Brydn's 2003 Montana Travel Journal: Crystal Lake

Brydn's 2003 Montana Travel Journal: Crystal Lake

Page 33


I'm camping at Crystal Lake where the deer come up to the tent.



I have to get going because I don't know where I'm going to be. Lewiston, Montana, is 101 miles from Great Falls. I spend 1/2 hour just looking for 87 highway out of town. I all most get to Lewiston, but it's already 8:30pm. I turn off to Crystal Lake to set up with some light, especially with the new tent. I drive in 15 miles on a 35-40 MPH gravel road. I passed 7 cars leaving as I come in. Finally, I get there and pick #20 space. It's weird because at dust there are 6 or 7 doe's and a buck deer walking abound everyones sites. One just went past me here in the dark while I am writing. It's a beautiful clear night. It costs $10 a day. How come there are so many people camping?

9:16am 7/22/3. I wake up a couple times last night. The sky is full of stars. The deer keep coming by. I get up 1:45am to pee. But I wake up a couple times before this cos of deer walking by. This gives me the chills up and down my neck since I'd recently been in Glacier's bear country. I think I heard one other campers yell "hee yah" to scare them off. One spends awhile eating the grass outside my tent. I think I wake up once with on pushing in the wall of my tent and touching the back of my head. I may have been dreaming the grunt. I got a parade whistle, just in case. I get up and start off to get a bucket of water. The water comes out of a facet; no pump, no iodine. I boiled water for coffee. The ranger comes up and writes down my license plate number and introduces his self. He gives me a couple brochures about Crystal Lake, the trails and the ice cave. I could have been a ranger. He says drop by the office for a couple PBR's on ice. I got a couple empties sitting out.

I snap a good morning picture of Ruthy, the truck, and Honey the guitar at the camp site. Somewhere around here is a lake. I love my new 8x8 tent. It has lots of room for my stuff. It's 9:29am. The pine cones look like microphones.