Montana Vacation - Day 3

Woke up early and made some breakfast for Chris and I. We had a long drive ahead of us today. We were going to the Lewis and Clark National Forrest so we could cut down our Christmas tree.

When Chris mentioned that we could cut down our own tree I was excited. I never done anything like that and figured it would be a once in a lifetime kind of thing. But I got to thinking about killing a live tree when there are already so many that are cut down and waiting to be purchased at tree lots. But it was only $5 for the tree permit and Christmas trees on lots go from $25 to a few hundreds and as I mentioned it's a very unique thing to be able to do.

The forrest is about a 50 minute drive east of Great Falls. It was a nice drive, Montana is very flat at times but then you drive into large mountainous areas. There were a bunch of very scenic landscapes along the way. As we entered the forrest we started looking for trees.. there are a ton of rules that go along with cutting down our own tree. We took this side road as one of the rules is that you can't cut any trees 100 feet from a main road. Well this side rode took us well out of the forrest and into the flat lands. We were literally in the middle of no where when we decided that it would be best to turn around and get back to the main road. About another mile down the road was another side road but this one looked more promising. The road was completely snowed over as we made our way deeper and deeper into the forrest. We got to a point where we couldn't drive anymore so we parked and continued on foot. We looked around the area that we parked but couldn't find a tree that we liked. So we decided to walk down a snow covered path. We were about a half mile from the car when Chris stopped and said.. "OMG we should bring the saw with us" then we joked about pulling a Griswald. Chris ran back and picked it up and we continued walking down the pathway. We walked for about 45 minutes before we finally found some decent trees. We really couldn't find any full trees so we started looking for nicely shaped trees instead and found two that we really liked.

We opted for one that was a bit taller then we wanted but we figured we'd just trim it down when we got it home. So we took turns cutting the tree down. It was actually pretty easy as the base of the tree was very small in diameter. Once it was down we trimmed down the stump to less then 10 inches (one of the rules) and then carried the tree back to the car. Chris went to pull out the tree permit which you have to attach to the tree but it wasn't in his pocket. Yeah it fell out somewhere along the way. He retraced our steps while I tied the tree to the top of Chris' car. Luckily Chris found the permit and attached it to the tree and we made our way back to the house.

We put the tree in Chris' garage and went out to lunch. Chris wanted to take me to this Mexican restaurant that he really likes. It's a build your own burrito, taco, etc kind of place and I have to say, though the food is super fattening it was some of the best Mexican food I've ever had.

Once back at Chris' we went to put up the tree. It was still about two feet to tall so we had to cut it down a bit. It took some effort but in the end we got it up and standing straight. Next was the decorations. We started with lights and then moved to bulbs. We then did some geeky ornaments and finally finished it off with candy canes. Both Chris and I are very pleased with the end results.

Chris had to go into work for his 3 1/2 hour shift and I watched some TV. We ended the night with watching TV and chatting.

It was another fantastic day in Montana. I'm actually liking the cool crisp weather, there isn't much snow at this moment but it's suppose to snow over the weekend. Got to do a very unique thing with my best bud.. yeah that's a great day in my book.

Check out pictures from today HERE