Three Beautiful Things 08/10/19: Hiking Woods Gulch, Hours of Vitality in Missoula, JJ Cale and Others Carry Me Home

1. I popped out of bed around 7 o'clock and went straight to the kitchen and put the Mr. Coffee to work, drank a cup, and headed out the door and walked a half a mile or so to the Woods Gulch trailhead and started up the trail. I wanted to get back downtown in Missoula soon and wanted to save my energy for walking in town, so I knew I wouldn't go a long way on this trail. I hope to return someday, though, and hike more of it. It starts along a small creek. The creek is completely obscured by the thick vegetation growing along its banks, but I could hear it whispering all along the early part of the hike. Before long, the trail made a turn, crossed the creek, and started uphill. I enjoyed the surrounding hills and mountains coming into clearer view the higher I climbed and, even though forest fires burned in the general vicinity, the air felt clean and cool and bracing. I began to get a little warm as I continued uphill and took this as a sign that I should return to the trailhead and then on up the hill to the house where I was staying on Madera Drive.

Pictures are posted below.

2. Since I was staying in the general area of Upper Rattlesnake, very near the Rattlesnake Recreation and Wilderness Area, I decided on my way back into Missoula to have a plate of corned beef hash with eggs and sourdough toast at the welcoming, neighborhood-y Rattlesnake Market and Cafe. My breakfast was splendid: the portions were modest (just the way I like), the corned beef hash was not out of a can (a rare treat) and the service was friendly and efficient. I enjoyed the steady stream of regulars popping in to purchase paper cups of coffee. People knew the owner well enough to joke around, tell short stories, get caught up on local news and gossip, and be on their way.

Once in town, I parked on Fifth Street close to the Hip Strip. I strolled up Higgins to the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore where I spent time reading about hikes in a couple of Missoula hiking books, a few selected poems by Richard Hugo located in Missoula, and some bits from Best American Travel Writing 2018, a book I purchased. Shakespeare and Co. is just the kind of bookstore that discourages me from ever buying books online. It's independent. It's smartly stocked with a superb variety of books. I heard customers at the front desk asking the woman working there to order them books. The store is also furnished with very comfortable chairs and I accepted one chair's invitation to sit and read -- I was so comfortable and relaxed that I nodded off a couple of times.

When I parked the Sube on Fifth Street, I'd noticed Veera Donuts. As I left Shakespeare and Co., I was suddenly in the mood for something sweet to counter my savory breakfast, so I popped into Veera. The donuts looked like miniature cakes: they were good sized and decorated and stuffed with all kinds of combinations of sweetness and flavors -- maple, bacon, chocolate, strawberry -- well, here, you can look for yourself: check out this picture of their products, here. I glanced up at the reader board. A single donut cost four bucks. I have never eaten a four dollar donut! I thought, well, you only live once and I ordered a French toast donut and cup of coffee, sat down, and bit into the very best donut I've ever tasted. When I returned to Kellogg, I went to Veera's website and discovered that their donuts are vegan and I thought if veganism ever wanted to give itself a good name for the way vegan food can be explosively flavorful, the movement should begin by having people sample Veera Donuts. Others in the shop were also impressed as I overheard customers speaking to one another in awed tones about how much they loved their donuts. It took me over ten minutes to finish mine -- it was so rich and flavorful and thick. I could have stopped at three quarters, but I went ahead and cleaned up my plate and ate the whole thing.

Next stop: Rockin' Rudy's to look at used cds. Rockin' Rudy's turned out to be an emporium of incense, cards, jewelry, soaps, retro toys, a wide assortment of candies, beads, T-shirts, jewelry, turntables, journals, posters, trinkets, games, and, of course, cds, dvds, and lps. I would be happy if I found recordings my Brian Jonestown Massacre or O.A.R., but primarily I wanted JJ Cale. I succeeded. I purchased a double cd anthology collection of JJ Cale's and JJ Cale's collaborative effort with Eric Clapton, the remarkable Road to Escondido.

Now I was tired. Missoula's weather was heating up. The sun was out in full force. I had originally thought I'd go to Butterfly Herbs and try to find some Middle East spices, but I decided it was almost time to head home. I returned to the Sube, hopped in, stopped at Good Foods and walked around and sat in the dining area to cool down some more, and then hit the road.

3. I popped JJ Cale into the Sube's cd player and mild euphoria enveloped me as "The Call Me the Breeze" started playing. Ah! Yes! JJ Cale will be perfect for this drive back to Kellogg. Like me driving down the freeway, JJ Cale is never in a hurry. On a day like this one that I didn't want to come to an end, the easy rhythms and unhurried sounds of JJ Cale could, in the best way possible, make the next couple of hours or so on the road feel like a luxurious week. For many miles, I listened to JJ Cale and then I decided he'd enjoy Eric Clapton's company, so I put on The Road to Escondido and, right away, singing "Danger", JJ Cale and Eric Clapton kept my mild euphoria alive and my drive on I-90 continued as a great pleasure.

I took a break in Saltese at the Old Montana Bar and won some money playing one of my favorite slot machine games -- a game I had played with no money at stake online, but had never seen, until now, in a casino. It's called Wolf Moon. I drank a coke with some lime, cashed out, and upon returning to the Sube switched musical gears and let moe., O. A. R., Los Lobos, Trampled by Turtles, and the Yonder Mountain String Band carry me over Lookout Pass and back to the Silver Valley with their cover versions of Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead tunes, "Loser", "St. Stephen", "Bertha", "Brown-Eyed Women", and, as I rolled into Kellogg, the heart of the Silver Valley, "Shakedown Street".

Just for the record, here are hasty pictures of the Woods Gulch Trail and a couple of the house where I rented a room Friday night: