Justin Matthew Reid

Lost in the mountains of Montana

The Story Of Friday, August 26th, 2005

By Justin Reid - From my motel room in Missoula, MT - 10:30 P.M.

I awoke this morning with the thought: "This will be a fun day, Lord!" It ended up being that, but, as usual, not in the way I had envisioned. The plan was to go to Garnet Ghost Town and then quickly be off to Bozeman and parts beyond. I awoke at 8:00 A.M. to the sound of my wake-up call. It was one of those mornings where it took me 30 minutes to be fully awake. I ate leftover Papa John’s(tm) pizza for breakfast. I checked out of my motel at 9:30 A.M. I asked the clerk how to get to Montana Route 200 East. Thanking him, I left for Garnet with a great deal of anticipation. I found the 200 E exit and was on my way. It was about 25 miles to the Garnet range road turn. Immediately I came to a construction worker holding a stop sign. He was about 20 years old and he had a little attempt at facial hair. We chatted briefly and he told me of the construction ahead. I had to wait about 15-20 minutes for the pilot car to arrive. While I waited, I checked my directions and my camera. The young man was listening to a typical alternative rock radio station. Now, I had never heard of nor seen a pilot car prior to today. Since the road ahead became one lane at a certain point, it was the job of this person to safely lead the way. Usually this isn’t necessary because each construction worker on either side will communicate via walkie-talkies. Apparently, 3.8 miles is outside the range of walkie-talkies.

Finally I got past the construction work (they were chipping the road - putting down tar and then gravel). I got to Garnet Ghost Town about 12 miles after my initial turnoff. I arrived in the parking lot around 11 A.M. I spent the next 1 hour and 15 minutes exploring that former town. Like a lot of western cities, it was founded solely because of gold being found in the area. This town’s peak was around 1900. It slowly faded away in the years following due to the available gold drying up. I greeted a 50ish man as he got his camera out of the trunk of his car. I asked if it was his first time to Garnet and then confirmed that it was my first trip also. I put my $3.00 admission fee in the moderately secure wood box and then walked the 5 minute trail to the town itself. My first stop was the visitors center which is housed in what used to be a saloon. I talked to the nice lady volunteer worker and told her how I discovered Garnet via the internet several years ago. She was in her early 30’s and she mentioned that she lives somewhere up around Garnet. I bought a couple books and a mug and was on my way to explore the town. It was great to walk inside all those old buildings and to imagine what life must have been like there a century earlier. I snapped about 30 pictures and was then on my merry way (or so I thought).

Garnet Ghost Town

Garnet Vistors Center
I should mention a conversation I had with the lady at the visitors center. I had planned to go down the mountain on the east side rather than the way I came up. This *seemed* the right course of action at the time. I wanted to get to I-90 East ASAP and that was the most logical route from the information I had. She confirmed that it was probably the best way to go, but that the road was worse that way. I should have ran in the other direction! Like most things, the action of the thing in question is much more revealing than just chatting about it. When I thought of waiting another 20 minutes to get through construction, my mind was then made up. I would go the opposite direction of the way I came up. Before I left the parking lot, I taped a tract to the driver’s window of another car.

Just east of Garnet, Montana
I started down the east side of the mountain. All of these roads around Garnet are dirt roads, like you’ve seen in the movies. For the first 3 miles, the road was worse but not awful. Then I came to a fork in the road. I saw a couple signs, but neither had a name that I recognized. At this point, I should have turned around and taken the familiar route. Of course, this story would not be very interesting if I had. Also, there were no gas stations to stop at and ask directions. I went to the right and I *think* I was still going the right way at this point. I then went another mile and came to another fork. I say with full confidence that I went the wrong direction by that point. I went quite a while but nothing seemed amiss at that point. After all, I had never been that way before. I knew I had to go at least 10 miles to get to my supposed destination. Then, the road started getting bad. Really BAD. There were huge rocks in the road from time to time. They made a lovely “THONK” sound as they attacked the underside of my car. All of these mountain roads were one lane with an occasional pull off point to allow oncoming cars to pass. Of course, with as lost as I got, the appropriate question would be: "what oncoming cars?" I made the egregious mistake of maintaining about a 25 mph speed. Big mistake! As I went down this road to nowhere, my car began to groan from all the bumps and bruises I was subjecting it to. Then the ride got *really* bumpy. I tore a hole in the front left tire. Oh no! A flat tire in the middle of nowhere! That’s like a bad nightmare, and it was happening to me. That was the initial shock reaction. Then I quickly remembered that I’m a son of God and that no circumstance is above His Word. I drove ahead to a turn in the road and then parked.

This road may be safe for a tank - maybe

A less than ideal spot to be changing a flat tire...
At that point, I knew I’d have to trust God completely to get me out of the jam that I had stupidly gotten myself into. I thanked God for delivering me from the situation - for I knew with certainty that He would. I praised God and prayed in the Spirit as I went through the process of putting the spare tire on my car. After about 30 minutes, I was ready to begin the process of retracing my steps. I knew that I had to drive much slower so that I wouldn’t get another flat tire. I started off, going about 5 mph down this labyrinthine road. I was carefully choosing my path and steering around all possible trouble areas. I prayed in the Spirit every inch of the way. Eventually, I got out of that area and came to another fork in the road. I went the wrong direction, again! I was several miles down that road before I realized it. By that time, I had passed a few more forks in the road. I turned around, hoping to get back to the sign I went the wrong way at. Suddenly, I came to the nearest fork in the road and I realized that I didn’t know which way I had passed through a few minutes before. I studied both roads and chose one. I don’t think I chose correctly. I thought I was going back to the sign I was looking for. By this time, I had taken so many wrong turns that my head was spinning. I was lost, as lost as anyone can be. Still, I forced my thoughts to continue on the Lord. In the natural, things were hopeless. I didn’t want to think on that. So I was going down some road at this point. Which road, I couldn’t say. I thought I was headed the right way, at least. Then after a few miles I noticed I wasn’t going the way I thought I was. I noticed a road a few miles to the left, off in the distance. It looked like it was going back up the mountain. “That’s the one for me”, I thought. I decided to steer towards that one. I came to a three way fork in the road. By deduction, I chose the road on the far left. I chose that way based on thinking it was a road I had already been on. It wasn’t. I began to realize that as I went. All these roads looked practically identical to me. I followed that road and passed a few empty trucks that were down a hill, perhaps 1000 feet from me. Still, no people were in sight. So I decided to keep going. Then I came to yet another fork in the road. There were 2 houses on the left. Nobody appeared to be home. So I parked and decided to examine the signs at that fork. One sign said Bearmouth. It’s not on any map I have. Then I looked and saw the beautiful sight: Garnet, 3 miles ahead! Needless to say, I chose that way. It ended up being a back road to Garnet. It was a very steep grade. I shifted into 2nd gear to facilitate the climb. I passed a car with Washington plates parked on the side of the road. Then I passed some old structures on the outskirts of Garnet. Finally, another beautiful sign said “Garnet parking area”. I was back! After 3 hours of being lost! Praise God!

What does not belong in this picture?

Charlie welcomes you to Beartown
Yes!

Yes!
I got to the place where I turned *west* down the mountain and had to smile. My plan was to drive back to Missoula (about 30 miles away) on my spare tire and then find a tire place. Little did I know, my spare tire had a small hole and was starting to leak. I drove down to the construction area once again. It was again to be a 20 minute wait. I didn’t care. I was so happy to see real, living people again. Then I got out of my car and saw that the spare was nearly flat. The stop sign construction lady noticed it too. I wasn’t sure what to do at that point. It turns out that the pilot car lady had both a can of fix-a-flat(tm)and also a compressor. We tried the fix-a-flat(tm) first. It appeared to partially work. Then we tried the compressor. Again, it helped a little. The tire still wasn’t fully inflated. Then I moved the car forward to discover a really big hole in that tire. I decided to keep driving down the mountain. I went a few more miles and was doing okay. Then I noticed the tire became completely flat. I kept driving and that tire was making lots of noise. Then I came to a very unexpected sign on the side of the road. It said, “wreck ahead”. Then I came to another stop sign construction lady.

Just ahead was a red tow truck. I got out of the car and noticed that it was pulling a piece of road equipment out of a valley on the side of the road. I heard that it had flipped over once as it fell down the hill. The guy inside wasn’t seriously hurt. I got to talk to him briefly and also another guy who I found out was the boss of the construction crew. I mentioned to this boss about my flat tire. He made a comment something like, “I hope you aren’t driving down my new road with a flat tire!” I said that, “I’m not planning to go any further.” Later on, that boss asked if I had good insurance on my car. He half-jokingly suggested that we push the car down the side of the hill. I said, “we won’t be doing that.” After a few minutes, I asked the tow truck driver if he could call for another tow truck to come get my car. His truck wasn’t equipped to tow regular cars. That truck had a couple long metal wires that wrapped around the construction vehicle to winch it out. The tow truck driver, named Bernie, then called dispatch and said another truck would be there in 30 minutes. He suggested that I slowly move the car down the last 2 miles to the bottom of the road. I agreed and started to do so. Then the construction boss asked me if I was going to move the car to the side of the road. I said, “The tow truck guy said to drive it the rest of the way down.” Then the boss said something like, “not on my new road, you don’t!” Then I had to pause for about 5 seconds to consider what I was going to do. While I hesitated, he said, “If you ruin my $10,000 road, you are going to be in big trouble!” I then decided that it wasn’t critical where I would be towed from and that I should diffuse the situation by pulling to the side of the road. The boss thanked me and I thanked him and that was the end of that. Then I rode the 2 miles down the road in the pilot car driven by Jan. Another construction lady was in the car as we drove down.

I ended up at the corner of Garnet range road and Montana Route 200 E. I planned to wait there until the tow truck arrived. Before Jan left, I had a short little conversation with her. I told her I was from Michigan. She used her hand as a Michigan “glove” and asked what part I was from. I pointed to the SW sector using my “glove”. She said she has a friend living in Beaverton, MI. She also recommended that I eat at a tavern there sometime. She mentioned something about her friend’s dad being a big wig in that town. She also said her friend is 4’8” and plays some instrument really well in some symphony. It was a little hard to follow. Then she was off to get dinner. I stood by the road the next 20 minutes, waiting for the tow truck. After that, the other tow truck came down the hill. Bernie stopped and said he’d take me down to the Potomac gas station/bar, about 6 miles closer to Missoula. Carol, another construction lady, was apparently hitching a ride with him. She had to sit in the middle seat of the truck. That’s not a comfortable place to be when the truck is a manual transmission. As we drove, Bernie told dispatch to have the tow truck meet me at the gas station. He also referred to me as being a kid. I told him that I was older than he thought. Then he asked how old and I said 28. Then he affirmed that I was still young. I guess it’s all relative. Bernie looked to be around 50. I told him that I was from Michigan and that I was driving across the country. He said he did that when he was 20 years old. Finally we came to the Potomac gas station and Carol noted that diesel was $2.99 a gallon. Bernie said, “That’s 3 bucks a gallon.” He also said that prices will only go up. He asked me what prices were like as I was driving across the country. I said they were around the $2.60s, mostly. Finally we said goodbye and it was then that I told him my name and learned that his name is Bernie and her name is Carol. I then bought a liter of water and waited for the tow truck.

After about 45 minutes, the truck wasn’t there, so I called Red’s towing company to get a status update. The dispatcher said they were really busy but that the truck was now on its way. As I waited another 45 minutes for it to arrive, it was fun to notice the kind of people who frequent this gas station in western, rural Montana. Finally, Mike arrived in his truck. He introduced himself right away. I found him to be very affable. We chatted about Garnet mostly as we drove to my car. He mentioned that he had moved to Missoula from Seattle about 7 months prior. We got to the car and after a few moments, we were headed back to Missoula. The 30 mile trip gave us a lot of time to talk. I asked why he moved to Missoula. He used to be a repo man. He decided to move after someone had fired a shotgun in his direction as he was repoing the guy’s car. He also said that he has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and was waiting for his 1 year residency so that he could afford online classes to get his masters degree. Mike said he works perhaps 60 hours a week (much of it on call) and also is a karaoke DJ on the side. I told him a condensed version of my “how I got lost story”. He told me a story about getting lost in that same area when he was there to tow a car.

Mike the tow truck driver
I was happy to share the story, but something was missing. I told him that I gave all credit to God for getting me out of my situation. I told him of the peace I had through the whole ordeal. The perfect peace that only God can give. He then told me that both his father and grandfather are southern Baptist preachers. Mike said that he attends the four corners nondenominational church in town. He asked if I tried to talk “religion” with Bernie. I said that I hadn’t. Mike said that Bernie is an atheist. Apparently, Mike is the only driver at the company that is a Christian. He said there are 3 atheists and 1 mormon working there. We talked some about the willful ignorance of atheists. I told him of my plans to go teach at a bible school in Uganda the summer of 2006. He said his only “missionary” work was on the streets of Seattle and that those he tried to reach weren’t receptive. He then dropped me off at the closed tire center place. Mike offered me a peanut butter cookie from the batch a co-worker had made for him. He was very kind to then take me a few blocks over to a motel and to request that they give me a AAA discount because he has a membership. The first motel we went to had no vacancy. So he took me to the next one. It happened to be the very same one I stayed at the night before. I had to laugh. Before he left, I gave him a tract and encouraged him to email me should he ever want to talk. I’m just amazed at how the puzzle pieces of that day came together. The construction workers were preparing to leave as I arrived. An hour later and I would have had to walk to a telephone. The wrecker just happening to be there at that time also saved me a lot of effort. Mike said they sent him to get me because he has the fastest truck in the fleet. Some might call all that a coincidence. I know better. I praise God that through the stupid circumstances I got myself into, He led me to talk with Mike about Him and to hopefully impart some Truth that Mike needed to hear. Praise God!