mcguire mountain lookout: a break from the city.

this post is only craft related in that this amazing trip we took last weekend allowed me to take a huge mental break from all my etsy/craft stuff. i really needed a break, though i didn't know it until we got there -- it was incredible and so refreshing to not think about sales and pendants and earrings and views and etc. and etc. for almost 48 hours.

we drove up close to the canadian border on thursday afternoon, about four hours away from missoula, though eureka and into the kootenai national forest. (luckily for me) most of the climb up was done in the car, and the lookout cabin was a 2.5 mile hike out over the ridge from the trailhead. so quiet, calm, beautiful up there, this tiny little fire lookout cabin perched on top of the mountain. all you could see all the way around was mountains - the cabinets, the tobacco valley, and the higher peaks of glacier n.p. with snow still on them. the cabin had a little wood stove and two beds, and was all windows all the way around, incredibly, pink sunset in one direction and orange sunrise in the other eight hours later.

i can't really describe what it felt like to be completely alone for most of 48 hours, just hanging out, cooking, hiking, reading, exploring, on top of this ridge with no running water and just the wind, everywhere, all the time. only one group of hikers came by the whole time. so i'll just leave you with some photos, courtesy of one k. banazek.

(there it is, way up there!)