposed to be there in the first place. But God knew! Turns out they had seen me reading my Bible that morning and the husband said to his wife, "I need to meet that guy!" Well, 15 years later we still talk once a year, he has accepted Christ and is free of alcoholism. He and his wife? Happily married and surviving life together in Germany. He has written some worship songs. I know that could happen anywhere, but it seems to happen more often when I'm in Montana. I think a lot of people go "to the mountains" to find something; I especially see that in Colorado. So, I share in your journeys, although they are at different times, different places, and with different people. Thanks for the blog!
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