Letting Go of the Bay Leaf: Highline Trail

Showing posts with label Highline Trail. Show all posts

Sunday, October 2, 2022

Mosaic Monday #192: Summer Farewell

My dear friends, this will be my last post as the host of Mosaic Monday, so it is fitting that I close this chapter with a final set of summer photos.

August featured no less than 3 backcountry camping trips. Too many pictures for one post, but I can sure show you some highlights.

Our first trip, with an intended destination of Gray Wolf Lake, is a story in itself. We fell short of our destination, and it rained while we gobbled our dinner, and for most of the night.

Rain is such a unique event during the summer in Montana that we were a bit surprised by this rainstorm. The thunder and lightning that accompanied the storm ignited one significant wildfire some 15 miles from where we camped for the night. But I will never complain about rain in the summer, given the extreme drought conditions in the Mountain West!

Between two camping trips, we spent one night in a hotel situated midway from the trailheads. We were a bit early to check in, so we stopped at a nearby eatery for a treat of coffee and ice cream.

The next day, we worked off that ice cream with more than 3,300 feet of elevation gain in 5 miles. But this is the reward: Mollman Lake.

The day of these photos also happened to be our 31st anniversary. I had drawn this card and brought it with me.

"Husband" is just a title every man can have. But it takes a heart and life to live by it. You have never failed to show me how much I mean to you. Happy Anniversary!"

Can you believe we had this whole place to ourselves? Priceless!!!!

Of course, you don't always have to go far from home to capture beauty. The next two photos were taken on August 16, right in our own neighborhood as I came home from town one evening.

August brings the Northwest Montana Fair to the fairgrounds, complete with wall-to-wall 4-H competition, food you shouldn't eat and rides that light up the night sky. I went two days to support the grandkids of my Dear Neighbor Friend, and trust me when I say the kids cleaned up in most of their events! I continue to learn the finer points of showmanship, and the importance of udders and other body parts on goats, sheep and cattle! On rodeo night, I worked the funnel cake booth for St. Matthew's Church - I think I can still feel the skim of frying fat on my skin, and smell funnel cake batter in my nostrils. I took a little time to spin through the quilts/home-made crafts section - always inspiring.

In this post in December 2021, I wrote about discovering Spanish blackwork. I was thrilled to see this example of it at the Fair! (By the way, I have purchased a design utilizing blackwork, and I am anxious to get started on it!)

At the end of August, rolling over into September, a three-night backcountry camping trip in Glacier National Park checked all the boxes: wildlife, fishing, jagged mountains, glacier-blue lakes. Let's take a look!

Video of waterfall along the trail.

Video of bighorn sheep ewe and young one.

Back at home, it was wildlife of a different sort and proportion that attracted my eye. Check out this video of the largest bumblebee I have ever seen.

Grasshoppers pick on the Russian Sage, climbing its stalks and nibbling through the very peak, toppling the lovely, symmetrical flower pyramids. In the process of hunting the grasshoppers, I spotted this precious little frog. It is you, my dear, that I hear singing after the sun goes down.

In early September, we were delighted to welcome my oldest brother and his wife, who flew their "Blue Eagle" plane from Morgan County, Utah, to Kalispell.

Over the five days of their visit, we kayaked on Lone Lake, hiked in Glacier National Park, and were treated to aerial touring in the Blue Eagle. I was thrilled to provide a garden tour, and Head Chef kept us well fed as usual. A lovely visit all around.

Flying over the landscapes we see every day, but flat-footed, is a gift. Is that hill really that steep? Does Ashley Creek wind in such a serpentine manner? The area around Whitefish has many more lakes than I realized. Do they have fish?

I love this video of Ashley Creek in Smith Valley.

The latter part of September has brought wildlife of every description. One night, sitting in the great room, I imagined an owl calling. Going out on the deck, I was thrilled to hear Barred Owls echoing each other. One is a blessing; two or more feels like a miracle.

The cygnets that I featured in this post are growing up. On September 17, they were swimming together, but without their parents. And they came so close to me - no fear?

While I was at the lake's edge, Spousal Unit called me. "Can you see the elk? It's a mama and a baby, in the water." I scouted the lake, with the binoculars and without. Nothin'. I worked my way north, and then I heard the splashing. Mama saw me or sensed me first. The best I got was the baby running away through the woods.

Meanwhile, our neighborhood black bear has been roaming, building up fat for the winter. We have seen him at least once a week, and in one case, I saw him while running out in the woods ... I took the long way around that day! These shots were taken as I came home from town one day - less than a half mile from our house.

Thistles are one of the many species that we combat for preservation of the native habitat, but before I cut the seeds off and put them in the trash, I momentarily admire their beauty. In many ways, they represent the fleeting nature of summer. Weightless. Perfectly designed for purpose. Ephemeral. Majestic simplicity.

And so, we bid farewell to summer and to Mosaic Monday.

*****

My dear Mosaic Monday friends: I am pleased to tell you that Heidrun @ Soul and Mind and so on will be taking over Mosaic Monday, starting next weekend. She carries on the fine tradition established by our previous hosts – Mary @ Little Red House through August 4, 2014, Judith @ Lavender Cottage from August 10, 2014 through July 24, 2016, and Maggie @ Normandy Life from July 31, 2016 through October 29, 2018. I hope that you will continue participating in Mosaic Monday – your posts through the years have inspired me more than you know!

Some of you have asked if I am leaving the blogosphere altogether; I will still be posting occasionally, and linking to Mosaic Monday as well as other link parties. So, I will see you around, my friends!

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.

The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).

Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.

Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.

As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.

Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.

Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Mosaic Monday #191: Summer Highlights

Autumn arrived in Montana right on schedule. On September 22, low clouds shrouded the hills and rain pattered on and off, accumulating to six-tenths of inch - a deluge by western standards and the first rain since August 27. The thermometer stretched toward 60 degrees, but that may have been aspirational. Overnight, the aspen leaves are more gold than green. I was suffering from a bit of a cold; snuggled under a quilt on the couch. What better time to look back at the highlights of summer?

Note: I am accustomed to seeing the Sego or Mariposa Lily, which is smaller and pure white, but the Sagebrush Mariposa Lily was a stunning new species!

As long as we are in the natural world, let us continue.

In June and July, Swallowtail butterflies were common visitors in the garden. Check out these videos. In the second one, the butterfly is missing the bottom part of one wing ... hard work pollinating all these flowers!

Birthdays always provide a convenient excuse (as if I need one) to draw!

When we are on Skype calls with #1 Son, the conversation at some point touches on newsworthy events, quite often of a political nature. #1 Son is well informed and asks questions that can sometimes make you uncomfortable and certainly make you think. In a June call, he pointed us to Tony Benn and the Five Essential Questions of Democracy. Tony Benn was a British parliamentarian who died in 2014 at age 88. To quote the article at the link below, Benn was "a tireless promoter of a power-to-the-people ethic that placed its faith in the great mass of humanity rather than billionaires, media moguls and political powerbrokers."

Benn believed that those in positions of economic, social and political power should always be asked these 5 questions: "What power have you got?" "Where did you get it from?" "In whose interests do you use it?" "To whom are you accountable?" "How do we get rid of you?" "Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system," he explained. "Only democracy gives us that right. That is why no one with power likes democracy," he would continue. "And that is why every generation must struggle to win it and keep it." Wise words in 2014, and seeming quite prescient. (If you would like to read the whole article, here is the link. And if you want to test your civics knowledge, consider any elected position and try to answer the questions for it.)

Pioneer League baseball came to the Flathead Valley this summer, and everyone is asking why didn't this happen sooner? Easy access to Flathead Field, not a bad seat in the house, appropriate (read: gorgeous) views of the Whitefish Range, and baseball snacks. What more could you want? One July evening, the game went on a 30-minute weather delay. And no wonder. Check out these skies. I have never seen cloud formations like this. In the end, we left the stadium, anticipating a LONG delay. And, this is a storm that dropped ping pong and golf ball-sized hail on the nearby town of Kalispell. You still see "Hail Repair" signs across town, especially at auto repair shops.

You can click on the photos below to enlarge if you wish.

July also marks the birthday of Spousal Unit. I decided to try my hand at Trifle, a classic British cold dessert of sponge cake and fruit covered with layers of custard, jelly and cream.

This was not a traditional Trifle, and I would change several aspects of the outcome, but it was still DELICIOUS!!!

And here's the birthday card!

I have written about my native garden, and my attempt to let the natural ecosystem work without interference. I was intrigued to see these birds eating something off the Goldenrod. The plants were not in seed at the time, so my only conclusion is they were picking off the aphids that I had "allowed" to stay. Good for them and good for me ...

At the end of July, we were tickled to be visited by a long-term neighbor from our former neighborhood near Cleveland, Ohio (Cleveland represents - we have had 7 visits from that area). Neighbor - you know who you are! Loved having you and I am already looking forward to our adventures next summer! Here are a selection of photos from his visit.

Two photos from Kootenai Falls.

We take almost everyone to the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park. With limited time, it delivers maximum views for minimal effort (relatively) and almost always has wildlife in store. Once again, the Highline kept its stellar reputation.

First time I have ever seen a Columbine with this pink/yellow combination.

I swear that we did not pay this mountain goat to walk right in front of us near Grinnell Glacier Overlook!

At Granite Park Chalet, we saw a mule train resting before its onward journey. I knew mule trains are used to stock the Chalet in the summer, but this is the first time we saw one.

But by far, this was my favorite picture of the day!