"Collegiate Peaks" photographed along Highway 285, south of Buena Vista, Colorado by Kari Andresen

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Missoula is a liberal town ready to shell out bucks to support its progressive ideals, or the Garden City is a dollars-and-cents conservative place, anxious to rein in government and trim taxes.

Whatever the state's perception of Missoula may be (as the state's bleeding heart, usually), the Missoula City Council has been either been split 7-5 or evenly divided -- often along classic liberal-conservative lines -- for years. And as the economic crunch continues, the debate has gotten even louder.

The most recent flare-up arose over $651,000 allotted for new dump trucks and other city vehicles. According to Mayor John Engen's office, the purchase, which the council approved on a 7-5 vote last week, fit the city's basic mission, to take care of necessities such as fixing streets while reducing long-term fuel costs. Over the last decade, while growing in size by about one-third, the city has cut unleaded gas usage by 10 percent and diesel by 8 percent.

But that's not how everyone sees it.

I awoke at 7:00 A.M. — early for a vacation day — and made a full pot of strong coffee for the house. I did some stretching and scratching while Mr. Coffee hissed and gurgled, then I poured a cup and went outside into the crisp, cold air.

Steaming mug of coffee in hand, I trudged through the leaves up the hillside and stopped to rest on a log after a few minutes. There was a small copse of trees and bushes to my right, running along the crest of a ridge. Between sips of joe, I could hear something rustling through the leaves a couple hundred yards downhill, just the other side of the ridge. Then I heard a second animal, uphill a ways from the first. They were moving loudly through the leaves, obviously unconcerned with the racket they were making.