Wild Hyacinth

When I ran across these flowers today it brought back a memory from just one year ago when I posted a photo of one and with the efforts of Adam and Lori it was identified as Wild Hyacinth, Brodiaea douglasii according to the Washington Native Plant Society

(See also USDA Plants [Largeflower triteleia, Triteleia grandiflora] and U of Texas at Austin).

The world in a small Styrofoam cup

Consider the Glacier Lily.

The other day while going through the check stand at the local grocery store I noticed that there were a number of these pretty wildflowers sitting on the counter in a small Styrofoam cup and commented on how pretty they were. The checker, a young woman whom I had often seen there but did not really know, agreed that they were very pretty and mentioned that she had never seen them before one of the other employees put them on her counter.

Just a few days before, I had seen them growing in great abundance along several miles of a trail that ran beside a small stream not far from the town, and thinking that I might tell her where she could see them growing naturally in the wild, I asked her if she ever did any hiking.

Her reply was that she never hiked at all if she could possibly avoid it.

How sad!

Mule-ears

During a hike up into Munson Creek that took most of the day today and stopped at the 3,800 foot level because of heavy snow on the trail, I was intrigued by some large areas of leaves that looked as though they belonged to huge violets. There were a number of buds among them that were clearly not those of violets (much too large) but no full blossoms. On my return, at a quarter of a mile from the trail head a heavy storm suddenly swept in consisting of hail and rain both, and then, as luck would have it, there was one in full bloom. One more photo taken from under a small umbrella that’s always in a pocket of my pack for such occasions.

Mule-ears, Wyethia amplexicaulis, (Sunflower family), are found only in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. This blossom is about 3 inches across.

Tiny visitor

This afternoon while stalking a wildflower, I was very pleased when this little guy came along and graciously stayed to pose for his portrait. I think he’s related to one I came across last July.

He appears to have a lot of attitude for a little critter only an inch tall!

He would be a good mascot for a sports team: “The fighting butterflies”!

Green

Everybody wants to be as green as they can be these days.

So how’s this?

(Scene in a meadow at the upper end of Buffalo Bill Creek in Montana’s Cabinet Mountains.)

Arrowleaf Balsamroot

This large plant (Balsamorhiza sagittata) of the Sunflower family has begun to bloom now in our valley and will fill our mountainsides with color. Just a few have blossomed so far in our back yard, but when they all do the whole hillside behind our house will be orange.

This is an edible plant with large roots that can be eaten raw or cooked, edible stems and leaves, and seeds that can be roasted and ground into a nutritious flour. If basic survival were an issue for someone stranded in the back country around here, the Arrowleaf would be a plentiful solution. Its distribution is limited to the twelve western-most states though.

More Spring Creek images

Yesterday something drew me back to the Spring Creek canyon again and I spent most of the afternoon there (until about four o’clock when it became so cold in the canyon that my fingers became too numb to work the camera and tripod controls), experimenting with shutter speed and taking photos at much slower speeds, effectively accelerating the speed of the water, which I think displays more of the true flow dynamics of the stream. I remember Bernie Kasper created some fantastically beautiful images using a similar technique. Here are just a few of mine from yesterday:

Spring Creek

Who would not like to walk along this stream on a cool spring day? Today I was able to make it about two miles up the Spring Creek trail before the stretches of deep snow across it made it more tiring than it was worth. In a week or so maybe the snow will have melted enough to make it passable.

The first two miles proved to be a steep hike for as the stream cascades down, the trail beside it changes elevation 900 feet in the first two miles reaching 3,400 feet elevation at that point. The rest of the trail will also be steep though because after another five miles the top is at 6,900 feet. I really look forward to being able to hike the whole length!

At its mouth, the Spring Creek canyon enters the Weeksville Creek canyon a few miles upstream from the Clark Fork river, but Spring Creek itself goes underground about a mile short of Weeksville Creek and I presume simply serves to supply the underground water table. If so, it’s possible the sweet cold water in my well at home may be coming from this beautiful little stream.

As you might notice, I got a little carried away with photographing the creek, but it’s inspiring and comforting to me to be near an ice cold stream of pure water, the thing that makes life on this planet possible in the first place.

(Spring Creek originates in the TeePee-Spring Creek roadless area in the Cabinet Mountains of western Montana, Lolo National Forest.)

I’m afraid it has begun

In a rural area something that is missing is infrastructure, some would say by definition. Others might say that the infrastructure isn’t exactly missing, but those who live there often are the infrastructure. I was reminded of that yesterday when a call came over my pager inviting those of us who belong to the Rural Fire Department to go to the scene of a brush fire that was trying to get up into the timber. A house was near but not immediately threatened. In an urban area a fire call is answered by a professional team of firefighters: in a rural area it is answered by those of us who volunteer.

Despite the cold temperatures of a lingering winter and the fact that this area received far more than normal snowfall during the winter, the lower valley areas are already very dry and I’m afraid (I sure hope I’m wrong!) that the fire season started yesterday.

Eight miles from town as we approached mile marker 67, the dispatcher’s location for the fire, we could see a column of smoke coming from a shelf area a few hundred feet above the highway and off to the right a half mile or so. The voice of our chief who was in the lead truck came over the radio informing us where to turn off to get into that area.

Thanks to some good thinking and planning by the senior staff in our department, we have in our arsenal three wildland fire engines (brush trucks) which are light trucks which carry 300 gallons of water, a pump system which injects foam, creating a water-foam mix that is incredibly efficient and room for extra hose and all our other gear. The 4X4 F350 that I drove today had all it could do with all six wheels spinning to climb a steep trail up the mountainside to get into the right position for delivering our foam to the head of the fire.

After three and a half hours with crews working from our brush trucks, a crew from the state DNRC and a crew from the USFS the fire was out and being mopped up. We used over 1500 gallons of water and foam, filling each truck twice from our 3000 gallon water tender also near the scene, got filthy and smelly and had a wonderful time. Sometimes it’s fun to be a part of the infrastructure!

As far as I was concerned, the best reward came just as we were wrapping everything up when about 20 Bighorn sheep strolled out into a small clearing a hundred yards away and stood looking at us as if to say “thanks for protecting our home”.

Burgess Lake, an April visit

Early in May I first visited Burgess Lake and it seemed like a good place to visit again today to perhaps see what spring was doing up there.

For some reason I had forgotten just how steep the little trail was and felt pretty happy that it was short. It’s not a great hike for those who have an aversion to “up”. It occurred to me that if you were to go into the main floor of a 40 story building, find the stairs and then climb them to the top you would find the exertion similar, although you’d need some very loose rock on the stairs and a few downed trees strewn across them to create a more accurate effect.

Today the ice that completely covered the lake in March was gone and the signs of spring were everywhere. This first view at the top of the trail

seemed like an invitation to visit the opposite end, which turned out to be serendipitous because on the way I encountered a Serviceberry which had just begun to show its first blossoms of the new spring.

Once at the other end, the view of the lake from there was also quite pleasant

and the high country above the lake still has not forgotten what winter is all about.

In my visit in March I discovered the first buttercups of this spring, and it seemed to fit that on today’s trip I would discover the first Shooting Stars of this year there too

including this unusual five-headed one.

I have to admit that I had another reason to visit the lake today and that was to find a Diamondback or two, but seeing the new flowers in bloom made up for the disappointment of finding out that the rattlers have not come out of their winter dens yet.

(Burgess Lake is located just above the lower Flathead River in western Montana about a hundred miles south of Glacier Park and is on the Flathead Indian Reservation.)

More rain

After a day in the 70’s yesterday, today was in the 40’s and a poncho was in order for hiking the trails, but this little Trillium didn’t mind the rain

and these (unknown) blossoms seemed to be doing just fine.

A GoldWing day

With warmer temperatures now and most of the snow off the roads, it again becomes ‘Wing time and so today the bike was on the road again for its 27th summer and believe me, the pilot’s seat never felt better! It was a short ride of only a hundred miles today, just for checking everything out and getting used to handling the big bike again.

The weather was great along the Clark Fork and the temperature finally reached the 70’s for the first time in seven months.

I would have ridden a little longer but I discovered that the road was closed. This is a minor highway that crosses a fairly low pass into the Idaho panhandle, and although the pass is only about 4,800 feet high, it receives a lot of snow. When they say the road is closed up there, they really mean it! Here is what it was like at about 3,900 feet, 3 or 4 miles short of the pass. You can imagine what Going to the Sun road in Glacier is like now!

While these machines were about to be worked hard to get the road open,

thousands of these little guys were starting their short summer lives in the high country. I was surprised to see them in an area where there was still 5 feet of snow on the ground.

The ‘Wing seemed to like the cooler temperatures near the pass, but maybe I could have used a jacket. There’s a lot of beautiful scenery to see from Montana’s highways and no better way to see that part of the state than from a big bike!

Proud parents

The members of the plant world aren’t the only ones displaying new blossoms this time of year. Here are a pair of proud parents parading with their new spring “buds” too.

Rebound

These are the tulips that were stomped on by the snow six days ago when they were still buds. Nature’s resilience can be amazing!

These are mystery flowers. Each spring since we moved back here 15 years ago, these two little blue flowers bloom in the same spot, but only the two, the only ones I’ve ever seen anywhere. I have no idea what they are, although in some ways they look similar to Siberian squill, which is not native to Montana. They are not in a flower bed or a place where to my knowledge any flowers were ever planted, indeed it’s a place that would normally get foot traffic (a lawn area near the house). They are a little bit smaller than the spring yellowbells.

Oregon Grape

The Oregon Grape, mahonia repens, AKA creeping barberry, has begun to bloom here in western Montana despite the snow we’ve had nearly every night this week.

Its fruit consists of tiny light blue berries that can be made into great wine or delicious jelly. If you taste the berries right off the plant though, you will discover a brand new standard for the concept of sour!

More information is available by visiting the USDA Plants Profile and doing a search for it. This site doesn’t refer to it as Oregon Grape though: I guess the USDA doesn’t know it’s the state flower of Oregon.

Maybe there’s too much food at the feeder!

A mile apart

Spring Creek trail (USFS trail 370), April 22nd.

Where Spring Creek flows through the deep shade from the ridges just to the south and the cedars overhead, the look of winter remains as the spray from a small cascade coats the overhanging branches with ice.

Yup, those are my snowshoe tracks made today on this section of trail. It doesn’t look like it in the photo, but the snow is still four feet deep on the sides of the canyon.

Yet, a mile downstream where the canyon opens up a little, letting in what little sun there has been this spring, this shrub is sending up its bright new buds toward the light, full of hope for the new spring

and the Glacier Lilies are reaching the summer of their short lives in their homes along the south slopes.

Somehow, Nature has it all figured out.

(Spring Creek originates in the TeePee-Spring Creek roadless area in the Cabinet Mountains of western Montana and flows in a southerly direction toward the Clark Fork River. Shortly below where these photos were taken however, the stream goes underground and disappears. It’s a rather eerie sensation while hiking down after being accustomed to the sound of the gurgling water to suddenly encounter complete silence near the mouth of the canyon.)

Technical difficulties

Spring here in western Montana has been delayed due to technical difficulties.

Crazy about Trilliums!

Trillium ovatum; Wake Robin; Birthroot.

These were photographed on April 18th. at about the 3,500 foot level along Munson Creek in western Montana’s Cabinet Mountains, inside the TeePee-Spring Creek roadless area. (As usual when I’m around wildflowers, I got carried away with the camera.)

It just didn’t seem right that these little flowers would live out their lives with no one at all to see them and appreciate their beauty!

Bighorns and Dog-toothed Violets

With a severe spring snow storm moving in, the temperature sitting steady at 34 degrees and a light drizzle going on outside, today looked like a great day to sit in the living room by the fire.

So, as I placed my camera and pack in the Jeep, I wondered what Mother Nature would show me today in Her back country in the snow: I was sure that whatever it was would be infinitely better than whatever would be on TV. I chose an old familiar trail that started out just a few miles from home, drove to the trailhead and started hiking.

After about an hour and a half on the trail I had climbed above the rain and into the snow zone and took this photo. Most folks would say it is a terrible photo, and perhaps they’re right. It’s nearly monotone, one can barely make out the subject, and there are white spots in front of everything; just terrible. But there’s also the matter of how you look at it. Now if what you really wanted was a photo of a full-curl Rocky Mountain Bighorn ram standing in a heavy spring snowstorm on a cliff 300 feet above you looking down and watching you photograph Glacier Lilies, then it becomes a very beautiful photo indeed!

Oh, and the Glacier Lilies (AKA Dog-toothed Violets)? Well, here’s how they looked today with a few melted snowflakes adorning their petals: