Given the ability to ski anywhere, trails at The Moulton are merely a suggestion. Still, it was nice to run a "trifecta" one morning on the area's greatest trails--Buzzy, Big Nipper, and Yankee Boy:
The good base makes for easy travel on Big Flat (aka "Moonlight Flat"), with great views to my little city of Butte and to the Pintler Mountain Range:
Big Flat is a fun place to skate ski, although I can't keep it up too long on my heavy "back country" Fischer E99s:
A small ridge north of Cabin Meadow has open terrain and a slope just right for my downhill ability. Note the darker green, Douglas-fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii ) on the upper slope vs. the lighter green, Lodgepole Pine ( Pinus contorta ) on the lower slopes:
Many of our Lodgepole Pines are dead, killed by the global-warming exacerbated outbreak of Mountain Pine Beetles ( Dendroctonus ponderosae ). Luckily, lodgepoles are prolific and lot of seedlings are sprouting up to replace the lost generation:
Coming off the ridge, I enjoy making a few telemark runs, and find it easy on spring snow compared with the earlier season's deep powder that causes me to flounder:
This month's full moon, which I like to think of as the "Snowshoe Rabbit Moon," will light up the snowy hills (view from by backyard):
OK, let's go night skiing. Maybe my last ski of the season, though--the trail back down to the parking lot was super ICY, scraped a season's worth of wax from my skis!:
Well, time to start trout fishing. Stay posted. Happy Easter!
7 comments:
Ah, memories of my Montana years! Wonderful captures! Thanks for sharing! Have a great weekend and Happy Easter!!
Colder than average here, too, after a mild winter. I heard someone on the radio calling in Marchuarary, because this month was colder than last month!
I am still fighting the exhaustion that has plagued me all winter, but our walks are getting longer. Still slow, but we are out for an hour now..
And I found some green sprouts this morning. I will process and post them shortly!!!
I enjoyed this post. I think that in our local mountains in S CA the Douglas Fir were hit the hardest by the bark beetles, but not positive about that. Been a long time since I used cross country skis... I liked the pic of your telemark turns!
Looks like great fund gliding quietly through the forest. My specialty though was "floundering". I like lets go fishing...:)
as always, thanks for the educational tour!
interesting that the hiking sign is in kilometers, not miles... indicating, perhaps that Montana is miles ahead of the rest of the world. ?
- The Equestrian Vagabond
I love "snowshoe rabbit moon." The perfect name, I think. Looks like you had some great ski days. We've warmed up here in the Utah valleys. Steve will be getting out his fly fishing gear, too.
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