blog

Recipes & Adventures

Montana is home to a wide variety of wildlife - and the quieter you are in the woods, the more likely you are to meet critters. That being said, making noise is good hiking safety. It allows the wildlife around you the opportunity to know that you are there and to move a comfortable distance away. While baby bears are among the cutest things anywhere, their surprised mother is not.

Photograph from a distance.

Enjoy the wild trails

There is no shortage of hiking trails and paths in the region near our luxury bed and breakfast in Troy, Montana. If you are day hiking or doing an overnight trail, the Kootenai National Forest has what you need. River valleys, glacial lakes, skyline mountain ridges are sheer walls to climb, we have it all. What we have less of is cell service. Fortunately, technology has lots of options here from spot trackers, geolocation beacons to good old satellite phones, if you are going on any extreme hikes or activities outside our peaceful and private bed and breakfast, going will some method of communication is advised.

Make sure you let someone know where you are going and when you should be back. Even better, let them know your intended route. Take a map and a compass. And they make some solar chargers for cell phones that are quite inexpensive!

Bottom line, enjoy the beauty surrounding the region of our riverfront bed and breakfast  - but do so with a sense of being prepared for the unexpected. A good level of situational awareness is also advised, as you are not alone in this wilderness. Part of the attraction to rugged Montana is the wildness of the land - but you must respect where you are.

Temperatures here at our exclusive bed and breakfast in Troy, Montana (even in the summer) vary throughout the day, and mountain weather is always fickle. Sun can turn to rain and back to sun in the span of half an hour. We recommend dressing in layers and always going prepared for a variety of temperatures.

If you plan to hike, one of the things we always recommend is iodine tablets. While the water is pristine in most parts around our private bed and breakfast in Troy, Montana, it is of the utmost importance to have a purifying water source. If, for some reason, you find yourself in short supply, iodine tablets allow you to use local water sources with no fears of digestive upset, and water is one of those survival essentials.

Hiking poles... your knees will thank you.

Before I started hiking all over and outside our riverfront bed and breakfast in Troy, Montana, I used to laugh at the idea of trekking poles. Then I walked in 5 miles (and back out 5 miles) one day, and thought these little gadgets are the most amazing thing ever made. I've used them ever since!

Trekking poles help with increased stability. In the remote backcountry, a twisted ankle can be a real issue, and these poles help keep you balanced on uneven ground. While they will not (unfortunately) make you as graceful as your four-footed forest companions, they will help you not cartwheel down the path. They also are a huge knee saver. If you think about all the muscles that you use in carefully placing your feet going downhill, and the muscle strength you need to use to keep your balance and stability in tough terrain - it makes using these a no-brainer!

Our local shops stock these, or you can buy extendable ones that fit in your luggage. If you forget yours, check with your hosts, we may have an extra pair you can use as a loaner.

Where to hike?

We love the area surrounding areas of our well-known fly-fishing bed and breakfast in Troy, Montana, so be sure to check with your hosts for some premier hiking destinations. We typically have local hiking guidebooks that you can use while you stay and can point you to local resources as well, such as the Kootenai National Forest Service office in Libby - which have some of the best maps of the region. We can quickly point you to many local areas of hikes in Troy, Montana depending on your timeline and desires.

Keep it clean!

Pack it in and pack it out

Lastly, hiking safety is really for the safety of our wild companions. Be sure to pack out any items you pack in. Wildlife can get badly injured or even killed from trying to eat refuse or trash left behind. And it can teach that wildlife that you are to be viewed as a food source (which generally turns out poorly for the food source). So be sure to use good manners and pack out your trash - leaving our beautiful backcountry near our luxury bed and breakfast in Troy, Montana the same as when you found it.