Old Fears, New Frontiers - Bozeman, MT
Bozeman, MT
'There is no public transport to or within Yellowstone National Park'... Ok yeh, that's a great idea considering the millions of visitors it gets a year - apparently during peak season, when I went, it gets approximately 30000 visitors a day. So why is it that ******* hard to run a bus to it?! Unless of course you are a Chinese tourist probably visiting for 2 hours then flying off to the next destination for thousands of dollars! I knew this was going to be one of the toughest parts of my trip but it was something I was determined to do no matter what... The first step was getting to Whitefish, the gateway town in Northern Montana. Had a couchsurfing host lined up but still no phone signal so had to steal some wifi, fry in the sun for a bit then meet up with Carmen, who similarly to my other hosts was great fun to hang out with, really hospitable and also got subjected to Project Ruins (well she was interested in music :P). Carmen was actually house sitting for another family, so had the option to stay in Whitefish, or go down to Kalispell (next planned point on my route). Again, with no real transport between the two, chose to stay in Kalispell, chilled out and cleaned myself and my clothes up after a couple of weeks spent camping in the national parks! That evening, we drove round the countryside and the artificial beach round a massive lake, then stopped in Whitefish and met a guy called Moss from New York who was couchsurfing in Carmens other flat. He'd recently been filming a documentary in San Francisco so gave me some tips about there whilst I traded some tips about South America - some of which based on my previous mistakes ;) Pretty relaxed night but really enjoyable before the real fun started... Very late that night, I saw a post on couchsurfing from a Swedish guy called Joaqim driving up to Yellowstone from Salt Lake City, where he would then need to drop off the car. Yellowstone was where I was going next and SLC was where I was going after so it would be perfect if I could meet up with him (for those that don't know Couchsurfing can also be used to do rideshares and arrange activities with other travellers which helps greatly out here in the states!) The problem was I only had a day to try and hitchhike the entire length of Montana (BIGGGGG) to try and meet him in time! I would say I set off early, but the Leeds match was on TV so tried watching that! Failed with the stream and ended up leaving at half time - didn't seem to miss much... So this was the first time I'd done any proper hitch hiking since my little incident last year with the dude from Paraguay who tried to molest me (blog here - http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-e ntries/doove/2/1347881351/tpod.html ) so was a little apprehensive. Had stocked up my iPod ready for hours of standing by a road being demotivated, and must've listened to the new Modern Life Is War album about 10 times during the course of the day to try and get myself through! Btw, that's where the title of this blog comes from and they are one of the most influential bands for me growing up, so new album was kind of a big deal, but I'm sure no one cares... Unless you like hardcore/hardcore punk, which barely anyone does... So yes, onwards... Walked out of town where waited about half an hour before a young dude picked me up. He was really nice but only going to the next town so only went about 10 miles. He did however have a friend going the full 6 hour drive to where I wanted that day so called her to try and help out, but she was moving house and literally had no space, despite my plea that I could still fit into no space! Had a couple more short rides then dropped in some small town where this really hot Christian chick came up to chat. She prayed that I found an awesome ride, and then about 5 mins later an awesome ride came - divine intervention aye ;) Would've been better to intervene her... (ok I apologise for that one!) Essentially, my ride came from people returning from a craft beer festival held out on the towns lake with some of the best beer companies from all over the country visiting. Naturally they had stocked their car full of beer and were more than happy to help myself, taking me to my halfway point about 3 hours down the highway, and a good place to stop off incase I did get stranded :) Waited there, where found another short ride to a gas station but literally no one was around there so hitched back into town, where I knew if no one had come within another two hours, the older couple were passing back through and would take me a bit further. My rides however had commented it should be easier for me to find a ride as I was quite well presented compared to the other hitchers - not sure they'd still agree with my current beard! Sure enough waited around for about another hour, via a brief exchange of middle fingers with some college frat ********s, then got picked up by a guy in his 40s-50s called Doug who lived and worked between the two towns and told me he often picked up hitchers. He was actually a really nice guy and gave me a lot of historical information about the state (don't remember much of that), discussed work, political differences and was interested in stuff in the UK as much as I was into America. Stopped off for food but otherwise was pretty much a straight 4 hour drive there, however it would mean I got in about 10pm, too late to meet u with Joaqim that night. Researched my book and the Internet, and found there was one hostel in Bozeman (the largest and quite frequently visited city and gateway to Yellowstone), so got dropped there, only to find the owner had actually sold it and it no longer existed - are you actually serious?!!! Ok, so a city with no accomodation for backpackers - cheers USA! Researched again and found there was a campsite 3 miles down the road in the middle of nowhere so Doug called them, but even they were fully booked :( Headed down that way anyway as Doug reckoned he knew a spot I could pitch up for the night... That spot turned out to be round the back of a school playground, just off the main highway! Was pretty surreal getting dropped off there and being like ok this is where you can sleep tonight! Still he insisted it was out of term time and I'd be fine, and didn't really have much other choice. Parted ways, set up camp next to my chosen classroom portacabin, then plugged myself into laptop to watch Dexter so I could try and pretend I didn't know where I really was. Had an awwwful nights sleep, partly due to having to be up and have left before it got light again, but also because it was still right next to the highway so loads of noise. I was also really paranoid about police helicopters, but when I woke up in the morning I pretty much discovered I was under an airport aswell! So packed up and set off around 5.30am back down the highway towards the next town 23 miles away. Unfortunately there was not one lay by opportunity for hitching for 10 miles, so had to walk with all my bags (really not very pleasant!) for that far - about 4 or 5 hours, before eventually finding a place I might be able to pull someone over. Luckily it worked because I definitely didn't fancy another 13 out in the sun! After that thought I would stock up on food there before getting into the park where it would cost me a face. The cashier woman laughed at how much I bought and said there would be no way I could fit all that in my bag - she clearly doesn't know me very well! I then stopped by another gas station, which is only a worthy note of interest because I'd noticed over the last two days that every single petrol station also had a casino in it (wtf). It was also a convenient place to pick up my 9th and final ride in two long days towards the Yellowstone entrance. About twenty miles away I was then able to call Joaqim, get picked up and finally celebrate arriving into one of the most beautiful places in America...feeling like a zombie.