What to do on a 93 degree day...

What does one do on one of the hottest days of the year? It's Wednesday, so go hiking, of course! Even better, hike the highest peak around - St. Mary's Peak at 9351 feet above sea level. Judy & I did use our heads & started out extra early at 7:00 a.m. Our car climbed from the 3500' Bitterroot Valley floor to 6840' at the trailhead over 14 miles on a switch-backing dirt road in the Bitterroot National Forest. We saw blacktailed squirrels run across the road, as well as Lupine, Penstamen, Indian Paintbrush, Arnica, Yarrow & towards the top large, white blooms of Beargrass on each side of the road.

The moderately steep hike with numerous tree roots & rocks in the path, was divided into thirds by the landmarks. The steepest climbing was on the first 1 1/2 miles. Just before the grade changed from about 45% to 15-20%, we passed a spring guarded by an old corral. A couple wooden benches were nearby. Large flies ( horse or deer flies?) started to pester us as we hiked past stands of twisted Whitebark pine trees. We checked. They have 5 pine needles in each bundle.
When we entered the Selway Wilderness after 3 miles, we saw a chipmunk scamper across the trail & started seeing some snow banks up the slopes. The large flies left us. Instead, we were accompanied by a swarm of tiny darting flies. Judy, who talks more than I do, had 4 different flies zip into her mouth along the way. Two she was able to spit out. The other two she thought she swallowed. I had one try to enter my left ear. Through the trees we could glimpse a couple of small turquoise lakes. Gradually the trees shortened into scrub brush. As we climbed above the tree line, tiny alpine plants bloomed amongst the rocks & gravel. We arrived at the peak shortly after 11:00 a.m. Yellow Buttercups & miniature blue Forget-me-nots blanketed the hollows where snow had recently melted. We climbed the old look-out tower, where we sat down to eat our lunch & view primitive wilderness to the north, south & west. The manicured Bitterroot Valley lay far below us to the east. Near the peak was a huge basin ringed with large snow banks that were melting into ribbon waterfalls that we actually heard before we saw them. We could see some daredevil had skied down these banks several times! We marveled at God's creation & felt so grateful to be able to see everything from such an elevated perspective.