Out there with Tom: Concluding a very mild January: Kings Hill-Silver Crest Loop, Sacajawea Springs, Cochrane Dam, Deadman-Kings Hill Loop

Approaching the Deadman bowls in the Little Belts

Pillows of billowy snow in upper O'Brien Creek

The sulfur springs descend to the Missouri River

The Sacajawea Springs emerge in a treeless, dry stretch

I concluded January with two trips along the River's Edge Trail and two in the Kings Hill area of the Little Belt Mountains.

That means it was mild and dry enough to hike near Great Falls and snowy enough to backcountry ski in the mountains.

The last time I recall such an open winter was in 2005, when we didn't get a really significant amount of snow until mid-March.

It has been interesting to encounter folks from outside of northcentral Montana gravitating to the Little Belts, which is one of the few mountain ranges where the snow has been consistently good.

One of those folks was Dale Sexton of Livingston, the only other person outside our party on the Deadman trail on Sunday.

He came up behind Gordon Whirry and myself and joined us. A few minutes into the ski he said, "I think I know you," to me. Then he recalled how he had given me a can of bear spray in the Bob Marshall Wilderness when we passed on the trail and I told him I had lost mine. It was a gesture I always appreciated.

It reminded me how tight our little Montana community is! He has since purchased the renowned Dan Bailey Fly Shop in Livingston.

Gordon and I gave him a small tour of the Deadman trail. Originally I had thought we'd do an out and back to the Deadman bowls, but after going to the bowls we decided to ascend that little bump known as Kings Hill Peak, and then ski straight down its northwest face to where we were parked.

There had been eight inches of new snow two days before we did this ski and it had settled nicely, making skiing on a bright, sunny and nearly windless trip.

It had been about nine days since I last skied, that time I started at Kings Hill and did an 8-mile loop that started at the O'Brien Creek trailhead and then down the cutoff to Silver Crest, where I skied the E Loop and climbed Mount Eureka, had lunch and headed back via Divide Road to the O'Brien Creek Trail.

Because of Covid we've been forced to be more creative about skiing loops rather than point to point because we don't want to climb into each others' cars at the end. I truly miss the point to point, though.

With this dry and warm weather the River Edge Trail has been a godsend.

It had been some time since I had done the Sacajawea Springs (3.6 miles roundtrip) or Cochrane trails (7.2 miles), and had wonderful walks on both.

Sacajawea is particularly interesting because of its history interest, the site where Lewis and Clark used its sulphorous waters to heal the young Shoshone guide Sacajawea, who had become ill.