Jewels of July

Seven years in Montana, and hundreds of hiking miles, and one can be forgiven for thinking you have seen it all.  And then you round a curve on a trail and your jaw drops.  Mountain Lady's Slipper stands regally.  The upper sepal shields the slipper like the hood of a cape; the lower sepals twist downward like strands of curly hair.  Why haven't I seen this demure orchid before?  Maybe it's because this trail is not often used, and the Slipper has managed to survive here.  A quick scan of Internet sources suggests that Cypripedium montanum is "apparently secure", a technical term that means a plant is uncommon but not rare, with some cause for concern due to declines or other factors.  Time of year is also significant - if I was walking this same trail a month later, the blooms would be gone.  All the more reason to be delighted to be in the right place at the right time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early July took us to Glacier National Park, executing our responsibilities as citizen scientists to document Mountain Goat and Bighorn Sheep populations.  I could stop there - the simple elegance of the Park's beauty is enough.  And yet we are blessed to have many other delights layered into the experience.  The sunrise at the house, with lake mist lingering in the valley.  A black bear grazing along the roadside.  Dashing through the rain at the new Kyiyo Mercantile for a Huckleberry Bear Claw.

Forecasters called for a full day of rain, and we were pleasantly surprised that it eased up early in the morning and didn't return.  The hike along Cut Bank Creek is known to us, and yet we commented that we had forgotten how lovely it is.

In the afternoon, we covered new terrain via the Dry Fork Trail.  The Two Medicine area is known for bears, and given the low usage of this trail, it wasn't a big surprise to encounter a grizzly sharing the area with us - fortunately, it took off in the other direction as soon as it saw us.
 

Have you noticed the lack of photos of goats and sheep?  Yep, two hikes in and no observations.  Sigh.  The next morning, we popped in our favorite East Glacier breakfast spot, the Two Medicine Grill.  Fortified for the day ahead, we hiked Scenic Point and we were rewarded with numerous sheep, including the nanny group in the photo below.  Our second hike that day, along Rose Creek, yielded plenty of mosquitoes but no mammals! 

 

 

In early July, Lupine and Penstemon are plentiful along alpine trails, and I am hoping the video below gives you a small taste of purple splendor as we walked back to St. Mary Lake.

Back at the house, the flowers were doing their best to represent for Kila, Montana.  July is certainly the peak for native plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the early years of the garden, I had Prairie Coneflower (pure yellow) and Mexican Hat (a deep burgundy coneflower).  Now, cross-pollination (thanks, bees, moths and butterflies!) has delivered numerous flower shades.

I am constantly bragging about Head Chef and his cooking - the summer salads he creates are always a massive hit with me - I love the variety of colors, textures and flavors.  A neighbor has a flock of chickens, and we are regularly purchasing a dozen eggs from her.  As everyone knows, the taste and color of free-range eggs cannot be "beat"!

Another neighbor grows vegetables, and her arrival at the July ladies' gathering was like our own personal farmer's market!  So many talents in our neck of the woods - check out the baby quilt one of my friends recently finished.  I love our neighborhood get-togethers!

Summer in Montana also means guests, and the end of July started our string of visitors - my oldest brother and his wife came from Utah for a few days.  For a year, we had been talking with them about huckleberry picking and a picnic at a location that we had spotted the summer before, while on a back-country camping trip.  The site delivered, the weather delivered and Head Chef delivered with charcuterie and beverages that had been chilled in Mineral Creek while we picked hucks.  

And it is our tradition to wrap up visits to Glacier with a cold bevvie on the back porch of Lake McDonald Lodge - this is livin'!!!

 *****

Linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.  She has a super group of bloggers that always have something positive and interesting to share!  The prompt for September 26 is "What is your favorite fall scent?  Would you rather have a pumpkin spice drink or apple cider?"  I love the aroma of slightly damp leaves, especially when you walk through them and you get the bonus of the rustling sound.  But I don't miss raking said leaves!!! At our house here in Montana, the aspen trees are vastly outnumbered by pine trees, and we wouldn't rake the leaves anyway since they provide natural fertilizer for the trees and other plants.  This is a huge change from the mounds of leaves we used to rake in Cleveland, Ohio.

I am obsessed with Pumpkin Spice Lattes (PSL), so that gets my vote over apple cider.  I go to coffee shops a lot, so I have to limit my PSL intake due to the high calorie count and so that I don't get bored with them!

Linking to Thankful Thursday

Linking to Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday #38: The Beanie, The Gaiter and The Wife

Fit as a fiddle at Lubec Trailhead

What do these three things have in common?  As of 2 pm Mountain Time on Wednesday, all of them were nearly blown off Calf Robe Mountain while hiking near Firebrand Pass.  That's right, this is the latest installment in "How to Risk Your Life While Hiking" series.  Read on, dear readers, read on!

The day started well enough. Spousal Unit obtained our pre-reserved back-country camping permit without incident, setting us up to enjoy one night each of camping at Ole Lake and Ole Creek.  My dear neighbor friend played shuttle, so that we could leave a vehicle at our exit point.  As we drove, we talked about Ole Lake's reputation for mosquito infestation, and she mentioned that we were unlikely to be pestered by the winged ones given the wind advisory.  Little did we know how true that would be!

Monkeyflower

After bidding her a fond farewell, we departed the trailhead with great expectations for the adventure ahead.  In June, we completed our one-night backcountry camping "experiment" (see June 23 post), and this two-nighter presented additional challenge and FUN!  I was immediately enthralled with the trail as it passed through colorful meadows and aspen groves stunted by decades of wind and harsh winters.  Mushrooms were abundant, some as big as dinner plates.  At one gap in the trees, we glimpsed a spectacular beaver dam, together with its lodge.

Yes, that is my boot in the lower picture to give you a sense of size!

Upper Left: Parrot's Beak; Upper right: Lupines in meadow

Bottom left: Aspens;  Bottom right: Caterpillar

As we continued our ascent, we met about 20 people already on the descent (one group of 12 might have been an organized hike), and all warned that they failed to reach the summit due to the wind.  One buff-looking hiker, who planned (like us) to camp at Ole Lake, described himself as crawling across the Pass.  He decided to turn back - if something happened to him, who would be there to help?  (I suppose that's why the permit advises AGAINST solo hiking?)  Another hiker cautioned that the wind could easily whip your hat or sunglasses off your head.

Top: Lupines

Bottom left: Lanceleaf Stonecrop      Bottom right: Monkeyflower

We thanked them and proceeded; we could SURELY handle it!  As we reached the final slope before the Pass, I was knocked over by - you guessed it - the wind.  I landed on a flat slab to the right of the trail, grazing and bruising a significant portion of my right thigh.

Approaching the Pass - looks calm, doesn't it?

I picked myself up, examined the damage and carried on.  We could see two approaches to the pass - the normal trail to the left across a scree and a small snow field, and a steeper animal trail that appeared more sheltered by trees and the normal topography.  We opted for the latter (against regulations!!!)

Firebrand Pass is the flat spot straight ahead between the two mountains.  If you look closely at the left-hand

mountain, you can make out the trail crossing the rock scree halfway up the mountain

Man with Beanie hunkers down behind trees

When we reached the top, we could not believe the force of the wind.  (I wish now that I had taken a video so that you could at least hear it.)  A cairn in the middle of the pass seemed to mark the way, and Man with Beanie made his way to it, deeply crouching.  I was half-seated on the rocks some distance from him, and I finally decided to crab my way over to him  (just like a baby might before it learns to crawl) because we couldn't even communicate over the howling of the wind.  Once I reached him, we talked over the options and decided to descend a short distance backwards and take shelter for an hour behind some trees.  Maybe the wind would ease.  As we reversed course, the wind grabbed his beanie and tossed it into the air.  Lucky for him, we found it lodged in some moss a short distance away.

While we were waiting, I went as far as I dared onto the Pass to get a shot of the view westward.  This picture is like offering candy to a baby - you want more!

After 30 minutes and no sign of the wind abating, we decided to approach the south side of the Pass, in the hopes it might be more sheltered.  Nope.  A very short distance demonstrated the wind power, even pulling a neck gaiter out of the pocket of Man Not Wearing Beanie.  Once again, we quickly located the gaiter as we beat a hasty retreat.  Defeated, we began our descent.  By now we knew it would be necessary to hitch a ride to our truck, parked at the exit point.  Appearing on the mountain above us, like manna from heaven, came a young couple.  We shared our wind stories, and then I asked if they were heading our direction.  They kindly agreed to give us a ride as long as it would not delay them in picking up their daughter from daycare.  Perhaps I was thinking too much about keeping pace with people 20 years younger than me - a few minutes later, before I knew what was happening, the wind had pushed me off the narrow trail.  Belly down on the rocks, I was clinging to the edge of the trail to prevent sliding down the scree field.  Man Not Wearing Beanie and the young couple ran to my aid.  I suffered a hard blow to my right forearm that left a quail's egg size lump, scrapes on my right shin and a broken nail on my left hand from scrabbling at the rocks.  It could have been much worse!  We have since learned that some people call this area of the mountain the Elephant's graveyard.  It could have been mine!

The good news?  We didn't see a single mosquito all day!

AND we decided that we deserved a night that did not involve a tent or wind, and that's how we found ourselves at the Izaak Walton Inn, enjoying all of its creature comforts - adult beverages, a hot shower, a delectable meal and a comfortable bed.  

The next day, we cooked our camp breakfast on the tailgate, parked at the Bear Creek put-in on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.  Not quite the Ole Lake campground, but the oatmeal with a handful of dried blueberries was delicious.

By 9.15, we were on the trail to Ole Creek.  After a mile, the Fielding Patrol Station cabin was a pleasant surprise, situated in a lovely meadow with a small stream running behind it.  Too bad it's not available for rental! 

Left: Huckleberries   

Upper right: Sulfur Buckwheat    Lower right: Nodding Onion

We covered the 3.5 miles to the campground in short order, noting the location of a bumper huckleberry crop that we could pick on our way out the next day. 

Of course, there was one more hurdle to jump before reaching the campground - Ole Creek has no bridge, is deep enough that it must be forded and of course the campground is on the other side!!!  Below is a video of me fording the river the next day so you can get the idea.  Trust me, that water was bone-chilling cold!

Ole Creek Campground is a delightful camp nestled between Ole Creek and Soldier Creek, which runs directly behind the food prep area.  Quite convenient when you need water for your meal or coffee!  The tent was up in no time, and since we had arrived so early, we passed the time rambling a couple miles further along the trail, collecting firewood and playing cards by the fire.

We were very amused to discover a new style of pit toilet at this campground - new to us anyway!  We have since heard that this is called a "low rider" and is likely to become more common than the small shed-style pit toilet.  Not sure how I feel about THAT!

After our gourmet dinner, we strolled back to Ole Creek to collect more firewood, followed by a dessert of s'mores with coffee.  The Honey Jack was a special treat.

Earlier in the day, we had predicted the day would close without seeing a soul, but just as we were preparing to go in the tent, three hikers appeared.  They had already covered 20 miles, and planned to finish the day with the 3.5 miles back to the trailhead.  Wow!  I hope the mosquitoes did not pursue them; they were sure nipping at us on our way to the tent!

It was a cold night and we were pleased to have our "long johns" and our down sleeping bags.  Hot coffee and a campfire were a welcome start the next morning.

All too soon we had packed up camp, forded the creek (brrr …) and left the Ole Creek valley below us.  We stopped only to pick hucks (a half gallon in about 30 minutes), and before we knew it, another hiking adventure was complete.    Although I was a little scraped and bruised, I would not give up hiking or backcountry camping any time soon.  As Man with Beanie likes to say: "This is my happy place."

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. Monday (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. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Mosaic Monday #25: Blowing Off the Dust

Showy Aster

Sometimes it pays off to let something sit for a while, maybe even gather some proverbial (albeit virtual) dust.  I'm talking about pictures from past hikes.  So far on this blog, I have documented 16 hikes and 3 water adventures, which brings us to the hike of August 31, 2017.  In other words, I last reviewed this hiking entry and its attendant photos 20 months ago.  Do you think it was a refreshing browse, almost as if seeing the photos for the first time?  You betcha.  So now it's your turn!

Yellow monkeyflower

It was a quiet morning when we departed the Camp Misery trailhead for Crater Lake, a 6-mile one-way hike.  Only 2 other cars populated the parking lot, and the friendly rangers greeting us from the porch of the cabin last time were nowhere in sight.

Not a problem - it just means we get all of its glory to ourselves.  And there was plenty of glory on show.

The trail is moderately difficult, with several steep sections that are mercifully short.  Overall, it is an undulating trail that alternates a quad workout on the uppers and knee pounding on the downhills.  Along the way, Martha Lake twinkles in a basin to the right of the path.

We paused at Birch Lake for a snack, and I admired the lake's diversity and photogenic aspects.  Massive rocks anchoring the shoreline.  Meadow fingers jutting into water (which make good access points for fishermen).  Thick shrubs huddling along the water's edge, providing nesting sites and cover for little birds.

The trail traverses two ridges on its way to Crater Lake, and the second ridge is marked by unique rock formations with colorful purple striations.  This is one of the many sources of the purple and red stones you see in the rivers and streams throughout Glacier National Park.  (At this point in time, we had yet to locate the purple rock for the fireplaces in our new house, so we joked about carrying some large stones back to the car.  Of course, we didn't!)

Being late August, most of the plants were going to seed.  In dry, sun-drenched sections of the trail, the huckleberry bushes had turned red and any remaining berries were shriveled.  Near these rock formations, the bushes still harbored a plentiful crop.  On our way back, we would stop and collect a large container of the luscious berries.

Just short of Crater Lake, we were ecstatic to encounter a female mountain goat and two kids.

As you will see in the video below, she did not seem the least bit intimidated by us.  The sound you hear is the wind, quite gusty that day.

After the goats drifted from view, we carried on to the lake and Man with Hat set to fishing while I enjoyed my lunch.  Grass of Parnassus dotted the shoreline, and I spent some time attempting an in-focus shot, a battle against the wind.

The mama goat came over, without the kids.  I still wonder about the purpose of her excursion so close to us.

The fish were not biting, or maybe the whitecaps on the lake made it too hard to see the fishing line moving in the water.  We headed back the way we came, and soon had purple fingertips from plucking huckleberries, all the while keeping an eye and ear out for bears, which rely on the berries for part of their pre-hibernation diet.

We took the north trail alongside Birch Lake, and here Man with Hat caught 1 fish that wiggled off the hook before I could capture it on film.  Showy Aster crowded the shorelines and creek beds, and I was glad for limitless digital photography as I snapped shot after shot.

When we began our hike, haze from the Sprague fire had limited what should have been expansive views of Flathead Lake to the west and Hungry Horse to the east.  As we descended toward the trailhead, we found that the wind had chased off some of the smoke and opened up the view.

It was only upon returning to the house that we learned these same winds had fanned the Sprague fire and caught the historic Sperry Chalet in its path.  As we had been blissfully hiking, the century-old structure beloved by generations of families and thousands of Glacier National Park hikers had been gutted.  The good news?  Re-building of the Chalet is well underway - see this link for more information.

(internet)

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. Monday (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. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter