Montana Summer

While much of the U.S. has felt record temperatures, southwest Montana has been relatively moderate. Though many days are nearly 90 deg F (about 10 deg above our historical average), the humidity is low and nights cool down to 50 or less. Returning from China last month, I was a bit slow to fall into the rhythm of summer activities in Montana. The past few weeks, I have done my best to make up for that with trout fishing, big game scouting, hiking, and some social fun.

Fly Fishing the Big Hole River
The Big Hole River fishes very well in the mornings, with mayfly and caddis hatches peaking about 10 a.m. or so. There have also been a good number of spruce moths:

They fly down from the hills in the morning to sip water. Being slow, clumsy fliers, many end up in the bellies of trout. It makes dry fly fishing for larger trout very good:

After fishing, there is always a good swim and some stick-fetching for MollyTheDog (MTD):

Hiking
Red Mountain is a prominent peak in the Highland Range just south of my home in Walkerville/Butte, Montana. I like that it's the first mountain I see when I step out the front door to take the newspaper from MTD each morning:

It's a favorite morning hike for my friend Dave Carter, so MTD and I joined him and JackTheDog for a trek to the summit:

The north side of the Highlands are a much drier range than the Pintlers, so the wildflowers and other vegetation are not so dense. Still, there were good ones to be seen, including the very showy Old Man of the Mountain (Tetraneuris grandiflora):

The crop of Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) there is the heaviest I have ever seen anywhere. The bears and blue grouse will be VERY happy. Sadly, this important grizzly bear food is not doing well throughout most of its range, as it seems especially sensitive to the effects of global warming. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service agrees that Whitebark Pines warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act, but they are precluded because there are so many other species on the verge of extinction:

Dave and the dogs have also joined my on a few morning hikes to check my trail camera at a prairie spring, which I am happy to report is visited regularly by elk:

A recent visit to Missoula, just 100 miles or so downriver, provided a chance to hike with my friend Don Stierle and MTD's friend ChookahTheDog in the Rattlesnake Creek headwaters. Here's Don with a tall parasitic plant:

It seems early, but many of the huckleberries are already ripe there:

Late summer plants are in full bloom, providing lots of nectar for butterflies such as this meadow fritillary:

Wedding Celebration
Our friends Matt Hamon & Jennifer Combe married last year, and recently hosted a wonderful party at their home high on a hillside overlooking the Big Blackfoot River:

They are both artists, as you might gather from the signs that led us to their door:

It was a musical celebration, with an amazing trio of musicians:

Jennifer's mother and father playing a sentimental Spanish duet:

And Jennifer herself singing her vows, i.e. Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want to Do:"

What's a wedding celebration without the blessing of a bunch of happy, running, screaming kids?:

Superb food in the form of Matt's excellent pig roast:

And of course a wedding cake, complete with heirloom figurines:

Red Skies Over Montana 
Our usual slew of summer forest fires have made for spectacular sunsets and sunrises, too (sunrise shown here):

Day in, day out, "Big Sky Country" really earns its name:

The occasional afternoon shower (oftentimes just virga, as no moisture reaches the ground), also makes for rainbows on about a weekly basis:

The Outdoor Channel: Familiar Waters

 Mike Pawlawski of the Outdoor Channel's "Familiar Waters" cable-TV show was in town, filming on nearby rivers. It was also my honor to be filmed for a segment about the effects of mining on water quality. Appropriately enough, the interview took place at the Mountain Con mine yard on the Butte Hill:

Unlike so many hook'n'bullet TV shows, "Familiar Waters" addresses the environmental issues that can ruin the amazing water quality and fantastic diversity of species that American anglers take for granted. This particular episode will be part of a show about Alaskan salmon that includes the threat posed by the proposed Pebble Mine. Give the show a look.

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This post is dedicated to the memory of Al Troth (1930-2012) who died recently in Dillon, Montana. Al grew up in Pennsylvania (as did I), fell in love with Montana trout fishing, and made significant contributions to the sport--most notable was his invention of the Elk Hair Caddis dry fly.

Backpacking the Pintler: American Wilderness

I'm still seeing everything through Chinese eyes. My students in Chongqing were mystified by the American concept of "wilderness"--untrammeled natural places where people are just visitors. Many, many people have been living in a highly advanced state in China for thousands of years, and there are few places that have not been intensively exploited and developed. The United States, on the other hand, has held a dense, resource-intensive population for less than 200 years. This unique American cultural geography, created in part by the European diseases that wiped out 90% of the First Peoples, helped Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir, and others craft ways to preserve wild, uninhabited places. That effort was expanded through the 1964 Wilderness Act and is now a widely accepted (if not fully secure--cf. the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge oil drilling controversy) part of our environmental legacy.

As part of re-immersion into life in the Northern Rockies, I headed off to the Pintler Wilderness for a few days. I can see many of the Pintler mountain peaks from my home in Walkerville/Butte, making this "backyard wilderness" especially important (and intimately familiar) to me. I'm not quite re-acclimated to high altitude, so the 8 miles to my campsite in this Alpine basin seemed especially long:

I stumble onto this basin about 8 years ago. Technically there is a "trail" there, as evidenced by a dotted line on U.S. Forest Service maps and by this relic of a trail sign:

I smiled to set out on a path with no other human footprints--only the sign of deer, elk, and other critters were evident on the trail:

I was not always smiling after losing the sometimes-faint trail and having to cast about for blazes where the bark had largely grown over the blaze scar:

In the river valleys of Montana, summer is well underway. At 9,000+ feet, however, it is still late spring/early summer, with flowering Bear Grass (Xerophyllum tenax):

 And even some early spring flowers such as Pretty Shooting Star (Dodecatheon spp.):

In the evening, several large bull elk fed in a meadow near camp. Unlike the well-habituated elk in places like Yellowstone National Park, these are truly wild animals in an area where they see many hunters. Though too dark for a photo, I walked up on these guys the next day, and one of them (the smaller of the two) stood up from his bed and looked back at me for a photo opportunity:

Where's Waldo? Oh yeah! There he is:

Nearby, they had a mud wallow (reeking with their musk) to fend off flies during the heat of the afternoon (GOOD DOG, for staying out of that):

The moose in a lower meadow were much bolder, and though mid-day my presence did not seem to bother mother moose and her calf (luckily, MollyTheDog is rock solid about not chasing critters--though squirrels are exempted):

There was smaller game around too, including this frog (Columbia Spotted Frog, Rana luteiventris?) at the outlet of a small lake:

Once in the wilderness, I like to find a high basin, make camp, and then (usually the next day) go climb a mountain peak. For this trip, the destination was Fish Peak. As we proceeded up the steep ridge leading to the peak, we crossed a bench (probably a glacial moraine) with a lovely, miniature Alpine Larch (Larix lyalli) forest:

Closer to the peak, MollyTheDog sought out the snowfields for some cool-down otter-sliding:

Once on top, the view down to Hick's Lake and the nearby mountain peaks was breathtaking:

With an early start, we had plenty of time for a leisurely lunch on Fish Peak and a nap (on a rock ledge just below the peak) before heading back to camp:

There were plenty of wildflowers to enjoy, ranging from the tiny Moss Campion ( Silene acaulis):

To showy penstemon and arnica:

And stinky Sky Pilot (Polemonium viscosum):

In the high meadows between camp and the peak, I was pleased to log a new (to me) flowering shrub species, White-flowered Rhododendron (Rhododendron albiflorum):

After a sound night's sleep under clear, star-studded skies, it was time for one last breakfast fire (oatmeal course shown here) and the hike out:

The meadows along the lower (7,500-8,000 feet) creek valleys were dotted with Sego Lillies (Calochortus eurycarpus ): 

On the way out, I had to pause for this photo of a ranch gate. I didn't know you could train horses to do that!

Back Home Again: Sweet Montana

Though I leave part of my heart in China, it is good to be home again.

Car Camping
My friends had a camp-out all planned as a welcome event, out on the Big Hole River sagebrush prairie where the antelope play peek-a-boo:

Where we could spend the evening sitting around the fire:

Enjoying great views and dramatic sunsets:

Start the morning with a pot of coffee:

Then take a long hike, the hills dotted with elk herds:

And beaver ponds for the dogs to cool down and fetch sticks:

Wildflowers blooming (elephant heads, Pedicularis groenlandica):

Butterflies blooming, too:

An afternoon thundershower brought mammatus clouds:

Followed by a double rainbow:

On the way home, of course, there's a stop at Dairy Queen:

Hike at The Moulton

On a hike in the hills just north of our home, I was glad Molly-The-Dog heeled as we watched this curious badger:

We did not see Bear, but did find fresh spoor:

Not that I'm paranoid, but I did take the unusual precaution of arming myself since a human body was recently found in this area, and the murderer has yet to be found:

Montana Folk Festival

Good timing. A week after my arrival, Butte hosted three days of dancing, good food, and music from around the world:

This is the 5th year for this event (the first 3 were as the National Folk Festival). As usual, the Original Mineyard provided a dramatic stage:

With several other stages operating, it was hard to choose where to go (and what kind of music to dance to) at any given hour:

Yes, it's good to be home under the Big Sky: