Welcome back to Montana. Big sky country. We heard it was huckleberry time so not to miss out, we headed to the high country to look for them. Now just because we had no idea what a huckleberry bush looks like we were not going to let that stop us. As luck would have it a nice fellow in a pickup stopped and was nice enough to point us in the right direction. Not so lucky is the fact this is a poor year for berries. We picked for a long time and got about half a quart. We have gone again and found a better patch and came back with enough for a pie and pancakes.
The berries like to grow above 4500 feet so we had a nice drive up some forest service roads.....gotta love a Jeep. The mountains here are beautiful and the wild flowers plentiful. We did follow a two track up to the top of Blue Mountain and to our surprise, there was fire tower #3. The forest service no longer use these towers so they are now rented out to overnight guests as cabins. The top of Blue Mountain is around 6100 feet so after you climb all the way up you have a wonderful view (when it's clear out). That is Holly on the second landing, that is as far as she went which is two landings farther then me. Now if you rent one you need to bring all of your own food, bedding, clothes and stuff and carry it all up then back down. No bathroom but there is an out house at the bottom. At 3 a.m. you need to ask yourself "do I really need to go"?
These are huckleberries. We can now recognize huckleberry bushes as we are driving on the forest service roads. See, you can teach old dog new tricks!
We were told where we might see moose as we were out exploring and the first time we went berry picking we drove thru that area and didn't see any. But as luck would have it, the second time was the charm. We were able to see mom and her baby in the pond feeding. We also have bald eagles and their young at the dam. We see them a lot teaching the young to fish. The picture below has a mature bald eagle, a young one (immature) and a blue heron. We also have a golden eagle in the area and I have seen it once but as usually the case, no camera.
It was much larger and they have no white markings. We also have three does in the day use area where we are, and four fawns. That's right one set of twins. We don't see the fawns too often so it is a real treat when they are out with the moms.
There was a rodeo in town so we went for a night out. So exciting, turns out there was a Montana cougar running loose in the area...that's her to the right. They set out some bait in the arena (a small table and two chairs and a bottle of wine) and had trappers waiting. When she showed up they caught her and made the town safe for all the young men.
The rodeo was on Friday and Saturday nights. We decided to buy our tickets for Saturday. Of course since we have been here we have only had two days of real rain. Yep that's right...one of them was on rodeo night. That's okay though, we brought raincoats and umbrellas and we had a good time. I took the picture on the left from the stands at the rodeo. Nope, not a mountain just a big nasty looking cloud.
At the end of the rodeo they ran out a herd of mustangs and their colts. They talked about how years ago (yes, way before my time) these herds ran wild on the western plains.
This is the day use park where we stay and are mostly in charge of. The picture above is one of the three shelter people may reserve. They have picnic tables, sinks with running water and built in grills and if they are not reserved, anyone may use them. The picture to the left is the floating platform (in Michigan we would call it a dock). People drive up here from Libby (17 miles) to swim, sun bath and fish. The lake is down 15 feet from full so the walk down is sort of steep. Believe me, the walk back up is worse. When we first got here the lake was down 25 feet.
We went looking for grizzly gear. We were given directions to an area that was known to have them so we took the dogs (bait) and drove up there. Nope didn't see any but we did meet a couple from Kalispell that came up on their four wheeler and had a nice chat with them. The day wasn't a loss; how could it be with this view?
On the way in Holly said she caught a glimpse of a big bird. On the way out it flew right over the Jeep and landed in a pine tree right in front of us and posed for this picture. It's the biggest owl I have ever seen. So cool to get these little surprises now and then. Well that's it for July; about six more weeks and we will be headed home. Stop back next month and see WHO we run into (get it "who" can't believe I did it again).
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