Clear Skies, Searching for Water (SkyWatch Friday)

A few cool, rainy days took care of our smoky skies here in SW Montana. The rains did not extinguish the forest fires, but made them "lay down". Soon enough, snow will truly put them to rest. I've been roaming the hills with a bow, for which "elk hunting" serves as a reasonable excuse to visit pretty places:

And watch the sun set as I sit out on a forlorn ridge until it grows dark, then hike two miles back/1,000 feet down to the truck (by headlamp), hoping I don't step on one of those rattlesnakes I heard buzz in the sagebrush on the way up:

Hmmm... deer or elk antler? It looks like a white-tailed buck's shed, but that would be rare in this mule deer country. The mice have reclaimed most of it:

Using binoculars from the ridge, I spied a likely place below tree-line where the critters might find water on this high desert--a little closer than the creek near where I parked. A few days later, I hiked back to check this place out. It's a natural spring, and the rancher who holds grazing rights on this public BLM land has fenced it to keep cattle out & to collect the water:

The captured water then flows through a buried pipe to a stock-watering tank. Unfortunately, the hoped for pool of water was not to be found in the bone-dry stock tank:

However the water did find its way to the surface in a nearby seep. Judging from the tracks, it seems to be well used by the bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, and -- yes -- elk that live here:

Most of the bighorn sheep died off here a decade ago thanks to pneumonia transmitted by domestic sheep. So I was happy to see that, at least on this corner of the high prairie, they seem to be doing OK as these eight ewes & lambs will attest:

Every wild sheep family seems to consist of ewes, kids, and at least one wildlife biologist. Several of the animals in this herd word tracking collars so the biologists can find them:

Oh yes, where the deer and the antelope play. No far from where I parked along a creek was this group of "speedgoats":

We are blessed with abundant public land here in Montana:

Sometimes, I think people try to discourage others from using "their" spot, as with this old home-scrawled sign on a distant ridge that is, according to my map, public land:

A friend and outdoor writer, Bill Watt was here for a new magazine piece he's working on and provided a good excuse to take a day off for some fishing (weather has been too warm for good elk hunting anyway). Here's Bill on the Big Hole River, releasing one of several fluvial Arctic grayling we caught:

Despite what Mrs Rover might tell you, I do more than hunt and fish (and work). Fridays, at least, are set aside for social time at the Quarry Brew Pub. They're moving to a bigger & better location, so we gathered with friends to say good bye to the old place:

Lyza Schnabel (she and her brewer husband Chuck own the place) worked the taps:

And we became part of the "spill over" crowd on the front sidewalk (Butte America has no "open container law"):

Quarry closed, the following Friday found us at Julian's Piano Bar. Wonder of wonders, it's an iron-framed building (built as a 1-story structure in 1900, upper floors added c. 1910):

You can tell it's an iron frame by knocking on the prominent supports. That or by reading the label on one of them:

Weather continues unseasonably warm most days (highs in the 80s) with the occasional cool day slipped in just to keep us on our toes (with jackets handy). Some morning, though, we'll wake to see snow on the ridges that surround town. As a hunter, I'm ready for the changing of the season, but these warm late summer-like days are sweet.