Skirting Ear Mountain before the storm

Wayne at the high point

The aspen are just beginning to color

The Ear Mountain country above us

The mountain adjacent to Ear we call Ear Wax 

Ear Mountain

We're told that in the next 48 hours the mountains will get up to three feet of snow and we'll be braving temperatures no higher than in the 30s.
So our Wayne's Wednesday Walks group took advantage of bright sunny and blue skies to skirt the edge of Ear Mountain from the state game range west of Choteau on the Rocky Mountain Front.
This 7.5 miles (2,000 feet in elevation gain and loss) hike covered part of the northeast flank approach to the Ear Mountain climb, but proceeded west below the mountain on an old road, ultimately to a high point opposite Yeager Flats.
We were looking for Fall color and saw some, but not an overwhelming amount.  Fall appears to be late this year, but winter is right on its heels if you believe our forecast for the next five days.
This area is just south of the game range and north of the national forest on land that has been grazed hard and roaded this way and that.
Various trails and game trails come and go from every direction.  It appeared as though the road/trail had been recently bulldozed.
Wayne figured how to connect these disparate paths and deliver us to a high point that offered breathtaking views of the Front, with the Choteau Mountain country to the north and the Ear Mountain complex to the south.
We weren't far from the Nature Conservancy's Pine Butte property that we consider a grizzly bear preserve.
There was some thought that we might just walk through from the Game Range trailhead and parking area to the BLM Ear Mountain Trailhead on the South Fork Teton Road via Yeager Flats.
The visibility was so good that we were able to see the Sweetgrass Hills on the Canadian border to the north and east.
A humorous side note to the hike was the search for Peter Johnson's wallet that he had lost on an exploratory of this same hike last week.
No luck.
But, it was lucky that Wayne took us to this scenic spot on Wednesday.