Two major hikes

I have been trying to get into a little better shape.... one not quite as round! As luck would have it, I live in the Rocky Mountains and a good hike is only a few minutes away. I did two pretty awesome (for me, anyway) hikes this past summer.

One hike was to Elkhorn Peak. Here I am at the summit... a measly 9,422 feet! LOL This hike took Joe and I all day to do. The pedometer on my cell phone clocked the hike as 11.9 miles from start to finish, and we felt every step of those eleven miles the next day! It was a pretty intense uphill battle, then rock hopping over those boulders you see in the background to reach the top.

The small ghost town of Elkhorn can be seen here as a few white buildings just behind the rocks. That is just about where we started hiking from!!

Now I know that there are hikers out there that could bag this summit in only a few hours, but neither Joe nor I are one of them! As major hikes go, this one ranks up in the top three that we have accomplished. The other two would be the Highline Trail and Quartz Lake-- both in Glacier National Park. The 12-mile Hanging Garden trail near York, MT (Vigilante Campground is the trail head) was a bitch, too, so I better include it for posterity!

A few weeks after hiking Ellkhorn, we chose to tackle a closer to home and lower elevation peak. We hiked to the two highest points in the Scratchgravel Hills. These photos were taken just down from the summit at an elevation of about 5100ft. This is the view from the top looking North:

It is a nice view of the "Sleeping Giant". Can you pick him out? One other item of note-- I can see my house from here!! LOL The road that is very visible is Green Meadow Drive and that is the road I live off of. Not very green, but hey! That is how Montana can be in late August. Here is a photo looking South-East, down onto Helena from the same spot:

From this vantage point, you can see Elkhorn Peak. It is the highest point in the blue mountains that are across the back of the photo.

You can also see some of the damage from the Mountain Bark Beetle. That is what is killing the pine trees in the foreground. There are some areas that the kill is much worse killing the trees on entire mountains. Dead forests don't just look bad, they are dangerous too. One careless smoker or campfire, or even a lightening strike could cause a devistating fire that would burn hot and fast. For this reason, the forest service and parks departments are teaming up with local volunteers to cut down the dead trees and donate the wood to LIEAP (Low Income Energy Assistance Program). LIEAP then doles out cut cords of wood as a heat source for their clients who have fireplaces or wood stoves as a main heating source at no cost. With a cord of wood selling for $150-$250, this program is going to help out many low income families this winter.

With winter fast approaching, I don't think I will have the chance to do much more hiking over the next few months. I did buy a Wii and the Wii Fit and I plan on using it while it is cold outside. I don't want to just sit around and loose the little bit of ground I have gained (or lost, really!) trying to get into better shape. I hope to be able to go cross-country skiing this winter, too. I didn't even go once last winter!! It is something I really enjoy, just didn't have the time while working. One thing I have alot of since being unemployed is time!

Gonna go watch the first snow storm blow through the valley now....and hope it drops more than just a dusting of the white stuff--

Another update soon!

WTF?!?

It IS June, isn't it? Wait a sec while I check the calendar on my cell phone.....
Yep..
June 5th!
As I am sitting here at work, I hear the Weather man come on the radio and he says we have a SNOW ADVISORY for this weekend! What??!! SNOW?? Jeeze! It's JUNE! You know...flowers, trips to the lake, BBQ's, motorcycle rides, and sunburns! NOT temps in the 30's and 40's, with the possibility of that wintry white s**t.... um, I mean, stuff! (I don't want to hear it, Joe! He's all excited about it.)
I am hoping that the snow stays in the mountains and it only rains in the lower elevations (Albert, let me know how much you get way up where you are!). I guess I'll have to find something to cover my tomato plants this time. I don't think the one I refer to as "Plant #1" can take another freeze, and "Plant #2" is only about 6 inches tall and not very sturdy yet.
The ground won't freeze, so I don't have to worry about all the seeds I just planted.

Boy! Did I pick a doozy of a year to decide to learn how to garden? :-) I guess if I can get anything out of the ground and to the freezer this year, then next year should be a cake walk.

I'll let ya'all know how it all pans out on Monday.....

Just when I thought it was a goner....!

Do you remember me telling you about the tomato plant I purchased? Remember I mentioned it was a risk to have plants outside before Memorial Day? Well, turns out I was right. The Wednesday before the long weekend, the night time temps dipped into the low 30's and my beautiful tomato plant with all of it's flowers froze. I thought it was done for, but I took a good look at it last weekend and noticed it was producing new leaves from the base AND from a few of the branches of the main stalk! I didn't kill it after all.

I finished putting in a small raised garden this past weekend, after thinking I wasn't going to be able to manage one this year. On Saturday, I had pretty much given up on the idea, but late Sunday afternoon I changed my mind and decided to give it a go. I was able to construct, fill, level, and plant one tomato plant (a new one after thinking the first had given up the ghost). After work on Tuesday I planted the seeds. The garden is only 8 foot square, so not much room, but I planted one row each of carrots, parsley, lettuce, radishes, onions, and bell peppers. At one end of the pepper row I planted the new tomato plant. The old tomato plant is in a container at one corner of the garden, with containers of flowers at the other three corners. Now I just have to wait and see if anything actually grows!
The radishes and lettuce each say I should have sprouts in about a week and a half, everything else says 14 to 21 days. I guess I'll know just how green my thumb is right around the summer solstice. I know that sounds late to many of you out there, but the growing season here in Montana is short... only about four good months on average (June-Sept). October and May are iffy months. Sometimes they are beautiful, other times they are cold and snowy. A gardener just can't rely on good weather then, but it doesn't hurt to take the chance! SOooo, I am thinking of making another small raised bed and putting in pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon hybrid (small and fast growing), and cantaloupe hybrid. Why not? It doesn't hurt to try and if they don't succeed, I am really only out the $1.00 I paid for each pack of seeds. I am going to start on that tonight after work, and finish on Saturday morning.

Apart from being a beginner, and having either luck or failure on that front, I am worried that my little plants will be eaten by the droves of grasshoppers we seem to get each summer. If any of you readers have any ideas on how to protect my garden from these little buggers, Please, PLEASE share them!

Back to Work, Safe and Sound (Part 1- Friday and Saturday)

The last few posts were a bit of a teaser to what I did over the Memorial Day weekend. Joe's mother was in dire need of a vacation, so she decided to head west from her home just outside of Pittsburgh, PA to visit her sisters and son. Her sisters all met in Pocatello, Idaho at one of their homes. Instead of paying for another airline ticket from Idaho to Montana, Joe decided to drive down and pick her up. This also gave us the ability to show her some of Montana's historic sites and scenery.

On Friday, Joe and I had to work until 6pm. We had decided to break the trip from Great Falls to Pocatello in half, so we left right after work and headed south. We didn't even eat any supper before driving out of town! It was strange driving right past Helena, throwing a wave out of the window in the general direction of my house. We pulled off the Interstate at about 8:15pm in Butte, MT (155 miles from Great Falls); and ate a quick meal at the Burger King there. A top off of the gas tank, and we were back on the highway in no time. The drive south from Butte to Dillon (57 miles), where we stopped for the night, was scenery we have only seen on a couple of occasions. Seeing new things helped the time and miles pass by. We arrived in Dillon, MT right around 9:30pm and picked out a motel. The rates were pretty low, considering we were travelling on a holiday weekend. We then drove to the local Safeway (grocery) store and bought some breakfast food as we were leaving an hour before the motel's Continental Breakfast room was opened. The room was clean, the bed comfortable, the night pretty quiet... but I had a hard time falling asleep. I would doze a bit, then wake... off and on, until about 2am. The plans were to be on the road by 6am, so when the alarm went off at 5:15 I really wasn't ready to wake up! Joe was already in the shower, so I drug my butt out of bed and got all my stuff ready for my shower and morning routine. I did feel much better after the shower, and eating the bagel with some Orange Juice for breakfast gave me a little boost of energy. The sun was rising as we were heading out of town, and since it was Memorial Weekend, I took the photo of the Flags and the Military Monument.

Saturday Joe and I drove from Dillon, MT to Pocatello, ID (191 miles); only stopping for a couple of geocaches and potty breaks along the way. We arrived at Joe's aunt's home around 10:30am. Introductions were made, we exchanged some small talk, then Joe's mom was ready to go. She told us later (over lunch) that she was happy to see her sisters, but she was VERY much ready to be leaving their company! We didn't waste any time in heading back north... we were back on the Interstate by 11:30am. It had been quite awhile since our small breakfast in the hotel, so we decided to stop for a good lunch in Idaho Falls, ID. Idaho Falls is a very pretty town, and I hope to see more of it someday. We chose to have our lunch at the Olive Garden, which was very good. By chance, I powered up my GPS receiver and noticed we were only 400 feet from a geocache! What luck! It was with this hide (and find) that Joe and I introduced Joe's mother to our little sport. She was ready to find another right away. Since this wasn't planned as a geocaching trip, I hadn't downloaded very many hides, and most of the ones I did were right off the highway in rest stops or tiny towns. Gretchen (Joe's mom) was ready to hit the highway and instructed us to stop at the next goecache so she could find another!
The geocaches along the route to the Montana border were placed just far enough apart to be good leg-stretchers, but not so close that we were stopping all the time. At the Montana border (Monida Pass) we stopped and took a photo under the Welcome to Montana sign for Gretchen's scrapbook. She was loving the mountains and the rustic pioneer homes that dotted the landscape.
The "Old West" ghost town of Bannack lies only 21 miles off the Interstate Highway near Dillon. Gretchen had told Joe that she would like to see the town (now a state park) if she ever came to Montana... so, we took the small detour to Montana's first territorial capital. I'll write more abut Bannack later. I only got a few photos because my camera was acting up, but I promise I'll share them with you. We spent over an hour going in the old cabins and reading the history of each one. The town and many of the buildings are said to be haunted, but the ghosts left us alone while we visited.
Heading north, once again, we arrived in Butte, MT at about 8:30pm. None of us were really hungry after such a heavy Italian lunch, but we needed something small to eat. Gretchen suggested chicken fingers from Burger King. Joe and I just shrugged... Why Not? Neither of us mentioned we had eaten there just about 24 hours ago! So, we had a Deja Vu moment, exiting at Butte, MT; going through the BK drive-thru, stopping at the gas station, and back onto the highway... only heading towards Helena this time.
Sixty-three miles and just about an hour later, we arrived in Helena, MT. The drive from Butte to Helena is beautiful! The highway follows a river through forested mountains and granite cliffs. Along the way, you pass a number of old gold and silver mines and the towns that sprung up around them. The sun was setting and the sky was washed with brilliant roses, magentas, and oranges. A wonderful light show to welcome Gretchen to our state.
The weekend plan was to stay at my house then head farther north to Kalispell, and Glacier Park... so we stopped at Wal Mart as we passed through Helena to pick up a few items, and drove the final 10 miles to my home. By then, it was a little after 9:30pm. A thunderstorm was going strong about 40 miles away giving us a show in the western sky as the clouds covered the remains of the sunset.
After 502 miles in one day , it was good to take a hot shower and sleep in my own bed... just so we could do another 702 miles over the rest of the long weekend. (...to be continued. See Back to work, safe and sound, part 2.)

A warm spring evening on the porch

So, since I spent all of yesterday afternoon and evening at mom's house going through cookbooks (here is only about a third of 'em)...

... This evening after work I settled into a chair on my porch to dig a little deeper into my "new" collection. How many of you remember the Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks? It seemed like EVERYONE had them in the 1970's. Well, I now have 10 of my very own:

I remember these as always being a part of mom's collection, and as I thumbed through them, I understood why I couldn't think of a time they weren't there. The "newest" is copyrighted 1976, when I was only 8, and the oldest? Well, it is dated 1963... long before I was even thought of.

Just for fun, lets take a look inside:

Birthdays and family Celebrations (1963) - We start out with Children's parties! Here are some of their ideas: Pirate Party (still a good choice!), Giant-Land dinner party (guests are seated at doll sized tables, wear doll sized party hats, and are served thimble-sized hamburgers on tiny biscuits, thumb sized scoops of ice cream - made with a melon baller - and inch-square bits of cake), Circus Party where every one shows up in costume of their fav circus performer (gotta have balloons and a clown for this one!), and... this one is GREAT! A cartoon character party! Ok, so we still have those... but NOT the characters they suggest: Donald Duck, Dagwood, or Wimpy (you absolutely must serve burgers at that party)!

Flip a few pages... ahhh, cakes! Normal white, chocolate, lemon... wait a sec.... What's that one? A Cape Canaveral decorated cake??!! Of course the birthday boy has to "count down" before blowing out the "spaceship" candle. No Space Shuttles back in 1963!

Having a teen party (or wingding-- their word, not mine)? Submarine sandwiches, potato chips, popcorn, and Soda-Fountain style drinks or sundaes. Yep, here are some true "soda-fountain" recipes. I'm gonna have to try a few of these this summer!

The next half of the book is dedicated to holiday entertaining... New years is an indoor burger BBQ and make your own ice cream sundae buffet. Valentine's Day is lots of strange pink molded gelatin stuff, and one cool idea- using a cookie cutter, cut a heart out of the center of a slice of white bread and a slice of wheat bread. Make the bottom half of a sandwich on a whole slice of bread, top with one of the breads with the center removed, fill center heart with cut-out from other bread type. Easy, but not too "cheesy"! Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all varieties of traditional fare, with a few really odd side dishes. Halloween has the standard treat ideas, but the big difference is these home made sweets are what is handed out to the Trick-or-Treaters! Times sure have changed over the past 46 years... and not always in a good way.

The final few pages are devoted to ideas for Bridal and Baby showers, and the last page is something we don't see much of anymore... an Open House party. I remember my parents having these when I was little. I wonder why they have fallen "out of favor"?

I think there should be more house parties (aka Open houses) where adults can get together and meet one another in a casual, fun atmosphere. Maybe we would know our neighbors once again?

Anyone else think we should bring them back?

And...finally, the evening is getting too dark to read. I put the books down and enjoy the last bit of twilight while the lights of Helena begin to twinkle in the distance. A few more days in the 80's and the snow will be gone from the Elkhorn Mountains... there off in the distance beyond town.

The evening breeze is still a bit chilly, so I gather up my books and bid you all a good night.