Backpacking Uintas

Jolie and I went on a 7-day backpack trip into the Uinta High Wilderness (northern Utah). Spent the whole week between 10,000 and 13,000 ft. The trip started out sunny at the trailhead, unfortunately it didn't stay that way.

Early on the second day one of the numerous storms descended upon us as we headed up to Gunsight Pass (in the distance).

Once we got over Gunsight Pass, the weather cleared for a while - just long enough to find a campsite, have dinner and dive into the tent before a night of hail, rain and lightning.

The next day we hiked over Anderson Pass. Jolie tried to make it to the top of Kings Peak from here (tallest peak in Utah -13,532) but got turned around by nearby lightning 250 feet below the top. That night we got stuck in another storm before camping so went to bed early and had M&Ms for dinner)

Little did we know before the trip that the Uintas are home to several thousand domestic sheep - baaaa. Here are few trying to cross the trail ahead of us

On day 4 we had our first really sunny day - weather stayed pretty good for most of the rest of the trip. Here is a morning shot of the hail that fell on the nearby peaks during the previous evenings storm.

Jolie and Kings Peak - heading back to camp after a day hike

Jolie working off some extra calories before a 9 mile backpack to Lower Red Castle Lake

A view of the valley near Lower Red Castle Lake

Smoky Glacier

Jolie and I spent a weekend in Glacier park to kayak, hike and see her friend Theresa from St. Croix. Unfortunately it was smoky but we still got to kayak Lake Mcdonald, and do a hike to this lake (Upper Quartz Lake), Huckleberry Lookout. We picked over a quart of huckleberries on the hike up to Huckleberry Lookout.

No, its not the start of the apocalypse. This is a view from our camp of a large fire that started while we were out hiking. Fortunately, the fire was far enough away that our campground wasn't evacuated but several others closer to the fire were evacuated

We did see our first backpacking kitty. This guy walked down the beach in front of us with tent and all on his back, and followed by Louie the backpacking kitty - they set up camp a couple hundred yards from us and this Siamese cat followed him and meowed the whole way!  Does anyone remember Toonces the driving cat from Saturday Night Live ?? :)

Grasshopper Glacier hike

Jolie, me and Polgara went to the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness  (near the northeast corner of Yellowstone NP) to hike up to Grasshopper Glacier. It is called grasshopper glacier because a long time ago a swarm of grasshoppers got caught up in a storm and wound up encased in the snow.

The wildflowers were fantastic in late July at this elevation around 9,000'. Fuchsia paintbrush and lupine in this picture

More paintbrush below the outlet of Goose Lake

We did make it to the glacier on this nice day. However, the grasshoppers were about another half mile away and we had already walked over 9 miles, so we enjoyed lunch here and headed back down.

After jolie went home I stuck around the area to do some sampling for work. I got this shot one morning near our camp of Wolverine Peak in the Stillwater basin.

Backpacking SW Montana

Jolie and I backpacked in the Snowcrest Range (south of Ennis) in early July. It really was the end of the road, if you could really call it a road - took us 1-1/2 hours to travel the last 10 miles to this point -- a rough and hard to follow road. We had been warned about mosquitos, but for the most part we didnt have many problems over the next three days.

This was our camp for the first night - wildflowers and great views all to ourselves.

Neither of us remember what Jolie was doing here - dancing, stepping on a bug, trying a new pee method, too much Jagermeister?????

As I said the wildflowers (mostly prarie smoke in this picture) were great. Sunny skies the whole trip too.

Within the first mile of the hike we started seeing bear prints (not sure if a grizzly or black bear), but other than this section we didn't see much evidence of bears.

The view from our first lunch spot as we first got onto the spine of the Snowcrest Range, which we would hike along for the next two days. After this picture the wind picked up and didnt stop till we got off the ridge two days later.

The trail along the crest is marked by these huge cairns (Jolie for scale). Some are just piles of rock like this - others are more elaborate to look like sculptures or small shelters to help get out of the wind.

A view of the Snowcrests - the trail follows the ridge on the left side of the picture.

why are we smiling? Well, besides the beer, we're happy we found a spot to camp - there werent many flat spots around that weren't covered with a pond. We sort of found a flat spot for our tent...

.....Ok, so the picture makes it looks worse than it was - but thanks to my keen sense of  the horizon we wound up sleeping on sideslope instead of our feet facing downhill. I had to sleep in a position where my body didnt want to start rolling downhill. Jolie is happy because she found a prize in the freeze dried dinner (dont tell her it wasnt a prize, just a bag of dessicant to keep the food dry).

Our sunset that night.

On our last morning we woke again to beautiful blue skies and .....

...ICE! Got pretty cold that night. Our water froze and our water filters that are ruined when they freeze also froze (dang). During the trip we saw lots of wildflowers and one fast elk running away or towards something.

Riding Going to the Sun Road

In late June Jolie and I made what is now an annual (4th year in a row) pilgrimage to Glacier National Park to ride Going to the Sun Road before it opens to cars. This is a shot near our campsite of Lake McDonald at sunset. By the way, as I am only getting around to writing this in August, the August fire that burned a bunch of historic cabins this year is right across the Lake from this spot.

We made it to the top - Logan Pass, but for second year in a row the weather wasn't what we had hoped for - no lunch time nap in cold and rainy weather (the rain started just after we took this picture - made for a FUN ride down).

Same day as previous day? Nope, the next day was also rainy as we hiked up to Snyder Lake. We walked through part of the burn area from last years fire that destroyed the Sperry Chalet. 

Hanging Valley Hike

Me, Jolie and Polgara went on spring hike to hanging valley near Helena. The end of the hike saw some a huge tree almost blocking the entrance to the steel gate and lookout over the 1,000 foot cliff to the valley floor (of course I forgot to get a picture of the huge tree). We did run into a forest service crew with chainsaws working on the spring deadfall - when we told them about the huge tree at the end their eyes widened and according to Jolie they were just about drooling in anticipation of getting rid of that tree. Anyways, this is a shot of wild rose about to bloom.

Polgara looks a little sad here, but she was just tired - she, of course, had a blast on a 12 mile hike.

Some bright paintbrush and clematis in the background.

Joan and Sandy's visit

Joan and Sandy came out for a few weeks in the spring - after the cold and before the smoke starts (perfect timing). A group shot in our backyard

Another shot to get the full effect of Ma's outfit - true Montana cowgirl (she's been in Montana nearly 15 years now)

She survived the mosquitos and still kept her appetite when Joan and Sandy took her down to Jackson Wyoming for several days.

Sandy, Jolie and Eric at the top of Mt Helena

We all went to Missoula one Saturday for the farmers market and thrift store shopping (everyone found a treasure). We also tried a new German restaurant in Missoula (Edelweiss Bistro) - excellent beer and German food (great gurkensalat). We didn't get to meet the German owner - Jurgen Knoller - maybe next time.

Jolie's birthday

The night before Jolie's birthday we had a picnic in the woods near helena - a grainy shot with the nearly full moon behind us.

Jolie looking tired (from school) and happy (from cake) on her 51st birthday! 

A great quilt that Ma made for Jolie (notice Jolie's styling birthday hat)

Spring Hike near Helena

Jolie, me and Polgara found a great new hike near Helena called Big Log Gulch. A little dry at first, but eventually get into this nice gulch with a spring-fed stream and tons of wildflowers in May.

Polgara looks sad before the hike as we made her stay in the truck till we were ready to go -- then she became very HAPPY

Some of the great wildflowers on the trail - Pasque. Jolie took this shot with her iphone.

Shooting stars, blue bells, and I think glacier lillies in this shot.

At the top we found one last patch of snow (Polgara loved it) and a great view into Merriweather Canyon (not shown) which burned several years ago.