Having fun in the snow!

Currently we are freezing our buns here in central Montana, but 7 days ago it wasn't single digits or negative values on the Fahrenheit temperature scale.  Last Tuesday we got dumped on with snow.  I was fortunate enough to re-arrange my schedule so that I could get some snow-sliding in.  Granted the rest of the week was hell as I pushed all my work around that snow sliding but when mother nature hands you an opportunity, you have to jump on it.

I'm glad I went up when I did because right after the storm that dumped all that wonderful fresh snow a cold air mass moved over central Montana and we haven't had temps above zero degrees Fahrenheit for 5 days.  I don't mind cold but -14 deg. F is ridiculous.

This week is finals week and my big class doesn't have finals until Friday.  I'm hoping to sneak up to the hill at least once sometime before Friday.  In the meantime enjoy these vids from snowy and cold Montana.

Getting out and doing some exploring

How's it going folks!  The snowboarding season has not started yet and I'm chomping at the bit!  I guess I got spoiled in Colorado when a lot of places opened up before Halloween.  Here in Montana I have to wait until after Thanksgiving.  

Well in order to pass the time.  I got my butt off of the couch and did some hiking and exploring yesterday.  I went into the Pryor Mountains south of Billings.  The landscape was wild.  During my trip I saw multi-colored quasi-desert areas.  I saw deep canyon lands and even some area that reminded me of my native Idaho.

Driving into the Pryors from the south west is interesting because of the abrupt transition from grassland to mountains.

Once I left the flat grassy areas, the topography of the land became a bit more interesting.

The first road I drove on was designated as a 4 wheel drive road.  I didn't feel like beating up my truck too much so I parked it and walked up the ridge.  I wanted to get some exercise anyway.

As a bonus I could really check out stuff with the binoculars and camera.  You cover more area driving but you miss a lot of stuff that you can easily investigate by walking.

Here is a picture of Red Lodge Mountain from near the top of Big Pryor Mt.  I think this picture was taken facing west (maybe a smidge north).

After my walk I did some more driving.  It kind of sucked because there were some more features I wanted to investigate but I wanted to "loop" the Pryors and was running out of daylight.  However, I couldn't resist pulling off the road and snapping a few pictures though.

Bored

Hey y'all how are things out there?  Up here in Montana we are kind of in the "dog days" of fall.  Not much is going on.  It is still hunting season but I haven't gone out much.  Compared to western Montana, the central part of the state has a lot of private land.  As a result the public lands are crawling with hunters.  I imagine in those areas the animals have high tailed it out of there.  If I did get an elk or a deer I would have to rent out some freezer space or something because we do not have a second freezer.

I went back home to visit with the folks and do some bird hunting a few weeks ago (deer and elk season hadn't opened yet).  As far as grouse hunting goes it was awesome!  I think I saw more birds on that visit than I had in a long time, probably since the time we lived in Idaho.  On the second day of hunting I shot my bag limit before lunch.  It's been a long time since I've done that.  It was so much fun I'm going to try to go back for some more bird hunting after I turn in final grades for the fall semester.

Our local ski hill hasn't opened up yet and there isn't quite enough snow yet to go cross country skiing. I tried fishing a few weeks ago and got skunked.  Sigh... I just gotta be patient before I know it the snow will be here and I'll be able to do some sliding down the mountain.  Maybe to pass the time I could bake a few of Grandma Prescott's fruitcakes.  I'll get some cherry brandy and soak them real good.

I hope all y'all are having a good time and are ready for the cold short days ahead.

another fire.

In case you have heard there is another fire by Yarnell. It is about 6 miles east of Yarnell, 7 miles north of Stanton and about 12 miles south of Wilhoit.
The fire at Yarnell started on the other side of the mountain from Yarnell on BLM land and when it burned over the mountain close to Yarnell, fire departments from 3 different towns tried to put it out but were stoped by the BLM. They said let it burn itself out. They never even tried to stop it. When the winds picked up, ( like they always do here) the fire was unstopable. Results of BLM policy was 19 dead fire fighters and almost 100 homes lost.

The new fire is in wilderness area much more rugged than by Yarnell. A good portion of it leased to ranchers for grazing. 800 acres yesterday.
Phillip and I went down to the river yesterday. This spot only 6 miles or so as the crow flies from the fire that is on the other side of the mountain so we couldn't see it. What we did see was tankers comming to fill up from the river where we sat. Fire trucks from as far away as Pheonix, USFS mobile bathrooms, mobile kitchens, porta-potties, many many USFS vihicles pulling trailers with big off road rigs on them, military tank trucks with loaded with desiel, Gas tank trucks, law enforcement, USFS fire trucks, buses loaded with fire fighters, one of the biggest trackhoes I have ever seen, plus a lot of vehicles we didn't quite make out because they went across the bridge and not down across the river at the crossing for vehicles over 10 ton where we were. We didn't get to soak our feet but we did see a lot of stuff that was never used at the Yarnell fire. Makes one wonder why here? There are some big ranches not far from the fire but the only town
is across the river on this side and Stanton on the other side. Maybe the BLM had a change of heart? Who knows. Looks like maybe rain today. looked that way yesterday too but none here, just at Prescott. I have heard thunder in the distance already so need to get off the puter.
















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Gettin' off of my bum and doin' some hiking!

Hey Family how it is going out there?  Things are going okay with me but I can't wait to get back to Montana.  I put together a proposal to do some research at NREL this summer and got funded so I've been hanging out in Colorado for the past 8 weeks or so (two more to go!).

I figured that since I'd be in Colorado for 10 weeks that I would try to get some hiking in.  I've uploaded some of my favorite pics from my outings this summer.

This pic of the highway that connects Idaho Springs and Evergreen, CO.  This picture was taken on my hike to Chief Mountain.

I don't know the name of this lake but it was taken on my hike to Colorado Mines Peak.

Here is a picture of Abyss Lake.  This lake sits in the bottom of a cirque that separates two of Colorado's 14'ers, Mt. Evans and Mt. Bierstad.

The next three images are from the Longs Peak hike I did yesterday.  Longs Peak is a 14'er and the hike is about 15 miles long (if you take the keyhole route) with over 4K elevation gain.

This is the meadow leading up to the boulder field.

This image shows the last bit of the boulder field and the keyhole.

This is the "home stretch" which is the last scramble up to the summit.  This thing is a real steep sombetch.  This is not a place where you want to loose your footing.

Here is one of the views from the top of Longs Peak.

It was good to get out and do some hiking but I gotta tell ya, my outings this summer made me appreciate Montana that much more.  Sure the mountains in CO are bigger but they are also waaaaay more crowded.  In Montana, you'll find popular hiking spots that have mostly filled parking lots at the trailhead but not totally filled.  When I hiked Longs Peak I had to parallel park way downhill from the lot.  Then driving home the traffic was insane.  Most of my hikes this summer were the same.  I thought "gee whiz, I go up to the mountains and hike to get away from the crowds, not immerse myself in them."  On interstate 70 during the weekends the traffic is worse than downtown Denver, no joke.  I guess the upshot is that at least if you stuck in traffic in the mountains you can turn off your engine; pull out the binoculars and scope for mountain goats rather than look at parking lots and buildings.

The fire.

Just to let you all know, Phillip and I are safe and sound.  The fire came within 10 miles of our place. The wind shifted and we got the first rain we have had in the last 90 days. Not a lot, but enough for the firefighters to get a handle on the fire. They got it out yesterday. 19 firefighters lost their lives and over 200 homes were burned in Yarnell and Peoples Valley. Until we get a lot more rain the fire danger remains extremely high. The temps have been in the triple digits for the past 2 weeks here and longer down below on the desert. We were prepared to evacuate, and will keep things ready til we get rains. We had the coldest winter on record for a long time this winter and now one of the hottest. Can't win for losing. Must be do to "Global Warming".Ha!       That's my story and I'm stickin to it. Fight back spam! Download the Blue Frog. http://www.bluesecurity.com/register/s?user=ZGFpc3lkZXczMzAyNDM5Mw%3D%3D

Down at the river.

Wild columbine.

Wild Locust.

Penstemmons.

Road trip to NW Montana

Howdy y'all!  I got back a couple of days ago from a road trip to visit the folks.  After our graduation ceremony and I turned in the final grades I thought "I'm outta here!"  So I hit the road bound for Noxon, MT.  On the way up I got a chance to visit with Uncle Dave.  It was cool to see his art.  He has some really cool stuff cut out and polished.  

After talking to Dave I drove the last leg of my journey and arrived at Ma & Pa's place.  The first few days after I got there the weather was pretty good, so Dad and I went fishing for bluebacks at a small lake between Libby and Kalispell.  The fishing was awesome and we caught our limit.

After that first outing we did some work on a woodshed that Dad wanted to build and after a few days of doing that we went out for more fishing.  I had my doubts if we were going to catch our limit again, but sure enough we came back with another maxed out limit.

I think it would have been a tad greedy to go up for a third trip and limit out, so we worked on the woodshed some more.  After some hard work we had the walls completed and rafters nailed in place.  Dad still has to install a metal roof and some bracing, but when it is finished hopefully it will be a dry place to store firewood for years to come.

This video is for Dave.  He said that he liked my previous post about snowboarding a few years ago, so I thought I would upload another.  This video was taken at Bridger Bowl ski area north of Bozeman, MT.

Arizona isn't all desert.

 This is a massive aligator juniper. I'm standing at the side of it.

 This is taken from the front of it. Phillip and I together couldn't even stretch our arms accross the front. Biggest tree i've seen since the redwoods in Oregon.

Wild flowers of some kind.

Phillip has started the garden.  There were some volunteer potatoes, carrots and chard that came up already, so hopefully the frost is over. He put in radishes and beets so far and a few sprouted potatoes to fill out the row of volunteers.  I had hollyhocks along the back of the garden spot but they came up all over the place so he has been killing them off before they take over.  They were fine til he expanded the garden spot.

So many of the snow-birds have gone back up north so there was a whole lot of produce at the senior center this time.  The old-folks each got a whole flat of strawberries, thats 8 quart boxes, and a whole 4# bag of yellow bell peppers, a flat of tomatoes on the vine and a bag of onions.  Even after keeping some for friday lunch there was enough left for the volunteers to each get a flat of tomatoes, strawberries, peppers and onions.  Phillip has been canning stewed tomatoes and strawberry jam. Stuff like that don't happen too often.  Once in a while there might be a few potatoes,cabbage or lettuce left over to get.  Most times it's bread or bagles.

Phillip came in while I was writing this and wants to play a game.  So til next time.
Granny.

Rock, rock and more rocks.

This is some blue oolitic agate that Phillip found on one of his hikes.

This is some calcite crystals he found in a vug in the sidewall of the creek bank. Otherwise known as dogtooth spar.

This is some oolitic calcite that has oozed out of the bedrock.  It is covered with a crust of druzzy quarts. Really sparkles but you can't see it in the picture.

Spring has sprung.

What a hassle.

Since Christmas I haven't been able to get the blog dashboard to come up.  It was a post by Jake that I linked up to for a comment that let me access the blog to post this.  I did email a post but didn't know if it went in or not.  This new format has screwed me up royally.  I had to wait 7 minutes for this dashboard to show up.  Usually I could wait 20 minutes and it still wouldn't show.  Any way I have bookmarked this create a post page so maybe I can get back on again. I'm goint to try and post a few pictures next and see what happens.

You were not joking Uncle Dave!

I just got back from a little driving 'adventure'.  Yesterday I got caught up on all my work and had nothing planned for today.  I give lectures on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and on Thursdays I have lab.  Tuesday is typically my "get caught up on everything" day.  Rarely do I have my act together enough to take a Tuesday and spend it goofing off.  However, today I have my work done so I took a 'goofing off' day.

I thought I would go for a drive and explore the Little Snowy Mountain Nat. Forest north of Billings.  We have been getting a few flurries and some cold weather but I thought that the roads north of us would be fine as all the severe weather reports have indicated that the bad weather was to the south.  The snow has not been accumulating here in Billings so I figured it wouldn't be that different in the Little Snowy Mts. as they are not that high in elevation nor not that far north of us.

The drive started out great.  Then I hit a little snow but not much.  However, as I drover deeper and deeper into the hills the snow got deeper and deeper.  The road had sections with 6 inch ruts which got to be 12 to 18 inch ruts.  Every time I felt 'the panic' and thought I should turn around the road would level and and be hard flat gravel.  This pattern of "ohhh.. crap    then      ahhh... this ain't nuthin" went on for about 10 miles.  Then I hit a bad patch but I thought "ahhh just around the bend it will get better."  It didn't and 'the panic' began to set in again.  By this time though I had driven in far enough to think "If I turn around now then I will have to drive through all that bad crap to get back, it will probably be easier to just keep going."  As I drove the road got worse and I thought this is some sick "Patrick McManus insanity."  Ohhhh just one more quarter mile it will get better!  I pondered how pissed I was going to be if the road dead ended.

This picture doesn't do the road justice.  It looks pretty tame, but it had me worried.

I wouldn't be typing this if I hadn't of made it out of there, but the forest service roads in central Montana are no joke.  They can be nice and easy for miles and just randomly turn into soupy rutted crap in an instant.  Maybe I'll have to try sometime in late summer, maybe they do some maintenance and make it better during the summer months.  Or maybe next time I'll bring my hiking shoes and next time I hit crap, I'll park it and get out and hoof it.  Yeah Dave, you warned me about roads in Montana and now I know what you were saying. At the time I thought "psssshaaa! I've driven roads from Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado I can handle anything Montana has for me."  Yeah, one major difference between Montana (at least central MT) and any other places I have been is that typically if a road is bad, it will be bad from the get-go.  In central Montana you are lured in by a few miles of pristine road, then it turns into a mire of horrendous treachery. 

Confused

Date: Friday, March 29, 2013, 11:06 AM Subject:  Confused                       I  became confused when I heard the word "Service" used  with these agencies: Internal Revenue 'Service' U.S.  Postal 'Service' Telephone 'Service' Cable  TV 'Service' Civil 'Service' State,  City, County & Public 'Service' Customer 'Service' This  is not what I thought 'Service' meant. But  today, I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them said  he had hired a bull to 'Service' a  few cows. BAM!!! It  all came into focus. Now I understand what all those  agencies are doing to us. I  hope you are now just as enlightened as I  am.     --