Storm Lake (8,200 ft.) to Goat Flats (9,200 ft.)

Late September, and the weather is still holding, so after stretching our legs yesterday along a 5 mile stretch of the Continental Divide just outside Butte, we drove up to Storm Lake.

The weather was cold (0 Celsius) but clear as we started from the Lake.  As we got underway we saw a Great Northern Diver in flight for the first time--a good omen.

Even better, the larches were in peak Fall color. It was almost 3 years ago that we traveled to Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies to see them--how nice to now have them in our back yard.

And it's a BIG back yard. Luckily the trail was in brilliant shape and the weather held.

As we reached the pass just at the tree line, we started to run into some snow, but we forged on. . .

 . . . and were rewarded with a beautiful u-shaped glacial valley . . .

. . . and yet more snow as the landscape turned to alpine tundra.

Even more than 4 miles in, the Pintlar wilderness goes on and on. Lots of peaks to bag in summer! 

The Last Best Place

It was almost 100 degrees when we landed at SLC, so we held out little hope of relief from the Florida head we had endured in August. But our luck was about to change, beginning with randomly running into our friend and colleague from MN and NZ, Loree, at the airport. 

It was still sweltering when we pulled up the driveway in Warm Springs. . . but what a driveway!

Even better, a cool front came through, and brought Autumn with it. And Fall means migration, so we loaded the spotting scope into Babe and drove one whole mile to the Arco ponds, where we saw buffleheads, horned grebe, blue teal, common and hooded mergs, goldeneye, scaup, gadwall, wigeon and redheads. Oh yeah, we also saw a herd of 200 elk on the hills just behind.

One of our favorite local trails is Lost Creek, which closes during the winter, which is too bad because it would be an absolutely amazing backcountry ski--last winter, we drove out to it the night before the park closed and saw mountain lion tracks.

Another favorite is Thomson Park in Butte, which is an absolute gem. We were accompanied by our friend, Milan, on the 7 mile hike to Blacktail. Below is the view from the Beaver Ponds trail lookout back towards Mt. Haggin.

 

Venturing back across the Great Divide, we visited Lewis & Clark Caverns Park, where we saw two new birds, Townsend's warbler and Cassin's vireo. The photo below was taken from Greer Gulch lookingsothwest towards the Jefferson River valley and Tobacco Root mountains. 

Sailing the Bay of Islands

The Sensation, a 34 foot sloop designed by Bruce Farr and built in 1986.

We were fortunate to have the company of Loree and Kevin, good friends from Minnesota days who have made the shift to Aorearoa as we have.
















After getting a feel for the boat on open water, we headed to Motuarohia Island for a swim in Cook Inlet and lunch. This was the first of many encounters with the super-yacht Evviva, equipped with its own helicopter, and which we had spotted in Wellington Harbour a few weeks earlier. 

After another quick sail, we found a secluded little bay on Urupukapuka Island, which is free of pests. It is full of bird life, including rare hihi and tieke, the latter of which we could hear from the boat. A dip in the clear, warm water was followed by a walk on the island, including a visit to a cliff top pa site. That night, we watched in awe as the Milky Way filled the cloudless sky above, then fell asleep serenaded by morepork.

The next morning, we visited a little sail-in restaurant on the opposite end of the island, where we stopped for a snack and fed the snapper leftovers from the dock.

We spent the next two nights in Okie bay, where little blue penguins and gannets fished the waters around us. In between, we headed out to the iconic hole in the rock, a rollicking blue water sail in a 20 knot Southerly, which continued to howl through the night. After a bit of rain and a few squalls, the weather settled into a fine Fall pattern for the remainder of the trip. The gentler Southeasterly breeze allowed us to sail the entire length of Rawhiti Inlet under the jib on a single reach. Rounding back into Opuia, we passed the historic Waitangi Treaty grounds.

December in Montana, then moving on . . .

One of the more important aspects of maintaining an obscure, happy life is to have "wellness bulwarks." By this, we mean multiple layers of good habits, such as good sleep, healthy diet and multiple forms of physical activity. From time to time, major life transitions will transiently compromise one of these, but having the others to fall back on keeps us from getting over stressed (or alerts us that we are at risk). For the past year, these habits have been especially important-- as we have since May moved from our Minneapolis loft to temporary digs in Lowertown St. Paul, then to a new home in Florida, quickly on to Montana then finally back to New Zealand. 

But back to bulwarks--one of which is physical activity. Because we had to abandon our well established gym routine, we relied primarily upon "snuggling 'round", whether it be through new local neighborhoods and parks in spring and summer, up hills on trips or through the skyways in winter. And so the graphic below represents this year's "bulwark" of steps, one stretching 1750 miles, almost enough to get us from Minneapolis to Mexico City, and more than enough altitude to get us there! The flights climbed would have been Denali at least twice. 

Happily, we have jettisoned this bulwark, as we are skiing, snow shoeing and skating our butts off here in MT, and have lots of excellent physical activities to resume when we arrive back home in Welly next month. 

But it is Christmas, and so little indulgences such as eggnog and Christmas cookies need not be turned away, but instead downsized--like our Xmas tree.

What has not been downsized is our joy in exploring the world around us. Montana has felt like home this winter, and so we'd like to share and remember the things we have experienced this magical month.

The bluffs above Lost Creek trail, Anaconda MT

The vista from MacDonald Pass, outside Helena

The Montana Hotel in Anaconda, waiting to be restored to its former glory.

Warm Springs valley at sunset

The view east from our cabin.

Bighorn, just outside Anaconda

Dawn from our kitchen window

Swan River, Big Fork MT

Lion Mountain trail, Whitefish MT

Herd of elk between Anaconda and Butte

View from bridge on trail in Thompson State Park, Butte MT

Richard "relaxing" after long snowshoe at Thompson SP

Hoarfrost in Butte

Thanksgiving at Rock Creek

The long Thanksgiving weekend gave us an opportunity to explore the Rock Creek area. We stayed at the Ranch at Rock Creek, a luxurious take on the dude ranch theme. Unfortunately, the Arctic decided to visit as well, and the -18 degree temperatures left us thankful for our cold weather gear, which was put to good use. 

Although the cold weather put the kybosh on our planned horseback riding and fly fishing excursions, we kept busy climbing the nearby hills and fat biking in the valley.

And it's a good thing we stayed active, because the food was simply amazing. The 7 course Thanksgiving meal was a magnificent coma-inducing feast, and topped off with a spot-on flat white from Gareth, who hails from Johnsonville, just outside of Wellington. Small world!

The following morning, we headed back into the frost to work off a small fraction of the calories, capturing these dramatic photos along the way.

We started at Moose Lake, essentially following deer paths and fence lines through the expansive fir and lodge pole pine forests.

We then moved on to the East Fork reservoir, skiing along the shore as a flock of Clark's Nutcrackers chatted in the treetops and the lake made eerie whooshing sounds as it froze.

All in all, we have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Early Winter in Montana

Kristen finally arrived in Warm Springs from St. Paul in early November, by which time the hills had begun to accumulate snow, although there were still plenty of fair days down in the valley.

We explored the expanse of DNR land that surrounds the eponymous Warm Spring, pictured above and below.

The first of many hoar frosts at dawn, below.

We have grown quite fond of Butte, a town of real grit and hidden charms, especially in the historic Uptown area.

When the snows finally came in earnest, we were glad that we had brought our skis, snow shoes and crampons along.

Our first hike was up to Ringing Rocks, which chime when struck. We were accompanied by Milan Patel, one of the other doctors at Warm Spings.

I think the photo below is one of our favorites, as it captures the austere beauty we see from our nearby bungalow every day, looking West across the valley as the morning light hits Anaconda and Mt. Hagin.

Other late fall adventures included many runs ins with moose, including this bloke along the Rock Creek road.

We have been to Thompson Park just outside of Butte several times now, and it may have surpassed Cheyenne's Curt Gowdy as our favorite "city" park. It has over 3,000 acres of dense wilderness that acts as a snow trap, and the drive through the park along MT 2 is among the most scenic around.

The 4.5 mile Milwaukee trail includes 2 rail tunnels, a 600 foot long trestle bridge (below) and, of course, the occasional moose.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we visited Missoula and did some climbing in the Pattee Canyon recreation area, which is covered with imposing Ponderosa pines.

We also discovered this amazing lake and relation area (below) quite literally just across the highway from us, which we will definitely revisit soon.