Alarm rings at the God-awful hour of 3 AM. Drive to Santa Barbara to catch the 5:45 AM flight to Denver, and then on to Missoula, Montana. Always hard to leave Simba and Peetie, who slept glued to me last night. No worries as they will be loved and well looked after by niece Taylor and friend Kristen while I am away.
At this hour of the morning there is no traffic, an open parking space couldn't be more perfectly situated in "long-term parking," and there is no line at check-in. Security, too, is a breeze. I love the flight to Denver over Nevada and Utah. On clear mornings like today the topography is stunning with long shadows cast on the moonscape-like landscape. Even a touch of snow lingers at higher elevations.
At this hour of the morning there is no traffic, an open parking space couldn't be more perfectly situated in "long-term parking," and there is no line at check-in. Security, too, is a breeze. I love the flight to Denver over Nevada and Utah. On clear mornings like today the topography is stunning with long shadows cast on the moonscape-like landscape. Even a touch of snow lingers at higher elevations.
My seat-mate is flying to Denver to move his daughter back home home after having graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder with a degree in costume design. Their's is to be a road trip with stops at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. He is clearly looking forward to sharing this adventure with his daughter and is uncertain of her professional prospects!
The gate for my connecting flight is handily situated and running on-time. In fact, my luggage and I arrive early in Missoula. A few minutes later my friend Birdie arrives and we are off . . . and running! Our first stop is lunch at Market on Front. Outside is a fun 2013 public art sculpture by Mike Golins that was "inspired by the grandeur of the mighty waterways of the west." Its hollow sculpted tubing has microphones embedded into the earth at one end and amplifiers at the other to hear the river running through Missoula "sing." |
Meeting us at the café is Gary Wolfe, Cinnabar Foundation executive director, who arranged a grantee site visit with Montana Trout Unlimited staff members Bruce Farling (executive director) and Kelley Willett (development director) to learn more about their efforts to stop the proposed mine on the Smith River. Please be sure to check out Montana TU's special website pertaining to the proposed Smith River Mine at http://www.smithriverwatch.org/ and another website that has been created by Montana Environmental Information Center at http://www.saveoursmith.com/. |
Not living in Montana, I love site visits as a way to put faces to the Cinnabar Foundation's conservation partner organizations and and to learn first-hand about the critical issues, challenges and successes they are working towards.