12th August 2006
It never fails. You could almost count on a full blown fiasco when the circus came to town! "Oh for crying out loud!" Mom would often exclaim as we would wheel up in front of her apartment building in our little green sport van. "You know, I sometimes th...
06th August 2006
My heart pounded. The sweat soaked my shirt. The sun was merciless beating down on my back and shiny forehead. I could see the summit just up ahead, so I pushed a little harder. And when I got there - I could see the top ANOTHER quarter mile or so up ...
28th July 2006
The trout literally leaped to snag our hooks as we cast them again and again into the small pools of Trout Creek as it cascaded down through the brush, waterfalling from rock to rock. No, really, that is one of those rare memories from childhood that sta...
13th July 2006
Montana's Mission Mountains - a phenomena of stunning proportions and striking beauty. I marveled as I waded back between those magnificent peaks. I was following the trail around McDonald Lake and back up Post Creek, off in search of Moon Lake. I had ...
06th July 2006
Mount Gunnison was calling as we three 13 year old boys laid our plans and set out on our next Colorado back country adventure. We had studied our Forest Service map and convinced our parents that we knew what we were doing. It seemed fairly straightfor...
28th June 2006
In a light drizzle that chilly Sunday morning the Moccasin Ridge trek was underway. June hikes in Montana frequently offer the rain option and this was no exception. With hikes up that same route almost every weekend year round, a surprise on that famil...
21st June 2006
Welcome Creek Wilderness - our spring-time challenge in a strange and wonderful little corner of the Montana back country world, just off the blue ribbon trout stream, Rock Creek. We should have thought it through a little more, but just needed to get ou...
04th June 2006
"Oh wow, a whale!" I heard my wife exclaiming outside the motel room. I wondered where on earth she was and what kind of prank she was pulling as her voice drifted in through a window. I lay in a semi-conscious state in the room, trying to catch a few m...
29th May 2006
As common courtesy on Montana trails, folks warn others when there is a bear around, especially heading into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Donny and I had just topped one of the major switchbacks on the trail to Pyramid Pass, and were heading deeper into t...
17th May 2006
Who would have thought it! It was a perfect spring day in the Bitterroot Range of Montana. My trail was a generally easy hike up Bass Creek from the Charles Water's Recreation Area and campground. We were only going one mile up the trail, to that beave...
13th April 2006
I still can't believe it. It's been 40 or so years since that fateful summer. My buddies Steve and Larry and I were around 12 years of age when we were dropped off early in the day on a rainy, muddy little trail of a road off Highway 135 north of Gunni...
04th April 2006
The third time is usually a charm. So this third attempt to reach that jewel at the end of the trail just had to pan out. The Sweeney Peak Trail in the Montana Bitterroot Range heads for the sky high above Florence, Montana along the ridges below Sweene...
01st April 2006
"Ewww.., ick, who would drink a Dead Horse beer anyway?" our guest turned her nose up and eyed me with suspicion. Her skepticism caught me, and I had to laugh. I really hadn't thought much about it as the Dead Horse Ale from the Moab Brewery provided th...
28th March 2006
Don't get me wrong - I'm as cranked for a boat ride on Flathead Lake of Montana as the next guy. There's just nothing quite as relaxing, mellow and laid back as piling onto a party barge pontoon boat and setting out to cruise the lake, especially if ther...
20th March 2006
This time was different. Previous years I had settled into a tent near the car at the viewpoint below Richmond Peak, a timbered ridge to the north and east of Seeley Lake, Montana. Time and again I had enjoyed the awesome view of the mighty wall of moun...
