Life has been stuck on fast forward for some time now. Finally, half-way through Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), I have time to start posting some of what has been happening in our lives. A week after the Hiawatha Trail experience, I started my weekly Fall hikes with the Hallelujah Hikers. The five pictured above drove to the Rock Creek area an hour or so East of Missoula off I-90. We wore layered clothing as the temperature was in the 30's when we started. It warmed to the 60's later in the day. Harriet, the first on the right in the light blue jeans, took us on a four hour hike into the Welcome Creek Wilderness before showing us the family cabin that bordered the wilderness.
As we drove along Rock Creek toward the trailhead, we almost ran over a herd of Mountain Sheep that had ventured into the valley to graze on the grass around several private cabins. The ewes were in one yard & several hundred feet later we saw the rams through the wire fencing in this field.
The entrance to Welcome Creek Wilderness is via a swinging bridge over Rock Creek. You can see it in the background of this photo of the trailhead sign.
This pic doesn't show how the bridge swayed as we walked over it. Our destination was Cinnabon Cabin, an old miner's cabin about two hours of hiking from the bridge. We found the cabin had been burned down in the forest fire that raged through part of the wilderness two summers ago. The top to the old wood stove, old tin cans & a few other charred objects still remained.
Thankfully, the family cabin was still intact when we backtracked to it. Harriet's husband bought this 100 year-old homestead cabin before they were married. Their children spent many summers playing in & around this cabin & fly-fishing for trout in Rock Creek. We walked the periphery of their acreage & relaxed after the hike. As our normal Fall schedules did not start until the next week, we drove to the historic Stagestop restaurant nearby for a salad-bar supper before returning to Missoula. Their salad-bar had such homemade items as watermelon pickles. Yummy. Wild turkeys roamed the campgrounds around the restaurant.
Life has been stuck on fast forward for some time now. Finally, half-way through Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), I have time to start posting some of what has been happening in our lives. A week after the Hiawatha Trail experience, I started my weekly Fall hikes with the Hallelujah Hikers. The five pictured above drove to the Rock Creek area an hour or so East of Missoula off I-90. We wore layered clothing as the temperature was in the 30's when we started. It warmed to the 60's later in the day. Harriet, the first on the right in the light blue jeans, took us on a four hour hike into the Welcome Creek Wilderness before showing us the family cabin that bordered the wilderness.
As we drove along Rock Creek toward the trailhead, we almost ran over a herd of Mountain Sheep that had ventured into the valley to graze on the grass around several private cabins. The ewes were in one yard & several hundred feet later we saw the rams through the wire fencing in this field.
The entrance to Welcome Creek Wilderness is via a swinging bridge over Rock Creek. You can see it in the background of this photo of the trailhead sign.
This pic doesn't show how the bridge swayed as we walked over it. Our destination was Cinnabon Cabin, an old miner's cabin about two hours of hiking from the bridge. We found the cabin had been burned down in the forest fire that raged through part of the wilderness two summers ago. The top to the old wood stove, old tin cans & a few other charred objects still remained.
Thankfully, the family cabin was still intact when we backtracked to it. Harriet's husband bought this 100 year-old homestead cabin before they were married. Their children spent many summers playing in & around this cabin & fly-fishing for trout in Rock Creek. We walked the periphery of their acreage & relaxed after the hike. As our normal Fall schedules did not start until the next week, we drove to the historic Stagestop restaurant nearby for a salad-bar supper before returning to Missoula. Their salad-bar had such homemade items as watermelon pickles. Yummy. Wild turkeys roamed the campgrounds around the restaurant.
2 comments:
How sad to find the cabin had burned in the forest fire.Such wonderful memories she probably has of past family times at the cabin.I enjoyed reading about your hike.The swinging bridge sounds alittle stomach agrivating.It all looks like it was a beautiful time togeather.The salad lunch definately sounds good to me.The watermelon pickles sound delicious.
Diane, the cabin that burned down did not belong to Harriet's family. It was an old miner's cabin in the wilderness area that we had just used as our destination point. Harriet had a few memories of hiking this far before, but thankfully was not too invested in the site. Her family cabin - still standing as you see in the photo - is the one on the border of the wilderness area that we hiked & then drove back to after the hike.
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