Part 3 - Skookum Butte Look-out

The Kootenai Creek Fire that had stayed back in the wilderness area & fairly contained through August & early September, blew up & headed toward ranches bordering the Canyon on September 19th, Rosh HaShanah. I have blogged about a couple of our hikes along Kootenai Creek in past years. Louis & I had been busy with the morning Rosh HaShanah service & Beth Tephila Congregation Tasch-Lik service after our oneg (potluck lunch). Our Tasch Lik, along the Clark Fork River, was extra special since one of our members was baptized during the service this year. The day was clear & warm - around 80 degrees. A great day for a baptism. As we drove home on Highway 93, we noticed the wind was starting to gust. After driving through Lolo, we noticed a large plume of dark smoke rising above Kootenai Canyon. In the smoke, you could just barely see flames of fire along the ridgeline between Kootenai & Bass Creek Canyons. We have good friends who own a ranch in the Bass Creek area, so we wondered how this would affect them. No sooner than we arrived home & we received an emergency call from Janie saying that the fire was heading their way & they had been put on possible evacuation status. We offerred our horse trailer to help move their horses & cattle if need be. Thankfully, the fire never reached their ranch & they never had to evacuate, but it was touch & go for a couple of weeks. Well, several days after this blow-up, the hiking group decided to get out of the smoke filling our valley. In this photo taken from the lookout, we could look down at the smoke-filled Bitterroot Valley from above & to the West of it.

My friend, Becky, whom you met in the post on the Hiawatha Trail, joined the Hallelujah Hikers for the first time. She took us to one of her favorite hikes - Skookum Butte Lookout on the Montana-Idaho border. This hike is not in all the Bitterroot or other hiking trail guides...so it's a well-kept secret by those who know about it & the pikas that inhabit the talus around the lookout. We heard those pikas, (small mammals allied to rabbits that inhabit alpine regions), whistling but never saw them. We were just too chatty as we hiked along.

The hike was supposedly only a mile or so long, but it felt like much longer, since it was quite steep. It offerred great views of mountain ranges in both Montana & Idaho.

As we climbed above the treeline, we could see Skookum Butte with the Lookout
sitting on top of all the talus.

The photo below was taken as we were just leaving the trees. We were reminded of the house the wise man built upon the rock versus the sand. It would remain when the storms came. (Matthew 7: 24-25) We hope to be such wise women - who hear our Lord's words & also obey them. Our foundation is the LORD - THE ROCK. (Isaiah 26: 3-4)

Some of the slope was covered with Huckleberry plants loaded with berries & russet leaves. We snacked on Huckleberries & a few wild Raspberries along the trail on our way down to the trailhead.

Part-way down, we detoured to check-out the trail to Granite Lake that we hope to hike another time. The lake in the distance is Lily Lake, not Granite Lake. Maybe we'll hike to Lily Lake sometime too.

Part 2 - Hike to Baker, Middle & Gem Lakes on the trail to Trapper Peak

The next week, we drove south on Highway 93 a couple of hours to reach the trailhead for three lakes that are on the way to the summit of Trapper Peak. I had hiked Trapper Peak about 4-5 years ago with several members of my extended family on the 4th of July. Mosquitos swarmed around the lakes on that trip, but this hike was late enough in the season that we saw no insects. We did see deer & Hungarian partridges. ( If you want to enlarge any of the photos, just left click on the photo.) The hike starts fairly steep until you reach the ridge. Then it becomes quite enjoyable as you walk along the ridge toward the southern Trapper Peak.

This photo was taken as we reached the ridge & could look back at one mountain ridge after another in Montana & Idaho. There were not too many wildflowers, but plenty of Fall color here in mid-September.

We passed a few meadows on our way to Baker & then Middle Lakes, but did not see any wildlife in them.

Baker Lake is the first one you reach on this trail after about an hour of steady hiking. It is full of small trout, but we had not brought our fishing poles. We ate our lunches at this gorgeous site before heading down the trail to Middle Lake.

Middle Lake was only 45 minutes along the trail. It is more green in color, but with the same rugged beauty of Baker Lake. The trout in Middle Lake & later in Gem Lake were much bigger than in Baker Lake. All three lakes were so pristine that you could see the trout easily from the shore.

Above Middle Lake, the trail winds up a steep gully along a tiny stream before reaching Gem Lake. We met only one other hiker on this trip - Lisa. She hiked with us from Baker Lake to the other two lakes. She's in the photo below about half-way between Middle & Gem Lake. Judy, (one of my hiking buddies), had met Lisa at a rest home, where Lisa is a CNA & Judy holds a Bible Study for some of the residents. So the two of them started chatting away, as we continued to hike. When we returned to the trailhead at the end of our hike, Lisa introduced us to her pet rabbit, who was napping in her truck.

Gem Lake was an even deeper green than Middle Lake... hence its name. The trail doesn't go much further than Gem Lake, so to hike any further up towards Trapper Peak requires a lot of rock climbing. You hike above the tree-line fairly soon. Its quite strenuous, but worth the effort to see the view from the summit. However, we didn't have the time to reach the summit this day & turned back down the trail after roaming around Gem Lake awhile.

The Last Days of Summer & First of Fall 2009 - Part 1

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.

The Hiawatha Bike Trail

Becky is my other friend. She is wearing the orange top with light blue jacket above. If I sow too much of the Word into her life on any given occasion, she kindly changes the subject. Our common interest over several years has been her Schnauzer dog, Pug, whom we have dogsat when she has been out of town. We even took care of Pug for several straight months when Becky went to Finland on a Fulbright scholarship. We've seen less of Pug in the last couple of years, since Becky's only child, Ben, died at 21 years of age in an avalanche while skiing near Bozeman. Pug was her main comforter. Since then her father also died & her mother has moved to a rest home. Pug developed gastrointestinal lymphoma in this past year. She lost that battle a month or so ago. I've hoped to develop other bridges with Becky to keep our relationship going. She loves to hike or bike, so we set up a date at the beginning of September to finally spend a day together on the Hiawatha Trail, one of the most scenic rail to trails in the USA. Esther, my sister, also joined us for the 15 mile route which crosses the Bitterroot Mountains between Idaho & Montana.

The Route of the Hiawatha is best known for the 1.66 mile long, dark Taft Tunnel or St. Paul Pass, which burrows under the Idaho-Montana state line. The temperature is around 45 degrees in the tunnel. Moisture drips from the tunnel ceiling, creating lots of puddles to dodge. The trail winds through 10 tunnels & over 7 high railroad trestles. My bike light went out in one of the tunnels. I scraped my left arm along the side of the tunnel before I could fully stop my bike & get the light to turn back on. Around 5 p.m. the day before, I had started experiencing rapid lightning flashes in my left lateral peripheral vision every blink of my eye. Multiple floaters also made my visual field appear to have a plague of flies. So I had my eyes dilated during an emergency appointment that morning to see if I would need a spot laser weld for a retinal tear. Thankfully no tear was apparent yet. These symptoms & the scrape were just distractions on an otherwise awesome hike.

As we were returning to the trailhead below the Taft Tunnel by bus shuttle, we watched a moose feeding from the bottom of one of the ponds in Loop Creek Canyon.

Sowing Seed

Some of our hens scramble out of the chickenhouse each morning to hang around Beauty, our Tennessee Walker mare, when she is eating her 3-way grain breakfast. Periodically Beauty raises her head as she chews & some of the grain kernels drop to the ground. The chickens snatch those kernels. Two friends are chewing on the seed of the Word that I & others have sprinkled into their lives. Karen, who has now attended Beth Tephila fairly faithfully since last Rosh HaShana, is one of them. She grew up in a religious Reformed Jewish home in the LA area. It's been a year of listening carefully, asking a lot of questions & now starting to read the New Testament. I have been praying that the enemy of Karen's soul will not snatch the seed away before it takes root.

This past Shabbat I was telling Pam, another friend at Beth Tephila, about the women's neighborhood Bible Study that I was preparing to teach on Revelation 1-3. Karen came up behind us & joined in the conversation. She asked when & where the study would be starting & quickly invited herself. This Thursday morning she plans to meet me twenty minutes early, so we can attend the first session together. Now I am praying that my teaching will not confuse her or create any barriers to the faith that the Holy Spirit has been slowly cultivating.

Praise God for Louis's successful sinus surgery!

Louis's extensive Septoplasty, turbinate reduction & sinus surgery is now past. Louis came through yesterday's surgery with flying colors & is now camping out in our kitchen in a lounge chair. Ari has spread out along side him the last few painful hours. Louis's nose is quite swollen as we expected & we keep changing the drip pads below his nose when they become saturated with his bloody discharge. He's had only one bad bout with nausea. This afternoon the lower nasal packs will be removed during his post-op. appointment, which should reduce some of the nasal pain. The sinus part of the surgery has left him with a terrific sinus headache, which the Lortabs only take the edge off of. The upper packing in the sinuses won't come out for over a week. As a result, Louis has taken a week off work to just lay around & recover. Thanks for your prayers!

Jewel Basin Hike - Part 1

A couple of weeks ago I promised to share some of the photos of the Jewel Basin hike. Five of the Hallelujah Hikers arrived at the trailhead around 8:00 a.m., so the beginning of our hiking was in early morning light filtering through the trees. As the light hit the fully blossumed Bear Grass, it made the blooms glow. They almost appeared lit from the inside.

The mountain slopes looked like a garden with so many Asters, Arnica, Indian Paintbrush & other wildflowers in bloom amidst the Bear Grass.

This flower was new to me. It's the Orange Agoseris, sometimes dubbed as the Orange Mountain Dandelion since its stem holds milky liquid just like the common Dandelion.

Further up the slopes, we came upon these flowers with stems that looked like they had been braided. Guess what. This is a variety of Indian Paintbrush!

After a couple of hours of strenuous hiking, we arrived at the rim of Jewel Basin. This far brought back memories of last year's hike. This year we planned to not only hike the ridge all the way to the summit of Mount Aeneas, but to hike down into the basin & back out again. A lot of steep & fairly difficult hiking.

This photo shows the ridgeline that we hiked along to reach the summit.

We began to be rewarded for our difficult trek by running into mountain goats. This was the first one we sighted since he walked right across the trail in front of us.

Jewel Basin Hike - Part 2

As Judy & I neared the summit of Mount Aeneas, a mountain goat posed for us. He was standing almost on top of the 1939 metal plate that marked the summit.

We saw many mountain goats this year; several of them coming almost within touching distance before veering off down the steep mountain banks to go around us.

This photo of me almost at the summit of Mt. Aeneas, shows the Flathead Lake valley view we saw on the south side of the ridge trail. The metal plate marking the summit, that the goat had stood near, is just in front of my left hand.

As we descended from the summit of Mt. Aeneas, we could see Birch Lake & several smaller lakes just to the southeast of the Jewel Basin ridge.

These yearling mountain goats allowed us to come quite close as they ascended on the snowbanks & we descended on the trail toward the Jewel Basin floor.

We dipped our feet in one of the Picnic Lakes inside Jewel Basin. The snow melt made this lake so cold that our feet tingled within a few seconds.

As we climbed back out of the basin & then descended toward the trailhead, we were once again surrounded by blooming Beargrass at its peak. A couple of Indian Paintbrush blossums were sprinkled here & there, as well.

Other than the glorious Beargrass blossums, my favorite flora on this hike were the tiny Alpine Forget-Me-Nots.

We also saw a few rabbits & chipmunks during the hike. Our focus was on the mountain goats because they are more rare, but I love seeing the antics of these fauna too.

Return to Flathead Lake

The Hallelujah Hikers returned to Laura's Flathead Lake lodge for a couple of days of relaxation, hiking the Jewel Basin & prayertime. The first evening after a delicious supper of chicken kiev & a variety of salads, Laura took us out on a boat ride.

It was a warm evening & the clouds were beautifully wind-swept as the sun began to set.

Laura knew right where to find a couple of nesting bald eagles. We found them & their nest. We also sited a couple of the half-grown eaglets. I'll post some of the Jewel Basin hike photos later this week. This mini-vacation was such a blessed time!

Health Challenges

I need to be careful what I pray for my family. I have been praying that the LORD would enable us to move closer to Him in preparation for the trying days ahead. So... we have been experiencing numerous on-going health challenges.

Louis has had sinus problems for years & a sinus infection since Nov. 2008. He was placed on strong antibiotics off & on with some relief while taking the medicine & a rebound back into full-blown problems after. Scans revealed that the sinuses on the left are totally without an outlet due to thickened mucusa resulting from the long-term infections. The outlets on the right are extremely narrow. So corrective surgery has been set for August 13th. It starts with a Septoplasty, scrapings, cutting the turbinates down to size, etc. Supposedly this will all be out-patient surgery. We'll see. About 4-5 weeks ago, Louis broke out in total body hives along with another rash that looked more like multiple tiny bites. The doctors are thinking this may be the reaction to so many strong antibiotics for his sinus problems. Well, Zyrtec, Benadryl creams, Prednisone, etc. have not touched this rash that now has definite hard lumps & bumps under it. Louis says he now empathizes with Job, as he sits & "scrapes" his sores upon arriving home from work. Needless to say, he has little energy for much of anything. The Dermatology appointment ended in 6 sores where the PA took 6 biopsies - 2 of the rash & 4 of other areas suspiciously looking like basal cell & squamous cell cancer. We should get the biopsy data back in a couple of more days.

Our daughter has had health issues of her own. She developed Strep. Throat back 3-4 weeks ago & then added an intestinal component later. After attending the funeral of an 8 year-old she has babysat a lot in the past, (the sister of her best friend, who was electrocuted on the top of her church building while watching fireworks on the 4th of July), she started having trouble keeping even fluids down. Esther ended up in the hospital ER getting IV's for her severe dehydration. Obviously there is an emotional component tacked on to the underlying health issue. Well, she is keeping sips of gatorade & other fluids down now, but is afraid to eat much of any solids. I have talked to her about the complications that accompany anorexia. Yet, she likes the fact that she has lost 20 pounds in the process. Sadly, these types of losses come from muscle as much as fat stores in the body. Esther & I talked about how she needs to turn to God during this time. I left her my copy of "The Message", Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the Bible. Reading the Word from a fresh perspective may perk her interest...I can always hope.

My health is "ok" except for a small sore on my inner lower lip, where an irritation fibroma was removed by a surgeon a week ago. It has festered instead of healing. But in comparison with my husband & daughter, this is "small potatoes".

Summer Playtime

My grandnephew, Conner & grandniece, Caimbrie came this week to share much of a morning. Both Conner & his Mom, Kylie, are allergic to cats & so can't visit at our home in comfort. When my sister, Esther, called about the visit, we opted to meet at the Florence park. Florence is not yet incorporated as a town, but has done many things that are town-like... for example, erecting this park for the children about 5 years ago.

Conner loved the challenge of the monkeybars & Caimbrie always tried to do - with help - anything big brother did.

There are many areas in this play park to enjoy vicariously through the children. I had a great time watching the children play & catching them in their smiles with my camera. Esther assisted Conner & Caimbrie with this sandscoop at various times. Other times it was slides, swings, a fireman's pole or tire ladders, etc. Such fun lived through others!

Mosquito & Deer repellents

Louis heard somewhere that spraying Listerine on your body was a great mosquito repellent. As this year has been particularly bad with mosquitos whenever I am outside working in the yard or garden & I was already covered with mosqito bites, I decided to try this remedy. It works for me. Since I started using the Listerine, I have only gotten one additional bite in a whole week. Try it & see if it works for you.

We also read that Ivory soap is especially abhorrent to deer. If placed in your trees, they will leave your apples alone. So I tried them in my flower barrels by the gate, as you can see above. So far, so good. My plants in the barrels last year had been nibbled nearly to death by July 1st. Not so this year. I have seen at least one deer sniffing & turning away!

8th grade week at Camp Utmost 2009

In January, when Pastor Art called to request me for his nurse at Camp Utmost, I almost turned him down outright... Yes, without even taking the request to God. I had helped him with the 7th graders last year. It was the most difficult camp week in which I had ever worked. Now this same group of campers were the 8th graders. I didn't want to consider volunteering with these campers again. I delayed my answer & finally prayed about the week in June. It seemed I should say "yes", although my flesh fought that answer. I still felt reluctant as I arrived at camp this year. I should know that God would not place me in the same classroom again, if I had learned the lessons He wanted me to learn during that trying week a year ago. This year the week with those same campers became one of my favorites! We had 52 campers, but only 9 of those were boys. How that changed the complexion of the week! Sometimes the campers were all at one place together, like at the chapel, campfire or the waterslide. Other times, like at the teaching times, the campers were separated so certain topics could be discussed freely. One of the boy cabins had 3 counselors & 4 campers, (as pictured above); the other boy cabin had 3 counselors & 5 campers. Nearly all the boys had accepted Yeshua as Savior last year & had matured quite a bit. This year was perfect for discipling those campers.

I also had a preconception about one of the four girl cabins. Almost all the "girlie" campers, who spent an hour getting their hair & make-up just right in the mornings were all in this cabin. I thought that would probably be a problem cabin at least in attitudes. I couldn't have been more wrong. Nearly all 12 campers in that cabin accepted Christ on the second day of camp!! We never did have a problem cabin this year.

What we did have is counselors not feeling up to par. Yet, God sovereignly took care of those situations, as well. For example, one of the girl counselors was in her first trimester of pregnancy. She got married last November & miscarried her first fetus during the winter. We gave her crackers for her nausea & extra rest during the day. When I left on Thursday evening, Pastor Art's sister took over as camp RN. She is an OB nurse from Billings & was anxious about being the camp nurse for even two nights & about 1+ day of activities. Only God knew that her one main patient would be this counselor, who needed her expertise! Isn't that just like Him, to turn all my preconceptions around & bring the exact person needed to care for one of His children in need!