Holy Spirit Episcopal Church

Here is where we stand for the trip to Freezout Lake -

There are currently no geese or swans at the Lake, and the water is still frozen, so we are moving the trip to later in the month. The group was pretty evenly split as to which later weekend would work, so we are doing the trip twice! Questions? Contact Warren Gartner at (317) 872-2431 or .

On the 21st and 22nd of March:
This will probably be the busier of the two weekends because there is a Wild Wings Festival going on in town and at the Lake. If you would like to participate in some of the festival events you can visit the web site here: https://www.wildwingschoteau.org/.
The hotel I had booked earlier was full for that weekend, so I'll be staying at the Gunther Motel in Choteau. I'll follow the same schedule we had planned as listed below.

On March 28th and 29th:
We will follow the same agenda.

Choteau Motels:
Stage Stop Inn  406-466-5900  1005 Main Ave N, Choteau  https://www.stagestopinn.com/ 
Big Sky Motel  209 Main Ave S, Choteau, MT 59422  406-466-5318
Gunther Motel  406-466-5444  20 7th Ave SW, Choteau  https://gunther-motel.edan.io/#google_vignette

Itinerary:

Friday
1:30 - meet at Holy Spirit parking lot. We can car pool if some of you would like or just plan where we will meet at the Lake.
4:00 to 4:30 - We will arrive at the Lake. That will give us about 2 hours of light to look for birds and the geese should be returning to the Lake from feeding on leftover grain in local crop fields.
6:30 - Sunset and we will head to Choteau for dinner and to our hotels. There are 2 family style restaurants in Choteau, the Log Cabin Cafe and John Henry's. We can decide which sounds the best and gather for dinner.
Some of us are staying at the Stage Stop Inn and others have reservations at a B&B. There is also the Gunther Motel and the Big Sky Motel in town.

Saturday
6:00 to 6:30 - Sunrise and we arrive back at the Lake to see the flocks rise off the lake to go foraging in the local fields. We can stay a while to look for other birds around the lakes as well. We may be leaving our hotels before the complimentary breakfasts are served so you may want to bring snacks with you. We can look for birds as long as you would like. If some want to go back into Choteau for breakfast or brunch, the La Mia Cucina Cafe & Bakery get good reviews and opens at 6:00 am.
Mid Morning - Depending on how long folks want to stay and bird at the Lake, you can either start for home or join some of us going to First People's Buffalo Jump State Park https://fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/first-peoples-buffalo-jump. I have heard good things about their interpretive center and we can take a short walk to the cliffs where indigenous people used to lead and drive herds of bison to fall to their death. You can learn about this unique gathering place from Montana's history long before Lewis and Clark thought about traveling up the Missouri.
Dinner Time - or maybe before, we will be back in Missoula for a good night's sleep before church on Sunday.

If you would like to join us on this adventure, please contact the church office to sign up (PHONE: (406) 542-2167 or EMAIL: ). If you have any questions, please contact Warren Gartner at 317-872-2431 or .