Once again, we have thoroughly enjoyed our long weekend. Montana is as new to us as Alaska was so it was fun to do a little exploring. One sign that intrigued us was for Garnet Ghost Town. Tucked away (far at the end of 15 mile uphill dirt road) in the Garnet Mountains is a deserted town that was a thriving mining community at the turn of the century. Garnet was home to over 1000 residents during those boom times, but by the end of the depression it was deserted.

It was very interesting seeing the town in its un-restored state. I’m not sure things were left just as we found them, but it was fun to imagine that they were. I also had fun playing with the “sepia” setting on my camera!

From Garnet we checked out a neighboring ghost town, Coloma, that wasn’t quite so well preserved!

Even though the house was falling down, I bet the view must have been dynamite when it was standing!

It was fun exploring along the dirt roads up in the mountains and we were treated to some awesome vistas while we were at it!

So that was Friday.
On Saturday Gary and I struck out extra early to do some fishing. (OK, so I wasn’t going to fish, but he had invited me to come so I tagged along.)
Like I said – it was an extra early morning!

The sun had made it up by the time we made it to the river –

and after getting all his gear together

he started off down the river.

Me, I had a nice quiet time in the truck (staying warm), and then had fun watching the tent campers (and the hammock camper) slowly emerge.

Plus there was always my camera to play with!

Reaching for the sunshine –

Ah, sunshine!

Once it warmed up I moved out to the water’s edge and enjoyed the sunshine too! And just as all the other fishermen were loading up their little float/boats

Gary returned – a little discouraged (no fish), but determined to keep at it. Maybe on Monday. 🙂 He’s a new fly fisherman, and is still learning the ropes. He is the proud owner of a full season Montana fishing license (the best value for our time here), so he’s been going out most afternoons after work checking out different fishing accessses.
Maybe one of those fun little boats would help……..

Today (Sunday) we joined two of the Sower couples for church at a local campground. One of the couples is a new Sower (this is their second project), but they have served on the mission field in Africa for thirty years. He is a surgeon and in his late 70’s, and they still go back (to Africa) for several months each year. They were giving a mission report to a supporting church who happened to be camping at a nearby campground. It was interesting to hear some of their story, and we were blessed to be part of this small congregation praising the Lord in the beautiful (though a little damp) outdoors!

Oh, I almost forgot! One of the nicest parts of the weekend was how it started. Thursday night we went out to dinner to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary! I don’t think I ever would have believed you if you had told me 10 years ago that I would be celebrating this anniversary in Montana! (Or living in an RV for that matter!) How kind God has been to us!

This week I’ll try to put together some pictures and stories about our work/play here at Camp Utmost. It’s been great so far!
Have a good one!