Snowshoeing???

Debbie asked me what I thought I might do for Christmas. Hummmmm......... I decided to count may blessings for the last year.  Easy, I thought at first, then quickly I realized that I don't have enough fingers, hummmmm, and I almost immediately ran out of toes.  I realized I needed as more legs than a millipede!!!  So, I ask Debbie if she thought she would like to go up to Lone Pine State Park and and photograph the Flathead Valley to send everyone some photos of where we live now.  She said that sounded good so we dressed like penguins and loaded our camera gear and headed out.  As we turned onto the Park road, the scenery was awesome.

When we got up to the Nature Center I snapped a photo of the snow covered trees with the Picnic Table to show how much snow had fallen.  After changing to our boots in the Nature Center, (who wants to do that outside in the snow),  we headed out on the trail to the overlooks.  The Scenery is breathtaking!

Here you notice the tree tops are below me and almost close enough to touch.

This photo is looking Southeast across the Flathead Valley.  Flathead Lake is visible in the distance.

Looking across the Flathead Valley at the Swan Mountain Range (almost due East).  Downtown Kalispell is at the left edge of the photo.

This Photo shows the smoke coming from the smoke stacks at the Lumber Mill in Columbia Falls.

Our lot is almost directly in line with the V-notch in the mountains, just this side of it.  That notch is the place the Flathead River comes out of the mountains. The mountain on the left of the notch is Teakettle Mountain and on the right is Columbia Falls Mountain.  Downtown Kalispell is in the lower right of the photo.

This view is looking North toward Whitefish.  The Whitefish Mountain is where most of the skiing is done in this area...  almost in the center of the photo. 

When we returned to the Nature Center, the person there must have been out in the cold a bit too much as he insisted we try Snowshoeing!  What was wrong with him!  He new we had just hiked a trail in the deep snow.  But he was very insistent so we thought we would appease him and try on a pair. (as they rent them there and he must have been getting a commission)  And it was a balmy 5 degrees out!  Did you ever try to walk with a piece of sheet metal barn roofing tied to each foot?  Well, with much prodding from Debbie and the Nature Center tyrant, I relented and we started off.  Again, I can't say it enough, the scenery was breathtaking!

So, not long after we started out, I found Snowshoeing to be not too bad............ Hummm......
Debbie seemed to be quite happy with all this plodding through the snow.  Sometimes I wonder about her.......

The trail was awesome, so we just kept going.  I thought she would have frozen by now, but she was practically jogging up the trails!  We climbed to the highest point on the trail and could see the Snow covered peaks of the Mountains in Glacier National Park!  WOW!

The trails became more awesome as we went and I began to think maybe I was enjoying this!  But far from it for me let that be known!  So I tried not to smile but that did not work well either.........

You can tell I was trying very hard to maintain my composure.  All went well, except as Debbie was leading  ahead of me, somehow, still not sure how, I apparently tripped, (so very unusual for me) and fell.  Fortunately, Debbie had her back to me and was not paying attention for if she had gotten a photo of this I would have not been able to show my face in public!  Oddly, I had not thought to ask (I would have never asked!) how to get up if you fall down.  With a bit of woodsman wisdom that I have acquired over the years, I was able to figure it out and got to my feet and dusted myself off before Debbie bothered to notice. (Before he FINALLY caught up with me!)  Hopefully she won't read this blog and find out. (Too Late) Of course nobody else reads these, so I feel I am quite safe rambling along about this embarrassing little detail.

So, we headed back down the trail to the Nature Center.

The scenery had to be experienced to be believed.  My words cannot begin to express what it was like.

As we approached the Nature Center, we noticed we were almost overheated.  An awesome experience, even at 5 degrees, we found Snowshoeing to be a great form of exercise for us.  We plan to do it often this winter.

Snowy mountain roads!

Well..........  Most of you that KNOW me, know that I sometimes do dumb things.... very rarely, but it has been known to happen.......  Well, the other day I may have come close to that... it's still in question.  Anyway, it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we had not had but a little snow here in Kalispell.  Nothing was on the roads and just some spots in heavy grass in the neighboring fields, so we decided to go for a drive......  Nothing unusual, just a drive in the country.  We noticed the hoarfrost (frost on steroids) up in the mountains and thought it would be good to get a couple of photos of it.

Heading up the mountains, we noticed on the map that the road simply went up and over a mountain and into a valley on the other side and back to US-2 and to Kalispell.  Simple!  Nice drive and some good hoarfrost photos.  As we climbed in elevation, we noticed the roads were snow covered and packed into ice. 

Things started to become a little, not much, but a little confusing as a number of roads turned off the the road we were on, and at times we could not tell which road was the one we were on, hummmmm.  But, anyway, we got up into the mountains and the hoarfrost was awesome.

So Debbie got out the Garmin and input a small town on US-2 that we thought we would be going through.  So, following the Garmin, we noticed as we got higher and higher into the mountains, the road became two ice-packed ruts in deep snow!  Our Prius was beginning to drag the snow down the center of the road, NOT GOOD!  Watching my driving closely, Debbie says, "Joe, don't look now but we are no longer on the road"!  Slight cause for concern......  A Prius with worn tires on Forest Logging roads that go for miles and just end!  Beginning to be a bit more concerned, we found a place we could stop, one of the few level places in the whole mountain range, and were able to turn around.  Did I say the road was now a single lane, of just two icy ruts?  Having no idea if we could get back to the main road (I use 'main road' very loosely here) or not began to raise the 'concern' level to close to Panic, but of course, we kept our cool!!!  It was a little disconcerting that we did not have warm clothes, food or water with us and were more than 10 miles from the nearest human.......  As we were trying to get back to the 'main road' Debbie noticed where we left the road the Garmin was following.  Later we talked to a 'local' as we were going down the mountain and he told us that road had been closed by the Forest Service many years ago!  Thanks, Garmin!!! Anyway, by the Grace of God, we were able to make it back to the 'main road' and continued slowly down the mountain.  The 'local' that I mentioned earlier gave us directions to get on down to civilization.  We were on the 'other'side of the mountain than we had anticipated and we were one and a half hours drive on good highways back to Kalispell. AMEN!  But, anyway, we did get a few photos!  The part that was disappointing to us was that it was beautiful up on the Forest Service roads and we were far too un-nerved (to say the least) to get our cameras out.  When we got home, Debbie had to take a screwdriver and pry my hands off the steering wheel.   

Kalispell, Montana

Most of you know that we have sold our Farm near Bainbridge Indiana and moved to Kalispell Montana.  Last April we bought a lot near Columbia Falls Montana, about 15 miles from Kalispell, but for now we are living in a townhouse talking with Builders and Banks about building a house on our lot this Summer.  We'll see how it goes.  We had worked on our Farm and re-modeled the house over the past several years and it just got to be too much work.  We just could not keep it up.  We did love the Farm and hated to leave it, but we have loved Montana since our first trip out here in 2003 and decided this is the place we want to spend our Autumn Years...........

One of our greatest enjoyments is Photography and our lot is just about 12 miles from Glacier National Park.  This Winter, if you could call it that so far, I am sure it will get colder, HOPEFULLY we will get lots of Snow in late December, January and February!  Our temperatures here are still in the mid to upper thirties with several days going into the mid forties.  That is also the forecast for the next 10 days..........

A few days ago it was warm and Sunny so I talked Debbie to leaving the un-packing until later and going to Glacier National Park.  We took some snapshots and I am adding a few.  No snow on the roads and were able to drive about 18 miles into the Park, WOW.  I know it is nothing like being here, but it will give you an idea of what it looks like...........

This is looking across McDonald Creek at McPartland Mountain.

This is looking across McDonald Lake looking at the West end of Mt. Oberlin.

Distance out here is hard to get use to.  The top of that mountain is over 14 miles from us.  Looking across McDonald Lake is 10 miles from where we are standing to the distant shoreline.

Looking at the 'backside' of Bearhat Mountain.  We call it the 'backside' because most people see Bearhat from the East side on the Hidden Lake Trail.

We also hiked up to Avalanche Gorge to take some snapshots of the these falls.  We have lots of photos of this area in the Summer, but had not been here this late in the year.  There is a lot more water coming down Avalanche Creek this Autumn than in the Summer.  This area is one of the many beautiful places in Glacier National Park.  It is easily accessible and only a short walk from the parking lot.

We have been finding some great places to eat in Kalispell and around the Flathead Valley. Norm's News and Sykes are two downtown restaurants that out super!  The food is great, and the quantities are more than we can eat.  We often have a 'to go' box that is enough for lunch the next day.  We also enjoy the Montana Club for special days, (it does not take much to make a special day for us). A few days ago, Debbie and I went up to Whitefish to a Christmas Art walk and found another great place to eat.  They served crepes.  It was interesting to watch them make them as their 'kitchen' is right in the front window!  We had some of the most delicious crepes that we had ever eaten!  Besides the food, the Art Walk was great.  Whitefish has some awesome art galleries handling nationally and internationally known artist as well as local artist that our outstanding.  Every business downtown Whitefish was open for the walk and had all kinds of deserts, hot chocolate, and coffee for everyone.  I believe one business had 27 different kinds of cookies.  NO I could not eat one of each!  Quit thinking such things!  We got there early and had dinner at the Crepe place and were able to see everything we wanted to see before the crowd got too bad, but by the time we left, it was almost wall to wall people as the downtown streets were closed to automobile traffic.

Well, enough of my ramblings...........  I am going to  get Debbie to edit this before I publish it, if she will.  I am not much of a writer, but I enjoy letting anyone that is interested know what we are doing.  We just enjoy Montana soooooo much it is hard to keep quiet about it.