Pilgramage to my Mecca -- Bear Paw Lake, MT

I was on a quest today to find Bear Paw Lake-- it is the center piece of the novel "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water". It is one of those books that I stumbled upon at the Peace Coprs Kenya "library" that seems to hold a mirror to me and reveals something about myself that I had never considered before.

The last paragraph I carry with me at all times..it reminds me that I need to try and catch all that the universe has to offer:

"As a man with cut hair, he did not identify the rhythm of three strands, the whispers of coming and going, of twisting and tying and blending, of catching and of letting go, of braiding"

(As a little girls, my sisters and all all had braids, so this had a double meaning to me)

I had only found 4 references on a google search about Bear Paw Lake and because the book is a Novel -- it could have been that such a lake really did not exist. When we reached Box Elder, MT (the town listed as the closest town to the Lake) we stopped at the local combo grocery/restaurant/bar/casino -- all the people inside who have lived there for their entire lives said they had never heard of it...as we left and began to drive away a lady came running out and said the bartender thought he may know where it was...he gave us directions and off we went again-- the whole town was under road construction and I could not find the road (RT 234) he said we needed to take...I was getting a little defeated..but Sue kept me positive and we persisted and I am so glad we did ..WE FOUND IT...it was a little jewel...a blue jewel surrounded by rolling hills...it so inspired me.