so put me on a highway, and show me a sign: bozeman to missoula. miles 2867 to 3070ish.

despite the hours of driving, wandering around, biking, and blogging that fill my day, i still manage to wake up ridiculously early in the morning. part of this waking up early, i think, has to do with the uncertainty of my driving plan over the last couple days - i still had no definite plan, other than getting to missoula and making a stop at the big sky brewing company while in town. would i continue on up to kalispell and glacier national park? would i stay in missoula? would i go to kalispell for the night and stop in glacier in the morning? would i just sit in my car and pull my hat down and avoid making any decision at all? gah.

in any case, i was up fairly early so i figured i'd just get on the road again toward missoula. the first big stop after bozeman turned out to be butte - a town i'd seen on the map, and probably heard mentioned by my mother a couple times, but i had no real sense of what there was to see, of the history of the town. it was time to stop and fill up the water bottle and stretch my legs, anyway, so i figured i'd at least drive through town - directions to a historic downtown seemed promising, right? right. i also had some spotty cell phone coverage by this point, so i quickly checked in with my mother - the conversation went something like this:

me: so i made it out of bozeman alive. ps it was a lot prettier than i expected! anything interesting in butte?
linda: well... you could go see the berkeley mining pit. i think it's supposed to be one of the biggest copper mines in the country.
me: oh... is that what that big hole in the mountain is? huh. that makes sense.

that whole cliff face? yeah, that's the berkeley pit.

(oh, erica.)

so i ended up driving into town and getting a bit lost, and finding myself at the pit. for $2, you can go through the side of the mountain to a viewing platform in the pit. and learn something about the history of mining in southwestern montana. turns out, butte was a big mining town. who knew?

look! a waterfall!

well, perhaps the people who put all these big drilling and milling equipment all over the city.

erica, of course, finds the one that's been turned into the centerpiece of a garden :)

after leaving butte, i'm back on I-90 headed toward missoula. there are more mountains.

by the time i got to missoula, made my stop at the big sky brewing company - home of moose drool, which ashley's father introduced me to last christmas, and is a pretty fabulous beer - it was decision time: stay in missoula and hang out? or push ahead and go on a couple hours north to kalispell and glacier? after much wandering and contemplating, i decide to stay in missoula and relax rather than exhaust myself trying to get up to glacier only to turn around the next day. also, missoula's a fun town - and has a pretty extensive bike path system, and i was hankering for another bike ride.

i do so love riding along rivers.

missoula also happens to be home of the university of montana - in honor of the university, there is a giant 'M' on the side of the hill behind the university.

turns out there's a path that you can hike up to the M. supposedly great views of the valley and town and everything. i like outlooks. i like hiking. i'm totally up for it. right?

right. also turns out that this path is a bit under a mile and a half long, consists of 13 switchbacks, and climbs 620 vertical feet. yeah. you feel that one.