Month: November 2015

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Montana Adventures

Montana Adventures

By Andrew Moreland

The blog that brings you all my favorite adventures that I’ve experienced in Montana. Below, you will find all the information that I’ve used and what I’ve done throughout my time here. With all these adventures that I have experienced have made Montana one of my favorite places on earth.

Here is a list of my favorite adventures that I have experienced in Montana                                  (Scroll down to find more information about them)

Hiking & Backpacking

Rock Climbing (Indoor & Outdoor)

Whitewater Kayaking

Skiing & Snowboarding

Mountain Biking

Hot Springs 

Hiking and Backpacking

One of the best ways to experience this beautiful state is by hiking in the great outdoors. There are so many amazing places to explore including my all-time favorite, Glacier National Park. This national park is located in the north-western part of the state and it extends up into Canada. I’ve traveled to Glacier many of times and every journey has been more beautiful than the last.

Here is the website where you can find a ton of information if you’re interested in taking a trip up there any time soon.

Glacier National Park

 

Rock Climbing (Indoor)

Freestone Climbing gym is the best climbing gym in Missoula.  I love going there after my classes to free my mind with some climbing. It’s got awesome people and enough routes that will keep you coming back for more day after day.

Here is their website, go check them out if you like to climb!

Freestone Climbing Website

Rock Climbing (Outdoor)

Around Missoula there is a bunch of awesome areas to climb, go grab some buddies and start sending! Summer and fall days are the best to go out and explore these beautiful areas.

Here is the website with more information about the incredible outdoor rock climbing located close to Missoula!

Rock Climbing – Missoula, MT

Whitewater Kayaking

Montana has some of the best whitewater kayaking in the country. This is where I learned to kayak a few years ago and it will always hold a special place in my heart. One of my favorites, and usual after class run, is the Alberton Gorge section of the Clark Fork River. This is an amazing section of class III-IV rapids just 30 minutes west of Missoula. There is also the Blackfoot River that is just north of Missoula that offers great scenery and whitewater in the spring.

Here is where you can find more information on my favorite run as well as the current flows for this section.

Alberton Gorge – Clark Fork River

 

Skiing & Snowboarding

There is a reason so many people come to Montana for the mountains. THE SKIING IS UNREAL. From the local Snowbowl just 20 minutes north of Missoula to the massive Big Sky Resort a few hours away there is enough powder to go around. These are 2 of my favorite places to ski, yet there is so many more places out there that I’m excited to go explore.

Here is the website for Montana Snowbowl.

Montana Snowbowl

Here is the website for Big Sky.

Big Sky Resort

 

Mountain Biking

I just started mountain biking around Missoula last year, and I have no idea why I didn’t start a lot earlier! Not only is it a great leg workout but it is a blast to go out and explore the single tracks throughout the mountains. My favorite trials start from Sawmill Gulch just up the street from where I live in the Rattlesnake Recreational area.

Here is a great website with tons of information on trails just outside of Missoula!

Missoula Mountain Biking

 

Hot Springs

From cool summer nights to frigid winter days hot springs are a great choice for an adventure. There are awesome hot springs spread out all over Montana. My favorite one has to be the Boiling River hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. If you haven’t been there, it is a MUST if you live in, or are even passing through Montana.

Here is a website that has information about all the hot springs in Montana.

Montana Hot Springs

 

About the Author

I grew up loving the outdoors just outside of Portland, OR. While growing up my parents always took me and my two brothers out to go skiing and hiking along with many other adventures throughout my life, and because of this I began to have a deep appreciation for everything around me. This made it a very easy decision when I was comparing colleges all over the country. I have to say moving to Montana to attend the University here in Missoula, MT has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have only widened my appreciation for nature and all the things you can go do in this life. I can’t wait to go on more adventures in the future and I can only hope to see you out there!

Andrew Moreland

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My Plead With College Gameday

If you follow college football you know that every Saturday morning you wake up Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit and the forever famous Lee Corso. Every week they travel to a big college football game and in front of huge crowds of the local fans with outrageous posters talk about the upcoming games for the day and feature stories on the athletes that we watch. I love College Gameday and always will but one thing has always bothered me about the show. I am tired of seeing Alabama, LSU, Oregon and the big guys. Every week they go to the “biggest game” normally a matchup between two top 10 or top 25 teams and this makes sense, but there are always those weeks in the season where the schedule doesn’t have any great matchups yet they go to the big schools and show little love to the small guys.

Since 2000 College Gameday has done 232 shows and 29% of these shows have been at the all-powerful SEC schools. Alabama has had the most appearances with 17 and I think I speak for a majority when I say I have seen enough of Tuscaloosa, I have seen enough of Gainesville, and Baton Rouge. I demand Pullman, Washington and I almost got it this past Halloween weekend, but once again my dreams have been crushed. First thing I do Saturday morning when I see the shot of the crowd on Gameday is find Ol’ Crimson. Since 2003, a streak of 170 consecutive games, the Washington State school flag has traveled back and forth across the country flying high and proud by some Washington State alum yet Gameday has never shown Pullman the love and been there! Why am I the only one outraged by this! If you put in the work to organize a 12 year tradition of being at every College Gameday broadcast, becoming a fixture of the show, why can’t ESPN show you some love and go for one show to Pullman.
Every college football fan has their own list of the stadiums and games they want to go to, mine starts with Ole Miss and visiting “The Grove” which is a top 5 college football experience. I understand the hypocrisy that my first choice of a game is to go to an SEC school but it wasn’t until last year that Gameday finally made it to “The Grove”. Number two on my list is to go to in my mind the greatest rivalry in college football, the game I am speaking of is the Army-Navy game. This game is the last game of the regular season every year and if it isn’t on your bucket list you need to re-evaluate your views on college football. Yet Gameday has been to this game once since 2000. Two weeks ago Gameday came through for me and went to Harrisonburg, Virginia for a matchup between Richmond and James Madison both schools are in the FCS (Football Championship Series) the league under the top schools who are members of the FBS (Football Bowl Series), it was James Madison’s first appearance on Gameday. The crowd was huge and the fans were going crazy. In 2013 and again in 2014 Gameday went to Fargo, North Dakota to showcase North Dakota State and the great scene of downtown Fargo. People were hanging out of windows, on roofs of buildings, and filling up the streets. This is what college football is about, these players and fans are there for the love of the game.

I want to make a challenge to ESPN and the producers of College Gameday for the next season. I’ll give them four weeks where they can go to the big schools but for the other eleven go somewhere new, go to the Pullman’s, the Harrisonburg’s, the Temple’s of the college football world, you have the power to showcase the campuses and cities that many people will never get to see. MAKE IT HAPPEN!