upswing.

Whew. Yesterday's post was a tad bit....dismal. 

Let's bring things up a bit, eh? Things are going to fall into place and I'm going to stop living so second-to-second and try to see bigger picture things. Big picture things are that it's my favorite season and I live in a place I love and I have great friends and my phone is back on. WOOOO. 

On another MUCH more positive note, I went backpacking last weekend! It was awesome! I had a great time! Look at all these exclamation points I'm using!!! Seriously though, it was awesome and the mountains, rivers, woods, and general wilderness setting was balm to the soul. 

Another trip is on the docket for this weekend, which is equally thrilling, because as much as I love Missoula, sometimes it's best to get back to basics.... aka let some of the faces I see daily in this town miss me just a little bit. 

Last weekend, we hiked into Blodgett Canyon, touted by many a guidebook/website as "The most picturesque canyon in all of the Bitteroot Mountains." I'd have to say they have my full agreement. However, I have not actually seen all of the canyons, so maybe don't take my word alone for it.

Let me take you on a brief tour of my memorial day weekend:

here's some of our shit being loaded into the car! look how prepared for the great outdoors we are! also, everyone in montana drives a subaru. not kidding, it's like an army of subarus on the road everywhere you look. luckily, we were in a subaru, so we fit in great. 

this is my adorable friend aubrey getting psyched to backpack all our shit into the woods. she bought that TMNT flatbill cap especially for the trip and i don't think i've ever loved her more. 

in case anyone was wondering, THIS IS BEAR COUNTRY. 

this is my friend alex leading us straight into a rain storm. it may look sunny, but it's about to not be. we ended up hiking multiple miles into the rain, only to turn around and double back to flat place with a bit of shelter. then it stopped raining and the sun came out again, which i took to be the good omen it most likely was. 

oh, here's where we made camp. not a bad view if i do say so myself.

this is alex wowing us with his ability to play an instrument called the "jaw harp." it sounds like the popping a boner sound effect in cheesy movies.  this inspired us to form a band called the "blodgett canyon boys" even though alex was the only boy. i played the forks and aubrey played her water bottle. we'll probably play coachella next year. look out.

this is aubrey and i celebrating our superior skills at living. or taking in the glorious bounty around us. or maybe just acting like this was a candid picture even though it was pretty staged. of course i packed in flip flops. 

aubrey packed in a 2 liter of squirt. this is because we created a new drink for this summer. it is made out of gin and squirt. fresca would probably be equally as delicious, but squirt is probably the most awesome name for a soda pop ever, so it's the summer of squirt. SOS! as the gin level went down, many hilarious squirt jokes were told. and that is why squirt beats fresca. also, this was alex's first EVER time drinking squirt, which is unbelievable to me, but we made him burn the bottle after he killed it. sorry, environment. 

after we finished off all the squirt 'n gin and a six pack of beer and some wine, we decided at 3 am that we needed to hang our food so we wouldn't get eaten by bears. now personally, i've never done this before so it was a learning experience. in all, the venture took us about 45 minutes to complete, which is apparently not ideal. i believe that our band's music probably frightened off all the creatures, but being in the woods of montana means not taking chances with bears. 

the next day we did some more hikin'. it wasn't raining so it was really enjoyable. also a shitload more people showed up so we felt extra tough for having made it though the inclement weather of the day before.  please note now that aubrey has zipped off the bottom of her pants. yes friends, she rocked the shants. it was awesome.

here's a waterfall we found. pretty little guy.

looks like the pant legs are back.

and here is a pretty good view of the canyon as we walked. anyway, loading pictures takes forever, so i think i'm done. but it was a good trip.  i loved it. i can't wait to camp all summer long. but next time i'm not going to pack in six potatoes because that shit is excessive and also kind of heavy.