Friday’s wildflowers

Harebells ~ Campanula rotundifolia

Harebells ~ Campanula rotundifolia

Pearly Everlasting ~ Anaphalis margaritacea

Oxeye Daisy ~ Leucanthemum vulgare

Oxeye Daisy ~ Leucanthemum vulgare

Pipsissewa, common prince’s-pine ~ Chimaphila umbellata

Pipsissewa, common prince’s-pine ~ Chimaphila umbellata

Nodding onion ~ Allium cernuum

Nodding onion ~ Allium cernuum

Pear Lake, Blossom Lakes ~ Evan’s Gulch Roadless Area (3)

Flowers of the Evan’s Gulch Roadless Area

For a short time I thought about posting photos of all of the wildflowers I encountered on the trail to Pear Lake, but upon counting them and finding that there were 35 different species, I decided instead to just post two sets, leaving out many whose photos I have posted before including Glacier Lilies and Springbeauties which bloomed at the lower elevations months ago but are now in full bloom among the snowbanks that remain on the high ridge just before the trail drops down to Pear Lake.

Harebells, Bluebells of Scotland, Campanula rotundifolia

Clustered Thistle, Cirsium brevistylum

Poison Hemlock, Conium maculatum

Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea

Pipsissewa, Prince’s Pine, Chimaphila umbellata

Ocean Spray, Holodiscus discolor (These are blossoming shrubs and their large clusters of blooms decorate many hillsides this time of summer)

One-leaved Foamflower, Tiarella unifoliata

Pink Wintergreen, Pyrola asarifolia

They’re very common… and yet…

This is one of the most common of all plants in ranching country, but how often do we take the time to look at it this way…

Harebells, Bluebells of Scotland; the blue bells seem to be everywhere around here this time of year, but a few, just a very few, are not blue.

A nice surprise

This evening I explored a section of trail and found that it was indeed the eastern end of a trail that I have been researching because I think it may be a major wildlife corridor between Baldy Mountain and Big Hole Peak; a small breakthrough, but an important one to me. It wasn’t a long hike and the temperature was in the high 60’s, but there was enough “up” to the trail to move a liter of water from my hydration pack to my sweat towel.

At my starting point at the top of Loneman Divide I was pleasantly surprised to see that these Bird’s-foot trefoils were in bloom.

Bird’s-foot trefoil
Lotus corniculatus

And Nature, as She so often does, had another little bonus for me too. It seemed that the last rays of the setting sun on these Harebells was just right.

It was a very pleasant and satisfying evening!

Fishin’ trip

Bird’s-foot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus

True forget-me-not, Myosotis scorpioides

Harebells, Bluebells of Scotland

Fireweed

Oh, fish? Yep, kept one dozen fat little Brook Trout, caught on my invention (lead fly) and standard Gray Hackle (dropper). Little Thompson River. Released 40.

The longest three mile trail in Montana (Part 2)

Here are some of the flowers which grow along the lower part of trail 205. (Yes, I do favor the Harebells: I see so few of them and those only in this general area of the Coeur d’Alene Mountains.)

Harebells, campanula rotundifolia

Unknown

Unknown

Orange Honeysuckle, lonicera ciliosa