Garnet Ghost Town Visit, May 22

  A magical day.

  We left David and Maura's around 10, having made a picnic lunch and drove up to Garnet Ghost Town which took us just under an hour.

#

     It was a lovely drive, the last few miles on a gravel road. The parking lot is about half a mile, or less, from Garnet.  There were only a few other cars there which was nice. It is not yet staffed for the season, so some of the buildings were closed, but many were just open. Garnet was interesting. It is amazing to think of the hardy miners, their families and others townspeople who managed to survive up there. Much of the town was destroyed by a forest fire at one point. Placards in front of various buildings told the stories of the people who lived there, some quite sad. The four of us wandered and took photos. 

    Then, it got exciting. The sky looked threatening and David said that we probably had only about 20 minutes before we'd get drenched. Well, he was pretty accurate and we did all get drenched. Just as we left the town, it started to rain...and then to hail! At first, they were just little bits of hail, then pea-sized and then pieces about 3-4 times larger than peas. Three of us had hats, but the hail still hurt. Barbara did not have a hat. And, two of us had rain jackets, so didn't get as soaked - Barbara & Maura. David got to the car first. Barbara was next. David left with a jacket and an umbrella to go back and find Maura & Mark. They had taken refuge under a tree. Mark took the jacket as he had on only a thin hoodie and he and Maura shared the umbrella. The ground by then was 100% covered by hail which looked like snow. 

     We sat in the car for the hail to subside and then drove a bit down the road to Columa, another abandoned area where there had once been a town. David worked on an archaeological dig there while in college. There is not much left there - a few abandoned falling down buildings. We had our picnic in a lovely meadow there with lots of wildflowers. The sun began to poke its way through. As nothing was dry, we ate our lunches standing up.

      

Then, we drove back to East Missoula. What a wonderful morning. We loved the drive and the ghost town. We loved that Maura had never been there and took a day off to join us. And, the encounter with the hail storm added an exhilaration to the trip which didn't harm any of us. We felt like we've had 4 seasons in two days. Summer yesterday and winter, spring and fall today!

   Unfortunately, Dodger needed to have stitches in his foot pad as the cut was deeper than they first thought, so he had to get some emergency surgery.

    But, David and Maura still were able to meet us at Michi Ramen Bar where we all had delicious meals. They left afterwards to pick Dodger up and we strolled along the waterfront and watched the surfers and kayakers in the Clark Fork River.