Saturday July 4th - Storyhill Fest!

We slept in after our late night at the campfire and after breakfast decided to hike to History Rock, a short hike to a sandstone rock that settlers carved their names in.  It was an easy hike in and we found some scat on the way in that was full of deer hair.  The rock is now full of modern-day names so it was hard to find any old ones.

This one is from 1910:

I had to climb it, of course...

On the way back out we found more scat, large and with a small hoof in it...then a little farther down the trail there was a fresh pile, quite large...and it hadn't been there on our way up. It was actually still warm.  It had a tapeworm in it too...I know about those after helping with the wolves at the Wildlife Science Center.  We are fairly certain it was cougar scat and it was prime cougar habitat.  That meant the cougar had been on the trail since we had, within a half hour for sure but based on the condition of the scat I'd say it was more like within 5 minutes or less.   We scouted the area for more sign but didn't find anything.  I wasn't really scared...it was more "cool!".

We went back and made lunch (not included in the catering) and sat in the car in the rain. It rained hard so they moved the afternoon's music inside for the first few artists.  Justin Roth is great...we liked him even better live than on his cd's (we got them on Rhapsody ahead of time).  Here are he, Chris and Johnny singing Justin's great song "Shine".  I was sitting by Chris's mom and she asked me to take a picture:

The music at this festival was a mix of folk-rock and some a little more bluegrass/countryish.  Chris and Johnny (as they used to be called) started playing together in junior high in Bozeman and I think had their first cd out a year after high school.  They went to St. Olaf.  They took a break for a few years and then got back to together as "Storyhill", named after the Story Hills outside of Bozeman.   They are a lot like some of the great 70's bands...CSN, Simon and Garfunkel, groups like that.   They're extremely talented and play several different instruments and have awesome voices.  Some of their music is mellow and some is much more rock.  I love it all!

They played another full set on the 4th, outside since the rain had stopped, as the moon came up behind them and then over the lake.  From the music area you have a beautiful view of Hyalite Peak framed by pine tree

There was another great campfire tonight.  I never expected to be sitting around a fire with a bunch of people I don't know singing "There's a Telephone In My Pants" to the tune of "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands".  Utter silliness, thanks to one of the artists, Jonathan Byrd, but it was really fun.  Another beautiful, gorgeus night.  I can't wait for the first Minnesota Storyhill Fest - labor day weekend.  We're taking kids and a dog or two!
© 2009 Tara Morrison