I have driven about 5,000 miles this summer, almost all of it in Montana—Big Sky Country. Yes, I have been in places in the state where the horizon is 180 degrees from north to south or east to west, but I can’t help but think that no place is flatter than…
August 11, Tuesday Emerald Creek I left Emerald Creek campground on Wednesday with my aggregate half-ounce of star garnets, but did not stop for the night at the spot on the Potlatch River that I had…
My overnight stops, parking areas, campsites—61 places in 87 days—have varied considerably in amenities, aesthetics, and cost. Quite a few have been free (thank you for our public lands!), the most expensive was $63 and not worth it, but most have been between $25 and $35. At some point, and…
I’m not sure if my observations over the past couple of months have been more external or internal. I have definitely learned a lot about myself—and a lot about Montana and eastern Washington! Maybe a smidgen about human nature, too. I went as far west as I intended to for…
Fire. One of the attributes that is said to have advanced mankind—and, over the last century or so, one of the acts of nature that has foiled us. Until several large and deadly fires at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, fires on forest reserves,…
I’m slowing down. Yes, I am “older” and definitely not as active as I was a few years ago—or even a year ago—but this slowing down is in regard to my hopping around Montana and spending only a single night in most places. Maybe it is the luxury now of…
I was awakened the other morning by the tremolo call of a loon. The campground was on the north side of Dicky Lake and a restricted area for nesting common loons is on the south. And later that afternoon, on the east side of Lake Koocanusa, I listened attentively to the…
June 29, 2015 I’m not sure what has brought on this sense of, well, almost—euphoria; the 20+ degree drop in temperature with the accompanying cool breeze, watching the mammatus clouds and storm moving east across Canyon Ferry Reservoir, surviving yet another unbelievable storm that hit Kairos broadside…
Several significant things happened recently. Not in order of their importance, I’ll mention them here. I saw the first bears I’ve seen this year: a mother black bear and twin cubs of the year. They put on quite a show for the people in the first car in line of…
Today, June 13, I saw mountains for the first time in weeks! Glacier National Park is on the horizon. But before I got here . . . “You drove all the way from Wyoming to go to Writing-on-Stone?” asked the Canadian border guard incredously. I answered that I was just…