Summertime Done, Come and Gone, My Oh My!

(Post title courtesy of the Grateful Dead, U.S. Blues)

Ross Peak, Northern Bridgers

Finally! It is starting to feel like winter in Bozeman. Each year I hope to make my first ski turns in October but that didn't happen this year. October came and went. While early November brought some unusually cold weather and snow, the month passed with little additional snow and unusually warm weather. November is often the worst month of the year with hit or miss ski conditions and increasingly muddy and icy trails that make hiking and biking no fun.


The long holiday weekend, Mike and I went on our first ski outings of the season and while coverage was thin, we were able to ski soft snow, made some nice turns and failed to hit any rocks.  I can now mark summer as officially over. Those who whine about the weather in Bozeman tend to dread what they call "ten months of winter."  This year it was starting to feel like ten months of summer.

Ten months or only two, it was a good summer. Mike is a great activity partner and was the mastermind behind many great hiking and backpacking adventures. On one drive home from a trip, I wrote down the major hikes we had completed and continued to record the highlights for the rest of the summer. Below are the stats in chronological order. The first number is the mileage and the second number is the vertical feet. The * indicates trips we backpacked.

• Storm Castle, 6/1,900
• Garnet Mountain, 10/2,70
• The Blaze, 15+/4,000*
• Saddle Peak, 10/3,600
• Hyalite Peak, 15/2,450*
• Lava Lake to Deer Creek, 15/4,500*
• Livingston Peak, 12, 4,000
• Big Horn Peak, 12/3,200*
• Cinnamon Mountain, 8/2,680
• Beartooths, 20/4,000
• Ross Peak, 8/2,250
• Emerald Lake, 9/1,840
• Beehive Basin, 6/1,350
• Blackmore to South Cottonwood, 16+/3,500
• Sacajewea, 4/1,980
• Specimen Creek to 9,107, 6+/2,200
• Windy Ridge, 8/1,300

Totals: 180+ miles and 48,950

Ross Peak