Day 1: Livingston Montana

Day One: E-ville to Livingston MT

QOTD:  Believe you can and you're halfway there

Pics: In and around Livingston including on a hike, at the farmer’s market, Mark’s In and Out for ice cream

Weather: Low 70s, not much wind, intermittent sun and rain (for short periods, heavy), light out very late (past THB’s bedtime)

Up early to catch 8am nonstop on United (Express) from SFO to Bozeman. Turns out that we go through security in Terminal 3 and the flight leaves from Terminal 1, which we reach via a shuttle bus that burrows under Terminal 2 (shades of Heathrow). It appears that if we felt somewhat certain that the flight was leaving from Terminal 1 we could’ve saved ourselves about 20 minutes by starting our adventure there.

Easy flight, rent a car, drive to Bozeman and meet B (whom we met on our trip to India 4 years ago and has visited us several times in the Bay Area). Lunch of tuna sandwich and salads at the local Co-op, $21. B’s house sitting in Livingston, about 30 miles from Bozeman, so we caravan there, briefly unpack, and head for the Pine Creek trail in the Absaroka Deartooth Wilderness. Absaroka is Crow Indian for crow.

Near the end of wildflower season, and a nice small, gushing, waterfall for our turnaround (it feels like we hiked 4 miles in and 2 miles out, though this is clearly an exaggeration to justify what comes next). Ahhhhh, a stop at Mark’s In and Out for three exotic flavors of ice cream (Moose Tracks rated #1), followed by the local farmer’s market in Sacajawea Park where THB makes close friends with the guy in the Sinclair’s Bakery truck. He recognizes THB right away because by some fluke THB is wearing his Sullivan Street Bakery t-shirt. THB lets Sinclair guy know he is lucky to meet THB because THB came very close to never leaving the Sullivan Street Bakery (in NY) either time he visited.

B serves an excellent dinner of bison dogs, watermelon and feta salad, tortellini salad, and a local brewski, Sweetgrass IPA. It is early to go to sleep; well, it just looks early because it is so light out here near the summer solstice that it seems around mid-afternoon. We’re getting up early tomorrow, so we’ve got to get some sleep now while we can.