Shuffling Along the Continental Divide

Our first ski trip together -- up to cross-country grounds at Chief Joseph Pass, south of Hamilton, Mt., and near the Idaho border -- takes us to a gorgeous trail on the Continental Divide.

I have to admit that getting onto cross-country skis for the first time in 20 years is a bit daunting, especially at 17 degrees and 7,264 feet.

Me, shuffling along the Continental Divide Trail.

But whew! We get to the warming hut -- called the Gordon Reese Cabin and maintained by volunteers plus U.S. Forest Service crews -- just in time for our own packed lunch.

Kitchen at Gordon Reese. No cooked food for us. We snack on our own crackers, cheese, nuts and chocolate. After a morning on the trail, it's absolutely delicious!

The warming room and dining area couldn't be more welcoming. There's even a place by the stove to clothespin our wet socks and gloves.

Volunteer overnight "hosts" have left a good fire going us and for the rest of this day's round of skiers and snowshoers. (We get to host overnight at the end of Jan., as new members of the Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club.)

Gordon Reese is a relatively new feature of this cross-country ski area, with 17 miles of groomed trails.

And we check out the back-porch view before heading home. For more information on this unusual spot, go to http://bitterrootxcskiclub.net/cabin-reservations.htm; to http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Gordon_Reese_Cabin/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=75219; and to http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccaellen/4357743930/in/photostream/.

Gray Days as 2011 Ends...

As an old year fades and a new one dawns, we're greeted by Montana skies that are gray with fog, clouds, snow and rain -- all happening at the same time, some days! What to do? Get out in it!!

Late morning along the Bitterroot River in Lee Metcalf.

So, we walk through the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/leemetcalf/) on one of the grayer mornings and see mountains, icy water, ducks, eagles, hawks and an eerie sun through clouds.

Ducks up a Lee Metcalf creek ("crick," as many here pronounce it).

Ice, a hint of blue sky and bird(?) footprints in Lee Metcalf's riverbank snow.

Next, it's off to River Rising (http://www.riverrisingbakery.com/) in Hamilton for a warming drink. AND, as it turns out, warming colors. Because right there, on the walls near the barista, are beautiful, colorful handwoven rugs made from durable, washable fibers by Jenny Harrold of the local Skalkaho Rugs! (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Skalkaho-Rugs/148009561915436) 

Weaver Jenny Harrold pictured over one of her handwoven rugs.

We need rugs!!  We look her up on Facebook, we "Like" her posts, of course, and we contact her for a  meeting in her home/workshop. It's another gray day when we take off for her address, on the legendary Skalkaho Highway (http://dangerousroads.org/north-america/349-skalkaho-highway-usa.html). She, her husband and five children, with one on the way, live on the safe end of that road, just a few miles from Hamilton. More about the dangerous part of the road later.

We begin looking through her wares while she tells us that her Mom, in Nebraska, taught her how to weave and still comes out to Montana for the grandkids and the looms.

Jenny at the loom.

Her raw material: balls of selvage edges of fabric that Jenny sources in the Midwest. 

Flipping open rugs in her workshop.

Jenny's nearly nine months pregnant and yet she flips all recent rugs out onto the floor for us to see.

 

The "Hippie" rug is a local favorite.

She's sure to show us the "Hippie," a rainbow-colored rug that's always a big hit at her booth in summer's Hamilton Farmers' Market (http://hamiltonfarmersmarket.webs.com/). We like it, we admit to being old hippies ourselves, but we move on. We end up buying three gorgeous rugs in muted colors for our kitchen, our mud room and our main entry. Then we leave, turning east toward the "dangerous" end of Skalkaho.

A snowy surface, rain and clouds meet us.

We get to a point where this "seasonal" narrow mountain road closes for the winter

.

Snow mobiles and cross-country skiers take over from here. Alex chats up a couple (on the least-noisy snowmobiles that I can remember).

Alex and the 'mobilers.

Then they take off up the circuitous route to Skalkaho Falls (http://www.waterfallsmontana.com/waterfalls.aspx?id=11), where the road narrows, several unsuspecting drivers of automobiles have been lost off its edges and a constant round of repairs is underway.

Snowmobiles may be safest! Good luck in 2012, we think to ourselves; we may even see you up there with our newly rented cross-country skis!

'Twas the week before Christmas...

...and all through this place, many creatures were stirring...

(red-tailed hawk, sailing)

(mule deer, grazing)

(elk, lazing)

 ...if at a slow pace.  The Bitterroot shone, barely dusted with snow...

...and ice on the river began building its floe.

***********************************************************************

Okay, okay, I'm fresh out of Christmas rhymes!

But all of this is to say what a great time I had, snapping these images on a two-hour drive with the fantastic photographer Mel Holloway of Corvallis.  I've known Mel since my last trip here.  He posts Bitterroot pictures regularly on Facebook. On this particular day, he had an errand to run south of Hamilton and more pictures to take.  He invited me along!

Mel, on a photo safari.

First we went to the ranch and new apple orchard of the aptly named Lee McAlpine.  Mel had Christmas gifts to deliver -- a bottle of bubbly Italian Secco and a plate of home-made cinnamon rolls baked by his wife, Mary Alice.

Mel comes to the McAlpine ranch bearing gifts.

Lee McAlpine is cider master of a hand-crafted hard cider made with fresh Bitterroot apples. Her
business is Montana Cider Works. She shows us her fermentation equipment and soon-to-be tasting room.

Then we drive north and home to Hamilton on the Old Darby Road, high above the valley. Here and there are lonely fence-row trees, cattle grazing and mounds of soft blonde-on-blonde high-country grass.

Happiest of holidays, from the land of velvet hills (and icy peaks)!

Becky's Back in the Bitterroot

Polar bear and coffee

I am sipping coffee on a Delta Skywest regional jet and sitting next to a young hipster dressed all in black, his dark hair messily swept back and up, his vintage black, square eyeglass frames making him look even more grungy and adorable. He's slept the whole way, mouth open, oblivious to mountains peeking through clouds below. If I were a mean person, I would snap his picture against the window's glorious Bitterroot Valley. But, I'm not. I finish my coffee and only then notice a polar bear on my napkin. An omen of colder things to come in my new Montana home?

Not yet, maybe not at all. I step outside the airport door to a balmy 36 degrees and part sun. Alex appears  from a nearby parking lot and I realize how long it's been since we've seen each other -- two full months! We hug and kiss. It's so sweet to see him all Montana-ed up in his leather gloves, jeans, boots, puffy jacket and favorite cap from Fords Department Store in Hamilton.

Freshly grilled Pacific salmon on salad.

When we go grab some lunch in Missoula, I realize that I've had a breakfast of Starbucks coffee at Lambert-St. Louis airport just before 8 a.m. (and a Delta flight to Salt Lake City), and here I am in Montana at 1 p.m. (Mountain Time) some 1,800 flight miles away, eating freshly grilled Pacific salmon and taking in the local Missoula scene. Amazing!

Moisture off of the Bitterroot River gives a smokey look to the valley.

We drive the 40 or so miles south toward home and through glorious scenery, with moisture adding some atmospheric "haze" to the valley. Only a dusting of snow covers the valley floor; even the miles of cycling path to one side of U.S. Highway 93 are clear of ice and snow.  Record temps on this day for the nearby town of Victor are a high of  56 °F (recorded in 1924) and a low of -12 °F (1972), just fyi.

Roses await at home!

Alex has two dozen red roses waiting for me and when we're home in Hamilton, I put them in a stainless steel thermos in lieu of a vase. They sit amid the detritus of construction tools, rags, mops and other cleaning stuff.

We put off some deep cleaning and build a fire. We sit by it to open two boxes and several Christmas cards that have come in the mail. I take a dark little picture with my iPhone...

Fireplace, evening of Dec. 14.

...and it includes not one but two bear-themed candlestick holders found in St. Louis by my friend John Mareing and shipped to us here. We love them, especially considering our recent bear sightings! Cards are from family and friends. And, ahem, the mule deer antlers are a little joke from Victor friends Marie Anne and Kim. I squealed with a mixture of delight, horror and surprise when I saw them. They'll look great in Alex's new study, I'm thinking! By the way, the fireplace brick, grill and wall above all will get a unifying coat of paint, and a new hearth is coming soon. I'll send pictures then. For now...

...I sign off with a shot of me in the relatively clean master bathroom, preparing to go out and help Alex vacuum, dust and inspect all aspects of the house renovation. More about that soon!! Maybe we'll even get ourselves a sofa for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

... just like the ones I used to -- see in pictures of Montana!!
This is a glorious winter photo of Gordon Reese Cabin, located near Chief Joseph Pass
on the Montana-Idaho border (photo, http://bitterrootxcskiclub.net/).

And we get to stay there!!!!! 

Not for Christmas. But we'll ski in for a January overnight as new members of the Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club.  The cabin was built in 2001 on some 17 miles of cross-country ski trails, south of Hamilton and high up in the national forest (elevation 7,264 feet).  It actually is a U.S. Forest Service property -- a hike-in cabin in summer and a winter warming hut "hosted" by ski-club volunteers who also help maintain it.

Winter-phobic friends here in the Midwest ask the following very first question about living in Montana: "Have you spent a winter there?!"

Snow high up in the Montana mountains (this and all photos, below,
generously lent to me for this post by Corvallis, MT, photographer Mel Holloway.
Mel also does volunteer grooming of ski trails around Gordon Reese Cabin.)

"No," I say, "but we love cold weather."  That doesn't seem to satisfy the questioners. So, I go to the stats!

Down in Hamilton (elevation 3,563 feet), the average temperatures in January, I read, are a high of 34.4 and a low of 16.8 degrees -- not outrageously cold and certainly not like in the wide open Montana prairie towns with winds bearing down on them from Canada: minus 70 is a record low I've read about there. We're on the western side of the Continental Divide.  That, apparently, helps.

And snow in town? There's usually very little (although there's an inch or so right now, leftover from flurries last week). I read that the average precipitation in Hamilton in January is just 1.11 inches. We're not even guaranteed a white Christmas, unless we look out our back windows to mountain tops that tend to get most of the precip moving in from the west. Pretty moderate, if you ask me.

Actually, this shelter of the Bitterroot Mountains (to the west) and the Sapphire Mountains (to the east) also helps give the valley its nickname -- “Banana Belt of Montana.”  Just ask any gardener.

Heavier snow on mountain tops, lighter in the valley.

They look for perennials, trees and shrubs that bear the cold-hardy designation of USDA Zone 5a -- for plants weathering winter lows of from -15 to -20F (the same USDA winter category as for DesMoines, Iowa, or for much of northern Illinois, for that matter).  St. Louis, by way of comparison, is in USDA Zone 6a (for perennials that withstand lows of from -5 to -10). Of course, any single out-sized cold-weather event can eclipse those averages.

What is undeniable is the beauty of these winters.

Hawk in a Bitterroot snow...

...icy stems in the valley.

Western log fence...

...sunset and snow.

Happy holidays to all! (and thanks so much, Mel!!)

"So You Want to Live in Montana"...

Did you know that there are no paved roads in Montana?

That is just one of many themes in a new amateur, computerized video that the Missoulian (owned by Lee Enterprises; please don't hold that against them) says is going viral.

Check it out! http://missoulian.com/so-you-want-to-live-in-montana/youtube_405400fc-01d5-11e1-8e44-001cc4c002e0.html

Alex and I think it's hilarious.

As we back-and-forth between Hamilton and St. Louis, we talk to people who really do voice some of the same odd concerns that video maker Brian Miller put in his dialogue.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/youtube-video-that-pokes-fun-at-moving-to-montana-goes/article_4a040c1e-01d5-11e1-a5f5-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1cYlab8m1

Tee hee!! (I especially like one Montanan's comment: "This is great!... It will keep people from moving to our beautiful state!")

Our Midwest fall garden

It's been a spectacular weekend back in St. Louis, with cool sunny weather, celebrations of the St. Louis Cardinals' World Series Win (http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=stl, woohoo!!) and the antics of Halloween. But I am in my garden today (Nov.1! -- isn't Oct. 15 our last average frost date here?!). And that ubiquitous Cardinals red that filled my brain for the last week is beginning to fade. Now there's a whole new color palette to enjoy. Under the hues of the turning trees, there are the purply blues of winter-hardy pansies that I purchased and potted up (but plan to put in the ground today or tomorrow for effortless color under daffodils next spring)...

There's a harvest of some of the very last of the pumpkin-orange Sun Gold tomatoes (http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7929-sun-gold-f1.aspx)...

... while yellow-stemmed Swiss chard (okay, plus a few Cardinal-red stemmed ones) wait in another bed (http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/0113/Swiss-Chard-Bright-Lights-Blend-Seed/srch:swiss%20chard)...

...There are herbs out the wazoo (it's November and even the basil still thrives! crazy!)...

I move the last of the tender plants to our basement light-room, now filled with orchids, a few annuals for an experimental over-wintering plus a Meyer lemon tree...

After a meeting in mid-town, I take a walk through the nearby Missouri Botanical Garden (http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/) and see, among other things, bees and butterflies getting the last nectar from fuzzy blossoms of Mexican bush sage...

...while busy Mobot volunteers put in some of the hundreds of thousands of bulbs that they plant each fall, for beauty next spring.

I am inspired (guilted?). I think about the bag-o'-bulbs hanging in my garage -- some of the new Midwest Mix that I purchased via Brightside St. Louis (http://brightsidestl.org/). I go home, sort them out and plant 90 of them.

Here's a favorite from the mix: It's called 'Barrett Browning' in ivory-white with orange coronas. It should look spectacular, blooming above all of those re-emerging pansies! One of many things to look forward to in 2012!!