Hiking the Montana Hills

No time this week for a backpacking trek, but there's always time for a day in the hills. I've often looked at, but never visited, a little (9,100 feet or so) peak along the Continental Divide that overlooks my favorite elk hunting spot, a ridge where I've killed four or five bulls over the years (view of "Elk Mountain" from "Richard Peak"):

After an hour plus of driving on a bad Forest Service road (we had to stop and use the bow saw to clear the route of blowdown a few times), MollyTheDog and I were happy to be hiking. It's late summer. Lewis's Monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii) is giving us a last hurrah:

In the meadows, the False Hellebore (Veratrum viride, a very poisonous plant--Indians used it as suicide medicine) is blooming:

As is the Elk Thistle (Cirsium scariosum, a native edible plant that was an important "starvation food" for lost explorers):

Butterflies are making the next generation before the Reaper takes care of the current one:


After visiting the peak and coursing along an arc of lower hills that leads to Elk Mountain, we were ready for lunch. With good timing, we crossed a meadow offering water and Bog Gentian (Gentiana calycosa, the iridoid glycosides and perhaps alkaloids in its leaves and roots make a delightful tea, if you like bitter concotions):

A pot of water set on a dingle stick to boil:

Lunch! Gentian tea (with green tea), bread, and cheese:

A pleasant nap, listening to the Whiskey Jack People (aka Gray Jays) tell a story (see subsequent SkyWatch post), and we were ready for the hike back to the truck.