So months and months ago I mentioned the Testicle Festival in this blog so I feel I must give an update. This years festival ran from August 4th to August 8th. I had to check it out so I convinced some friends to go with. It was little over an hour drive to get there and when we did it was sadly a disappointment. It was so small we ended up driving past it and having to turn around and come back. And it didn't even look like a festival but a bunch of people camping in one place. The biggest problem...it was $17 just to get it. We decided it was NOT worth it to pay $17 to walk around a few feet of what looked like people camping. Didn't even see any testicles. Oh well. At that point we were only about 20 minutes outside of Missoula, MT so we kept driving and had a nice time walking around downtown, went to a brewery, and got some sushi. So I didn't get any testicles but I did get sushi and that's even more exciting since there's none in Butte.
The next week my boyfriend drove over from North Dakota and we went to Yellowstone National Park for a day. It was both of our first times seeing the park. We went as far as Bozeman the night before and stayed there and also got sushi. Yes, I was super excited to get sushi twice in one week after not having it since February. I'm so deprived here. Just kidding. Anyways that was great then the next morning we continued the drive to Gardiner, MT, where the North Entrance to Yellowstone is located. That town was cute. A small western town on river so it was pretty and also lots of touristy activity. There's a big gate at the entrance and everyone was stopping to get pictures. We decided to pass on that and a few feet further down the road was a "Yellowstone National Park" sign. Here we did stop to get a picture because no one else was there. But apparently we started a trend because there was quickly a line of cars behind us waiting to do the same thing.
We did a day hike up to Bunsen Peak in the park. It was nothing too grueling and there were great views the entire time. Also good news, we didn't run into any bears. We saw a few other people on their way down while we were hiking up and when we got to the top there was a group of two girls and one guy sitting on a log drinking beers. Sweet idea except for the fact that you have to carry the heavy beers a couple miles up to the top of the peak. They eventually left while I was busy snapping pictures then Joey and I were alone at the top of the peak to sit on the log, take in the panoramic views, and prop my camera up in various places to try and get pictures of the two of us. Once we hiked back down we played the role of true tourist and drove to the West Entrance of the park and a long the way stopped to take pictures. Once of some elk, just like everyone else in the park was doing. It's really quite amazing how traffic in the park just stops anytime there is wildlife visible from the road. Everyone stops and gets out with cameras in hand and starts snapping away. I'm still mad that we didn't see a buffalo though. I'm starting to think they really don't exist. Just kidding. By the time we got out of the part at West Yellowstone, MT it was about 7:30 p.m. and we still had a two and a half hour drive back to Butte so we just stopped at Subway for dinner. I've never heard so many languages in a Subway in my life. Definitely a tourist hub, which probably explains why it was also the most expensive Subway I've ever been in. They don't participate in the $5 foot long so foot longs were more like $10. Terrible but everything else about the trip was great.
Now I know this is getting long but keep reading because you're about to hear about my first time EVER camping. And when I do things for the first time I go all out. My first trip out of the U.S. I didn't go to Mexico or Canada I went to the other side of the globe to Australia. I REALLY left the country. And well for my first time camping I did it the same way...went all out. I didn't just go to a camp site where you park your car a few feet away from some other people, start a fire and there's a bathroom not too far away. Nope, I went with two friend on an 11 mile round trip hike. This means the campsite was a five and a half mile hike in and getting there meant going straight up hill. Correction: up a steep mountain. We camped at Canyon Lake so we each carried packs on our backs with our survival materials: food, water, sleeping bag, tent, warmer clothes for sleeping during the chilly night. Yes, I carried probably a 20-30 lb pack on my back for 5.5 miles up a mountain to the lake on Saturday, slept in a tent, then carried it back down the mountain for 5.5 miles on Sunday. It was quite an experience. I'm glad I did it but during the last part of getting up the mountain to the lake I was not a happy girl. I was tired. The lake was pretty though and it was completely worth it. It was fun just sitting around the camp fire hanging out and drinking straight tequila...because I was told the only way to fall asleep on the ground was to drink enough. So we had a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of tequila. I don't like whiskey haha. I also really don't like straight liquor so I was chasing with water and my freeze dried camp food after it was cooked. It was pretty funny. The two guys I was with also tried to leave for a little and come back and sneak up on me and scare me. They failed miserably, which I just found humorous. Sorry guys, next time make sure I can't see you prancing through the night. I still didn't sleep great in the tent but I did sleep, just woke up a lot. And thankfully the next day it was much easier getting down the mountain. It was a fun adventure that living in Montana was definitely something I needed to experience but boy was I happy to see my shower and bed when I got back.
