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

Friday July 3rd - Storyhill Fest at last!

We woke up to a mountain view from our turret room at the Silver Forest Inn.  I loved this place and highly recommend it!  The owners moved there from Floriday two months ago and are new to inn-keeping but are doing a fabulous job.  They're extremely friendly and the food was wonderful!  The atmosphere was perfect for us.

http://www.silverforestinn.com/








They even told us about a place where we can order live praying mantis's for Jack!  A lovely family.  It's dog-friendly too.

Then we went into town for me to work on my blog and to kill some time before going out to Hyalite Canyon for  Storyhill Fest.

Then we headed back out there and checked in and found a spot for our tent, set up our chairs at the performance area and explored the camp a little.  The music started at 3:30.  Some of our new favorites:

Garrett Gue with Tazlyn Fisher

Edie Carey (I LOVE her...I predict she is going to be come widely known).



The audience area

The fest is held at Hyalite Youth Camp, run by the Bozeman Lions Club. It's on the shores of the Hyalite Reservoir.  It's a very laid back, summer camp style event with cabins and teepees or you can pitch a tent.  The food is catered and was really, really yummy!!!!!!!!!!

Every night after the day's artists and the full set by Storyhill, there was a campfire where all the artists and many of the attendees would sit around a huge campfire and peopel would take turns singing and they would take requests.  It was such a community atmosphere, with people borrowing each other's instruments and the audience singing along...I loved it.  We were too tired to make it up later than 1 a.m. but apparently many stayed up into the wee hours.

Here is a link to some music from the festival:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOwE63gjIZs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgu89BBHrZ0

© 2009 Tara Morrison

Thursday July 2 - Hyalite Canyon hike

We slept in a little and were on the trail at 8:15. 
Hyalite Canyon is a beautiful valley that heads back into some 10,000 foot peaks south of Bozeman.  Our goal for the day was to summit Hyalite Peak, which is 10,298 ft.  It would have been my first Montana summit of note.  But based on what the rangers said we were already resigned to the fact that we probably wouldn't get to the top because of all the snow.  We were the first car at the trailhead...I always like being the first one in.  The trail follows Hyalite Creek much of the way and there are several gorgeus waterfalls along the way. I'm not really a "waterfall person" but these were pretty impressive!  There's a lot of water coming down from the mountains right now.

We encountered snow much lower than we expected to...for a while we were able to walk on top of it but did posthole some.  We finally ran into so much that we started bushwhacking...that's always fun!  I climbed an 8 foot cliff without a rope...and it was wet and slippery too.  But we were careful.  We finally made it to Hyalite Lake which sits a little under 9000 feet.  Once we got up there it was completely snow-covered except a few really rocky patches, and we could see a lot of snow on the route we'd need to take up to the peak.  At that point we knew for sure we weren't going to make it. It wouldn't be safe, and it takes so much longer to walk through snow.

But I was happy we'd made it that far.  We were headed up another slope to have lunch.

when some dark clouds started to roll in so we stayed down lower.  Marc gave me a mini-lesson in using an ice axe (thanks Kim, for loaning yours to me). 


We headed down just as the thunder started.  By then the snow was a lot softer in places and I was going too fast due to the thunder...I took a couple of falls until I slowed down.  Then I fell later on a patch of ice and bruised my knee even more.  Postholing up to your waist takes it's toll too.



By the end of this hike, combined with my bruises from the bathtub fall, I was really hurting, and my legs were various lovely shades of purple.   But it was still an awesome hike!It started to really pour when we were 1/4 mile from the trailhead and we got pretty wet.  We then drove out of the valley to our bed and breakfast on the north side of Bozeman near the Bridger Bowl ski area.

It's a beautiful valley and this b&b is wonderful!  It was originally part of a camp.  It's rustic and homey and we loved the log cabin atmosphere.  We showered and went back to town to have dinner at Ted's, Ted Turner's restaurant.  Excellent food and good wine.  Then it was back to the Silver Forest Inn for some hot tub time to ease aching muscles.   I'm not normally big on hot tubs but sitting in one on a deck watching the sunset behind the mountains - it was a wonderful way to end a great day!

© 2009 Tara Morrison

Wednesday, July 1 - Hyalite Canyon

I was pretty sore this morning from falling backwards into my hotel bathtub in the middle of the night.  I rarely sleep  so soundly that I get disoriented while trying to find the bathroom but I was exhausted!  It could have been worse...some bruises and scraped elbow...no concussion!

I checked out and stopped at the forest service office to get a topo map of Hyalite Canyon/Peak (the one in the far distance on the left with all the snow!)

and then headed out there to set up my campsite.  What a beautiful site, with the front door of the tent facing a roaring stream that I'm sure is normally just a meandering brook...there's still a lot of snow in the mountains so it's very full right now...I love sleeping to that sound! 

I set up camp, made lunch (I love my little pocket rocket stove!) and just hung out and read my book for a few hours.  Then I went back into town and did some laundry and grocery shopping before going to the airport to wait for Marc.  His flight was delayed...didn't land until about 11:40 pm and didn't get his bags until after midnight.  We made it back to camp at 1:03 a.m.  It's going to be an EARLY morning to get up and hike tomorrow!

© 2009 Tara Morrison

Tuesday, June 30 - Miles City, Montana to Bozeman

I spent the night at a KOA in Miles City, MT (after changing my Ekalaka plans).  There are not many campground options in SE Montana...they are few and far between but I wanted a "hotel night" in Bozeman so I camped there - without realizing there is a train track that runs a few blocks away.  Now, I have nothing against trains...but, I do NOT like them going by every half hour (or so it seemed) all night long, repeatedly blowing their whistles EVERY TIME.  I didn't sleep well obviously!  I had a lazy morning since I didn't really have any plans.  I finally hit the road about 9 and stopped to get my Montana State Parks sticker.  Then I decided I may as well stop at a little museum we've driven by and read about...the Range Riders Museum. 

What a quaint little place!  I walked in and a nice older lady took my money and gave me directions (this is not a professional museum, it's more of a hometown one where people have donated a lot of the items) to the various rooms and buildings.  This place has everything from old stoves and cookware to rattles cut off rattlesnakes to guns and swords....a little of anything and everything.  It was started to pay tribute to and honor the "range riders" (cowboys) and maintain their legacy.  There are a lot of Indian items too...many, many arrowheads/tools with stories about who found them and where. 




I know many people think history and museums like this are dusty and boring but they fascinate me and this one was exceptional.  On one wall where they had those big poster holders that you can turn, only this one had each side covered with old black and white photographs and newspaper clippings.  Some were very, very old.  There were rodeo pictures, old ranch pictures, lots of roundup pictures, and pictures of various Indians and their settlements.  While I was looking at them a nice old man started talking to me and asking if I had family in the area, etc.  We talked for quite a while about his background...living in a car during the depression as a child, his tenure as a writer for the navy during WWII - what an incredibly interesting man. I could have listened to his stories all day.  He's written two books and I got the information to order them (from his wife, they're self published).  Through much of my time in the main building, another older man who seemed "in charge" was playing some kind of old record over and over and accompanying it with his violin...the same song, which now I have in my head constantly:  "You are the rose of my heart". It was very sweet.  Only in a small town...

They had stories of various Indian chiefs and pictures of many, some that I'm familiar with and others that I had never heard of. 

For Crazy Horse, they had a blank frame, since he was never photographed.  They must have had 100 of


these pictures prominently displayed around the top of an entire room (my photo of this is quite bad!).  I liked the balance and respect for both the cowboy things and the Indian things.

In a large pole barn they had all manner of old cars, buggies, wagons and up above, things you never really thought about the existence of (such as Ed Love's Portable Bar...looks handy!). 

A potato sorter, a lard press,  an ancient bread slicer, things like that.

I saw lots of mouse evidence and then noticed cat food, milk and water put out and sure enough...a little black face peering out at me.  I couldn't get the kitten to come closer.  Later I was meowed at by another one and could not find where she was - finally saw her curled up on a wagon seat. 

Again, only in  a small town would the museum have kittens in one of the buildings and a fiddle-playing "manager".   I want to go back and spend more time there...I'm afraid of what may happen if it closes, there is so much history in those photos and news clippings alone.  I finally tore myself away though.

I stopped at Pompey's Pillar...a landmark on the Yellowstone River East of Bozeman. 

I've been there before but it made a nice break and since I have my annual National Parks Pass I get into all the national monuments free!  Boy do we get far more than our money's worth out of those passes.    Anyway, Pomepey's Pillar (named after Sacagawea's son, Clark's nickname for him was "pomp")  is a landmark that was an important place to Indians (there used to be many pictographs but all that really remains is a faint red color in places)

and it is the only place where there is physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition.  Clark mentions it in his journals of his return journey in 1806

and he climbed up and signed his name near the pictographs.  They have it under glass now to preserve it ,

and had a ranger stationed there too. You can see a long ways from the top.  I walked down to the river's edge...it is beautiful and I just sat a while and thought about the people who have come through there.  The river is VERY high, just like the Missouri was.

Then I had my first real sight of mountains, the Beartooths west of Billings...that brought a huge smile to my face!  I have yet to explore those rugged, high mountains...but I will someday, you can be sure of that!  That's where Granite Peak, Montana's high point is...a pretty remote one that isn't very easy.  Then I watched storms across the mountains and hit it coming through Bozeman Pass.  It's interesting to see vertical AND horizontal lightning!  I love storms, when I'm not out hiking in them.

Tomorrow:  Hyalite Canyon!  I will be posting sporadically from now on, when I have time to upload photos (it's a slow process) and have internet access.   The next update will probably be on Sunday.
©Tara Morrison 2009

Monday, June 29 - Taking the Long Way Around

I got up very early and hit the road toward Mobridge, SD.  I swear there was a  crop-dusting plane that followed me wherever I went – for like 30 miles. It was right out of the Hitchcock movie “North By Northwest”.  No, not really…but still…it was weird.   I didn’t make breakfast at my campsite since I’d gotten in late and kept the tent next to me up (and boy were they RIGHT next to me...talk about cramming the tents in) and didn’t want to wake them up early too. I had breakfast (which doubled as lunch later) in Mobridge at one of those great small town diners.   I love diners in small towns!  The food is usually great (and cheap) and I love eavesdropping on the conversations of  the locals.  Mobridge is at the junction of Hwy 12 (which goes from Minnesota to Wyoming) and the 1804 and 1806 highways that run north/south, one on each side of the Missouri River.  They are named for the Lewis and Clark routes traveled in those years.



I then visited the Sitting Bull and Sacajawea monuments on the West side of the Missouri River from Mobridge.  Sitting Bull was killed in 1890 and buried in Ft. Yates on the Standing Rock reservation about an hour north of here.  Later his remains were supposedly moved to this site at the request of his grandchildren.  I first stopped at the Sacagawea monument.  After the Lewis and Clark journey she and Charbonneau  and baby "pomp" settled in Kenel (about 20 mi. north, I drove through it) and she died there, according to this monument...although I've read elsewhere that she lived and was buried in Wyoming.  I walked from this monument to the Sitting Bull monument aftera break to watch a cowboy at work on a beautiful summer day.

 I started up the few steps at the Sitting Bull gravesite and had just thought “hmmmm…there could be snakes here” when there was one suddenly a few steps in front of me.  Talk about your stomach going to your throat!  It wasn’t a rattlesnake.  I need to get a snake book…I almost bought one and then thought “I don’t need that!”.  I was wrong.  He was BIG!   This is a beautiful tribute to a great chief. 

Then I took more back roads sort-of along the Missouri for a while.  There isn’t even a marker when you pass from SD to ND.  The water in the rivers is VERY high.  You can tell there are trees that have not been partially under water before.  I was eavesdropping in the café and heard “old-timers” talking about how they’ve never seen it this high.  I love small town cafes, did I mention that? You learn a lot!

I went to Ft. Yates and the Standing Rock Reservation. Even knowing what I was looking for I had to backtrack to find the original burial site of Sitting Bull.  There is no marker whatsoever by the road.  Here is the plaque:

I think the way and reason that Sitting Bull was killed is tragic.  He was a wise man and yes, he was a warrior, but wouldn’t you be, if your family and people were being threatened the way his were?

The "Standing Rock" that gives the reservation it's name.

I then took off across, literally, the middle of nowhere North Dakota.  I LOVE back roads…I love being able to come to a junction and think "hmmm...should I go right or left?" .  I love the open spaces and unexpected things that you see.   In both ND/SD and MT today, I saw more pheasants than I’ve seen the entire rest of my life put together!  But if you don’t have time to “stalk them” or wade through ditch grass (where rattlesnakes are lurking) they are impossible to photograph!  Everything in all 3 states is greener than I think I’ve ever seen it…I’m usually here when everything is brown and crunchy.  One funny thing that I saw was a fox in  a field.  I hadn't seen another car in a long time and I pulled over and stopped.  He saw me and crouched down in the field.  The plants weren't very high so I'm sure he thought he was hidden since he couldn't see me, but his ears were sticking up.  I sat there and he'd raise his head and look and quickly put it back down.  This happened repeatedly so I went on my way, so he could go on his without worrying about me.

I reached the vicinity of the high point of North Dakota

(which is 7 miles in on pretty rough roads) and parked…thought about driving further but it was a pretty rutted track and I didn’t know how deep the  puddles were.  So I got ready and took off…I was so preoccupied with snakes that I didn’t wear enough sunscreen,

The Trail To the Top

didn’t get my hat, didn’t bring any food, etc.  I’ve never walked looking down the entire way before.  It rained a few days ago and since then someone has ridden a mountain bike there.  You can imagine how the bike tracks look like a snake track?    :)     Then some guys, Tony and Rocky, showed up…saw them driving their vehicle around mine and further in so felt bad about where I parked.  They eventually caught up since I was walking and we hiked to the summit together.

 It was Tony’s 36^th  high point summit.  They’ve even done Denali!  They are policemen who do this in memory of fallen comrades, particularly the ones who lost their lives on 9-11.  How cool is that!  They had just done Granite Peak in MT where they had to deal with a LOT of snow and ice and sleet.  They commended me on not getting out of breath on the steep hike up so I felt very good about all the running, etc. that I've been doing and it makes me confident that I'll do ok on the long backpack days in Glacier.  Anyway,  the landscape here is very interesting...I'm not sure what the white ground is, I need to do some research. It's very crumbly and ruggedly pretty. 

There was a hidden valley up in there that I meant to take a picture of on the way down and I forgot.

We reached the summit after having no snake sightings.  I just had to creep around to where I knew the rattlesnake den from Youtube is...I was EXTREMELY careful.  The den was empty...that actually worried me more.  If they weren't in the den, where were they?

 Here is the high point...

each one is marked with a survey marker and the box contains  a register to sign and date.  It was my first high point. 

I hiked much faster on the way down, I wasn't quite as worried about snakes anymore. 

I found some good-sized coyote scat on the road...he's been eating deer (I saw a lot of adult and fawn tracks in the mud). 

Being "scat lady", of course I had to take a picture.

It was a good hike and fun experience.  I'll be doing more high points, it's pretty cool!  I was hoping to get to Ekalaka, Montana tonight but after discovering road construction and a very low speed limit to get down there and back, and knowing there were only 12 campsites (free) at the state park which might all be occupied already, I decided against it. It would have made it REALLY late and a long drive to come back up later.  So I just drove on to Miles City. I've really wanted to drive that road to Ekalaka, and Medicine Rocks State Park looks cool, but it will have to wait for another trip, and that's ok.  The last picture of the day, the Little Missouri River the ND/MT border.  At some point I'm going to try and figure out how to post a map with my meandering route on here.

© 2009 Tara Morrison