Moscow Adventure #1: Moscow Mountain

We arrived in Moscow on a Thursday (more on Moscow in a later post) and clearly had to start exploring immediately!

Everyone kept telling us about Moscow Mountain, an almost 5,000 foot mountain just outside of city limits. It's really popular with hikers and mountain bikers, and is criss-crossed with trails. But because all the land is owned privately, the trails are kept intentionally vague and it is hard to find accurate information. Needless to say, we picked what seemed to be the most straightforward path and prepared to get lost.

The driving directions were equally imprecise (who needs to label streets anyway?) and after a few wrong turns we arrive at...the side of an unmarked road. It seemed like it might be the right spot, but there was no information to indicate a trail head or path. Being the brave adventurers we are (ha - more on being brave in the West later - it seems like there are an awful lot more animals out here that can kill you), we started hiking up the road. 

View from halfway up - it was steep!

There are all sorts of berries growing along the trails and roads here, but I'm too scared to try them without knowing what they are (huckleberries? marionberries?). I need to find a local to give me a fruit tour! There's also some plant here that has a really strange smell. We keep catching it on the wind but can't figure out which plant it is.

Like when we drove out, none of the trails or turns were marked, despite our directions saying things like "turn left onto Moscow Mountain road." We just figure that any time we had a choice we should keep going up. Luckily, it worked!

Our reward for a hot and dusty hike was beautiful views somewhat reminiscent of (a drier) Humpback Rocks. And, of course, pride in having successfully completed our first Idaho hike!

King of the mountain!

Go West, Young Muhlenkamps!

Last year Jason and I decided that each year we would celebrate our anniversary in a different state, drawn at random. On our 6 month wedding anniversary he handed me a ziplock bag of little paper strips, each of which had the name and slogan of a state on it. I reached in and discovered that our romantic first anniversary was going to be spent in.......North Dakota.

Womp womp.

We were hoping to plan a separate trip there, but with moving our time was limited. Instead, we decided to take advantage of its location and stop on our trip out West.

First stop: the Buffalo Museum and World's Largest Buffalo in Jamestown, ND.

Run, Jason, run!

Ricky really enjoyed having his picture taken with the buffalo. 

Next we passed signs for Salem Sue, the World's Largest Holstein. Jason decided that a good farm boy couldn't pass up this photo op, so we got off the highway and took a few photos. Of course, he had to try milking her.

Apparently ND has decided that very large statues of animals will be its calling card.

Our final ND destination was the Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the western edge of the state. After his wife and mother died on the same day, Roosevelt headed west and spent some time cattle ranching and buffalo hunting in the North Dakota Badlands. Even though it was raining the badlands were still beautiful. It was like something from another planet.

We even saw a couple of bison (from pretty far way) and a wild horse.

The next day we got back in the car for the final long stretch to Missoula, MT. Here are the GPS directions for the day!

And we're back!

Now that Jason and I have officially moved to the West Coast (Moscow, ID, if you haven't been following along) we've decided it might be time to resurrect this blog to keep track of the adventures we have. At 3 hours behind EST and a totally different climate, hey, it's practically a foreign country.

There is the small issue of the name though. We're no longer newlyweds (13 months on Wednesday) and the only waves around here are the "amber waves of grain" from "America the Beautiful" that I am just now finally understanding. Suggestions for a new name?

August 2nd we started our 40+ hour, 2580 mile cross-country road trip from Charlottesville to Moscow. We loaded up the car, said some tearful goodbyes and set off for Coldwater, OH to visit Jason's family. There we learned all about bumbines (combines) from our 2 year old nephew, checked out the town picnic (Jason's verdict: it was way more fun when he was seven years old), and enjoyed hanging out with family. Day 2 took us to St. Cloud, MN, where we learned that all the Minnesota stereotypes we knew were true: people were tall, women were strong, and everyone was as friendly as can be.

The more exciting part of our journey begins on day 3, but for know I will leave you with some pictures of our reluctant travel companions, Ricky and Lucy.

First day in the car freakout

Hiding

Calming down (Thanks of the U of I pillowcases, Mom!) 

One of Lucy's rare appearances outside of the carrier 

Ricky takes a turn at driving

Thinking deeply 

Some much needed entertainment in the car