Blood Suckers!

After sleeping in way longer than intended, I decided yesterday that I had been in Montana long enough that I needed to see The Rockies, so I got in my car and headed west… I was driving along state route and all of the sudden there they were. They just appeared out of nowhere, these vast peaks! It was amazing considering I was already at about 3500 – 4000 feet above sea level! I continued driving and ended up in a great little town – Augusta, Montana where I stopped at the Augusta General Store for extra camera batteries and huckleberry ice cream! However, I decided I was not close enough, so I traveled north/northwest along a little dirt road until I hit private property and turned around. From there, I drove north toward Choteau. I still wasn’t close enough, so I contiued north until I got to Glacier National Park. Now I’m waiting until this weekend to get my National Park Annual Pass (I was instructed by a park ranger at Badlands to wait until the beginning of the month.), so continued west on US 2 through Lewis and Clark National Forest. Now I was actually IN the Rockies. Suddenly I realized I had been on the road for almost 6 hours and it was going to take me about two hours to get home. I turned around and headed back south.

The sun was starting to set, and I was hoping to get some great shots! I continued looking in my rearview mirror hoping that I would still be able to see the mountains at sunset. Sure enough I came upon a beauiful lake/reservoir (I’m still not sure.) right as the sun hit the mountains. I pulled over, got outo fmy car, and was attacked… viciously attacked by a swarm (that’s not even a reasonable description) of mosquitos. They weren’t huge, but they were everywhere!!! I tried to get a good shot, but there were mosquitos everywhere! They bit me through my clothes! They got in my car… there was still one in my car when I got home!

Now I can handle mosquitoes. To say I’ve had my fair share of bites is an understatement, but this was a militia of them! I have secessions of bites, two or three in a row on multiple places – my arms, my neck, my back. I don’t know if one mosquito got me multiple times or if it is different mosquitoes. There were so many of them and couldn’t get away! They followed me!

As I was driving, I noticed my windshield was quite disgusting to be honest. I didn’t realize until I got home that I had thousands of these little insects splattered all over the front of my vehicle!  So let this be a lesson… if you ever come to Montana, BEWARE OF THE BLOOD SUCKERS!!!