Russia is a presence over the Baltics like a menacing grizzly

 

The Russian Embassy in Tallin, Estonia was plastered with anti-Putin, anti-Russian signs.

Many signs compared Putin to Hitler

In Vilnius, Lithuania, an anti-Putin sign on one of downtown's skyscrapers

The Soviets left brutalist sculpture like this in Riga, Latvia

We just finished a 12 day trip to the Baltic nations, Poland and Finland with our big takeaway as Russia's menacing presence in the area.

We couldn't go anywhere without experiencing Russia's negative impact on these nations, and for the most part, the fear they have for their massive eastern neighbor.

The most visible sign were all the Ukrainian flags flying off government and business buildings.

There is fear that if Russia succeeds in their war with Ukraine that they will be next.

In Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, a giant banner was draped over one of that city's new skyscrapers that read, "Putin: the Hague is Waiting for You."

Naturally, we also saw the damages created by the Nazis from WWII in addition to the horrors of years of occupation by the Soviets.  We visited the KGB prison in Vilnius where countless Lithuanians were held, tortured and murdered. 

The monument to WWII Polish Underground fighter Witold Pilecki at the WWII Museum 

We began our trip in Gdansk, Poland, our second visit there, to see the WWII Museum.  Gdansk is where the war began on Sept. 1, 1939 when Hitler used the provocation that Poland wouldn't grant him access to the Baltic Sea from there. 

It is an extremely modern building architecturally, and we spent hours there visiting well-curated exhibits about the war.

We also stopped at the Solidarity Museum, where ship workers struck in the late 1970s which led to the breakup of communism in eastern europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

We also broke away from the grimness to enjoy this vibrant port city.

We took an extremely modern train to Warsaw for our next stop.  The first class fare was about 40 Euros and included a lunch served during the two hour trip. 

 In Warsaw we fulfilled Katie's wish to see a European bison, which looks very similar to the American bison, and called a Zubr.  Poland and Belarus have the last remaining free roaming European bison, but we went to the Warsaw Zoo to find a small herd in captivity.  The zoo is famous for having sheltered Warsaw Jews during WWII in the animal pens to keep them from being killed by the Nazis.  This was chronicled in the movie, "The Zoo Keeper's Wife."

A European forest bison in the Warsaw Zoo

On the way back to our hotel we visited the St. John Basilica in the Old Town,  a center of Polish Catholicism.  We went through the catacombs there and viewed the tombs of famous Polish historical figures like Henryk Sienkiewicz (author: Quo Vadis) and Cardinal Wyszynski, who fought the communists for years.

I finally got into Holy Cross Church where Chopin's heart is entombed, and where we heard a very moving choral performance of mostly sacred and patriotic songs.

The place where Chopin's heart is entombed in Warsaw's Holy Cross Church

We started our day with a tour of the Warsaw Botanical Gardens and a visit to Lazienski Park where there is a spectacular sculpture of Chopin. 

The monument to Chopin in Warsaw's Lazienki Park

This was a third trip to Poland and I left with a heavy heart, thinking that it was probably the last time I would see my ancestral city and country that I love. 

On to Vilnius, a city of parks and museums and a beautiful river flowing through the middle of it. We climbed its high point to an old fortress/castle for a great view.  The next day I did the Old Town and a grand church  and square, the Vilnius Cathedral, and the baroque St.Casimir Church with its 2,000 plaster sculpted statues. We came upon the "country" of Uzupis, the pretend state within the city inhabited by the Bohemian/artist crowd, where you could get your passport stamped.  In the afternoon it was a tour of the KGB headquarters.

I really like Vilnius, but the scooters and electric bikes and Uber Eats motorcycles oron the trails and sidewalks through the city made walking downright dangerous.

On our way to Riga we stopped just short of the Latvian border where there is a religious pilgrimage site on a small hill covered with thousands of mostly wooden crosses. Riga, Latvia was a surprise and a delight.  Its well preserved neoclassic architecture is recognized as a UNESCO Heritage site.  The city reminded me of a mini-Paris.  There are pathways through gorgeous parks that gave the city a leafy feel and which led from the Old Town to the downtown.  I could have used more time in this capital.  The market was the best of our trip, oddly located in an old zeppelin hangar. The tour guide was the best we had during our trip.

Estonia was a bit of disappointment for a huge amount of tourism that overran the capital Tallinn.  Gargantuan cruise ships plugged its harbor, disgorging tourists from all over the planet that clogged the city.  Its Old Town was mildly interesting, but the new skyscrapers and buildings showed how far the city has come since Russian domination. 

Perhaps the most interesting part of my visit to Old Town in Tallinn was the Russian Embassy where we encountered the only police we saw there.  They were watching that embassy where a fence was set up and it was plastered with tons of anti-Putin, pro-Ukraine posters.  

I guess I've reached the point where I've seen enough Old Towns in Europe to last a lifetime.  Contact with people and current and cultural events are where I'm at.  

We took a ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, Finland, a city that took me for surprise for its mix of dynamism and historic treasures.  We stayed in a boutique hotel on the tree-lined Boulevard Street, centrally located with access to parks, shopping, eateries and historic sites.

We toured a Russian Orthodox Church, and a former Russian Orthodox Cathedral converted to the country's Lutheran Cathedral above a great square.

A Soviet cannon left after WWII in Helsinki's Sumenlinna Fortress Park

 

The Sumenlinna Fortress Park is a UNESCO Heritage site for its massive stone walls

We took a ferry to Helsinki's Suomenlinna Fortress Park and spent hours touring this island and its rugged coast line.  I was impressed by the massive cannons the Soviets left behind during its occupation.  The fortress was developed by the Swedes.

 I've never seen so much public transportation as we encountered in Helsinki:  trains, trams, buses, ferries, everywhere all the time.   They were really inexpensive.  For the day pass I paid 15 Euros and was able to take the ferry to Suomenlinna and use that ticket on the train to the airport, an hour away.  I could have used that same ticket on any of the other types of transport all day, too. 

I regret that we missed seeing the new public library, but we were so busy that seeing it was out of the question. 

The Helsinki train station with its Soviet era statues

The train station square and the monuments on the station itself were impressive. 

On the homeward flight between Helsinki and Amsterdam we were seated next to a former Finish member of the European Union,  Petri Sarvamaa, who now works in an auditing capacity for the EU.  He was a career journalist for Finnish Public Television and at one point was at the station's Washington, D.C. bureau.  The two hour flight went by quickly because of his conversation. 

Most of the political talk during our 12 days involved Russia, although President Trump came up from time to time as an object of bewilderment. 

We climbed to the foot of this castle in Vilnius, Lithuania to watch the sunset 

The Russian Orthodox Church in Helsinki

Helsinki's national cathedral that was once a Russian Orthodox Church 

 

 

 

 

 

Mount Williams Lookout in Fish Creek State Park

The view from the top of Williams Peak in Fish Creek State Park lays bare the historic logging there

The now unused lookout tower on Williams Peak

The 350 foot Ponderosa Pine said to be the largest in Monana

Fish Creek for which the state park is named

 I wasn't prepared for the logging/industrial nature of Fish Creek State Park near Alberton.

There I climbed Mount Williams, elevation 5,445 feet, over a 3.4 miles roundtrip hike gaining over 1,200 feet There's a lookout tower on the top that's on the National Historic Registry.  The full hike takes less than three hours to the top and back.

 I'd classify the hike as easy.

The views, while expansive, were of extensive logging roads in all directions.  

I marveled more at the construction of the roads than the views into the Bitterroot Mountains and the proposed Great Burn wilderness.

Fish Creek park is a relatively new state park, added in 2010.  It's what's left of Plum Creek timber harvest.

 The park is the second largest state park after Makoshika in eastern Montana, although the surrounding public lands are more than 45,000 acres in size.

While there, a 205 mile drive from Great Falls, we had a look at Fish and Rock creeks, and the nearby Alberton Gorge area on the Clark Fork River.  The streams are beautiful.

The park also contains the largest Ponderosa Pine in Montana:  350 feet tall, and more than 200 years old. It's at a nice fishing access site and worth seeing.

The lookout tower is fenced off and not manned.  It was hauled to this site in 1977 from Idaho.

It is 53 feet tall and replaced a tower that had been built in 1934.  

 It was a long day trip, but worthwhile on our quest to see all 56 of Montana's state parks.

Yet another failure to positively link Blackleaf to Clary on the Front's 'Grand Traverse'

The Blackleaf to Clary Grand Traverse starts at Blackleaf Canyon

Mineral developers left evidence above Muddy Creek Falls

The prominent "block" above Blindhorse Creek where we couldn't find our trail link

This poor ram didn't make it out

Evidence that Fall is nearby

 

We were running out of daylight, but treated to a Rocky Mountain Front sunset

 

 The scenery was unbelievably beautiful, but the Rocky Mountain Front "Grand Traverse" hike was unbelievably frustrating.

For the second time in a row I failed to find the link between the Blackleaf Canyon (FS 153) and Clary Coulee (FS 177) trails, which meant we had to rely on an old bushwhack.

It also meant we hiked out in the dark, getting off trail at 10 p.m., and home at 1 a.m..

This was even more frustrating because about 20 years ago I easily led a group through this linkage that went down a dry waterfall.  What's more, my wife Katie subsequently did a Montana Wilderness Association hike on the linked route under the guidance of the late Dan Bennett, and she doesn't recall any problems.

But we sure had problems on this most recent hike.

We started at Blackleaf and began exploring for the linkage at the forks of Blindhorse Creek.  We spent some three hours clawing our way up steep and wooded hillsides in vain.  This is where we were skunked five years ago.

Luckily, Gordon Whirry had mapped the bushwhack when we didn't find it in 2021. 

Our failures cost us daylight, but it was a delight to watch the sun set on the Rocky Mountain Front over the Ear Mountain area.   We walked more than an hour in the dark down to our cars at Clary Coulee.

The roughly six miles to where the hike went awry were a forest that reminded of what the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area looked like before fires started sweeping through it in the early 1980s.

It was also interesting to see where the oil and gas exploration and development had occurred above Muddy Creek Falls.  The old extraction equipment littered an otherwise beautiful meadow.

 Beneath three unnamed peaks, one of which resembles a square block, the terrain opens up into grassland and great views of a peak we've named Guthrie, in honor of the late Choteau writer,  and the adjacent Choteau Mountain (referred to locals as the Sleeping Giant). 

There's been considerable cattle grazing on most of Blackleaf trail segment.

But none of this really distracts from the high limestone peaks that march north to south along this mountain front. 

My Garmin InReach GPS showed we had hiked 15.5 miles and had a cumulative gain and loss of 4,000 feet.  We hiked for about 11 hours.

As we hiked beyond Blindhorse toward Pamburn Creek and our bushwhack route, I was unsettled by the sight of a new cabin behind a fence that announced a firing range with keep out signs.

I can't imagine what it took to haul the materials into this remote area and to build it and fence it.

This was my last shot at a hike for a clear route approximating what I had done more than 20 years ago.

The bushwhack route will have to do.

POSTSCRIPT:  A week prior to this Grand Traverse I managed to hike the length of Crawford Creek and to the tunnel on the Sluice Boxes State Park trail, both in the Little Belts.  

 

 

 

 

Escaping heat and smoke at State Parks

Walking between caves at Pictographs State Park near Billings

A flag with 37 stars marks where Gen. Crook battled with the Indians at Rosebud Park 

An unusual blue sky on my Pioneer Ridge Loop hike near Neihart 

 We've been experiencing an extended heat wave with tons of smoke from fires in Canada, Oregon and Washington.

Hiking in such conditions is not the best idea, so we hit the road, going to State Parks in the Billings area and south.

We covered seven parks in three days:  Elmo Lake, Pictograph Caves, Chief Plenty Coup, Greycliff Prairie Dog, Tongue River, Rosebud Battlefield, and Cooney State Park.

We also spent a day in Lewistown at the Montana Cowboy Poetry Festival.

Locally, I did hikes in Rivers Edge part of Giant Springs State Park, and the Sluice Boxes State Park, and threw in one of my favorite hikes in the Little Belts ---- the Pioneer Ridge Loop near Neihart.

I found the Pictograph Caves to be the most scenic, and so near downtown Billings.  I wish I had visited this one earlier.

The most interesting of the parks was the Rosebud Battlefield, where we hiked a loop that gave us a pretty good feel for how the Indian tribes repulsed Gen. Crooks men, keeping them from going to Gen. Custer's aide in the nearby Little Big Horn.

The Chief Plenty Coup park was a close runner-up in the Pryor Mountains where we learned how he recognized the reality of the plight of the Crow and cooperated with the White invaders.  On a short hike near his cabin, we encountered a rattlesnake, who didn't threaten us.  The visitor center was exceptional.

It had been many years since I had been in this part of the state and I was impressed with all the Indian wars history that played out so close to Billings.

I write about this in this hiking blog because there were good hikes in nearly all of these site.

The least interesting was the Greycliffs park, which didn't have much to offer.  I think the priaire dog town on top of the First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park near Ulm is much more extensive and interesting.

We didn't escape the heat and smoke entirely, but at least we weren't sitting at home, trapped by it either.

Our state parks are real treasures.

 

 

 

A nice window for 4-day backpack in Glacier

 

The view from our campsite at Morningstar Lake

Camille Consolvo on Pitamakin Pass looking down on the Lake of the Seven Winds

Pitamakin Lake with Mount Morgan above it

We awakened to snow on our second day

The heat and smoke cleared just enough that we were able to get in a four day backpack trip in Glacier Park's Cutbank Creek area, camping at Atlantic Creek and Morningstar Lake.

We were able to get side hikes to Medicine Grizzly Lake and Pitamakin Pass Overlook.

Temperatures in Great Falls had soared to 104 degrees, accompanied by dense smoke before we left.

However, in the park the temperature at the start of the trip was 20 degrees cooler and the smoke had lessened.

Our first night out it rained, with snow falling on the peaks above us, dropping night time temperatures into the 30s.  It felt cold.

But, the second day the sky was blue and it warmed up considerably for our hikes.

I've always loved this part of the park, reachable on a rutted dirt road.  It is far less visited than many other parts of the park because it is remote.  It is the gateway to Triple Divide Pass. 

In my younger days I climbed most of the peaks lining this valley.

I reveled in the Indian lore that gave rise to the Medicine Grizzly that arose from the body of a dead Blackfeet chief to vanquish the Flatheads trying to access prime bison hunting.  A major mountain and lake are named for that grizzly here.

I'm not a big fan of Atlantic Creek campground that's in the trees on the way to Triple Divide, but our other campground at Morningstar Lake has got to be one of the best in the park, with tremendous views of a high mountain side above the lake. 

 We saw very few people on the trail between Atlantic Creek and Pitamakin Pass Overlook. The trail to Triple Divide wasn't particularly busy, either.

 

 

Alberta and BC provincial and national parks in flight from smoke and heat in U.S.

Crowsnest Peak from the Saskatoon Mountain ridgeline prominent despite smoke 

 

Forum Lake in BC's Akamina Kishinena Provincial Park

Lovely magenta Indian Paintbrush flower

Crowsnest Peak towers above Chinook Lake

A young moose we encountered a Beauvais Lake Provincial Park 

It has been tough trying to hike in all this heat and smoke.

We were lucky enough to find an oasis in Alberta and BC, a thin one at that, with day hikes in the southern Canadian Rockies.  We even had clear skies and no temperature higher than 80 degrees, while Great Falls was socked in with smoke and temperatures hovering around 100 degrees.

We used Pincher Creek, Alberta as our home base, about a 20 minutes drive north of Waterton Lakes National Park, roughly 3 and a half yours from Great Falls.

We've done a number of Alberta provincial parks, we added Beauvais Provincial Park and Chinook Lake Recreation Park to our list and climbed Saskatoon Peak in the Crowsnest Pass area near Coleman's Miners Path Park.  We finished our trip at Waterton Park, hiking to Forum Lake just over the border in the Akamina-Kishinena Provincial Park in British Columbia. 

With the exception of Waterton-Akamina hiking , Crowsnest Peak  (9,137 feet) dominated the landscape.

I was struck by how empty all of these areas were on our visit.  Maybe Chinook Lake had the most people, but even there, I didn't feel crowded.

While access to the Akamina is through Waterton, we found only 10 parties on the trail to Forum Lake.  The scenery at this alpine lake is equal to many alpine lakes, like Avalanche in Glacier.  Forum would be swamped if it were located in Glacier.

Beauvais is a drive up from Pincher Creek.  We took a nice ridge walk of about 3 miles to Piney Point, where there were great views of the southern Canadian Rockies.  We watched a young moose in a pond there. 

At Chinook Lake, we walked along a trail adjacent to a road that paralleled a campground.   Then, we walked around the lake, where Crowsnest Peak seemed to hover over it. Lots of people, but well behaved, unlike what is occurring in Glacier right now, with hordes of people misbehaving, littering and having no clue what national parks are for.

 We had a pretty significant bushwhack through an old clearcut to reach Saskatoon Peak.  But what a flower show!  The Indian paintbrush and pearly everlasting were dominant. The peak provides a nice ridgewalk, with Crowsnest Peak dominating the skyline over massive southern Canadian Rockies peaks.  We descended the Saskatoon ridge line on one of the steepest, rockiest "roads" I had even navigated.

It had been more than 35 years since I visited Forum Lake and found the aftermath of the big burn there from the  Waterton Park Kenow Fire of 2017 somewhat shocking.  The lush forest has been replaced with short lodgepole pines.  It is inspiring to see such forest rebirth, though. Once you hike to the new ranger cabin on the BC side, the trail rises steeply alongside a cascading stream, eventually coming to where the fire stopped.  Then, it's back to the old growth forest all the way to the lake.

We ended our trip with a night with rancher friends, the Websters, near Mountain View.  It is always a blessing to see them and an honor to experience their ranch.  Such hard working people!  

 

 

 

 

Old and new: Alice Creek traverse, Patrol Mountain, state parks

On top Patrol Mountain 

Gordon Whirry at the colorful Patrol Mountain saddle.  See lookout above

The interesting Lewis and Clark Cavern

On Alice Creek one of the biggest blooms of Beargrass I had ever seen

 In spite of blistering heat, we've been getting out visiting numerous state parks for the first time, and doing old favorites like the Alice Creek Traverse and Patrol Mountain.

Katie has been visiting state parks for the past several years, and I've been tagging along.

Recently, that has meant a tour of the Anaconda area parks:  Lost Creek, the Anaconda Big Stack, and Granite Ghost Town.  On that trick we added the Elkhorn Ghost Town as well.  Then it was Lewis and Clark Caverns and Headwaters State Park.

I've been impressed that many of the parks offer hiking options.  I was particularly impressed by Lewis and Clark Caverns that has a variety of scenic trails available. The cavern itself is a two-mile walk that includes steep stairs.  I hadn't been to the caverns in more than 20 years and the trails outside the big cave was a pleasant surprise.

We had also been to Granite Ghost Town before, and when I lived in Helena, I visited regularly to climb Elkhorn and Crow peaks or cross country ski.  There has been considerable, positive development and refurbishment since I moved to Great Falls 45 years ago.  

For a small park, the Big Stack in Anaconda was a surprise for its innovation.  You can't get particularly close the stack, but the park consists of a footprint of the base of the Big Stack with well-done interpretive signage.  Great Falls, which lost its Big Stack in 1982, could certainly emulate this.

Likewise, it had been more than 40 years since a visit to the Headwaters park near BoI zeman, and I was impressed with its development and hiking trails and camping.  It is a beautiful place where the Missouri River is born of the conjunctions of the Madison, Gallatin and Jefferson rivers. 

Lost Creek, west of Warm Springs, is in a gorgeous canyon with a sizeable waterfall.

I hiked the Alice Creek Traverse near Lewis and Clark Pass on the Continental Divide to see the wildflower bloom, and I wasn't disappointed, particularly by the Beargrass.  There's no dout this is Beargrass year. I hiked the 11 miles counter-clockwise from the pass, and once I reached the crest of the divide west of the pass, I was surprised by the amount of Beargrass along the ridgeline.  The Beargrass was everywhere on the way down to Alice Creek, interspersed with the charred and fallen trees from the big fire there about 7 years ago. 

Samsara Chapman the Patrol Mountain Lookout ranger on trail 

Patrol Mountain is a real favorite, located within the Bob Marshall Wilderness, a 12-miler with a 3,300 feet gain and loss.  I've been doing this hike about 45 years, 24 of those to visit the Forest Service lookout ranger, Samsara Chapman. It was her day off, so we didn't meet her at the lookout cabin.  We were very surprised to bump into her coming up the trail as we were headed down.  

One other hike worth mentioning is a short trek at the Sluice Boxes State Park, as far as the new bridge. 

With all my hikes I've discovered that I've slowed way down and my strength isn't great.

But, hey, I'm still out there.  

 

Beargrass highlights an exceptional wildflower year

Blue Penstemon along the trail

The scarlet Indian Paintbrush was eye-catching

Just a glimpse of the Beargrass bloom at Rogers Pass

Our state flower, the Bitterroot 

The awesome summer sky

The Beargrass (lily) is lighting up the forests of western Montana in what has been an exceptional wildflower year.

Over the 4th of July weekend we saw beautiful Beargrass displays, but none better than on the east side of Rogers Pass, an hour's drive from Great Falls.

The Bitterroot is abundant now as well. 

It's past the Forget-me-not display, but lupine, varieties of penstemon, crazy weed, and Indian paintbrush varieties spangle the hillsides.

We spent the weekend between Lake 5 west of Glacier, with hikes to Stanton Lake, Buffalo Lakes, Marias Pass and Two Medicine, before taking a serious hike at Rogers Pass, which had the best wildflower display of all.

The holiday traffic to and from Glacier was not bad, but it was horrible along Highway 200.  Lincoln was an anthill of vacationers.  There must have been 100 folks at the new Cenex convenience store at Bowman's Corner.  Many were from the Indiana University summer geology program traveling from its Tobacco Roots HQs enroute to the Sun Canyon. 

We avoided the crowds on the trails by taking less traveled routes:  Dry Fork at Two Med, the CDT toward Elk Calf at Marias, and a stop at the Buffalo Lakes trailhead.  Stanton Lake's parking lot was full, but the trail did not seem crowded and we had a lake side spot all to ourselves.

I enjoyed the Rogers Pass hike most of all for the wildflowers variety.

At the parking lot we bumped into Gene and Linda Sentz from Choteau.  It was the second time our Rogers Pass hikes coincided.  

High summer is upon us. 

 

 

A Waterton backpack trip

One of many waterfalls on Snowshoe Cabin Trail

It's a good beargrass year

Pointed Anderson Peak accompanied us on the first several miles of trail 

 I wasn't sure I'd ever backpack again after my foot surgery and heart attack last fall, but I put that to rest with a short, one-nighter in Waterton National Park in extreme southern Alberta. 

My pack was extra light and about our only worry was that we could be caught up in the continuing wet early summer rainstorms.

We managed to avoid the rainstorms.

Our trip started at the Red Rocks area Snowshoe Cabin trailhead that parallels Anderson Peak with its sharp imposing spire.  It followed a former two track road to Snowshoe Cabin, still used by park maintenance workers for things like trail clearing. The trail was no wider than many non-motorized trails in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. 

We were treated to a lovely wildflower show on a trail that rose only 1,500 feet over a bit more than five miles.  The beargrass was out in profusion, particularly in old avalanche chutes. 

Along the way we spied waterfalls coming off remaining snowfields.

The big surprise of the trip was that we hiked that last two miles in deep, dense forest that had escaped the 2017 fire that burned 40 percent of the park.

I've become so used to hiking in burns that the forest came as a pleasant shocker.  

We set up camp and then wandered up the trail toward Twin Lakes, finally stopping and turning around at a massive avalanche chute where there was a large beaver pond at its terminus.

The Snowshoe Trail offers lots of opportunities for side trips like the Twin Lakes.  Another trail from camp would have taken us to Lost Lake.  Goat Mountain Trail junction was at about the two mile mark.

There are impressive loop trails from these sites that offer the potential for spectacular ridge walks. 

In camp we were treated to a visit from the maintenance leader, Shane MacIntosh, who gave us good background on this area.

I thought I was pretty familiar with Waterton, but this hike led me into a part of the park I hadn't explored.  

The day before our Waterton trip we drove the Going to the Sun Highway as far as Haystack Butte and then got drenched in rain hiking the Beaver Pond Loop on the Red Eagle Trail.

After Waterton, we traveled to Drumheller to visit the Dinosaur Museum and then the Dinosaur Provincial Park and were very impressed with both.  The museum rivaled the Smithsonians in the U.S., and the provincial park is a display of the massive Alberta badlands. 

Our backcountry camp at Snowshoe Cabin

The Snowshoe Cabin and work crew