U.S. Fire Map

For those of you concerned about me and all the fires in Montana, here is a link to the National Interagency Fire Center's map of the fires in the U.S.

At their web site you can click on the circles and learn more about the fires.

As you can see there are many fires in Montana and Idaho. There are fires all around Flathead Valley. Some officials are saying this year is worse than 2003 - which was a bad year.

Lots of smoke. Many days I can't see any mountains due to the smoke. It is like there is a heavy fog outside. Of course breathing the smoke is no fun.

Yesterday Colleen and I went on an all day road trip to very NW Montana and got out of the smoke most of the day. We also drove around the west side of the Brush Creek fire and saw the smoke from the backside. We didn't see any flames, but saw the smoke rising from the forest. This was the closest either of us have ever been to a forest fire. It was pretty exciting.



It was nice to breathe fresh air and see blue sky in addition to seeing the sights, going on hikes, and being with Colleen who is fun and adventurous. I am very impressed by her adventurous nature.

She would say to me, "See that trail? It looks to be maybe more than just a deer trail. Why don't we see where it goes?"

And off we would go.

Another time I was searching for a route to the water in Rock Creek and the next I knew she was scrambling over a huge debris pile logs and branches stacked up from a high Spring runoff. Here is a photo of her doing do. She is returning after finding a route across the debris pile over to a place where we could sit and soak our feet in the creek and have lunch.

Now would you think this would be the way to cross the creek? I didn't, and I don't think most people would, but it turns out this was the only way across and she found it. A very impressive woman!!!