Backpack Trip: Many Miles Lakes

Year 'round from my home in Walkerville or college where I work in Butte, Montana, I can look west to the peaks of the Pintler Wilderness and daydream about the places we backpack. Though I've been to each ridge, peak, and valley a number of times and am working on filling in a few remaining blank spots on the map, I never tire of visiting these places. As friend Dave Carter and I (with Molly- and Jack-the-Dog of course) dropped into the Many Miles Lakes cirque, looking across the valley and seeing the craggy ridge was like saying "hi" to an old friend:

The cirque is dotted with Alpine Larch (Larix lyalli) that mark the top of the treeline along the Continental Divide. I love the fragrant, elegant, soft needles that turn gold and fall off in autumn:

Though not a hot day, our hard working pack-dogs were happy to find the snowdrifts around the lower lake:

We intended to camp at the next lake up in the hanging valley, but the snow got deeper and deeper and we turned around when it was above our knees:

After making camp, Molly-the-Dog & I hiked up to the next lake, undeterred by the brief rain shower:

Yep, that's ice on the lake--still about half-frozen:

At the lake's edges, Marsh Marigolds (Caltha leptosepala) bloomed:

At the edges of melting snowdrifts, Glacier Lillies (Erythronium grandiflorum) bloomed:

Fishing was good, and I soon had a few trout to go with our antelope steaks (Montana surf & turf). Note that the middle trout is a rainbow-cutthroat hybrid:

Hiking back down to camp, we found sprouts of False Hellebore (Veratrum veride). A very toxic plant, Indians poisoned arrows with it and allegedly even drinking water where Hellebore grows will make you ill:

Around the trailhead, at a much lower elevation than the lakes, the Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax) is budding up:

And where there be Beargrass, there be bears (claw marks where a black bear had climbed this aspen tree):

Also near the trailhead on dry ground was Pygmy Bitterroot (Lewisia pygmaea):

And Springbeauties (Claytonia lanceolata):

At a lovely spring near the trailhead (where we stashed some cold beers as a welcome post-hike treat), there was Trapper's Tea (Ledum grandulosum):

And White Bog Orchids (Habernaria dilatata):

Driving down 10 miles of Forest Service road to the highway, we discovered a warmer clime of sagebrush with blooms of Sticky Geraniums (Geranium viscosissimum):

Heartleaf Arnica (Arnica cordifolia):

Back in town, we prepared for a weekend of Independence Day fireworks madness. In addition to a big municipal display, fireworks sales are largely unregulated in Butte. Rockets light up our little city a few hours every night the week of July 4th (Bruce Newman/Montana Standard photo; the red object on the left is a mining "gallows frame"):

Happy Birthday, America!