Last year, I finally got Red and the Judge to go with me to a place they had only heard stories about and seen pictures of. It was a mythical mystical place to them. I was so excited to take them up in the mountains to the place where my dad was born. I gave them a few days to acclimatize before taking them into the heart of the mountains. The road getting there was an adventure in itself for these two greenhorns. We drove down the trail with tall grass tickling the underside of our vehicle. The girls gasped when the road disappeared into the creek. They could see the road on the other side and there was only one way to get there. I paused a moment just to build up the excitement then we went on through jumping over the river rocks with water rushing on down the stream. They took turns getting the gates that had to be opened and closed. With windows down, we could smell the mountain grasses, wildflowers and fresh air.
We bounced into the yard of the old home place and hopped out of our four-wheel drive vehicle. I took them on a tour of the remains of the buildings and made them drink from the fountain of youth. Ever since I can remember there has been a steady stream of running water that is fed by a spring up near the cabins and is piped into the old tub horse trough. It is cold, clear and pure spring water. We filled a few containers with that heavenly water.
The weather was iffy and the clouds threatened cold rain so instead of walking we piled back in the vehicle and drove up toward the lake. Past the remaining dust from the sawmill, just over the top of the hill, I stopped for a picture. We jumped out and I took pictures of the girls. Just as we were getting back into the vehicle, we saw movement off to the right. There, at the edge of the woods was a bear’s rump disappearing into the trees. It happened too quick to get a picture.
Now I need to add a side note here. When Red finally committed to traveling with me to the west and I had already purchased the plane tickets, I let her in on a secret. She had the official job as bear bait. When we saw the bear rump heading into the forest, Red got a bit nervous. I assured her that the bear was long gone and we continued up the road.
We drove as far as we could without tearing out the bottom of the 4-wheel drive, turned around and headed back to the lake. I stopped and we got out for our picnic with one of the grandest views in the entire state of Montana – Gommie’s Lake. You won’t find that name on any of the maps. It got its name from my grandmother who we called Gommie. That was her property in the heart of the mountains and the lake is so named in her honor.
We spread out the quilts, ate our lunch and drank the best water in the world while marveling at the beauty around us. Red and Judge kept looking behind them to make sure we didn’t have a furry visitor. I wandered around and took pictures of the wildflowers, the lake and the mountains. As we prepared to go back to the remains of the old home place, we loaded the picnic items. I was climbing into the driver’s seat when the judge said, “A bear!” Red and I ignored her statement. Again and more emphatically she said, “A bear!!” Again we ignored her. Since we had teased Red the whole trip about being bear bait I thought maybe the judge was pushing it. A third time she said, “I SAID, there’s. a. BEAR!!!” Each word was emphasized with a point of her finger stabbing the air in the direction of a bear. We looked down the bottom of the hill and guess what? It was a bear. About that time the bear stood up on his hind legs, nose lifted in the air so he could smell us. Red was still at the back of the vehicle and just almost jumped in from that direction. She slammed the hatch down as fast as she could and she was in the back seat in a flash. I snapped picture after picture. Never underestimate the speed of bear bait when put to the test! Red moved faster than greased lightning. It was good to know that the bear bait worked. We ended up seeing three bears on that trip.