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Home Gulch, Rocky Mountain Front, Jan. 31, 2015

1/31/2015

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Snowy day with icy trails; No views of Sawtooth Mountain

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The day started out with snow in Great Falls that lightened as we headed toward Augusta for our trek up Home Gulch. 

We had one ominous note before the hike started. Our hike leader Len reported that one couple hit a deer on their way to Augusta and had to be  towed. 

We had another bit of disappointment in the snow levels. Since we had had almost two weeks of warm weather, there wasn't enough of the white stuff to snowshoe, so we opted instead for ice cleats/yaktrax and hiking boots along with trekking poles to help stabilize us. 

The lower part of the trail, near the creek was very icy; even the yaktrax had a hard time gripping the packed snow, so our leader Len took us high to the ridge in hopes of getting us out of the bottoms, which held the most ice.  However, even the higher parts were slippery with frozen ground and a dusting of new snow.

We ran into a young couple coming down from the top who reported that a man up ahead was hunting wolves and calling them in with a device. Not wanting to get too near, the group took another route.  With the snow starting to come down harder and wind picking up a bit, the leaders decided to call the day a few miles short of the proposed hike length of eight miles.

Although the day was mostly overcast and cloudy, we did get a few peaks at the sun and blue sky; one such opening revealed one of Sawtooth Mountain's "teeth,"  but that is all we saw of the surrounding Rocky Mountain Front's majesty today.

After the about-five mile trek, the group headed back to Augusta, where the GiG opted for a stop for lunch at the Buckhorn Bar.  Unfortunately, Latigo and Lace was closed for inventory, or we would have stopped there too to peruse the fabulous art and gifts at the little country store.

The trip home was fine, with no real snow on the roads; however, as soon as we approached Great Falls, the snow worsened and we faced our first icy roads of the day. Great Falls had significantly more snowfall than the surrounding area, a perfect time to get home and warm up.

Who went: Susan, Kathy M,  new member Jenn, Gail, Bonnie and Katie (Mary N with her husband didn't travel with the "girls."
Tom K's gps recording of this hike

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Blacktail Gulch, Jan. 10, 2015

1/10/2015

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Gals see elk, pronghorns, coyote, deer, sheep on hike along Front

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The day stated at 7:45, as we headed to Augusta to meet our hike leaders Deva and Len on a partly sunny day. The hike was an MWA winter wilderness walk in an area just slated for protection with the recent passage of the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act

The roads were a bit icy with some drifting on curves,  but Gail and Susan handled the driving well.  After a bathroom break at the Buckhorn bar, we dropped our food for the after-hike get-together at Deva's and then met the rest of the group at Len's. 

It was another hour's drive to reach the Blacktail Gulch trailhead via the Sun Canyon road. Gail and Susan earned brownie points for their driving on the super slick and snowy gravel two-lane county road. One rancher even stopped us to warn about the icy conditions we would face.


Along the way, we stopped twice to pull out our cameras and binoculars to view the 100+ elk littering the flats of the Sun Canyon game range.We also saw a herd of sheep right off the road near Wagner Basin, always a good place to view bighorns. It was a great day for animals. We must have seen over 1,000 mule deer in pastures and plains on the drive in and back as well as seeing herds of antelope, and a coyote just staring at us from the side of the road.

When we reached our destination, we had to park along the side of the road as the parking lot wasn't plowed.Seventeen hikers trekked just over six miles up the canyon on a sunny and practically windless day, a rarity along the Rocky Mountain Front. And the temps rose to over 40 degrees as the sun poked its head from behind the clouds before disappearing in preparation for the next predicted storm.

Many animals had tracked up the area with deer and rabbit the most obvious.  We also saw much evidence of pine beetle, including the "blue" pitch (coming from pitch tubes the trees produce to try to stop the beetles) and trees with obvious holes and woodpecker damage (slabs of bark around a tree are an indication). The flickers and downies move in after beetle damage.

More info from Colorado State University Extension Service:
Signs and Symptoms of MPB Attack
  • Popcorn-shaped masses of resin, called "pitch tubes," on the trunk where beetle tunneling begins. Pitch tubes may be brown, pink or white (Figures 2 and 6)..   Under dry conditions, trees may not produce pitch tubes when infested, therefore healthy trees are not as obvious. Time may need to be spent looking for sawdust around a tree’s circumference and at the base of the tree.
  • Boring dust in bark crevices and on the ground immediately adjacent to the tree base.
  • Evidence of woodpecker feeding on trunk. Patches of bark are removed and bark flakes lie on the ground or snow below tree.
  • Foliage turning yellowish to reddish throughout the entire tree crown. This usually occurs eight to 10 months after a successful MPB attack.
  • Presence of live MPB (eggs, larvae, pupae and/or adults) as well as galleries under bark. This is the most certain indicator of infestation. A hatchet for removal of bark is needed to check trees correctly (Figures 3, 5 and 8).
  • Bluestained sapwood (Figure 9). Check at more than one point around the tree's circumference.

The drive into Augusta revealed stunning views of the mountains along the Front, particularly Sawtooth Mountain, Steamboat and Haystack Butte before we hit Deva's house for her delicious soup and all of the goodies everyone brought, for example, Catherine and Ed's cardamom bread, Kathy M's wheat bread and Katie's halfway cookies.

Who went: Kathy M, Katie, Susan, Gail, Anita, Michelle, Sara.  Amy and Catherine traveled with others.
Link to Kathy's pictures

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