Missoula

After just over two weeks in Missoula, all I can say is 'great place to visit'. This is where my girlfriend Laura lives. It's not my first time at this enjoyable town. I spent just short of two weeks in June 2012.

According to official census data, Missoula is the second largest city of Montana. It's name, 'nmesuletk', which can be translated as 'place of frozen water', comes from the Salish language of the Flathead Nation, and in reference to the Glacial Lake Missoula that could be once found in the valley. These facts and further details can be found on here.

One of the the first things that I have appreciated about Missoula is that it offers great outdoor recreational activities. People in Missoula, and in Montana in general, have a special love for being outdoors. You can also notice how serious they are about maintaining and preserving their natural resources. This allows for great hiking and trail running in the nearby mountains, and water sports on the Clark Fork River including kayaking and river surfing. There are also great opportunities for cycling, skiing, fly fishing and hunting.

Kootenai National Forest

I'm trying to recover from a long lasting calf injury. I'm happy that I've been able to get three good trail runs in this week. The pretty flat main trails of the Rattlesnake Recreational Area, the first miles of the Hellgate Canyon along the river, and the not so easy uphill run to Mount Sentinel are helping me get back on track with my runs.  Laura is a runner too and a great support for my recovery! Those runs along with several hikes with her and some cycling are doing me so good.

After all this exercise, I don't feel any guilt to kill my thirst with beer. Listen beer lovers if you're ever around in this town. Something Missoula can be proud of as well is its microbreweries. The Kettlehouse, Tamarack, Bayern and the Draught Works, for instance, make wonders of this fantastic beverage for the enjoyment of the locals and visitors alike. You can enjoy a pint in their tap rooms for $4 in average. As a lover of stout and Guinness after 13 years in Ireland, I can recommend the Milk Stout by Draught Works. Or if you venture 20 minutes drive out of Missoula, you can have a pint for as little as $3 in for instance the Wildwood Brewery in Stevensville. I found that the Organic Karapiller Red Lager was especially tasty.

Sampling beers at Wildwood Brewery

Brewpubs are only open until 8 pm. Based on Montana law, you're only allowed to have 3 pints in their tap rooms. Alternatively, you can bring your own growler, which has capacity for just over 3 pints or nearly 2 liters, to get it filled and bring your beer for its enjoyment at home.

Not only beers brewed in town can be found in Missoula. Following the good Montana tradition for a large variety of beers, most pubs and restaurants have a good choice of 'cerveza' coming from other parts of the State. One that pleasantly impressed me the other day was the Imperial Ale Good Medicine from Great Northern Brewing Company. It had a pretty rich malted taste perfectly balanced with the right amount of hops for someone, like me, who's not so fond of beers that are too hoppy.

Missoula is a great location to access two wonderful National Parks a few hours drive away from the city. Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park are two gems to be discovered. I was lucky to be able to visit and camp at Glacier already last year during my first visit to Laura. What impressed me the most was the dramatic mountains, panoramic views, lakes and the friendly bighorn sheep.

Last week, Laura arranged to go visit Yellowstone with two friends of hers, Courtney and Ben. We camped out for two nights. Very different to Glacier, to me Yellowstone's highlights were the colorful and lively geysers. The area given the name of the Old Faithful is probably the best known and most popular due to its timid but regular eruption. It was the eruption of the Grand geyser the one that I will always talk about though.

Norris Geyser Basin

Other things that I loved about Yellowstone were the geysers from Norris Basin, the Grand Canyon and the abundant wildlife that we came across: loads of buffalo, a black bear, three grizzly bears, moose, one coyote, pronghorn, marmotte, beaver and osprey, many of them I had never seen before.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Buffalo

And all these things and many more that I could be writing about have kept me pretty busy, including Laura's doctoral graduation ceremonies and celebrations over the weekend. Congratulations, Laura!

We're now getting ready for our trip to Zambia this Friday. I'm so excited about it. The next post will be from somewhere in Livingstone. Thanks for reading!