Fall Hike in the Bob Marshall

Jolie and I spend a fall weekend in the Blackleaf Canyon area on eastern edge of Bob Marshall. Our first camp was perfectly located to see the sun set directly into the canyon (then the wind hit for the next two days - I got hit in the face by the tent multiple times this night as the wind bent the tent over - but we and the tent survived).

The fall colors were at their peak - view of Old Man of the Hills Mtn.

Another old man and Jolie

View up valley of Blackleaf Canyon. Mt Frazier on the right. This area is called Volcano Reef - the rock is an ancient ocean reef. We found seashell (brachiopod) and coral fossils in the rock.

Jolie in the middle of Aspen trees.

Looking down canyon into the narrow portion of Blackleaf Canyon.

 

Hiking near Bozeman

Jolie and I spend a september weekend south of bozeman in Hyalite canyon. This was the view from our cabin - before the smoke set in. Would have had more pictures but the smoke made it difficult.

Jolie on the way up to the saddle below Blackmore Peak.

At Granite Lookout, south of Bozeman

 

Sperry Chalet

After burning down several years ago the Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park re-opened this year. Along with our friends Todd and Suzanne we got lucky and got a cancellation to spend the night in August and had great weather for the trip. Here are Todd and Suzanne on the initial 6 mile hike up to the Chalet.

From the chalet this is the view of the kitchen/dining room and the view behind it. A night at the chalet includes 3 meals - our dinner was prime rib, fresh bread and lemon cake (there was some other healthy stuff in the meal, but I only remember the good stuff) After resting from the 6 mile morning hike we dropped some gear in our rooms and headed up to Sperry Glacier past the ridge in the upper right corner of this picture. Overall, for the day we hiked 13.7 miles with over 5,000 feet of elevation gain.

On the way up to the glacier, great views, cool rocks with lots of geological features (folds, faults etc)

Mountain goats are everywhere near the Chalet and they arent afraid of people.

A young one found something delicious on this rock ... it may have been salt from a tourists pee.

Climbing up to the glacier reveals some surprisingly large lakes like this one.

The view from near the glacier  - a slightly smoky day but still beautiful

Here is the gang, proof we made it up

Near the top of the glacier the trail included these very steep rock steps, fortunately for those of us who aren't mountain goats (Eric in the back), they have a cable to hang on to (the stairs, while helpful, dont meet current construction codes)

Todd and Suzanne on the rock steps

Another mountain goat on the way down.

We got to enjoy this colorful sunset on the cliffs and the burn area below the chalet

Jolie and I on the balcony of our room in the Chalet (thanks Todd/Suzanne). "GNRy" stands for Great Northern Railway

Picture of the new chalet - they did a good job making it look like the original.

Bob Marshall backpack to the North Wall

Jolie and I did a 7 day backpack trip to the north wall in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. We had great weather, no smoke, and completed our longest backpack together (65 miles). Here we are on the first day (the only bad weather morning of the trip) heading up our first 2,000 foot high pass of the trip.

Pretty waterfall below Headquarters Creek Pass

100 feet below Headquarters Creek Pass.

On the other side of headquarters creek pass (far right side of picture). Comming down from the pass was only really strong wind we experienced during the whole trip.

A major score on our first day - found a patch of huge strawberries (huge for wild strawberries) - tasted good on our chocolate dinner dessert.

Bridge over North Fork Sun River - read the sign. Telephone polls in the wilderness?? It evidently wasnt that wild before it got designated a wilderness

No telephone polls here, or trees. One of the burn areas we hiked through. This is along Red Shale Ck. Good thing about burn areas is you can see for miles ... on a hot day the bad thing is no shade. 

Didnt see the black bear that made these prints

Our first view of the north wall - the focal point of this trip. The north wall is 10-15 mile long limestone cliff that is beautiful. Our plan was to camp in this meadow and have this view, but another party with horses beat us here. We didnt want to camp near horses so we headed down the trail a bit to a less scenic but still nice spot.

Sunrise on the north wall near our second camp.

Hiking along the north wall on day 3 on our way to Lake Levale, our 3rd straight day10 mile+ day with 2,000+ feet of elevation gain

More views of the north wall

more north scenery

We saw thousands of gentian flowers during the week.

Lake Levale, our destination on day 3. We spent two nights here to have time to explore and rest up.

On our "rest day" we hiked up to the continental divide to an unnamed pass. We saw two marmots chasing each other at the top so we named it Marmot Pursuit Pass. Lake Levale where we camped is visible at the base of the north wall towards the top of the picture.

After lunch and a nap, we couldnt muster the energy to stand up for a selfie, so here is relaxed selfie (day 4)

Jolie trying to avoid the hassle of taking boots off to cross a stream and instead balancing on shallow rocks.

We stayed in Round Meadow for our 5th night. It is in the middle of a burn area that didnt look so pretty at first, but it was actually a very nice site. Near sunset, the color of the grasses and the burned trees made for a very nice photo.

It was a pretty camp, but it was in the bottom of the valley and it was a very calm and clear night. We woke to 28 degrees. That is ice on our boots from the dew on the grass freezing on our boots.

Day 7, first thing we had to do was take off our boots and cross that freezing cold creek before we warmed up and headed to Route Creek Pass.

As we were just about to crest Route Creek Pass, Lonesome Ridge on the other side just looked so huge (it was) - made for a good picture showing the scale of the landscape

Day 7 was sunny but hot - here is a cool moment several miles before we got back to the car. To make the heat worse - the last 2 miles of trip was along a dirt road with no shade and dust as cars drove past us - sorry no pictures of the dusty road.

A birthday, a (fast) car, and a road trip

A bit out of chronological order, but in 2019 Jolie got me the best birthday present (OK, my own snowcat and skihill would be better, but sticking to reality here): 500 horsepower of Stuttgart fun - a Porsche Cayenne Turbo ... for 3 days!! We took off from Jackson, WY and drove 250 miles through Teton and Yellowstone National Park to spend a few nights at a nice rental house in Red Lodge, MT. On the way we did (ooops did not) break any speed limits. But I can tell you this thing has some giddy-up in its giddy-up.

Here we are at the top of the Beartooth Pass on the way to Red Lodge on a cloudy and foggy day. The return trip was sunny and since we left at sunrise we had the beartooth highway to ourselves - scared myself a few times entering corners!!

Here we are at the start of our hike up to Mary Lake, beautiful lake in Beartooth-Absaroka Wilderness. Saw a Moose next to trail on the way down - fortunately a horse party came by and scared off the Moose otherwise we may have been stuck behind the moose for a while.

Mary Lake

Just an amazing large (8-10" across) colorful mushroom on the trail.

On the way home we had good light so I had Jolie practice for her next career as either a Jagermeister Girl or a Porsche Girl

On the beartooth highway with some fog

Yes, I packed a T-REX suit for this photo shoot in front of the tetons on the way back to Jackson.