"All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it." H.L. Menken

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

high times on the high line.

A weekend trip to visit Sarah's G-ma in Havre gave us some extra time to explore an often over looked portion of the state: the High Line. Sure the region is flatter than marble countertop, and solely contains a series of identical towns spaced evenly along the railroad tracks, but I'de be lying if i claimed that I did not have a good time. Here are some pics.


The mighty Milk River valley.


The Bearpaw Mountains... I imagine this is how the Scottish highlands look.


The great white buffalo. Ft. Belknap Reservation.


The Great Northern.


Silos. Chester MT.


Lone Pronghorn.


The Rocky Mountain Front i.e. The Backbone of the World. As seen from the Blackfeet Reservation outside Browning MT.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Bushwacking and Micro Beer

Graduation week for UM proved to be a good excuse to escape the forest boondoggles and south for a weekend of debauching and civilization. After being reunited with a handful of friends, and then inevitably getting shwilly (wish I'd had the camera then) Sarah and I decided hike off our hangovers. We headed to the Welcome Creek Wilderness in the Sapphires. The guide book warned us the nettles would be bad and the trail swampy. I thought we were tough... not so much


Indiana Jones Bidge.


Lickin' snakes does not give the same effect as toads... bummer.


Butterfly... I guess spring is sort of kind of finally here.


Fungal Jungle


Working man blues.


Gold miners cabin from the late 1800's. Way back in the boonies.


Mordor


Bighorn sheep.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Sunsets with Justin Beaver


Last Rays. Huckleberry Mt. in the for ground, the Livingston Range behind.


Beaver in pond at sun down.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Bowmania

After weeks of marginal conditions, and soggy weather Drew (a fellow Big Creeker) and myself decided that rainstorms be damned, we were going into the park. With heavy snow above 5,000' however, this was difficult. After scouting around for a cool trip we decided on Bowman lake. Normally Bowman, can be driven to via an eight mile long single lane dirt road, however the road is closed due to heavy snows at mile 4. So we threw mountain bikes and snowshoes in the back of my truck, and headed to the trailhead in Polebridge.

The main pull of Bowman is the high concentration of wildlife. The Bowman drainage is reputed to be the favorite spring grounds for the North Forks wolves and also (like everywhere in the North Fork) contains great grizzly bear habitat. We were not disappointed on either account. 15 minutes into our bike ride on a steep downhill section, we actually rode into the middle of a wolf hunt. The whitetail deer should send us his regards as the wolves fled as soon as they spotted us. Still, we were within 50 yards of a wolf mid hunt... Epic. Later in the day we watched a fully grown griz harass a herd of elk in a meadow below us, and rounded things out by watching a black bear and its cubs hang out 70' up in an old cottonwood. Oh, yea... Bowman lake was pretty cool itself as well.


Juvenile griz track.


Wolf track. These were literally everywhere.


A view of the North Fork from the ridge.


Bowman lake.