Snowstorm approaches ending a week of real Spring weather --- Lime Gulch again, Glacier, Highwoods, Sluice Boxes

The Sluice Boxes State Park

Mike and Camille on Lime Ridge

Katie on Sun Point on St. Mary's Lake in Glaicer

Windy Point in Highwood Mountains

 I'm writing this as we prepare for a blast of winter after a week of glorious spring weather, with temperatures that had reached into the 80s.

This past week we returned with friends to the Lime Gulch Ridge in the Rocky Mountain Front, hiked the Sun Point to St. Mary's Falls shoreline trail in Glacier Park, did the Thain Creek-Briggs Loop that included Windy Point Peak in the Highwoods, a strolled a couple of miles in the Little Belts in Sluice Boxes State Park.

It was all so glorious.

Many of the Spring alpine flowers were in bloom, the aspen are leafing and the ticks are out.

I'm battling vein disease in my lower legs --- the valves that pump the blood back to the heart from my feet aren't working, causing blood to pool, causing the legs to be tired and achy.  The vein specialist has me in compression socks that help some.  I'll be wearing these until August when I expect he'll inject the failing veins with a chemical that will shut them down, redirecting the blood.  He said it could be a combination of overuse, age or heredity.  I find it downright scary.  It has made me loggy, not wanting to do much.  When I exercise the doc says the calves pump the blood upward.  He said keep active.

This started in February.

The Lime Ridge hike redux was really fun in the company of Mike Dannells and Camille Consolvo.  We found fresh grizzly tracks on the hike.

We did Glacier on a Sunday, which was probably a mistake, because this part had been opened to the public only the day before and it was a weekend, attracting a sizeable crowd, particularly at St. Mary's Falls. We were impressed by the massive amount of work trail crews had done clearing away the winter deadfall, much of it blowdown from a forest fire.

The upper reaches of the Highwood Mountains still have tons of snow, but the lower elevations, below 6,000 feet, were clear.  It was fun to go up Windy Point Peak for a 360 look at Central Montana.  I drank from a mountain spring, enjoyed wildflowers and even saw a beaver in a pond on Briggs Creek.

Sluice Boxes is a real Great Falls area treasure.  Belt Creek is running a bit muddy and high from spring runoff.  I bumped into three other parties enjoying this hike through towering limestone cliffs, including a young Mom with her six-month old baby.