A few months ago, I joined twelve of my workmates on a trip to Great Falls, Montana. I was transformed, but in ways that surprised me three months later. When we first arrived at Great Falls International, we saw Air National Guard hangars adjacent to commercial runways, and it felt surreal compared to my Los Angeles-centric experiences.
We boarded a school bus. No seatbelts, no AC, windows that slid down, and there was a cooler full of… Let’s just say, “canned beverages.” We creaked and bounced the whole way as we drove down some nice roads and some rough ones, until we reached the Grand Union Hotel. The thirteen of us dined well and conked out after a long day of travel.
In the morning, we dined well again, loaded our dry packs onto the bus, and made our way through God’s country to our launch point on the shores of the Upper Missouri River. Along the way, we hiked to a few Lewis and Clark trail markers. Then we boarded the canoes.
When all was said and done, we had camped two nights with rain pattering against our tents, lightning flashing in the clouds and thunder rolling in the distance. We had paddled 51 miles along the Upper Missouri, away from anything that resembled a city or a cell tower. There’s a lot to tell, but I’ll let the pictures below do the heavy lifting.
How did the trip change me? Well, I did something physically I never thought I could do. On that river, we all depended on each other to get to the next destination and to survive. It gave me confidence in my stamina and leadership, and the camaraderie we experienced will last a lifetime.
That sense of interdependence and resilience is something I try to capture in my characters too, because even in fantasy worlds, no one survives alone.
Cheers to the “Thundering Thirteen!”
