Off the Beaten Path: Hikes, Backpacks, and Travels

Winter in Yellowstone: Hanging with the Coyotes

Posted on February 12, 2013 by westerner54

The end of the day on the Blacktail Plateau in Yellowstone, February 8, 2013.

A lone coyote makes his way across a hillside in the late afternoon sun.

He’s looking at his shadow, trying to figure out how it is that he’s suddenly turned into a tropical iguana.

Or a warthog.

Before the wolves returned to Yellowstone in 1995, the coyotes there had a pretty cushy life. Sure, they had to watch out for mountain lions and grizzlies -and cars – but for the most part they were in charge. In the winter, especially, they were the kings: the grizzlies were sleeping, and they could have their fill of winter-killed elk and bison. I imagine it was a pretty rude shock once the first wolves were released to discover that someone way bigger than they were was not going to let them near a downed elk until all of the good stuff was gone.

The coyote population decreased by about half in the first ten years after the wolves were re-introduced, but you can still see plenty of them in the park, especially on a clear winter day.

As I watched the lone guy checking out his shadow, another coyote trotted up over the ridge, and came to say hello.

I’m thinking we’ve got a dating situation going on here.

They move in for a closer look:

Dance around for a bit:

And that’s it. They go their separate ways.

Maybe not a date, after all.

Posted in Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Wildlife, Yellowstone | Tagged coyotes, Yellowstone, Yellowstone in winter | 27 Comments

If those Danged Birds would Just Stand Still….

Posted on February 7, 2013 by westerner54

I’ve been inspired by the amazing nature/photography blogs that I follow to take a stab at improving my own wildlife photography. Not intending to become the next David Attenborough — yep, I’ve been watching Nature on PBS — but there’s certainly plenty of room for improvement, so it seems a worthy goal.

When I get good, I’ll go to Botswana and get a photo like this.

Step one: a camera upgrade. I have a little Sony point and shoot, and I’ve been using it so much this past year that the on/off button keeps getting stuck in one position or the other. Contrary to my usual buying method (see an ad, think it looks nifty, and buy it) I actually did a tiny amount of research for this purchase, and discovered that there is a class of cameras called “bridge cameras” for folks just like me who want to take a step up from the point and shoot, but don’t want to jump all the way to a Single Lens Reflex camera. Cool. Research paying off. (And I finally figured out what SLR stands for. Extra cool.) I knew there was one thing I wanted on my next camera: a viewfinder. I don’t know if any of the point and shoot digital cameras have a viewfinder, but mine doesn’t. In the days before reading glasses, this wasn’t a problem. But now…unless the light is just right I can’t clearly see what I’m focusing on without my reading glasses, and I can’t see the actual object I’m focusing on with reading glasses. Life is hard.

It turns out that there aren’t actually that many bridge-type cameras out there with viewfinders, so my choice was narrowed to two. Surprising myself yet again, I did a little more research, and found good reviews for the Nikon Coolpix 510, so that’s what I got.

I wasn’t expecting that it would be that different from using my old camera, but I am so nicely surprised by how much fun this camera is to use. So that is extra cool, as well. I’ve been on a mission the past couple of weeks to start my wildlife photographer career by stalking the winter birds that hang out in central Montana. What have I learned so far? Birds sitting still are easy to shoot, birds flying not so much. What an insight.

For example, it was pretty easy to get a decent photo of this good looking Roughlegged Hawk as he sat on a fencepost:

but a whole other matter to catch him when he decided to fly:

fail

fail again

fail again, but I actually kind of like this one

Luckily for my frustration level, geese are wonderfully cooperative when you want to catch them flying. They take a long time to get in the air, and once they’re up they move nice and slowly:

We have a few flocks of cedar waxwings that are wintering in town, and I would dearly love to get a picture of hundreds of them taking off from a tree in unison. That hasn’t happened: I’ve tried sitting and watching them, camera at the ready, but have totally missed it when they do decide to take off. These two are my best waxwing shots so far:

not great…

Birds at the feeder are good for practice, but, man – those little guys just move so darned fast! Got a few of them, though:

this guy was no challenge: he was attached to the suet feeder for days!

The other day I did come across some wildlife that stood still for as long as I needed:

If they’d all cooperate like these guys, I’d be a pro in no time.

Posted in Birding, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Wildlife | Tagged bridge cameras, learning photography, wildlife photography | 31 Comments

Small Pleasures

Posted on January 31, 2013 by westerner54

I am slowly figuring out that the way to enjoy winter is to take pleasure in the small things: a good cup of tea or hot chocolate on a cold afternoon, watching the same Downy Woodpecker at the suet feeder each day, watching a hawk hover over a meadow looking for supper, the chance to listen to good music, and – of course -the company of good friends. And if my head is in the right place, even the vagaries of the weather — sunny one moment, windy and gray the next — can be a pleasure.

Yesterday was cold and windy in town, and my head was definitely not in the right place for finding pleasure in the weather. Nonetheless, I wanted to be outdoors, so I headed out to York Bridge, which crosses the Missouri River above Hauser Dam. There’s a nice little trail there that climbs a hill above the river, and I hoped that there would be a little sunshine out there as well.

As I pulled off the road near the bridge, the wind was blowing like a bugger, but I stuck to my guns. There was snow on the hillside, but it wasn’t deep, so I headed up. My reward? Sunshine. Pretty warm sunshine at that. And of course …. a not-too-shabby view.

See? Sunshine!

It gets a little “bushwhacky”

Looking north from the ridge: sunshine is leaving.

The only other tracks I saw on the way up were deer and rabbit tracks, but when I reached the ridge, I saw a line of large canid tracks heading along the ridge. No person with them, and definitely big enough for a wolf. What do you think?

I’m going with wolf, because that gives me pleasure!

Posted in Hiking, Life, Montana, Nature, Outdoors | Tagged Missouri River, York Bridge, York Bridge Peak trail | 14 Comments

Posted on January 28, 2013 by westerner54

I am reblogging a post from one of my own blogs – which is a bit odd, I suppose – but I feel the need to recognize this wonderful old homestead that is no longer standing.

The History Trail

Update, January, 2013: Earlier this month the new owner of the Borntrager homestead burned the old house down. It was not in good shape, so the decision is understandable, but it’s sad. The house was my husband’s grandparents’ house, and was the home where his mother and his many aunts and uncles grew up. So this post is in memory of the original Mennonite homesteaders and the wonderful house they built and lived in for nearly a hundred years.

(The following information on the Borntrager homestead is based on the chapter on Mr. and Mrs. Glen Borntrager in the wonderful book As I Remember…Stories of Eastern Montana’s Pioneers, by Mrs. Morris (Glady Mullet) Kauffman. Vol. 1. Glen and Cora Borntrager were my husband’s grandparents.)

On an afternoon in September, 1905, 19 year old Glen Borntrager and his father Joe loaded up their wagon in Glendive, Montana, and headed out for Thirteen Mile Creek…

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Winter in Glacier: Skiing to the Sun

Posted on January 22, 2013 by westerner54

The area of Glacier National Park that runs along the North Fork of the Flathead is stunningly beautiful country any time of year, but the stark cold and short days of winter lend a wild edge that isn’t always there in the summer. The road inside the park that runs along the North Fork is closed in the winter, but you can travel up the county road on the west side of the river, stop at the bridge over the river and ski into the park along the unplowed road. One of these days I hope to ski the fifteen mile round trip from the park entrance to Bowman Lake. It would take an early start, and the weather would have to be just right….but I think I could do it. Didn’t do it this trip, though. But there’s no need for extra long trips when the scenery is incredible the minute you step out of the car.

The area of the park around Lake McDonald feels softer, with more of a human presence all year long. The lake creates its own weather, and snowshoeing through the trees along the lake and McDonald Creek feels like you’ve entered the forest primeval.

We snowshoed a mile or so up the Sperry Glacier Trail, then headed back down and followed the lakeshore to the head of Lake MacDonald. It was a long day, but so worth every moment.

Posted in Hiking, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Travel | Tagged Glacier National Park, North Fork of Flathead in winter, skiing in Glacier, Winter in Glacier | 30 Comments

Skiing at Zero Cold Thirty

Posted on January 12, 2013 by westerner54

Saturday, January 12, 2013. Really cold. Like 400 degrees below zero. Fahrenheit.

Dang. I forgot to put on sunscreen.

When the steam from the cement plant is doing this, you know it’s a pretty serious inversion. But we’d decided to do a ski at the lake, so it’s off to the lake we go.

We’re not out there alone, either. Ice fisherfolk are all over the place: a regular little village has sprouted on top of the lake.

And it doesn’t look easy getting all that stuff out there:

How much of that is beer, do you think?

Some folks tough it out without the little house. Would someone please explain to me the appeal of this sport?

Of course, who is it who’s wandering around out here with no beer and no chance of catching something good to eat?

Posted in Hiking, Montana, Nature, Outdoors | Tagged Cold, icefishing, stupid cold weather, winter | 17 Comments

Owl Creek Cabin in the Flathead: Maybe Winter’s OK After All

Posted on January 7, 2013 by westerner54

Feeling like you want to rough it, but just a little? Not up to hauling everything on your back and skiing miles to get to a cold cabin in the woods? Want to cook on an electric stove and plug in the coffee pot in morning? If so, Owl Creek Cabin in the Flathead National Forest is the place for you. It’s an easy 4 mile drive from the highway, but you’ll still feel kind of tough, since there’s no water in the winter, and you get to build a fire in the wood stove to heat the cabin.

Compared to skiing six miles to get to a very cold cabin (which I wrote about here), or even last year’s shorter hike to another cold cabin, a weekend at the Owl Creek cabin felt like a spa retreat. We cooked great meals, drank great wine, took a hike to some frozen waterfalls on a perfect sunny day, and returned to a warm toasty cabin at the end of the day.

Owl Creek Cabin is near Condon, Montana, on the shore of Holland Lake. In the summer it must be an incredibly busy place, since it’s at the trailhead for packers who are heading into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. There are three big corrals outside the cabin, and I’m sure there’s quite a bit of rodeo action when a number of packers are trying to get everything ready to go in the morning. In the winter, though, there’s no one around. You can ski around Holland Lake or snowshoe up to Holland Falls and have the whole place to yourself. It’s enough to make me like winter.

Posted in Hiking, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Travel | Tagged Holland Lake Falls, Montana Forest Service cabins, Owl Creek Cabin | 21 Comments

Writing That Feels Like Home

Posted on January 2, 2013 by westerner54

In The Anthropology of Turquoise, Ellen Meloy writes “Of all the things I wondered about on this land, I wondered the hardest about the seduction of certain geographies that feel like home–not by story or blood but merely by their forms and colors. How our perceptions are our only internal map of the world, how there are places that claim you and places that warn you away. How you can fall in love with the light.”

Yes. Yes. Yes.

She gets it exactly right, over and over again. When I read Ellen Meloy I feel like she is sitting across from me in my living room, intently listening to my feelings (not my thoughts – my feelings), and then putting them on paper in a way that is exactly right, exactly as I would say it if only I had her genius.

She writes about the colors, the landscape, the animals, the people of the geography that speaks to her (and to me), and she uses the natural world as a lens through which she tries to make sense of … well… life.

And I realize that when I am repeatedly drawn to the wild landscapes of Montana and the southwest, I’m doing the same thing: using the natural world to put some sort of order on my world.

And I read and re-read Ivan Doig, not simply because he gets what it means to love a landscape – especially Montana – but because his characters bring to life the exhilaration, and angst, and wonder that an attachment to the land can bring. The stories of young Ivan in This House of Sky, or Jick McAskill in English Creek, or his father Angus in Dancing at the Rascal Fair clarify for me why this particular land – and its people – speaks to me. Just like Ellen Meloy, Ivan Doig sees what’s inside of me, and puts it on paper so that I (and yes, it feels like he’s writing just for me!) can make sense of my world.

Of course, there are many others whose writing feels like home to me: Wallace Stegner, Edward Abbey, Jim Harrison, Barbara Kingsolver, Terry Tempest Williams, Rick Bass…the list goes on and on. But if I had to pick two, I’d pick Meloy and Doig. And if I had to pick one…I couldn’t.

What about you? Whose writing feels like home for you?

Posted in Life, Montana, Nature, Writers | Tagged Ellen Meloy, Ivan Doig | 28 Comments

Snow and Solitude: A Yellowstone Solstice

Posted on December 24, 2012 by westerner54

Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone National Park, December 21, 2012, 4:43 p.m.

The shortest day of the year has just ended, and the long night is beginning. We are the only campers in Mammoth Campground on this calm and silent winter solstice. The temperature is in the mid-20’s, but there’s no wind: it’s surprisingly comfortable sitting by the fire.

We’ve just returned from a not-too-long ski along the Blacktail Plateau Road, which is a perfect way to spend the shortest day of the year. Even though we get started around 2:00, the sun stays below the horizon for most of our ski.

We leave the road to explore a bit, and as I round a small ridge I see a curious head watching us:

A little further on, we see her friends:

And even further, we see the big dude. It’s way past the rut, and he really doesn’t care anymore about what the ladies are up to.

The solstice dawn that arrives next morning is muted and soft. Just before 9:00 a pink glow lets us know that the sun has decided to make an appearance at its own relaxed pace.

We watch the surrounding hills brighten as the sun slowly climbs.

After the clear night, it’s a much colder day than it was the day before – it’s only 8 degrees as we head out to the Lamar Valley. Of course, it’s no longer fall – now it’s really winter!

A coyote has already been out, heading purposefully across the snow:

And we watch a chubby dipper busily bobbing up and down alongside – and in – a freezing creek.

We spook a snowshoe hare, who bounds away for a few yards, and then turns and defiantly stares us down.

As we climb the ridge the sun stays low on the horizon, but there’s a stark beauty in the gray silence. At times it feels as if we’ve been dropped into another world, a world that feels like a winter version of the Sahara.

Our final morning. The sun is still reluctant to cross the horizon, but once again there’s a calm, peaceful beauty in the slow awakening.

As the sun hesitates, the steam from the hot springs creates a magical world of white and blue:

Until, finally, the sun breaks through on a distant hillside.

Posted in Hiking, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Yellowstone | Tagged Mammoth Campground, winter camping, Winter Solstice, Yellowstone | 27 Comments

Looking Back: The Best Outdoor Moments from 2012

Posted on December 20, 2012 by westerner54

You know those perfect moments when it feels like time is standing still? When you are totally immersed in your surroundings and nothing exists but the sounds and smells and sights of the “right now”? For me, capturing that moment happens most often in the outdoors, when I can just stop and watch, and wait, and simply see what’s around me.

Looking back at the past year, I realize it’s happened a lot, which makes me feel pretty darned lucky. Here are my favorite mindful moments from 2012:

1. Sitting on the shore of Bowman Lake in Glacier Park early on a warm summer morning has got to be number one. When three deer appeared in front of us, the moment couldn’t get any better.

2. Winter moments don’t happen too often for me, but it happened when skiing in Yellowstone with great friends in January. I was behind everyone, skiing up a hill into the bright sunshine, and when I looked up…the moment was just perfect.

3. Likewise, I’m usually not feeling too mindful on a gray and cold day in March. But when we found thousands of snowgeese at Freezeout Lake near Fairfield, Montana, and when they all took off at once — right over our heads –it was an enchanting moment.

4. Camping by myself in Yellowstone was a milestone of sorts for me, but the real magic happened that same weekend when I was sitting all alone on a hillside and two gorgeous wolves trotted by, and then hung around and played…just a few hundred feet from me. I was holding my breath, trying to make the moment last and last.

5. The weather brought another perfect moment that same weekend. Rain, snow and wind whipped across the Lamar Valley, but when the sun broke through the clouds in the west…well, it was another time standing still moment.

And then a rainbow…

6. The hike to Lewis and Clark Pass is not the most spectacular hike in Montana. But seeing a grizzly sow and her cub digging roots at the top of the pass changed a routine day hike into a moment that will stick with me forever. (They were too far away for a decent picture with my camera, but that didn’t matter. They were in the green patch at the bottom of the hill in this picture, and the whole thing is imprinted in my head better than any photograph!)

7. An early spring hike along the Missouri River brought another perfect moment. The welcome sun and warmth after a long winter and the beautiful canyon changed a hike we’d taken many times into a memorable moment.

8. The ridge above Casey Meadow, in the Elkhorn Mountains, is another spot that we’ve hiked to many times. It’s always lovely, but something about the sunset we watched early this summer made time stand still.

What are your time standing still moments? I’d love to hear about them!

Posted in Hiking, Life, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Yellowstone | Tagged Glacier, great moments, mindfulness, Yellowstone | 22 Comments

Off the Beaten Path: Hikes, Backpacks, and Travels

Winter in Yellowstone: Hanging with the Coyotes

If those Danged Birds would Just Stand Still….

Small Pleasures

Winter in Glacier: Skiing to the Sun

Skiing at Zero Cold Thirty

Owl Creek Cabin in the Flathead: Maybe Winter’s OK After All

Writing That Feels Like Home

Snow and Solitude: A Yellowstone Solstice

Looking Back: The Best Outdoor Moments from 2012

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