Campgrounds - final

Burgerfest has returned to Seymour with hot air balloons, parades and more. In addition, I'm heading out for five days of camping with Gary starting tomorrow afternoon.  I'll post some news about the festival tomorrow but after that I'm not sure how much blogging I will be able to do from the Nicolet National Forest. There isn't even cell phone coverage there!  

Meanwhile, the last of the campground photos from the summer reading program tour: 

I intended to camp in the Helena National Forest but the trees in the area had been hit with some kind of infestation, so most of the campgrounds weren't open or were in terrible shape.  Instead, I camped at the Augusta, Montana, City Park, a block from Main Street.  I was the only camper there.  A windstorm came through, but I still was able to sleep through the night in my little tent. Augusta residents kept coming by to check on me so I felt perfectly safe. 

At the West Boulder River campground near Big Timber, Montana, I could see the snow covered mountains through the trees surrounding my camp site.  I didn't pitch my tent because storm clouds were gathering and I wanted an early start. Instead, I made up my bed in the back of the Mercury Sable. 

 I walked over to the river and there I met Tom, a fisherman from Kentucky. 

 That night I was at the cabin he shared with two other fishermen.  I feasted on grilled hamburgers and a special treat, trout caught in the river. The men said they were glad I was eating the trout, they were getting sick of it. 

The final campground was a return stop at Buffalo Gap, North Dakota.    

My little tent served me well. It now has been dried, aired and packed away for my next adventure, but this next camping trip will be in a civilized trailer with electricity and a furnace. There will be a sweet, calm Wisconsin lake with a beach where I can finally swim. (The Western states mostly had raging rivers.) 

An actual bed?   It will be a different camping experience.