Sun, crystal blue skies, and 20 degrees. Seems like a perfect day for a hike.
After a bit of snow the past few days, today was gloriously sunny. Pepper and I decided to head out for a hike. Initially we considered going up to Jewel Basin, which is well north of us but supposedly breathtaking. But practicality won out and we opted for a nearby hike just a few miles from our house. It’s a trail called Beardance and it winds its way up the foothills of the Mission Mountains, through the Flathead National Forest (the same forest that abuts our backyard).
It was pretty easy going for a little while, and despite the frigid temperature, we were quite comfortable. It’s amazing what some sunlight will do.
However, before long we ran into a bit of a problem. Trees had blown down– clearly during the Thanksgiving hurricane— and many of them were directly on the trail. Hmm.
We ended up doing a bit of bushwhacking to get around the fallen timber. At one point we had to turn back and take a different fork of the trail because there were so many trees in the way we couldn’t find an easy way around them (and didn’t even know where the trail continued from that point). It was a pretty crazy scene.
I was saddened by all these majestic trees on the ground, but Pepper just shrugged. “It’s a big forest.”
Indeed, there are still plenty of trees standing, and we found some beautiful areas.
I managed to do a bit of kameraspielen:
There were some really nice views of Flathead Lake, although they were actually pretty similar to what we see from our house since the trail winds up the same ridge that’s behind us, a few miles away. Still, it was awesome to get out for some hiking in mid-January.