"Earth and the Great Weather"

"Earth and the great weather / Move me / And move my inward parts with joy."  --Uvavnuk (Inuit)

Training and packing for a dream of a backpacking trip in the Wind River Range of Wyoming occupied us for three weeks.  We hiked up Jumbo twice and around the North Jumbo Loop with new trekking poles twice (and got to watch a parasailer launch and fly from Mt. Jumbo right before our eyes). We also saw the weed-eating sheep on one training hike.

On the Jumbo North Loop

With our eyes on the NOAA forecast for the town of Pinedale, Elkhart Park (our trailhead), and the Titcomb Basin (our goal), we drove to Pinedale but retreated step by step as the weather and forecasts turned from showers to rain to thunderstorms to heavy downpours and snow, first deciding not to backpack in the Winds, then backing off to the Tetons to dayhike and backpack there if the forecast improved, and finally driving home--almost all of the time in rain or heavy rain and often surrounded by lightning.

On the Taggart Lake Trail

We took advantage of a few dryish hours by hiking to Taggart Lake in the Tetons.


 
Over the four days we were out, we did have fun and satisfactions talking with other wet people, camping, and discovering a good place to get coffee, cinnamon rolls, and The New York Times in Jackson.  We also found a route between Jackson and Missoula that takes about seven hours to drive (much faster than driving through Yellowstone), so maybe we'll get back to the Tetons soon and be able to take the camera out of its case (and ziploc bag) more than on this trip.

The Big Blackfoot Runs through It

Robin inflating the first of the stack of five boats

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing...half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

--Water Rat to Mole in The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

Our book group had been planning for some months to camp at Russell Gates Fishing Access Site on the Big Blackfoot River and paddle the 12 miles from River Junction back to the campground.  A few weeks ago, Robin and Gary scouted the dirt-road maze out to River Junction and walked upriver from the Scotty Brown bridge to preview the rapid marked on maps.  Very helpful!  Brian's hip replacement and Joyce's splenectomy kept the whole group from making the floating and camping part of the trip, but Joyce, Kathy, and Brian brought food and spent an evening with us.  Also very helpful--and fun.  We're grateful to Catharine and Robin for having so many boats; to Gary and Robin for their scouting and leading the way; and to Joyce, Kathy, and Brian for driving out, cooking, and setting up dinner.  And what a campground--open ponderosa forest and sites with views and sounds of the river!

Eric, Robin, and Gary at our lunch and sunscreen stop

Paddling along the river, we saw cliff swallows, red-tailed hawks, osprey, and a whole bunch of folks fishing from rafts.  It seems likely that much of the attraction of this beautiful stretch of this river is the pull of fishing Norman Maclean's river.  The book sure was part of the frame for our experience floating:  "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it."
 
And then there's the tao, the energy of live water.

Keeping the camera dry, we took very few pictures on the river, but we do have these from lunch and a leg-stretching and boat-draining stop.

Happy campground photos follow these few from the river.

Catharine showing Joyce the cabinets

Robin cooking

Eric breaking camp

Brian cooking

Kathy

Joyce

Brian

Eric and Gary at breakfast

Tour de Snake

Hey!  The sun appeared after a pretty soggy week, so we headed out to look around the Rattlesnake, starting by biking around the Siesta Drive loop and back down Rattlesnake Drive.  Every time we bike out here, we're struck by how far away we feel in so short a distance!  Here's Eric biking toward town near Ten Spoon Winery.









We biked around side streets, past Rattlesnake School and the Rattlesnake Graveyard Memorial, by sculptor Suzanne Woyciechowicz, built in 1992.  There was a city poor farm on this site from around 1880 until it burned down in 1936, and people who died while living there were buried here.  That's Mt. Jumbo in the background.


 







We headed across the very high and full creek at the Mountainview bridge 

and then biked down through the neighborhood where Tom Demmons landscapes and gardens.  We met him last year when his place was a stop on the Missoula Garden Tour, and we found him getting ready for this year's tour at the end of this month.

To get to lunch at the Market on Front, we went down Van Buren (that's Lolo Peak in front of Eric and off to the south), 




and then we went back and forth across the Clark Fork on the Van Buren bike/ped bridge and the Madison underbridge.  





That's Rattlesnake Creek flowing into the Clark Fork on the left between the Doubletree and the Van Buren bridge.  And that's Mt. Jumbo with the "L" on it.

Now here I am at my desk and computer looking out the window and watching bike after bike go by with other Tourers de Rattlesnake.

June Flowers

Lots of flowers on the 
Saddle-to-Jumbo trail--



field chickweed (left) 



and gaillardia (right)
down low 










and cushion buckwheat (with both creamy- and rosy-colored flowers) near the peak!






Lots and lots of bitterroot in the gravel at the saddle!

Pergola Sealing and Bike Riding

 

Eric spent some days re-sealing the wood on parts of the pergola on the back of the house, climbing up and down ladders, sanding, and brushing on the Cabot's Australian timber oil.  

After he rested up for a couple of days, we took a beautiful bike trip across town to the Maclay Bridge and Bitterroot River, stopping for lunch at the Good Food Store on the way home. 

That--on the back of Eric's bike--is what was left of the lunch baguette.

Mt. Jumbo

We hiked up Mt. Jumbo (4768 ft.) today starting from the neighborhood trail that passes the end of Wildground Lane--a forested and quick way to the south end of the saddle.  The arrowleaf balsamroot and lupine are still blooming.

 


Near the top the Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium), left, and Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum), right, are blooming.

The Clark Fork is looking high and muddy in this view off to the southwest from the top. There's some haze, probably from the controlled burns west of Frenchtown.

But the air looks more clear off to the north--another what-a-day kind of day!

What a Day...

What a day for flowers.  This one is an Erigeron, E. ochroleucus, I think, because of the longish, narrow basal leaves and presence of stem leaves, but there are nearby plants with stem leaves and let's call them stubbier basal leaves that I want to call  E. compositus.  Ok--the news from Lake Woebegone.

I spent a fair amount of time crawling around getting eye-to-eye with erigeron, fritillaries, larkspur, biscuitroot, and arrowleaf balsamroot.


What a day for air.  If only I could post the feel of the breeze and smell of the trees in this place in the forest looking out over town.  Neighbor Gary calls this spot the Lolo Street overlook because that street is right below--in the photo, it's the short straight street parallel to the line of sight to the right of center.  Those leafy plants in the foreground are arrowleaf balsamroot just getting ready to open at this altitude.  

And, speaking of altitude, here is the stone marker for 4200'--the high water mark for Glacial Lake Missoula.

And what a day for sharing happiness.  I met Wally Small and his dog Shortstop.  Here they are walking south from the saddle.