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Moving Across The Meadow

Who can't empathize with the pains of moving from location to location? It only mildly helps when the distance isn't too far, it's still moving regardless....You have to pack up literally everything, then theres a pile of randomness in the middle of the old room you used to frequent, you know- the stuff that's just been elusive and hiding in your room for however long. Well that piles still in my old room, and im not looking forward to cleaning that place....

...But anyways, first shot was the old place, 2nd shot is the new place. Last few weeks have been, well, challenging i guess, but not in a way i imagine people like to feel challenged. It was the uncertainty of where we were moving, costs, then the actual physical effort of moving was delayed and i literally spent last weekend just waiting for the go-ahead word, frustrating!

It seems (as it always does in hindsight) that things happen for a reason, and things like this are much better in the long run but (for lack of a more appropriate terminology) suck in the short run game. When we got booted from the last place because of the condo assosciation disliking my roomates both having dogs we thought we were screwed. Now we have an indoor hot tub room, and our dogs are welcomed there, so even though its more money a month, things seem to be going better....

I spent a little money for the bare essentials to get my turntables spinning in stereo again, and have them set up in our large living room. If those trees moved out of the way you would see the peak, but who knows with that photo. Honestly, I woke up this morning and went upstairs to make coffee, and the bluebird day that it was inspired me to finally take some photos. Clearly these werent planned shots- this shot is hazy because the shot before was from the hot tub room, and my lens got foggy....so more photos to come i guess....eventually

Another promising development for us up here in Big Sky is the incurring seasonal shift. Off-season is only, uhm, 2 weeks away? wow...so stuff will become even slower as far as people in the area, but thats also when we start getting some snow finally, and we've all been ready for awhile for that. Above was from a couple weeks ago- i believe it was the first snow id seen this fall (summer to some still!) and since then we've had dustings on the peaks around here almost every morning. It
melts by noon, but its still lovely to see white caps with green forests below.

I also turn 27 in a couple weeks here, which kinda just makes me feel old more than anything....

The Flipside

Flip the coin on a situation and you'll be in for a surprise- no matter what theres always another side to consider that you might've known about, but never took seriously. When those things creep up and kick you in the back when you aren't looking, that, my friends, comes at quite a surprise....

In what has been turning into a reoccurring theme, I took a solo hike in the Big Sky vicinity two days ago. Actually, to call this a vicinity hike is a somewhat understatement- for this is the zenith of Big Sky, the highest point around and taking a paramount identity over any other mountain in the Gallatin Range. Lone Mountain is the 11,133 foot mountain that makes up Big Sky Resort and Moonlight Basin. After living here for some time and never having climbed it in the summer (ive rode the tram up the top and snowboarded down countless times down most of the routes) my time had come.

The climb up was quiet, pensive. The top photo was roughly half way before the last major climb to the summit. I ran into a few folks on the ridge hike to that point, discussing random Lone Mountain trivia, and me being able to flex the knowledge that I saw from the video recording of the guys who built the tram over 10 years ago (they had to climb to work most days up the same way i went). That above shot is below from the bowl when i was hiking down later. The ridgeline to the left of the peak is the way i came up.

The peak, unsurprisingly, held similar views to those of the winter times. Regardless, it was summer, and without the snow different areas were a little more discernible. The amount of loose shale rock was pretty unsurprising also.

But the below shot is sweet- that is the Lost Lake backcountry area that ive rode and shot photos of in previous years. Seeing that beautiful green lake down there was very cool- i wanted to hike down there, but i knew my route out would be 3 times as long as it would be if i just went down and back to my car.

Good hike, took the scenic route back to my car. Next day my legs were trembling at times for no reason other than the workout from the day before. In other news I may be going on more solo hikes in the future than i thought.....til then

Cliff Lake Canoe Camping

Fresh for 2007 is camping with a canoe at cliff lake. Anyone who may have looked at last summers photos on here can recognize cliff lake- i mean it looks like a lagoon in the sun, so taking a canoe only made too much sense. Above is how we got it done: all the gear in the canoe, all the food in the tube getting dragged behind tha boat.

That was the crew of us our first trip out there (minus my girl who took the picture.) It was a good night, great warm weather with a full moon that night.

That's Rob and I on the way back in the morning, paddling all the gear back to the car. This trip was the first one we took out to Cliff to canoe camp. We took it relatively easy as far as where we camped, but the second time wasn't quite the case- we kinda went for it....

There's an island, about 3 miles back into Cliff lake, which is small, but has one decent camp site for a tent. We camped right on the rocky beach and had a fire there, which was more than excellent the first night out there.

That's me, really soaking it all in....at least while I could. The second night out there we were caught in an aggressive windstorm that whipped all through dinner time, into the evening, and still wouldn't let up in the morning. We got virtually no sleep that evening. My tent kept collapsing from the wind blowing the poles out of their sockets. Every hour i was running out of the tent to fix it, then jumping back in, into my bag, just for a little sleep. By morning (proally 7am) we both wanted to just get outta there. The paddle back was ferocious though- wind blowing hard in the opposite direction.

On our way out to the island, without even a clue as to thinking if i should've brought more rope....oh yeah we tied that tent down with all the rope we had, the thing looked like a tent stuck in a cats cradle. Wish i had photos of that- for comedic purposes, not wistful ones- thats for sure....

Overall it was an excellent time, but damn if it wasn't taxing on us at points! Beautiful site though, and decent weather still made it a good time, despite setbacks on the last evening. I think i got my canoeing fix for awhile.....

What Goes On

Floating the river has been a solid option of late. Went down the Madison last weekend and yesterday afternoon actually, really warm temperatures make the float a good time. Going yesterday was fairly impromptu, however, and plans kinda just got thrown together for it. My tube was all but flat by the end of the float, and i mostly swam the last stretch of river. Last weekends float was good times, and solid prep work makes a float much more enjoyable, instead of running out of beverages half way- or a leaky tube for that matter. Oh- and I dont know anyone from the above shot (well i might but i doubt it), but its definetly the same river, similar tubes.....

Dowhnill Mountain Biking is really what's been up lately though. Both these shots are from Kit's first day riding, that grassy field is in Keyhole and the bridge is in Yogi's. Big Sky's been running the Historic Gondola this year, and its been working well for the most part. I trashed my bike last time out, and bent the hell out of my derailleur and snapped a spoke on Buffalo Jump. So I've been outta the game for a little bit. It seeems a bit cooler today though, so I may go this afternoon.

This weekend the plan is shaping up to be floating down river again and some cliff lake camping (below-from last summer) Should be good times if we can all the prep work in order before hand. When it comes down to it it's all about the solid prep work, or you end up thinking about all the things you'd do different the next time.

That's it from this end....

Bear Basin Hike

Off the North Fork trailhead in Big Sky lies Bear Basin, a hike that connects other hikes in Gallatin Canyon to Big Sky. I had been interested in hiking across the canyon through the mountains since I came out here, and Bear Basin looked to be the connection. I admit though, yesterdays aim was Wilson Peak, and not Bear Basin, I just went the wrong way and, well, kept going....Above: The Sphinx in the distance to the south.

This is coming into Bear Basin. I had vague ideas of distance coming into there, but the entire time I was underestimating how far I'd gone. This is close to 10 miles in I would say now in hindsight, when I first started coming into the Basin, with cliffs surrounding me and open grassy meadows. The Basin itself (which i contemplated swimming in) wasn't even worth going much closer to- very small....

I stopped and took a photo of this chute because I marvelled at riding it in the late winter when it had more snow on it.

These are the backsides of the spanish peaks, to be somewhat vague about it since i really am not exactly sure which peaks were which names. I knew i was behind Beehive, and somewhat close to Summit Lake, but how close I couldnt tell while up there. At this point I was so intrigued at where I was and what was around that I almost kept going. It's a good thing I turned back at this point because at it was I got back to my car around 7:30pm.

Click on the above image and you should be able to discern ski tracks. Snow has an odd way of recording history. In no way were these ski tracks recent, but they were from this season at some point- probably late season and we never got additional snow to fill them in. We kept receiving such late snow falls this year that someone must've gone up there fairly recently to ski. I remember thinking about the idea of having all my snowboard gear with me and laughing at getting 3 turns at this time of year, basically becoming the obigatory bar story about how gnar i get. No, im not carrying my stuff back up there for 3 turns, no sir.

There it is, Bear Basin from the top of the ridge. To look that far and not see a soul in either direction is pretty sweet, but then you just start looking for mountain lions harder. I listened to my ipod most of the hike, noises can mess with you when solo out in the wilderness.

I Got Friends And Stuff

I don't even want to try to put all these into any kind of order....Above is from a ghost town/montana state park, called Bannack. Justing Lee (who took a lot of these photos) had the acute observation that you really didnt have to do a lot to get something into a historical site in Montana, just leave it. Very true, lot of echoes and empty buildings made Bannnack up.

This is me and Mr. Ree in the Lewis and Clark Caverns. They don't change those tours in the least- same jokes every time. Contrary to popular belief, water and time were the major players in building everything in these caves. Lewis and Clark came remotely near them, and there is a deeper history to who found them and all that, but thats what the tour is for.

This is probably the spot where Brian and Lee got the most out of the Montana experience, but who am i to say...well we all jumped off the bridge in the background and had a beer next to the river after. The river was pretty dirty (with actual dirt and not sewage or anything- montana dirty) and lots of deadfall was floating down. Refreshing was the key word here I guess. Wish it had been a month or so later those guys had come out- this river woulda been way warmer and clearer, plus we woulda floated down the river in tubes- the epitome of montana relaxation....

Brian and I hiked up to Golden Trout Lakes the day after Lee split back to LA. Had to deal with fording an icy swamp, crosssing a couple quick moving rivers, and jumped a ton of snowdrifts. Built a fire at the lake and day camped there, then hiked down. 8 miles...i was impressed with b's ability to keep going- especially since he was hiking in Air Force Ones....

The fire we built.

More edge of your seat bannack excitement, as Lee doses off in the church. One of the most appropriate Bannack shots we got of the place.

I think Lee misses home in that shot......

Tougher Than Leather!

This was lee, brooding over the enigmas and conundrums of Spiderman 3....

Lot's of Buffalo in Yellowstone......Yep....

Bannack again. We really had to make the most out of this stop....

Thats almost too honest of a shot of Mr. Ree, looking amazed at how clean the air is.....



This was a random collection of photos while those fellas were here, not too much order. In hindsight i wish they had come a month later so we coulda done some real summer stuff out here (one day it snowed/rained while lee was here) but its all good. Dowhill Mtn Biking started up right after they left, which is taking up any free time for me now.....oh and work and the lady, so in other words im not riding too much yet.....