Spring's Progress

Oh, beautiful Mount Jumbo with such a funny-sounding elephant name!  The translations of the Salish name, Sin Min Koos, "obstacle" and "thing in the way," align pretty well with the reclining elephant that European American settlers saw from the area where Missoula is now.  Away from the blocky town-side view, though, the spring walk up and down from the saddle winds and at time bolts straight up and down through flowers in bunch grass, gravel, and ponderosa/doug fir forest.  Jumbo over here is not an elephant shape or a thing in the way.

One 
favorite bend in the trail 
offers first views of town 
on the way up









and

views of the 
Rattlesnake Peaks on the way down.






 





The balsamroot extravaganza
is starting
and
the lupine,
polemonium,
and prairie smoke
are opening.

 

More Spring Flowers and Wally Small

This spring is dry.  The wildflowers are blooming against a beiger background, but they are popping up.  The larkspur are about in various stages of bloom.

And erigeron are starting to bloom on the gravelly part of the saddle.

 




Also, yesterday, just south of the saddle, I talked with Wally Small, former smokejumper now in his 80s, hiking up Jumbo with his trekking poles but without his precious dog, Shortstop, who has died.  I met Wally and Shortstop last spring and put a picture of them on the blog on May 10.  Today, we shared a different kind of happiness and understanding of how good it is to be alive and outside.

Flowers along the Jumbo Saddle Trail

The balsamroot leaves are up and the flowers are starting to open.

Also, the shooting stars are shooting out--including white ones, which I have not seen before.

 















The Wyoming kittentails and bluebells are up, too. 

 

Happy Cycling and Photovoltaic Spring!

What an early and beautiful spring this year!  We've already been out cycling up the Rattlesnake and then down to campus to see the University mens' tennis team play Sacramento State in the Big Sky Tournament.  Amazing to be able to do that on March 27.

 

And the other amazing spring event is that Solar Plexus has installed our 18-panel, 5 KW photovoltaic rooftop system.  Here are the rails, power optimizers, panels, and crew:

Cross-Town Bikes and Trikes

We love our cross-town bike route that takes us across the Clark Fork, along the river, west through Missoula, and then back from some point out there.  Today, Robin happily proposed going to the Kelly Island Fishing Access Site.  We four met at the Van Buren bike/ped bridge and had lunch outside at the Good Food Store--mid-October! Missoula! lunch outside!  amazing! 

"Earth and the Great Weather" Redux

highway 33 and the Teton peaks off yonder

We made use of the relatively quick route between Missoula and the Tetons (using I-15 and Idaho 33) that we found on our retreat from our August weather-vexed trip.


And we also made happy use of the multi-use/bike pathways that we discovered then.  Returning to the Tetons with bikes, day-hiking packs, and car-camping gear worked out well, and the clear weather helped!

The 20-mile stretch of paved and separated-from-the-road pathway connecting the town of Jackson with Jenny Lake and completed in 2012 is dedicated to the memory of Gabriella Axelrad, a 13-year-old bicyclist who died near Jenny Lake in 1999, hit by a car while wearing an orange safety triangle on her back and a helmet.  High-visibility clothing and helmets aren't enough protection against inattentive drivers, but those things plus separation from traffic, hopefully, are.  The pathway honors Gabriella's memory beautifully.

What wonderful views and feelings of quiet and freedom!

The pathway has, in addition to views and separation from the road, a tunnel for crossing highway 191 at Moose Junction and separated river and creek crossings.

And separation from the road invites riding in low light.

North of the Jenny Lake campground, there is a paved pathway that goes a short way to the one-lane, one-way southbound road for cars.  As part of that road, a bike lane goes as far as String Lake.  The pavement markings seem to make the bike lane one-way as well, but north- and southbound cyclists, including rangers on bikes use this lane.

String Lake makes a great lunch place!

String Lake

looking across Jenny Lake and west up Cascade Canyon

We also biked the multi-use/bike path that goes from the town of Wilson to the park's Granite Canyon entrance station. 



It also has a great lunch spot!














We also took two day hikes on this trip--



one to Leigh Lake and Paintbrush Canyon and the other up Cascade Canyon.

looking across Leigh Lake and up Paintbrush Canyon

 

lunch near Inspiration Point above Jenny Lake

Cascade Creek

duct-tape boot repair in Cascade Canyon

discussion at the Murie cabin

Mardy's cookbooks in the Murie cabin kitchen

September 3 was the 50th birthday of the Wilderness Act.  We joined celebrations in the Tetons with birthday cake, a ranger hike, and a discussion at the Murie cabin, where discussions on the front porch in the 1960s contributed to the ideas and wording of the legislation creating the National Wilderness Preservation System. 

We spent our nights in the Jenny Lake campground, which meant that we could leave the car at the campsite and take off on bikes or on foot for many of our adventures.  It also made an evening saunter to the lake possible.  It's a quiet, open-piney, friendly-feeling place.  At night we heard elk bugling instead of car alarms and car doors slamming.  One restroom for 50 sites causes a bit of a rush-hour crunch, but it also leads to sink-sharing camaraderie and the chance to meet very nice people.  Sin problemas no hay chiste--loosely, without problems, where's the fun?  We really had fun.