Comments for Montana Outdoors

Comment on Penrose Peak, Part 8 by montucky

montucky — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:37:37 +0000

Isn’t it nice to know that those kind of scenes are still available to us?

Comment on Penrose Peak, Part 8 by Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:54:07 +0000

Oh, that’s *so* gorgeous!! Wow!! I’m just stunned by the beauty of those photographs.

Thanks!

Comment on Penrose Peak, Part 8 by montucky

montucky — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:59:22 +0000

Yes, it’s a great view, although I’m a little disappointed that there was smoke and haze in the air when I was there. that limited the visible distance.

Comment on Penrose Peak, Part 8 by scienceguy288

scienceguy288 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:21:40 +0000

Now that is a view. Absolutely amazing. Interesting history of the lookout as well.

Comment on Penrose Peak, Part 4 by montucky

montucky — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:43:54 +0000

4″ from the nearest vertical is a good rule of thumb, but in this particular area of Lodgepole Pine with a few subalpine firs thrown in, there isn’t a tree within miles that has large enough branches to hoist a pack 4′ from the trunk. In which case you do the best you can do.

Comment on Penrose Peak, Part 8 by montucky

montucky — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:32:50 +0000

I think it might have been, were the cabin still intact. You certainly wouldn’t be interrupted or distracted by anything other than events of nature.

Comment on Penrose Peak, Part 8 by wolf

wolf — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:22:55 +0000

That old cabin looks like a neat place to visit. The writer in me can’t help thinking that would have been a nice, distraction-free place to write a book.

Comment on Penrose Peak, Part 4 by anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:20:31 +0000

montucky, friend, great post, unfortunately I feel I should inform you that you hung your food and pack incorrectly in the picture above.

Any bear, Griz or Black, is an adept enough climber to get your pack and food the way you hung it in the picture.

The correct hang is 12′ or more above the ground (so far so good in your case) and 4′ or preferably more from the nearest vertical support. Hanging your pack so close to the tree’s trunk, will not keep a bear from getting your food and pack.

Now, montucky, like me, I’m sure you are an experienced outdoorsmen. And you might be thinking to yourself, but hey, “in all my years I’ve never had a problem.” That may be true, but largely that might be because of the relatively little use our woods recieve from people and therefore unhabituated nature of our bears to humans and human food; And because of the good practices of all those that have come before us in our adventures.

So please, everyone, make sure to correctly hang your food.

Sorry to be preachy, but I’ve seen far too many habituated bears in heavily used back country areas to keep quiet.

Best of luck, and keep the posts coming montucky.

Cheers,

Comment on Bighole Lookout by montucky

montucky — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:40:43 +0000

It has good visibility of a fairly large section of forest and in that direction on a clear day, you can see nearly a hundred miles. The Bighole peak itself is to the left of it in the photo and it’s a little taller, blocking visibility in that direction, however, that area is covered by another lookout about 10 miles to the west. From the top of that peak, it’s possible to see 7 other lookout locations.

Comment on Bighole Lookout by Bo

Bo — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:39:14 +0000

Must feel like you can see forever from that peak.