Mountains, Music and Cowboys

Looking pretty for the Roundup.

The Fourth of July in Montana proved to be the most patriotic event of my life. Eighty guests and staff from Mountain Sky headed down to the Livingston Roundup, one of the largest rodeos in Montana, to watch some cowboys wrestle some calves and be thrown from bulls. It was great to be in Livingston surrounded by a huge group of people I knew, it felt like home to walk around and say hi to everyone. The patriotism was intense and awesome. First of all, merely being in Montana, a very land-devoted, ranch-heavy state, makes a person appreciate the US in a new way, but the fourth of July was a completely new level. The cowgirls running around the arena on their horses with American flags and practically every American themed country song playing in the background, followed by the announcer going on about America being the shinning light of freedom for the rest of the world, and the semi-constant shouts from spectators saying “Aaamerricaa,” made it abundantly clear I was not in the Pacific Northwest. And it was FUN. It was really fun to be surrounded by 5,000 people all stoked for the rodeo and the Fourth.


Emigrant Peak from the ranch.

In addition, we sat four people over from Dennis Quaid, one of many celebrities who own property in the valley. We then saw Rebecca Romijn Stamos at the after-rodeo-dance, which also proved to be a blast. Every person between the ages 18 and 35 from the valley seemed to be at this barn dance. A band played, drinks were served, and the Mountain Sky staff went crazy on the dance floor. I’m becoming pro at the Two Step and am slowly starting to blend with the other Montana ladies. Katie Rouse came up for the holiday and got to see the shenanigans for herself, which of course was amazing. It was quite possibly the best Fourth of July ever.


Standing on the peak!

For my days off this weekend I set my alarm 15 minutes earlier than my usual 5:15am to head off the ranch with three of my fellow staff members to tame the mountain we look at every day, Emigrant Peak. At 11,000 feet we gained 6,000 in three hours – straight up hill. Apparently when the trail was formed switchbacks were not in fashion. After two miles of this we entered a meadow so steep we had to either go onto all fours or create our own switchbacks. At this point we thought we were getting pretty close to the summit, but alas, we still had another hour and a half hike over loose rock and deceiving peaks. Thankfully the sun wasn’t on our backs until we reached the summit, where we took an amazing nap in the sun. It was a tough hike, but its pretty cool to be able to look over at Emigrant everyday and know that we stood at the top.


Emigrant is the highest mountain in the Beartooth range.

On Saturday I headed with my pal Alyssa up to Butte, Montana for the National Folk Festival. While Butte is quite possibly the ugliest and most dangerous town in Montana (they have an acidic lake where a man’s sole job is to scare off birds with a shotgun). The festival was awesome! There were over 50,000 people there, four stages and music from all over the place. We saw a straight bluegrass band, an Irish band, and a Cuban band. When we got back from the festival we walked into the lodge to find our little gang of rowdy friends dancing to Bruce Springsteen and drinking some mystery concoction called “Bruce Juice” provided by the Al-Sharifs. The Al-Sharifs are composed of an older English woman and her daughter who come for 11 weeks to the ranch from Bahrain, where her husband owns the largest oil transport company in the world. They are completely prim and proper on the exterior, but they love to hang out with the crazy staff and buy us drinks. Leslie, the mother, even got up to do a lap around the bar dancing. It proved to be a super fun night.


Hiking back down in 85 degree weather - it was too steep to not run.

As of late the ranch has had some exciting guests. Last week was very much government week; we had the U.S. Secretary under the Clinton here and a few bigwigs from the Pentagon. And this week is Hollywood week; with the President of HBO and her husband a writer for The Simpsons, Comedy Central, and SNL, along with a half dozen other producers and writers. Its fun because we are so isolated out here they can have a really relaxing vacation without anyone bothering them... except for staff obviously. Dana Gould, the writer/actor/producer man, said, “showbiz is all just a carnival. My job is no different than. what the guy running the tilt-a-whirl does.”

Mountain Sky: continuing to provide endless entertainment.