| Ten minutes out of town, we found the dirt road | | | | up, then down the west side and finally back |
| that goes up to Storm Lake. We had been there | | | | north to the grassy slope where Ana was |
| before, shortly after moving to Anaconda, | | | | waiting.Maybe it was foolish to leave Ana alone. |
| Montana. The road was hard on the car, but we | | | | Just three months later, two boys were attacked |
| couldn't resist going. This time we would hike up | | | | by a mountain lion on the hill just behind the town |
| to the tundra and stay the night. My wife Ana | | | | of Anaconda. The fourteen-year-old fired his gun |
| had never been camping above the treeline.There | | | | to scare it off. Both boys were probably larger |
| were a couple cars, but nobody in sight. The lake | | | | than my gunless wife. Fortunately, we didn't meet |
| was sparkling in the sunlight, and the mountains of | | | | any cougars or bears on this hike, but Ana had |
| the Anaconda-Pintler range rose up all around it. It | | | | other things to worry about.Camping With Aliens |
| was quiet and cool here at 8,000 feet. We put on | | | | In Montana"I hear voices," she told me in the tent |
| our packs and started up the trail. Twenty | | | | that night. I assured her there was nobody within |
| minutes later we were past the lake, and the trail | | | | ten miles of us, and then she was worried about |
| steepened.Hiking With Guns In MontanaAfter an | | | | aliens landing in the meadow. Well, it would make a |
| hour of zig-zagging up the mountain we met | | | | good landing site. The wind threatened to shred |
| another hiker. We talked briefly, and noticed the | | | | the tent all night, sounding like the whispers or |
| handgun on his belt. This is common in Montana. | | | | screams of ghosts - or aliens. By morning the |
| We've seen guns on the hiking trails and in the | | | | wind relented, but it was well below freezing - |
| bars, and the bank tellers don't even blink when | | | | time to get Ana home.Despite the cold she hates |
| customers walk in wearing guns - they probably | | | | so much, Ana couldn't help stopping to take in the |
| have their own.We never did ask this hiker why | | | | view as we crossed the high meadows on our |
| he had one, and didn't find out until later that | | | | way home. Mountains, grey with rock, green with |
| there are grizzlies in the area at times, something | | | | grass and flowers, and painted with white patches |
| some "experts," have denied. At least we had our | | | | of snow, were everywhere. Lakes sat in valleys |
| freon horn to blast if we met a bear, but then | | | | below, unvisited for weeks at a time. We'll be |
| maybe that would just get the bear angry.The | | | | back there again, but perhaps with bear spray |
| trees got smaller as we climbed, and ended just | | | | and alien repellant.Notes:Forty-five miles of the |
| before Storm Lake Pass. Ana waited patiently at | | | | Continental Divide Trail pass through the |
| the pass while I ran the five minutes - which | | | | Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness. Other trails in the |
| became twenty - up to the peak of Mount Tiny, | | | | area are never heavily used. You can easily find |
| about 10,000 feet high. Small, compared to some | | | | mountains and whole valleys where you'll be the |
| of the surrounding mountains, but it seemed | | | | only human residents for as long as you |
| almost rude to give a beautiful mountain a name | | | | stay.Steve Gillman hit the road at sixteen, and |
| like that.Later, past goat meadow, Ana waited | | | | traveled the U.S. and Mexico alone at 17. Now 40, |
| again while I scrambled up the rocks to the top | | | | he travels with his wife Ana, whom he met in |
| of Kurt Peak (also about 10,000 feet). I couldn't | | | | Ecuador. |
| find the route where I came up, so I went back | | | | |