National "Take a Hike Day" was yesterday 11.17.24). We hit the Johns Creek trail for a couple miles on an overcast fall day. The colors were exquisite brought out by the recent rain: golds, rusty browns, reds on the twigs of dogwoods, white on the bark of birch, contrasted with the shiny green conifers, and massive ponderosa pines towering overhead, 80 feet up to their first branch. The chickadees were foraging and the squirrels were…
Scorching temperatures and smoke, that is what July and August seem to consist of. So we were excited to see some cooling in the forecast as summer turned toward fall. The sky turned back to the blue it should be, and we turned our attention to the high country for a few days of exploring and searching for grouse.
We had only been home from British Columbia for a couple of days, but we had worked diligently on rehabbing the truck and gear. I got the notification that Reckless Kelly was going to be in concert in the middle of Montana. Why not get back out on the road? Before we knew it we were packing the truck for a quick trip to Montana. This was a real whirlwind tour of western Montana, but…