It was a bit of a misnomer. Of course, I didn’t find out until much later that there were no wolves on Rising Wolf Mountain. In this season of life, everyday seems to bring new adventures.
Perhaps the cheapest way to travel is to get paid for it, and so I found myself working in East Glacier, Montana as nanny for three beautiful children. I spend my days roaming the back trails, picking wild flowers, and giving piggy-back-rides while my evenings are spent in a shabby, orange, 70’s trailer with flickering lights and leaking faucets. It’s beautiful. All my meals are provided to me by the family I work for except for the occasional ice cream cone from nearby Brownies, one of the two groceries stores in the town.
â–º QUARTER FINALIST 2012 TEEN TRAVEL WRITING SCHOLARSHIP
Not only do they serve ice cream, but they also happen to be one of the few places that offers internet at a dollar-twenty-five for fifteen minutes. The nice Lithuanian girl explained this to me in broken English one day.
On one particular evening, the Murphy family took their three kids and I up to Two Medicine Lake which conveniently lies right in Two Medicine Valley. The search for kindling began and the kids ran up and down the rocky beach. Mr. Murphy gave me leave to go walking if I’d like, and so, I took off. There was about two hours of daylight left I had calculated carefully, so I had plenty of time for some sort of adventure. The shore was welcoming, so I paced myself along the water’s edge for some time before a came to a place where the lake bottle-necked. Realizing I could walk ten yards to the other side of the lake, I waded through current as the water washed past my knees. Soon I found myself standing on a trail on the other side of the lake. Finishing my apple and tossing it aside, I began to run. It occurred to me that I had found myself at the base of Rising Wolf Mountain. I couldn’t tell you how high the mountain stretched upward other than saying that if you begin at the bottom, it takes about an hour to run straight up it.
As I came to stop I looked to the top of the mountain. Waterfalls trickled downwards in such violent downpours that they could be heard from the very base of the mountain. Suddenly, I had made up mind: I wanted to go to the waterfall. To be completely honest, I do not believe even now that I possess the strength to do everything I did that evening on my own. God was surely with me. To avoid getting lost, I chose to follow the creek to the top. My heart raced and my feet felt like the hooves of a mountain goat as I mastered each terrace. After the waterfalls were cliffs. I kept going. Something inside of me had to make it to the top before the sun went down. Of course, on reaching the top, I realized that I had only half an hour of daylight left to see by. Montana mountains are home to many things including bears, but somehow my feet were made light and my ankles did not turn as I threw myself off cliffs and ran down through the brush. The moment I crossed the lake, my family was waiting for me and all was dark.
Every destination is loved for different reasons, but Rising Wolf Mountain will stay bookmarked in my memory as a favorite forever.
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