Kicking out the kinks: Bridgers, Adels, Great Falls of Missouri

Mark Hertenstein atop a cloud shrouded Mount Chisholm in Adel Mountains south of Cascade

This is the time of the year I make the switch from cross country skis to easy climbing to kick out the winter kinks.
Over the past couple of weeks I've started the hiking season with a nice trip to the Bridgers near Bozeman, a walk to Ryan Dam and the Great Falls of the Missouri River, and a in-the-rain climb of Mount Chisholm in the Adel Mountains south of town.
The one thing all of these hikes had in common:  tremendous wildflowers.
I can't remember such a wildflower show so early in the season.  I hope this is not a bad sign.
We travel to Bozeman every year for performances of the Intermountain Opera Company, which this year did Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet."  They bring in New York Met singers and stage the opera in the Willson Auditorium downtown.  They do a terrific job and it's great to hear top notch singers in Bozeman.
Our Bridger trip was up to the MSU "M" on the south end of the range and then a walk up the steep trail to the ridgeline, a gain of just under 2,000 feet.

Above the "M" in the Bridgers

Even though it was only May 12, we had very warm temperatures and the wildflowers were out in profusion. Views were spectacular into the snow-covered Gallatin, Madison and Tobacco Roots mountain ranges.
We had a nice stay at the Voss Mansion bed and breakfast about three blocks from Main Street.
There isn't a large snowpack in the Bridgers and I heard hikers saying Old Baldy was reachable.  Nor was the Crazy mountain range holding much snow.
This has all the makings of a pretty dry year.
Driving down to Bozeman we stopped at White Sulphur Springs and had a soak in the hot springs and witnessed pretty low snowpack in the Little Belts and Big Belts as well.

The Great Falls of the Missouri River at Ryan Dam

The weather was pretty threatening both Saturday and Sunday of this week, so I kept my plans modest.
Katie and I walked the 11-miles roundtrip from Rainbow Dam Overlook to Ryan Dam and the Great Falls of the Missosuri River via Cochrane Dam on Saturday.
Both Rainbow and Cochrane were pretty dry, but the water was really flowing at Ryan Dam and the Great Falls was really spilling.
This was the first fulll weekend that the PPL Ryan Dam picnic area was open, and although we were high above the falls on the bluffs across the river from that area, we could see a steady stream of visitors enjoying the water show.
Although it had sprinkled, the trail was pretty dry.

Arrow Leaf Balsam Roots covered the Adel hillsides

There were prairie flowers in profusion along the trail.
The ticks were profuse ---- Katie picked up 8 of the dangerous and irritating critters.
On Sunday the sky was even darker.  It had rained off and on all night. I was planning to keeping my walk to the neighborhoods.
However, Mark Hertenstein called and suggested the Adel Mountains south of town.
Despite a drizzle, which we handled by suiting up in rain gear, we enjoyed a 1,400 feet climb of Mount Chisholm (4,639 feet) in the Hardy area.
The last time we did this it was November 2004 and it was in the ice and snow.
Our hike in the rain proved to be about as dangerous as the moisture made the volcanic rocks very slippery.
Mount Chisholm, which looks down on the Hardy Bridge across the Missouri River, is really a thin volcanic upthrust.

We climbed very slowly and cautiously on the rock and made it to the top. The views to the north were shrouded by clouds;  to the south they were fairly open.

In the shroud

The most dominant wildflower was the bright yellow arrow leaf balsamroot that covered the hillsides.
Every time I hike or climb in the Adels I think about what a shame this area isn't in public ownership because it would make an amazing playground for the city-dwellers in Great Falls or even Helena.
You have to know where the state and BLM sections are to access only limited parts of this range, which is unique because of its purple coloration and its volcanic makeup.

On top Mount Chisholm with the Hardy Bridge and winding Missouri River below

It's May but there's still plenty of snow in the high country

Our Lake is still snow-covered.  Mark Hertenstein photo

It may have been 70 degrees in Great Falls, but there was plenty of good, deep snow in the mountains to play in this weekend.
Katie and I took an exploratory drive Saturday to the Helmville turnoff on Montana 200 west of Lincoln after climbing the Continental Divide Trail east of Rogers Pass.

Katie on Continental Divide Trail above Rogers Pass

 I had been down this road many times before but had never taken a look at Helmville.  Glad we did Saturday because we ran into a pretty good size herd of elk grazing just on the town's outskirts and got to see them run across the highway and up into the hills near Nevada Mountain.
It was fairly blustery on the Continental Divide Trail, but we got to see a number of wildflowers, including douglasia and phlox. There was patchy snow at about 6,000 feet.
The road from Montana 200 to Avon is quite beautiful and starting to green up.

Missouri River view from Tower Rock State Park

After a quick stop in Helena for lunch we headed for Tower Rock State Park and climbed to that divide where we saw many more wildflowers and got breathtaking views of the Missouri River bending below us.  We were also treated to six curious mule deer that enjoyed looking at us as much as we enjoyed looking at them.
It sprinkled off and on most of the day.
Sunday it was entirely different.
Temperatures soared, the skies cleared and there was scant wind.
Originally, we had planned to try to climb Big Baldy in the Little Belts from Snow Creek, but the highway work at Raynesford and a long detour caused us to rethink our plans.
We headed to the Rocky Mountain Front for an exploratory to see if we could reach Our Lake this early in the season.
There's a ton of snow in the Rocky Mountain Peak/Our Lake/Baldy area.
The snow was pretty icy when we started, so we left our skis in the car and headed up on snow shoes ---- BIG MISTAKE!!!
This would have been a pretty reasonable trip on cross country skis and skins.
Snow shoes were just too plodding.
It felt as though we had buckets on our feet as we worked our way up.
The snow softened beautifully during the day and the further we went, the more we regretted not taking skis.
We didn't get to the lake itself.
The steep headwall of snow and ice was just too formidable.

Mark ascending headwall to take a peek at Our Lake

At the lake elevation level we encountered a slide area and I didn't feel like the risk of climbing diagonally across it to reach the lake itself.
Mark decided to climb straight up a couple hundred more feet and across a more narrow part of the chute and got to a point with clear views of the lake.
The only other touchy point was where the trail goes across a rock slide area near a large waterfall.
We ascended it steeply from the bottom off trail.  On the way back we went above the trail and dropped to it.  It caused me some heartburn thinking about possibly slipping and falling down that chute.

Rocky Mountain peak on a gorgeous May 5, 2013

Just another nice spring day in the Rockies

Just below Mount Lockhart in the North Fork Waldron Creek bowl

It looks like we're going to get our best snow this season in April.
It has been dumping most of the day today (Sunday), and my son tells me he'll spend the next three days near the Teton Pass Ski Area skiing the South Fork Waldron/Teton Peak and Lockhart drainages.
That's where we found pretty good snow on Saturday, but nothing like the great stuff he'll find this coming week.

At first, snow conditions were less than promising 

The season's last turns?

We skied up North Fork Waldron Creek (the drainage immediately south of the ski hill) on a circuitous route  to the 7,600 feet point on the Lockhart headwall.
At the bottom we found open ground and snowmelt.
It didn't take long to find deep snow and winter-like conditions.
The storm we're getting today was brewing and we got some wind and some snow.
The snow was slushy and icy below and a tad crusted in the high country below the North Fork Waldron bowls.
We were able to get some turns in several gullies that we had explored last December.
This Lockhart Mountain country near the ski resort has had pretty consistent and good snow all winter.
We're in the stage the season that we're thinking about putting up the skis once and for all.
This new snow makes me question that judgment.

Our North Fork Waldron route to the headwall and some pretty good spring skiing.

A Hi-Line historical tour

The Bearpaw National Battlefield marker depicting Chief Joseph's surrender in 1877.

Where the surrender occurred.

Chief Joseph's speech.

A battlefield kill site.

This shoulder season is driving me nuts.  You've got to be creative to enjoy a time when skiing is crummy and it's not quite right for hiking.
So, creative we were on Saturday, as we headed to the Hi-Line for some entertainment.
We've been there several times before, but we started the day at the Bearpaw National Battlefield, where in 1877, the Nez Perce Indians ended their flight from the U.S. Cavalry and their Chief Joseph made his famous surrender, declaring that, "As the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."
This battlefield, 15 miles south of Chinook, is a deeply spiritual place, where the spirits of slaughtered Indians, warriors, women and children and the U.S. military personnel they killed defending themselves, hang in the rolling hills along Snake Creek at the foot of the Bearpaw Mountains.
The battlefield's trail covers 1.25 miles, with a side trail of 1.5 miles roundtrip, with 11 interpretive signs.
The spots where Indian chiefs and soldiers fell are well marked, as is the spot of the surrender.  The Indian sites were covered with offerings from visitors, including tobacco.
The Nez Perce here fell just 40 miles short of safety in Canada.
This was the first time we saw the new interpretive signs and they add greatly to the experience as does a good map available at the trailhead.
The snow-covered mountains offered a scenic backdrop to the trail.  The sky, threatening with storm clouds, was especially scenic.
There is a battlefield museum in Chinook, but it is open Monday through Friday 1 to 5 p.m., so we missed it.

One of the 25 brothel cribs at the Havre Underground

Afterward we headed to Havre to tour the Havre Beneath the Streets Underground Tour, which we enjoyed immensely.
The tour costs $12 and takes about an hour and covers a historic city beneath the downtown which thrived from 1904-06 after the city burned down in 1904.  Businesses simply moved to the basements of businesses, connected to one another with tunnels, while the city rebuilt.  This underground network was restored when tours began in 1994.
There were bars, a brothel with 25 numbered cribs, a bakery, butcher shop, blacksmith, a Chinese laundry, and fully furnished pharmacy.
The tour, given by an experienced tour guide, offers many historical anecdotes about Havre and surrounding communities and places like nearby Fort Assiniboine, once a major Indian wars fort.  It made me realize how different the history is not that far north of Great Falls.

A representation of bootlegger and brothel operator Shorty Young's  headquarters in Havre's underground

A weekend potpourri

Some of the 10,000 migrating snow geese and tundra swans on a Freezout Lake stopover on the Front.

 The weather was a tad chilly this first weekend of Spring, but the skies were sunny and we made the most of it.
On Friday we saw a local theater group production of Euripides' "Medea," that sadly performed before an audience of only six people.  They did a great job with this Greek tragedy about a jilted woman who kills her children to get back at her unfaithful husband Jason (of the Argonauts).

New snow covers the Mizpah bowls cabin in the Little Belts 

On Saturday I went to the final session of the Health Occupations Students of America state meet to see how our local schools fared.  They did quite well, with CMR winning the prestigious "HOSA Bowl," a sort of "Jeopardy" in all matters health.  I was very proud of the medals GFHS won as well.  Little Augusta High School surprised everyone with their performance and participation.
Afterward I couldn't resist the call of  the mountains on a crystal clear, but frigid afternoon, and skied to the top of Porphyry Peak at Showdown and south along the ridge beyond the Mizpah bowls and then turned around and skied back.  I really enjoyed the 6 or so inches of new, fluffy snow atop a deep, icy base.

Snow geese flying above Freezout Lake

Then, I attended the Great Falls Symphony and Chorale concert where the combined did a magnificent job on Mozart's "Requiem."  I loved the music set to a Latin Catholic Mass.  I grew up with Latin in church and took six years of the language.
On Sunday after Palm Sunday services we headed to Freezout Lake Wildlife Refuge near Fairfield hoping to catch the tail end of the annual snow geese/tundra swan migration.  Once again, the skies were crystal clear and we were treated to a show of about 10,000 geese and a smattering of swans against the backdrop of a snow covered Rocky Mountain Front.  The geese numbers are about an eighth of the total that gather there to take a break on their way back to Canada.
This is one of the great sights in Montana and something I hate to miss.
Many others felt that way, too.  The parking lots at the refuge were loaded with cars.

A sampling of the views on the scenic Choteau to Augusta route along U.S. 87

It was such a gorgeous day that we decided to take the U.S. 287 25-mile stretch between Choteau and Augusta for a closer look at the Front.  We were not disappointed by this extraordinary drive where the mountains rise from the Great Plains and stretch as far as the eye can see.  We stopped several times to take in the beauty.
After a quick stop at Latigo and Lace in Augusta where I bought a book on the Front, we headed back to Great Falls down the Sun River valley.
As we were driving through Fort Shaw it occurred to me that I had driven through the town for 40 years and never stopped to hunt for what remains of the Fort, an Indian outpost built in the 1860s and manned by black soldiers.
There is a wooden officer residence from the 1860s still standing as well as several small stone buildings like the hospital.  They sit just off the Fort Shaw school.
There is also a monument to the 1904 Fort Shaw Indian Girls Basketball Team that were considered national champions.
It turned out to be a great stop at the end of a great weekend.

A sampling of Fort Shaw.  Above, the monument to the 1902 Indian Girls National Championship team.  Below, top, the monument closeup.  Bottom, the officers barracks built in 1867.

Winter's final weekend and season's best trip --- Kenck cabin

Kenck Cabin on the South Fork Sun River near Benchmark and Bob Marshall Wilderness

It's been nearly a month since I posted last, but that doesn't mean I haven't been out and about.
During that time I've traveled to Portland, Ore., where I got in on that coastal community's early spring. Then I returned home and enjoyed some late winter skiing in the Little Belts and Rocky Mountain Front.  I even did my first hike of the new year.
Last weekend it was the Bob Marshall country outside Benchmark, west of Augusta.

First out of the den:  grizzly tracks were with us most of the  trip

Patrol Mountain fire lookout Samsara Chapman had extolled the wild country near the Kenck cabin about a mile north of the South Fork Sun trailhead at the end of the Benchmark Road.
It is some 32 miles from Augusta and you can drive fairly reliably most winters to the Double Falls camping area near the Ford Creek Ranch.
We had looked the area over the week previous and tried driving beyond the Crown Mountain trailhead and were turned back by deep snow.  The road beyond was clear enough that we felt certain we could drive further.
That gave us hope we could reach the Kenck cabin some 12 miles further up the road if we could get through the snow.

At Wood Lake.

But, the uncertainty made me think twice about the trip.  What if the snow conditions were such that we could only ski a ways or hike.  Should we pack a sled we'd pull behind our skis --- called a pulk --- or just plan to backpack in?  What if we got through the Crown Mountain slush and could drive all the way to the South Fork trailhead?
I decided to prepare for all of the above and throw in snowshoes to boot.
I built a pulk out of an old kids sled in the garage, 20 feet of rope and 10 feet of PVC pipe.  An old day pack with good shoulder straps and thick belt and two caribiners finished the job.  I event tested it on skis in the back yard after we got a skiff of snow.
We left Friday morning in my Rav4 and failed at our first attempt to get through the snow just below the Crown Mountain trailhead.
What was so frustrating was that we could see clear road ahead.

Mark enjoys the cozy fire in the cabin

At the Bob Marshall boundary

A perfect lunch spot

After some thought, Mark Hertenstein confidently took the wheel and weaved his way through the churned snow and ice.
That gave us another mile or so before we hit continuous snow that we could ski to our destination, not that the snow in many spots was much good.  Where the road was too bare, we skied off to the side.
The weather was superb, if a little windy.  Puffy clouds billowed in the blue sky and the sun was out softening the ice and snow into something we could easily ski.
For all but a quarter mile stretch between Wood Lake and the Benchmark Airport we had great snow for skiing.
The pulk worked quite well, mainly because of the flat road.  Even going uphill it was very easy to pull.  The only problem occurred late in the day just before arriving at the cabin where we hit narrow trail that had an incline that pulled the sled downhill.  We took our skis off at this point and pulled the pulk up to the cabin.
Lucky for us snowmobiles had packed the road and made the skiing easier.
However, we saw no one else for the three days we were back there.

Saying goodbye to the cabin on Sunday

The mountains around us --- the Wood Creek Hogback, Cyanide, Renshaw and Patrol --- were gorgeous, with their ridges capped with cornices.
The willows along the Ford and Wood creeks' bottoms were yellow, orange and red and were sprouting pussy willows.
We saw tons of animal signs, beginning immediately with large grizzly prints that followed us up the road most of the way.  Fish and Game officials say it was the first confirmed grizzly sighting of the season.
The Kenck cabin is named for the dentist and trapper who built it in 1924, Oscar Kenck.  I can't figure out how he got so many materials, like the two stoves and furniture, into the place.  You can't drive within nearly a mile of the place. He built a great outhouse in 1940.  Views from the cabin's yard include Patrol Mountain and the South Fork of the Sun.  There is no electricity or running water.  Water must be hauled from below from a stream.
We had two pleasant nights there and got a skiff of snow each night.

From the scouting trip the week before the weather was so spring-like we hiked a ridge between North Fork Ford and Red creeks 

On Saturday we skied across the South Fork pack bridge to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area boundary, about 10 miles round trip, just enough the tire us out again.  We saw lots of moose and bear sign along the trail.  The snow was quite crusty.
The temperatures dropped significantly and the wind picked up for our ski out on Sunday, and it snowed off and on.
It had taken 5.5 hours to ski in and 5 hours to ski out.
Although it was the last weekend of the winter it was winter's best trip.

A February! Glacier rain out, but weekend salvaged

Approaching Porphyry Lookout in the Little Belts on the Ranch Creek run

Tip the snow dog  from the Neihart grocery joined us on the trip

We received a welcome Groupon for the Tamarack Lodge near Hungry Horse over the Presidents Day Weekend and looked forward to some Glacier Park shoeing and skiing.
What we hadn't anticipated was the crummy West-side snow and a Saturday night rain storm that drove us inside.
The lodge is rustic and needs some up-dating, but was pleasant, although there are no services such as food. It sits right off U.S. 2, but there wasn't much traffic and I slept well.
To eat, we headed into Whitefish to see the beautiful people coming off Big Mountain and enjoyed shopping for a restaurant before settling on Latitude 48, which has an open-fire oven in the visible kitchen for making pizza.
I ordered a very thin pizza made with a beet puree and goat cheese and was served an amazing beet salad. The pizza has to rank among the best I've ever had.
On the way over to the West-side we stopped at Marias Pass and snow-shoed Autumn Creek from east to west, stopping in the Blacktail Hills not far from the opening below Elk Mountain.  The snow was wet and heavy and we worked hard for three hours.  While the scenery was beautiful, if cloudy from the incoming snow/rain, I didn't enjoy myself that much because I kept thinking how much more fun it would have been to be on my backcountry skis.  I've yet to figure out the advantage to snow-shoeing over cross country skiing.

Katie at Marias Pass near Glacier Park

On Sunday morning we enjoyed a very leisurely breakfast at the Cenex station in Coram where we were served enormous helpings of food, some of which was saved for lunch.
We took a quick trip into Glacier and went up McDonald Lake shoreline nearly to its end near the lodge and turned around because like near Hungry Horse, it was too sloppy and the snow too scant to ski.
At this point we decided that we had made a mistake going there when some of the best powder snow in the state is just south of Great Falls, so we decided to head back home.
On the way, we once again stopped at Marias Pass, this time heading into the Badger Two Medicine up the Pike Creek Road going as far as Flattop Mountain.

I dug a snowpit and found the snow very stable

The rain below on Saturday had put some six new inches of powder on the pass and we had terrific snow for our snow-shoe trek up Pike Creek.
I have to admit that part of our decision to return to Great Falls was to enjoy the finale of Season 3 of "Downton Abbey" on PBS.  The Tamarack Lodge did not carry public television.
It turned out to be a great decision, because we enjoyed the program and the next day, the Presidents Day holiday, I went up to Kings Hill where I had a chance meeting with Neihart postmaster Jasmine Krotkov who was looking for someone to join her on the 11-mile Ranch Creek run.
It promised to be a sunny powder day, so I decided to do the run.

Hard to beat snow like this!

There was about six inches of new, fluffy powder and the temperature was in the low 20s and the powder didn't cover the great tracks we had laid down on this run a couple of weeks ago.
This route normally takes about 5 hours to ski, but we did it in 3.5 hours because the conditions were so perfect.
I had salvaged a weekend!

At the Waldron headwall

Mark Hertenstein at the Waldron bowl headwall.

North Fork Waldron is a short and easy Rocky Mountain Front ski tour.
The fun begins when you emerge from the forest into this giant, scenic bowl beneath Mount Lockhart.  This area had been logged many years ago, but the trees are coming back.
The trees are small in here, evidence that avalanche regularly rakes this area.
In years past we've skied into this bowl, directly heading up what might be best described as "tiers," telemarking off these benchmarks through the new growth.

This gives an idea of the slope steepness and their openness.

Finding even this large bowl is a trick for most skiers because old logging road ends abruptly in the trees at a creek bottom.

Skiing the Waldron bottom.

The most reliable way into the bowl is to ski up the south side of the creek on a ramp that progressively rises to the south headwall.  Otherwise, the north side of the creek winds through trees and deadfall, crossing a couple of tributaries that can pull you into the wrong basin.
We took the south route Saturday and instead of dropping into the bowl when the trees opened up, we continued to climb to that headwall.
As we did we noticed exceptional telemark slopes which are probably avalanche chutes off the headwall.
The snow was quite stable, so we skinned to the top and tried them.
The slopes were about 200 feet long and in the 25-30 degree range.
The snow was perfect, about five inches on top of a good base.

The red line from the road was our route in, the blue line our route back.  We tele'd from the headwall.

+While we were there it began to snow heavily and the temperature dropped, signaling a cold front that moved through.
On the way up we passed through virgin, un-skied powder.  On the way down we hit snowshoe tracks that covered our ski tracks for the last mile.  It upset my ski-partner because that meant we had to go around what we had laid down.  It would seem that snow etiquette would have demanded that the snow-shoers leave our tracks alone.  Coming down fast we could have hit the snow-shoe tracks and gone flying.  There was plenty of room for snow-shoe tracks to parallel the cross country ski tracks.

A run down Ranch Creek

Mark Hertenstein pulls a turn in Ranch Creek bowls

Skiing down with one ski on and one ski off

The classic view atop the Mizpah bowls

An example of the deep snow we faced

We had set out Saturday for the strenuous High Porphyry/Nugget Creek run, but settled for Porphyry/Ranch  Creek after encountering heavy, untracked snow.
As much as two feet of snow fell in the Little Belts last week over several days.
It covered a sugary layer of hoar frost, making any thoughts of tele-playing unthinkable.
We had planned a straight-through on High Poprhyry, hoping to be safe on ridge lines and to enjoy predicted abundant sunshine and temperatures in the 30s.
Although we had four experienced backcountry skiers we quickly found ourselves in strenuous trail-breaking snow.
As we cruised along the top of the Mizpah bowls we could feel the snow settling onto that sugar layer, reminding us of the potential dangers and keeping us from being too tempted to drop over the side to tele.
The decision point comes about half-way into the 9 mile trip where there's the option of skiing into Ranch Creek and out or going up a series of small mountains we call "High Porphyry."  We started up, but two in our party didn't have climbing skins and found the snow-breaking and low angle climbing too time consuming.
At this point we decided for Ranch Creek and a reasonable return trip home rather than the potential for a trip in the dark.

It looks like resting, but it isn't.

Rather than taking the designated trail, we decided to do a few turns and go straight to the bottom of Ranch Creek, cutting off more than a mile.
What we didn't count on was the difficulty of during those turns in such heavy snow.
All of us did face-plants.
That meant taking off the skis just to stand.  Falling into the soft snow was like falling into wet concrete.
One in our party lost a ski after he took his off and ski went straight downhill several hundred feet before burying itself.
Luckily, it left a good trail to follow and Mark found it, dug it out and started back up hill.  Jim, who lost the ski, started down with one ski on and one off.
I was extremely nervous while we messed with the ski because we were sitting in an unstable bowl of snow and I wasn't anxious to get buried in an avalanche.
All ended well.
We found the Ranch Creek road and had an uneventful ski out.
We were surprised that the Forest Service had apparently declared the upper reaches of that road as off limits to snomobiles.
But, with the deep and heavy snow, we were glad when the snowmobile route appeared and we could ski out on snomo tracks.
Along the way we encountered a most unusual life-death struggle played out in the snow where a bird of prey had taken what must have been a mouse of mole, leaving wing-marks in the snow.

A large bird of prey had left its mark in the snow.