This journal page is missing at the moment. I remember walking around my private forested campsite while eating my oatmeal for breakfast. As I passed a small pine tree a branch moved, and behind the branch I saw a black nose. Not able to process what I was seeing right away, I squinted and leaned in for a closer look. A small bear exploded out of the tree, and I nearly dumped my cereal down my shirt.

I think there were a lot of trucks on the road to Libby, where I called my dad. I remember Libby felt like a real logging town, and could have popped into my path from two decades earlier. Dad was excited by the prospect that I might spend my birthday on our parcel of land.

I rode out of Libby on a narrow road with a lot of big trucks on it, along the Kootenai River across from the Burlington Northern. Just short of Lake Koocanusa I think I pulled onto a side road and made camp in the forest.