A week or so after my first hitchhiking trip to Missoula and back, I decided to take a couple days to go to Libby and/or Eureka from Polson. I decided to go North up the 93 to Kalispell, West on Hwy 2 to Libby, up Hwy 37 to Eureka, and back down 93 through Kalispell to Polson. So I started hitching just across the Flathead river on the 93. Within 30 minutes or so I landed a ride all the way to Kalispell (60 miles or so). It was the first time getting picked up by a newer vehicle, which broke some of my assumptions about who would pick people up. I assumed that broke people driving junkers would pick people up because they know what it is like to be in need and aren’t shallow and materialistic. This happening, however, served to remind me to not categorize people so simplistically and to avoid snap judgments.
He dropped me off in Kalispell and I waited along the roadside for a while but got impatient and decided to walk. My grandpa told me that walking during hitchhiking is not a good idea, but it seems to work for me because I got picked up after a couple hours. A family headed to Silverwood let me ride the remaining distance (hour and a half or so) in the back of their truck. Libby is a small town with the Kootenai River running through it. It’s a quiet and pretty little place; I could probably live there someday. I didn’t spend too much time in Libby; I immediately began making my way North through town towards Highway 37, which runs to Eureka. As I walked through by a store I noticed a small pamphlet with a backpacker on the cover and the heading “Spiritual but not Religious?”. That was cool to me because that’s how I view myself despite the fact that people view Christianity as just a dull religion. I picked it up and still have that cover tucked away somewhere.
I walked across the bridge over the Kootenai and stopped under it on the other side. I fished until I snagged and lost all my lures. It was probably late afternoon by then, 4 or so, and I figured it might be hard to get a ride to Eureka. So I was thinking about setting up under the bridge. While I was sitting under there I saw a police car across the river swing around and do a double take and then start to head across the bridge. I assumed that he was after me, because I didn’t have reservations for my luxury suite, but maybe he wasn’t. In any case, I left my spot and started trekking up the highway, looking for potential campsites along the way that wouldn’t require trespassing. For a long time I couldn’t get a ride or find a suitable campsite. Discouraged, I stopped signalling to cars and just kept walking. A car eventually did pull over though and and elderly, frail looking couple offered to take me to the next campground. I forget the name of the place, but it was a nice site on the river just South of Libby Dam and Lake Kookanusa. I set up my tent and slept poorly. It has taken me a while to learn how to sleep in tents; I used to only get an hour or less or sleep, but I’ve gotten used to it somewhat.
The next day I got up fairly early, ate some oatmeal, broke camp, and started heading North towards Libby Dam. I walked for a few hours without any luck. There weren’t any shoulders to hitchhike from and it was a fairly narrow road frequented by motorcycles and trucks pulling boats. I stopped at the dam for a little while and looked around then continued on. On the other side of the dam is Lake Koocanusa, a long beautiful lake that extends into British Columbia.
Lake Koocanusa (Photocredit montanamoods.com
After walking along the road for a while a shimmering rock caught my eye. I walked up to it and found a scrap piece of plastic that said “Wesbar”. This is significant because at that time I had an opportunity to work as a roofer with a guy name Wes Barr but was on the fence because I already had a more predictable, but dull factory job. Well, I decided that this meant I should go for the roofing job. I’m very happy I did because not only did I make more money, but I learned some new skills and experienced a different kind of work. So there you have it, I make it important life decisions based upon plastic scraps I find alongside the highway lol. Eventually a smallish RV pulled over and offered to take me to Eureka. A twenty something year old was driving and accompanied by his younger brother and a couple of French exchange students. They came from San Diego and were headed to Banff National (or provincial?) park in Canada, seeing the sights along the way; sounds like fun. I had a friendly debate/discussion with the driver on philosophy and religion and he said it was something that he had been thinking of a lot lately.They dropped me off at a gas station in Eureka and we parted ways.
I figured it would be hard to find a place to crash in Eureka, so I was planning on finding some national forest or a campground South on 93. It turned out to be very easy to find a place to crash in Eureka though. As I was walking through town I came up on some kind of concert in a park. I went over to the park to check it out and found out it was a Christian concert put on by local musicians and churches. They also had free food, which is good news to a hitchhiker, especially one who didn’t bring any money and had only limited food. So I ate the best food I had had yet on the trip and sat there listening to the music. I chatted with some of the locals who were very friendly. After an hour or so I went and sat down on a bench, considering my next move. A woman came and sat down next to me and we started talking. From the time she sat down I felt the presence of God strongly, waves of joy and peace. Upon learning that I was traveling, she offered to let me stay at her and her husband’s house, literally right next to the park. Needless to say, I agreed.
I found my hosts to be very hospitable and pleasant. In fact, they have given an example that I want to follow when I have a home. They are also very interesting people who are well traveled and have a broad range of interests from mycology, to linguistics, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. This last interest was what really caught my attention. I first learned of some Eastern Orthodox theological concepts at the Mystical School I attended that spring (the John Crowder event I mentioned in the last article) and had been wrestling with them ever since. They were very new ideas to me and I thought they were his inventions based on a liberal reading of the scripture, little did I know that they were rooted in 2,ooo years of history in the Orthodox church and some of my doctrines were the recent inventions. The subject matter is too long to put in an already long article (perhaps I’ll cover it later) but suffice it to say that this was the start of a lengthy theological overhaul. The next day I went to an Orthodox house church in Kalispell with my host that was named in honor of St. Herman of Alaska. From here on out I started seeing Alaska everywhere; in fact the guy who picked me up in Kalispell and took me to Polson talked about working in Alaska. So that’s how God used a hitchhiking trip to improve my understanding of Him more, put on the track to Alaska, meet some great people, and share His love.
Pilgrim's Map 