Fiery Montana Sky Ash!

To all friends, I must tell you of camping this past weekend. T & I are smart..we like to get directly under the most oppressive smoke clouds Montana has to offer. It has not rained in many months (or so it feels) and thus, as every year, August becomes and remains fire season. Apparently the fire brings out the wildlife upon us.

Perhaps I'll begin with what I would like to call "Before and After":

Before. Yes, here we have the Brown Death Lake. Yes, that is the actual water color surrounding the marina. Yes, that is the sky at 7pm.












After. A sigh of relief... A little landscape sanity.













Finally. Upon arrival at Big Arm State Park on Flathead Lake, we come upon the single remaining campsite. I watch and document as Travis deals with the Eureka, Apollo 2. I love this tent because it has a large, bold exclamation point in the side of the tent. !




Well, before the weekend is over, we're under attack.





Attack Exhibit 1. Bees. Do you see how it is mid-flight toward the camera-bearer, me?















Attack Exhibit 2. Chipmunks. Sure, sure. It looks tiny and barely scary. Click on the picture and you will see, upon further examination, the scary nature of this beast. Its beady, beady eyes.


Attack Exhibit 3. Senile Spaniel. Well, he's innocent and barely gifted with sight or hearing ability, but this little dude (in the act of running away to its troll burrow) woke us up rooting in our camp area.








But really, the lesson we glean from all of this is I do enjoy camping.
In an exclamatory tent.