"Spend your days thinking about things that are good and true and beautiful and noble, and you will become good and true and beautiful and noble." Matthew Kelly Sounds easy, doesn't it? But anyone that has been in a conflict with someone, or is grappling with a significant personal problem, knows that your mind obsesses over it. You replay conversations, wondering anew what the other person was thinking when they said such and such. You might get angry or sad or frustrated all over again. When I am in the grip of one of these spirals, it takes an almost physical force of will to re-direct my thinking.
First black-eyed susan to bloom
So it is that I find myself today writing this post.It is my attempt to get my train of thought
on a different track.By looking back
through photos from August, I hope to ponder subjects that are good and true
and beautiful and noble.Maybe just a
little of it will rub off on me.
In my August 18 post, I wrote about the neighbor girls who
won several events at the fair with their goats. The mama goat was still producing milk in
the days leading up to the fair, and we were the lucky beneficiaries of several
gallons of it. And not only that, we had
the chance to try our hand at milking – much harder than it looks! So Head Chef set out to make goat
cheese. This is just one of the batches
that he made – so tasty on a cracker or with crudité.
While at the fair, Dear Neighbor Friend and I took a spin
around all the display buildings. I didn’t
take many pictures – too busy chatting!
Knock
on wood, the fire season in northwest Montana has been mild, but we had a few
smoky days earlier in the month. It
coincided with very hot weather, so Spousal Unit and I headed to the lake. Which lake, you may ask. That was the fun part – we headed west on
Highway 2 with no particular lake in mind.
Something big enough to make fishing worthwhile, but small enough that
we wouldn’t be inundated with power boats and jet skis. Enter Little McGregor Lake, only 20 minutes
down the road.
Kayaking, fishing, sunbathing, a picnic - summer at its best
A pair of eagles and a fledgling were very active at the lake, as were the loons. It is hard to see in this video, but a couple of the eagles are flying low over the lake, and you can hear the loons calling. I wondered if the eagles were trying to snatch one of the loon babies.
Each year, Whitefish hosts Huckleberry Days, a shameless
excuse to enjoy all things huckleberry while also wandering the booths in Depot
Park. Paintings, ceramics, jewelry,
metal art, photography, clothing – something for everyone. We came home with just a couple of items – it
required disciplined restraint!
Sweet Onion Mustard with Horseradish
Ceramic Salt and Pepper Shakers - we needed a set for
my end of our long dining room table!
This month has featured weeds on my dining room table. Yes, you read that correctly – weeds. Knapweed and yellow toadflax are considered invasive
plants in this part of Montana – this means they are harmful to native flora
and fauna. So, cutting the flowers and
using them in arrangements is part of my efforts to reduce these plants on our
property. (Eliminating knapweed is
actually required by law.)
The longer I live here, the more I learn about the plants of
the Rocky Mountains. When this “daisy”
started to bloom in our “prairie”, I was pleased. Since then, I discovered that daisies which
are members of the aster family are the only native daisies in Montana. Unfortunately, my volunteers do not qualify, so I am pulling these up as I find them.
On the other hand, I was monitoring a dozen of the plants below – once they
bloomed, I was able to identify it as a Rocky Mountain Bee Plant – a good guy –
they can stay!
Dear Neighbor Friend gave me some fresh zucchini, and I was
inspired to make some muffins. My
mistake? I didn’t take them out of the
pan soon enough. Then, because of the super-sized
muffin tops, it was impossible to get down into the cup for a clean separation
from the pan, at least impossible without destroying the muffin top! Oh well, they weren’t pretty but they still
tasted wonderful, especially with a cup of coffee in the morning.
Maggie has been making the most of the sun spot in the
kitchen. A few times I have had to check
that she is still breathing – she often looks like she has melted into a
puddle, she is so relaxed.
Not even the dragonfly that inhabited the kitchen for
several days could get her attention. In
the end, the dragonfly died, and was well-preserved in the heat on the sill of
one of the upper kitchen windows.
Spousal Unit was able to brush it down without damaging it. Isn’t it amazing? One of my sisters-in-law recently posted this
on FaceBook: “Legend has it that dragonflies were given an extra set of wings
so that angels could ride on their backs.
When you see this winged beauty, it’s an exquisite reminder that an
angel from heaven is visiting you.” Outside,
there are all manner of winged creatures.
Upper row: Female Common Yellowthroat (left and middle); right: Male Common Yellowthroat
Middle left: A flycatcher? Center: Wood Nymph
Lower row: Need help with identification
With the exception of the butterflies, the pictures in the above collage were taken with my trail cam. I chose this location in an attempt to capture the beaver, who clearly had been working over this shrub. Below are the best pictures from the month.
The upper pictures were taken with my phone and were the reason for placing the camera here - the beaver has a trail
through the grass for his tree branches. Lower pictures are from the trail cam - 1.30 am and 11 pm a week apart.
Sometimes, the trail cam gives you a surprise that just makes you say "Awww." Come on, say it with me - "Awww."
I have since moved the trail camera, and this is the first capture on the disk.
What is he running from? I suppose it could be Wily E. Coyote. Except this was four days later. Oh well.
Our weather has been getting a little cooler, especially in
the evening, prompting us to spend a few heavenly hours by the firepit. We saw a bat flitting about, and tried our hand at calling a barred owl using a recorded call on our phone (no luck). In the dim light of early evening, I look back at the house, and I can almost call the grass and wildflowers our prairie.
As we retreated to the
house, I took one last photo.I know my
moon shots are terrible – I have seen many from my fellow bloggers and I am
always amazed.But it was an appropriate
metaphor for this post – life is not perfect, but if even 95% of it is going
right, that is enough.
P.S.In case I have worried you, my marriage is as
strong as ever, and I am not sick.Details of the problem that gave rise to this post are not worth the
keypad pecks it would take to explain them.
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.
We did it! We did it! Our first 2-night backcountry camping trip is complete. Unlike our last attempt, we did not get blown off the mountain. But the journey was equally memorable. Come along and see! We left the house at 7.30 a.m., Spousal Unit driving his truck and Dear Neighbor Friend in her rig with me at shotgun. Five hours later, we departed the Red Eagle trailhead. Yes, it took 5 hours to drive to Glacier National Park, obtain our backcountry permit, traverse the Going to the Sun Road (GTSR), negotiate some road construction on the east side of the Park, leave the truck at our exit point and then go to the trailhead. As time ticked by, I was itching to get on the trail. Sometimes the getting there is the hardest part! But it was a lovely opportunity to chat with my friend, and the views along GTSR never cease to amaze.
Singleshot Mountain reflected in an unusually calm St. Mary Lake
Goldenrod - hope you're not allergic!
It was a hot day by Montana standards, and owing to the Red Eagle burn of 2006, the dead trees offered little in the way of shade. Nevertheless, I was entertained by the clack-clack-clack of the grasshoppers flying ahead of us on the trail, and the orange sulfur butterfly pairs in pirouettes above the sweeping prairie. When we reached the first crossing of Red Eagle Creek, the cool waters beckoned, and it took only moments to shuck our boots and plunge our tootsies in the current. I admired the workmanship of the suspension bridge, especially considering it is seasonal. In other words, it is installed in the spring and rolled up in the fall. That afternoon, we would encounter two more of these. How much I appreciate the trail crews that make these fords a breeze for all of us.
Recommended load? Sign says one hiker at a time!
A short while later, I paused to take the picture below. The distant mountains were alluring, particularly given the heat and dryness of the open fields.
At that moment, Spousal Unit said "Moose!" Sure enough, in the creek bed to our right, stood a young bull moose. I adore moose, and I could have gone home then! We stared at each other for several minutes, and he must have decided it was safe to dip his head for a drink. He never moved from the spot, and we reluctantly left him to enjoy his bath.
Six miles into the hike, a hulking rock sill seemed to block the trail. As it turns out, this natural feature, in damming Red Eagle Creek, creates Red Eagle Lake. Upon traversing the sill and reaching its summit, the lake comes into view. We took a short break at the foot of the lake. Nearby, a lady ensconced in a camp chair under a tree alternated between gazing at the lake and writing in a journal. At one point, she got up and turned over some socks, which were drying on a rock. She asked about our plans, and when she learned we would be camping at the head of the lake, she advised that getting water at the head can be challenging due to the silt build-up there. How kind of her to offer this advice. This is one of the aspects of hiking and camping that I enjoy - a temporary community develops when you are on a hike. Your interaction may only last 15 minutes or it may stretch to 36 hours, but there is a camaraderie that is born of shared experiences and the sense of being together in the vast wilderness.
It was a short mile to the head of the lake, and we quickly selected one of the two remaining campsites and pitched the tent. We met our fellow campers, an elderly fellow traveling alone, and a dad and daughter enjoying some one-on-one time. We had already met three young ladies along the trail, who would take the last of the four sites. We splashed a bit in the lake to cool off, but this was dramatically limited by the deep silt at this end of the lake. It also meant no fishing for Spousal Unit. No one was in the mood for a fire, given the lingering heat, so after our dinner and a look at the twilight color on the lake, we retired to our tent for a few hands of Gin Rummy. The last thing I remembered before I drifted off was the echo of a hooting owl.
Oatmeal fortifies us for Day Two
From the description above, it may seem that Day One was pretty special. As I look back on it, Day One and Day Three are necessary for Day Two, the true highlight of the trip. With 2,680 feet of elevation gain, we would ascend to Triple Divide Pass, and then descend 2,000 feet to Atlantic Creek campground, all while covering 10.7 miles. As you will see in the following pictures, we traveled through widely varying terrain, and the scenery was jaw-dropping at every turn.
Still in the burn area
Red Eagle Gorge. Blue-green rocks were stunning. Little Chief Mountain soars behind me
We caught up with the three young ladies, and took turns posing with our destination as the backdrop.
Triple Divide Pass is the lowest point to the left of the snow fields
Panorama at the same location
Top: fields of Pearly Everlasting
Bottom left: Twisted Stalk in fruit stage Bottom right: Baneberry fruit
The trail remained fairly level and finally gives way to lush fields. High on Split Mountain, I spotted a group of mountain goats - three adults and two young ones. The white coats stood out against the red rocks. A bit further on, an impressive waterfall emerges from a cleft on the same mountain. Fortunately, Spousal Unit is not easily distracted, and he was the one to see the young black bear on the hillside to our right, only 75 yards away. We stopped in our tracks and continued making soft noise. After a couple of minutes, he turned and headed up the hillside. We did not see him again.
We passed several more waterfalls of varying sizes as we progressed up the valley of Hudson Bay Creek. Below is a video of my favorite.
With all this moisture, wildflowers were abundant. I was in heaven.
At the head of the valley, the trail begins its assault of Triple Divide Pass in earnest, switching back across parklands and scree slopes to the Pass. Even on the scree slopes, Nature finds a way.
Upper left: Wild Chives Upper right: Western Pasqueflower in seed
Lower left: flowers in a stream bed Lower right: Yellow Columbine
Nearly at the top, we can see several "lakes" formed by melting snow.
The bright blue color is from the glacial "flour" in the water, which refracts light and creates the color
At the Pass, we met a party of five from Holland. While swapping stories from the day, they told us about a mama grizzly and cub they had passed in a huckleberry patch. "She was huge," they said. We thanked them for the tip as we would be passing through that area in a couple of hours. And then they left us to enjoy the solitude of Triple Divide Peak. The Peak is so named because water in this area will enter one of three watersheds and ultimately end up in the Arctic, Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. As we began our descent, Medicine Grizzly Lake dominated the landscape to the right of the trail (the left is a sheer mountain). I stopped frequently to look and take pictures - doing otherwise was to risk a tumble off the steep cliffs.
Yes, that is Man with Hat, dwarfed by the red cliffs. The narrow trail hugged the cliff almost all the way down
Can you see the ribbon of a waterfall at the head of Medicine Grizzly Lake?
Rocky nature of this south-facing slope permits abundant flowers, but it's tough on trees. We saw
marmots (lower right), golden-mantled ground squirrels and Columbian ground squirrels
Two-thirds of the way into our descent, Spousal Unit suddenly said "There's the grizzly." My heart was in my throat, and he quickly added "She's way down there." Looking through the binoculars, we could see her bulk moving easily among the bushes in the valley that ascends very gradually to Medicine Grizzly Lake. And occasionally, the cub would appear, and run to catch up with Mom. We turned this into a snack break, and for the next 30 minutes, observed the pair, giggling out loud at the antics of the cub. But the best was yet to come. When they reached the shore of the lake, they both waded in and proceeded to splash about, at times appearing to play with each other. It was a joy to watch, and all the better for being at the end of a pair of binoculars. As described by the folks from Holland, the sow loomed large; I can only imagine her size if you met her close up!
The trail finally flattens and enters the trees near the campground. It was raining ever so slightly as we arrived, so we rushed to set up the tent before it could get worse. Of course, by the time it was erected, the rain eased! We soon got to know our campmates for the evening, and enjoyed the banter around the food preparation area. From my perspective, Atlantic Creek campground is prettier than Red Eagle Head: it is nestled in trees, which offers more shelter and a little more privacy than the meadow nature of Red Eagle. The creek runs just past the food prep area, down a short hill, and this makes it easier to access fresh water. Our campsite, while treed, was in a larger opening than the night before, and we had room to play cards outside the tent following our dinner and coffee/Honey Jack. Altogether a satisfying ending to a 7.5 hour hike.
In the afterglow of the whiskey, I reflected that I enjoyed the pace of the day. More casual than our
normal rate, I felt I had the opportunity to truly absorb the environment
Day Three dawned cool and misty. Originally we planned to break camp and take a day pack to Medicine Grizzly Lake in order to see it and for Spousal Unit to fish. Given we had seen the lake from above, and more importantly, it seems inhabited by a grizzly sow and her cub, we abandoned the idea.
Upper left: Blanket flower Upper right: Bad Marriage Mountain
Lower left: Cut Bank Creek Lower right: White angelica
The four miles to the trailhead/our truck resembled a stroll compared to Days One and Two, and visions of a cheeseburger and a hot shower danced in our heads. Since we shortened our day, we would have time for an adult beverage and a meal at Glacier Park Lodge. Yum.
But part of us was already missing the backcountry, and anticipating the next adventure. Will you join us?
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.
