Thursday, March 28, 2024

A sunrise, the birds, Glacier Two Med hike

Katie and me at Two Medicine Lake

Sawtooth Mountain in alpine glow at Freezout Lake

Walking through the Two Medicine entrance

Plowing the Scenic Point trailhead parking lot at Glacier

The camp store at Two Med Lake

We had a magical day beginning with a Rocky Mountain Front sunrise that lit up the mountains in alpine glow.

That was followed by a show of migrating snow geese, arctic and Tundra swans at Freezout Lake, and finally a snowy hike to Two Medicine Lake in Glacier Park.

The alpine glow along the Rocky Mountain Front is a regular event, but one that forgotten by many of us in urban Montana.  Yet, once experienced it is unforgettable.  It is out of sight and out of mind.

The annual late-March migration of the snow geese and swans is an amazing spectacle, also unforgettable, but when witnessed at Freezout Lake between Fairfield and Choteau, allows viewers to witness the sunrise on the Front.

It's a tremendous combination.

We were able to do this on our way to Glacier Park for a day of hiking (in the snow).

We're told there were 100,000 birds on Freezout on Wednesday, the day we went through.  It was our fourth trip to the lake to see an unusually high number of birds this year.  We also saw large numbers at Benton Lake just outside Great Falls.

At Glacier we brought our snowshoes, but didn't have to use them.

Plowing of the road to Two Med is underway, leaving an open road most of the way, and a road easy to navigate with our ice cleats.

The weather was unsettled, but that only made the scenery better.

Usually at this time of year the road is still snow covered and easy to ski.

But we didn't have that option because of the dry winter and reduced snowpack.

We were able to walk directly to the lake from where the road was blocked just before the Two Med park entrance.

Aside from Park snowplow work crews we saw only one other person, the Belly River Ranger, Matthew, who biked up the road on his fat-tire bike.

After the lake we did a side trip to Pray Lake.

The snowpack situation is scary for the summer ahead.  It is too late for much of a recovery.

We're expecting big fires this summer.

 

 

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Tundra geese arrive, Kings Hill loop


Everywhere in sight were Tundra Swans at Benton Lake 

A clear day with Showdown in the distance 

Small sampling of swans at Freezout Lake 
It's

 A sure sign of Spring is the arrival of the migrating snow geese and Tundra Swans.

The snow geese are coming in slowly, the swans in mass.

We've seen more swans on Benton Lake Wildlife Management Area, about seven miles north and west of Great Falls, than at any time in memory.  There are many at Freezout Lake on the Rocky Mountain Front as well.

Our only hiking foray was a four mile loop to the top of Kings Hill from the pass cabin to the so-called "G" trail up to the top of the Kings Hill ridge, past the Weatherwax bowls to the Kings Hill summit itself, and then back down the Deadman Road.

The day couldn't have been more bluebird that brought out distant mountain ranges in every direction.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Spring skiing in Glacier

That's Rising Wolf Mountain behind me

The Two Med valley below us

The "entry" gate to Glacier Park accessed from Looking Glass Pass

 An annual rite is a late winter/early spring backcountry ski trip in Glacier.

We couldn't have picked a more perfect day than Thursday, March 14.

There was still good snow from an earlier dump in the week, the sky was bright blue and lined with fluffy white clouds and shockingly, there was scant wind.

We did the Looking Glass Pass Road outside East Glacier Park, and at the pass veered on a ridge to an entry point into the park through a barbed wire fence at the base of Spot Mountain.

As in Waterton last week, we had clear visibility and the new snow made the mountains pop, especially Rising Wolf peak, the big guy in the Two Med Valley.

The snow, while hard when we started in 17 degree weather, loosened up and we had to apply glide wax to keep our skis from clumping with school.

I was joined by East Glacier Park residents Laurie Lintner and John Schmidt. 

We covered 9.3 miles and gained and lost about 1,400 feet along the way.

The ski down was particularly quick and easy because of the spring snow.

We were on our alert for grizzlies, but saw signs only of elk and moose along the way.

I will never understand this east side of the park is neglected by the Park Service.  This Looking Glass Pass road offers great skiing and ever greater views of the Two Med and the Rocky Mountain Front's Badger-Two  Med country.  The East Glacier Mercantile and the local gas station convenience store and  a motel are the only services open, and the road to the Two Med Park entrance is unplowed.



Saturday, March 09, 2024

Real winter at Waterton

 







For the second consecutive year we broke up winter with a trip to Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta at the Kilmorey Lodge.

While Great Falls was losing its snow to a Chinook, Waterton was locked in ice cold temperatures.

However, our second day in the skies cleared and we had radiant sunshine which made our skiing and snow shoeing even more enjoyable.

I found it remarkable that the wonderful lodge was nearly empty and that we could be the only people in its upscale restaurant during meals.

We arrived in an ice-cold inversion with temperatures in the minus 10 range and high winds.

Even in the bitter cold we found roofers atop the Prince of Wales Lodge hard at work.

We snow shoed up a trail to the lodge to have a look.

It appears as though a work crew is being housed in this scenic lodge while it works on the roof.

The following day the brilliant sunshine lured us out for some cross country skiing.

We drove up the Akamina Parkway that had been plowed out to about 1.8 miles from Cameron Lake where we began our ski at Little Prairie.

When we started there was no one around.

There were nice ski and shoe tracks all the way to the lake on the road.

The bluebird skies and good snow made for a perfect day.

When we got to the lake that borders the U.S., we found that the Canadian Park Service employees doing avalanche measurements had taken a snowmobile out onto the lake itself.  So we did, too,  reasoning that the ice held the snowmobiles quite well.  The snow covered mountains around us were stupendous.

Cameron Lake is an area where Alberta, British Columbia and Montana and Glacier Park with Waterton border one another.

After a skiing back to Cameron Lake trailhead, we decided to take a trail along the creek rather than the road  back to our car because it passed by Akamina Lake.  It was a good choice.

When we got back to the lodge we tried to walk along Waterton Lake, but found the unplowed walkways too much of an obstacle.  

Back at the lodge, the pub was filling up and a "Trivia Night," for guests and locals commenced.  It really enlivened the place.

The food at the lodge was pretty good, but pricey.  The pub food, though, was more reasonable and there was a good selection.

I'm at a loss why there weren't more people using the lodge and skiing or snow shoeing.  There are a couple of other lodging choices there that were empty, too.

In the morning we headed back home, stopping as we had done on the way out not far from the border crossing at Carway/Piegan where there's a pullout for viewing the impressive Chief Mountain shard.  Blackfeet and private buffalo herds graze with the mountain as a backdrop.

In that area we saw several coyotes and bald eagles that we were told were migrating north.

Waterton is a terrific winter break spot.


Thursday, February 29, 2024

O'Brien Creek: the old reliable

Skiing in a winter wonderland

Jasmine Krotkov in the O'Brien willows

Yes, the creek showed in spots.


 Showdown trumpeted 11 inches overnight, so of course I had to go check it out.

Our plan was to go down O'Brien Creek from Kings Hill Pass to the town of Neihart, expecting to break snow all the way.

What we found was a great track with a couple of inches of powder and some of the best conditions we've had on this 7-mile back country ski in years.  The snow bridges were wonderful, and no snowmobiles had been over the lower stretch.

We covered the route in just under four hours, without any rushing.

I marveled at the regrowth of trees in this area.  I've been skiing it for 43 seasons, starting in 1981, not long after the head of the area had been clearcut and returning trees were hardly knee high.

Now there's a true forest of trees rising to above 30 feet.

And, how things have changed.  Traditionally the half-way point of the trip was an old cabin mid-way through the willows-bottom.

Now, you have to know what you're looking for to find the few timbers of the structure that remain.

Jasmine Krotkov had seen a couple of antlered moose in those willows just a week ago, so we were on high alert, hoping to see those creatures.

No luck, despite seeing ample evidence that they had been stomping through the snow.

One great improvement to the trip is that a road is plowed from the highway to the town water treatment plant.  That saves at least a half-mile of skiing on gravelly and very icy snow.  We parked a car at that plant.

While the winter has produced questionable snow, I've now done the Big 3 back country trails that start at Kings Hill Pass --- Ranch Creek, Deadman and now O'Brien.



Sunday, February 25, 2024

Winter slips away: 747, Deadman, snow shoeing on Middle Fork Judith

 



This has been one of my  poorest back country ski seasons.

There is snow up there, finally, but its quality and quality are questionable, and the warmer weather is melting what remains.

In the past couple of weeks I've skied the 747 loop, and Deadman, and snowshoed the Middle Fork of the Judith Wilderness Study Area a ways.

The 747 Loop had the most consistent snow.  We picked up tons of snow on the bottom of our skis on Deadman, and the snow (and ice) were melting on the Middle Fork.

I enjoyed the Middle Fork snowshoe trip the most, partly because we shoed directly on the ice-bound river itself, and partly because I love the area so much.   This was a part of Wild Montana's winter snow shoe program.

The Middle Fork WSA is threatened because U.S. Sen. Steve Daines wants to the release the area for management by the Forest Service, potentially threatening the areas' wild character. 

The Middle Fork showed through the ice in only two small spots.  Otherwise, it supported the weight of the group of 13 snow-shoers quite well.

We shoed parallel to a good cross country ski track.   Seeing that, I wished I had tried to ski the Middle Fork before.  Noted.

I've seen robins and flickers in my yard and friends have seen meadowlarks.

Other migrating birds are more noticeable now, too.

Spring?


Friday, February 09, 2024

Winter --- finally!





 I haven't posted for a while because it didn't seem right to post when there wasn't real winter.

This past month we've done some hiking on the River's Edge Trail and the First Peoples' Buffalo Jump, which were clear of snow until about a week ago.

And, we've been snow-shoeing and skiing up to Kings Hill and the Deadman run in the Little Belts, in really sub-par snow.

The past week, however, has delivered some really good snow in the Little Belts and yesterday we did the 10-mile Ranch Creek point-to-point trip that begins at Kings Hill in great, but somewhat shallow snow.

Our northcentral Montana watersheds have the lowest snowpack in the state, and it's really scary.

Teton Pass Ski Area on the Rocky Mountain Front announced it would close after only being open for six days;  Great Divide had 6 inches at its base.  Showdown has been steadily open, thank goodness.

Friday, January 05, 2024

Hiking in Alberta's Writing on Stone Provincial Park










 The snow threatens, but we were granted yet another dry, clear, snowless day and we used it to great advantage to hike in the Writing on Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta in the shadow of the Sweetgrass Hills.

This is a place sacred to the Blackfoot Indians,  a place of remarkable hoodoos, and sandstone canyons along the Milk River, and it is an International UNESCO World Heritage Site.

An off-season tour conducted by a park naturalist took us into a restricted part of the park across the Milk River from the main Hoodoo Trail into the Police Creek Canyon where we followed game trails along a ridgeline and then down into the valley.

Then we toured a section of the Hoodoo Trail where we viewed petroglyphs and pictographs hundreds and maybe thousands of years old.  They depict animals, humans, hunting tools and spiritual symbols.

In many places the walls have been vandalized by Canadian Mounties who were stationed there to stop whisky trade and regulate the area Indigenous People, and patrol the nearby U.S.-Canadian boundary.

The park, created in 1957, is 150 miles from Great Falls just east of Milk River and north of the boundary at Coutts, Alberta.

It was my second time to this place and I was even more struck this visit by its awesome beauty, wild nature, and its spiritual and historic significance.


Wednesday, January 03, 2024

Buffalo jump hike, back country ski ushers in 2024

 

The Solstice sunrises are among the best of the year

The Folsom Lake, CA recreation area I hiked daily during our Christmas visit

We welcomed in the new year with a loop hike at First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park

We were amazed to find good snow to ski in the Little Belts

Gordon Whirry and I enjoy a lunch while skiing

The Weatherwax Bowl

We brought in the New Year with a loop hike at the First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park (formerly the Ulm Pishkun) and followed the next day with a back country ski to the base of Grendah Mountain in the Little Belts.

I have some catching up to do here first:  we spent 11 days at Christmas with Katie's folks in Loomis, CA about a five minute walk from Folsom Lake Recreation Area and a national scenic trail.  I used that trail daily while there.

I love this shortest-day-of-the-year time because I see amazing sunrises and sunsets on my neighborhood walks. 

The weather here and in California was unseasonably warm and dry, which made hiking still possible.

That's why I was so surprised when we found pretty good skiing snow just off Kings Hill Pass in Little Belts. There were some icy and bare spots on the 6.2 miles trip to the base of Grendah Mountain.  Many Montana ski areas haven't opened yet because of lack of snow.

Jasmine Krotkov, who lives in Neihart, showed me a trail off the pass I didn't know existed. It's the Snowmobile Trail "G" just north of the big powerline.  It is a direct 1-mile, 525 feet trip to the main north-south road across the Little Belts Ridgeline --- FS Road 251. 

It is a short jaunt south along that road to the connector to the road to Grendah along the north lip of the Weatherwax basin. 

Although just 15 degrees when we started, the sunlight was radiant and the breezes gentle, and we warmed up quickly and even had a nice lunch at the foot Grendah, which was unskiable because it lacks snow.


Saturday, December 16, 2023

No snow, COVID bout slows our hikes

 





I can't remember a time in the past 20 years when I've been so dormant.

Part of it was catching COVID from grandkids at Thanksgiving, but a bigger part is the lack of snow.

Showdown, our local ski area didn't open as scheduled Dec. 12.  Heck, I remember that it used to schedule its opening at Thanksgiving. 

I've had six COVID vaccinations, but they were no match for the kids who sneezed and coughed on us.  My infection lasted only three days after symptoms showed up.  The symptoms were like a mild head cold that started with  throat tickle and caused some fatigue.  It was so mild that I continued to walk every day.  Katie's lasted a week longer than my three days.  No long COVID here.

The lack of snow is worrisome.  Yes, I did get some back country skiing in late October, but I could be climbing right now in the Highwood Mountains.

There have been some dustings of snow in the high country and in our nearby buttes.

We got out this past week to climb the Nature Conservancy's Crown Butte between Simms and Cascade, walking 4.3 miles and gaining just under 2,000 feet.

We walked in gorgeous, clear weather under a bright blue sky which afforded us fabulous views of the Rocky Mountain Front and other buttes like Birdtail, Lionshead, Shaw and Square.

There was about two to four inches of snow on Crown Butte.

I know we've got an El Nino going on, but I hope another winter like 2004-5 is not shaping up.

Stay tuned.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

A (snowy) walk in the park

  

Laurie Lintner and Katie beneath Rising Wolf Mountain

Katie and me at Two Med Lake

On the road from where were parked at Trick Falls.

We're enjoying what are probably the last days of passable Fall.However, the mountains have snow, just not enough to avoid rocks and hunters if you're skiing.

We were lucky enough to have a fairly mild, but windy day to enjoy the Two Medicine Valley of Glacier National Park, walking up the icy road on spikes.

We got to Middle Two Med Lake for fabulous views of Sinopah, Lone Walker, Never Laughs, Apistoki and Rising Wolf Mountains under a clear, deep blue sky.

We enjoyed time at Two Medicine Lake and Pray Lake and then ventured to the North Shore Trail on the advice of Laurie Lintner, our East Glacier Park resident friend, who said we might see a bull moose.

Sure enough, we were treated to a brief close-up view of a one in the willow-wash just off Two Med Lake.  Unfortunately, the encounter was so brief, we couldn't get a photo. 

We spent considerable time examining the numerous animal tracks in the snow before completing our 6-mile roundtrip hike.

What made this day exceptional was that we saw only one other couple in the Trick Falls parking lot, and no one else after the entire day.  This, in a valley that has been overcrowded as the Park Service has pushed tourists away from Going to the Sun Highway, flooding Two Med.

Undoubtedly, the next visits will be on skis.


Monday, October 30, 2023

Abrupt end to Fall warmth; some first turns

Gordon Whirry works his way up Porphyry Peak with the dormant ski lifts below him.

Clear, blue skies made the ski all the more enjoyable

The Porphyry Lookout is framed by snow-laden trees

Yogo Peak has plenty of snow

 After temperatures reaching into the 80s in mid-October, snow and cold descended on us, plunging temperatures as low as zero.

We got about a foot of snow in Great Falls and the mountains got more.

I waited for the snow to settle to have a look, and found some of the best early season snow in the Little Belts I've seen in years.

We went to Kings Hill on Sunday and did the 2-mile climb to the top of Porphyry Peak and enjoyed some wonderful turns back to the pass under crystal clear, blue skies, frigid temperatures and gusty winds.

I resisted the urge to try a tour, like the 747 loop, so it was strictly up and back.

Showdown had done its first grooming on runs.

Here's hoping that will stick around and be built upon with future snowstorms.  Opening day of the ski hill is still 6 weeks off.

We saw only two other people on the hill with AT gear.

There was only a smattering of hunters in the area.  Thank goodness.