Mary did it! She pulled it off! With help of her husband Mark who got the sleds up and running and guided us to the trail, she arranged everything perfectly--even the weather cooperated-- for us to finally get to Morrell Falls to see the aqua crystals formed over this impressive cascade.

It all started on Friday with four gals heading from Great Falls and one from Helena to meet Mary at her cabin in Seeley Lake around 11:30 a.m. After eating lunch, Mary led us on a wonderful three-mile hike by the Ranger station, which wanders the north shore of Seeley. The lake was frozen with the red willows rising from the icy shores.  After our hike, we headed to the cabin for snacks and drinks while Anita and Sue cooked a wonderful taco dinner with all of the trimmings. Everyone was too tired for games, so we went to bed early in anticipation of our big hike the next day.

The next morning it was up early for our main event: Morrell Falls. We awoke to a very frosty two degrees, so we dressed in extra layers. Luckily, the predictions said the weather would warm to 20 degrees. Katie and Jaye cooked a pancake breakfast with embedded eggs and berry compote.  Mark, Mary’s husband, arrived from Missoula to start the snowmobiles and guide us to the road leading to the trailhead.  Gail, Jaye and Mary were our fearless drivers. Susan was going to be a driver, but she broke her ankle and couldn’t attend; luckily, Gail was game and said she would give it a go. We were hoping Syd from Condon could join us, but she wasn’t able to either.

The ride took about 45 minutes and included crossing the highway. The drivers discovered that the sleds did not turn on pavement so were a bit worried about making all of the way across before traffic came. They had to take a diagonal path to make it.  The ride to the trailhead was splendid with the sun coming out and shining on the Swan range, particularly highlighting Pyramid Peak.

When we arrived at the trailhead, a bit cold from the ride, we encountered two others also hoping to snowshoe to the falls. However, they rented snowmobiles and didn’t have time to complete the hike before the sleds were due back.  While we were gearing up, Jaye’s pole broke; the day before, one of her snowshoe straps had split, but a little duct tape can fix most anything.  Then, after about a half hour of slogging around looking for the trailhead, we finally found the right path and got on trial.

It took us about two and a half hours to reach the falls, and boy, were they worth it: cascades of aqua ice, gleaming in the sun with the water breaking through here and there.  The snow in the Morrell Creek formed ice mounds reflecting in the clear water. Since it took us a bit longer than expected to reach the falls, we only stopped for about 15-20 minutes to eat a quick lunch and head back out.

On the way back, we really marveled at the footbridge as we saw that snowmobiles had gone over it, despite its narrow width and large holes in the sides of the snow covering. It seemed a bit iffy to cross on foot, let alone on a sled.
We also saw some strange tracks in the snow that looked like a snowmobile but without the runners. We wondered what had made the track. Speaking of tracks, we saw many from small critters and large alike (elk, deer, squirrels, rabbits, possibly moose).

We arrived back at the sleds right at 3 p.m., the appointed meeting time with Mary’s husband who came back to help us start the two sleds that had pull-cord starters. We were very grateful that he did as we may not have had the arm-strength to get them going.

It was around 4 p.m. when we pulled back into Mary’s driveway, tired and hungry, so we got out the snacks and leftovers and some wine to hold us over until our big dinner at the Double Arrow.  We messaged Syd, who said she would be able to come to dinner, a nice surprise that we would be able to catch up with her after all. After a nice meal, we headed back home and did play some games, all of them dice games, courtesy of our planner extraordinaire Mary!  We were all grateful Susan didn’t make it as some others had a chance to take home some quarters this time: Sue, Katie and Mary all won a round.

The next day, we had a nice breakfast bake, cooked by Gail, along with pineapple with leftover berries and donut holes. Then it was clean up and packing time. Since we all had so much gear and overnight items plus one more person for the ride back, Mary volunteered to take some of our “stuff” in her car.  That left us to pile just our snowshoeing equipment and backpacks into Sue’s. Our day would include a stop in Lincoln to tour Sculpture in the Wild, a sculpture garden created by internationally known artists and a three-mile hike along Flesher Pass.

In Lincoln we met the three gals coming from Great Falls at 11 a.m. at the gas station, only to find that the gas pumps were all out of order due to a computer malfunction, and Sue needed gas. We assured her she could get to Simms, since there were pumps there.

We really enjoyed the sculptures (Read more about them here), followed by lunch at Lambkins (we first tried Three Maries, but despite a bit “open” sign on it and hours listed as 10:30-3:30, the place was closed). The sweet-potato tater tots were delish!  Gail filled us in on the origin of the place along with the man who started it all.  Then off to Flesher for what seemed like a spring day, with temps in the 40s and granular April-like snow.

We arrived home around 5 p.m., tired but happy for a fun weekend with the gals. Mary really did it!
Who went: (stayed over) Mary, Sue, Anita, Jaye, Gail, Katie; (Flesher pass/Sculpture) Bonnie, Brenda, June
 
Official site of Sculpture in the Wild

Roni's Corn Dip Recipe
Microwave one stick butter, one 8 oz cream cheese, one can diced Rotel, one jar queso dip, one can drained shoe peg corn and one can yellow corn. Stir and serve. Enjoy!

Mary's Coconut Cake Recipe
Coconut Cake

• 1 moist white cake mix
• 1 box instant coconut pudding
• ½ C. coconut milk (culinary coconut milk—hard to find. Good Food Store in Missoula has it)
• ¼ c vegetable oil
• 1/3 C. water
• ¾ C. sour cream
• 1/2 C. coconut
• 4 eggs

Mix above ingredients together at a medium speed, but do not over mix. Batter doesn't need to be thin or fluffy.

While you are mixing the cake, toast (325') the remaining ½ c or so of coconut...be careful, it will burn very easily. Check every 3-5 min and move around in pan. This is important; otherwise you will be making another trip to the market.

Grease two 9" cake pans; line bottom with parchment paper and grease again. Dust with flour. Bake according to box directions, checking to make sure you don't over bake; set
time for at least 10 min less. Cake should begin to pull away from edges.
Cool in pans 10-15 min; then turn out and let cool completely. I cover at this point with a light cloth, to keep moist.
Drizzle: 1/2 c culinary coconut milk and 2 Tbl. powdered sugar; mix and set aside.

Icing

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 4 c. or so of powdered sugar
• toasted coconut; save some for finish
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp coconut extract, if you have it
• 1 cube room temperature sweet cream, unsalted butter

Cut cooled cakes in half, so you have 4 layers. Poke with a toothpick. Drizzle with "drizzle." Ice cake, using toothpicks for stability. It's a touchy one to ice, as the layers have a lot
of crumb, go slow, distribute evenly. I try to end up with a top layer .... on top!
Press remaining toasted coconut into icing and pat it to make it stay. It helps to set it on a cookie sheet during this process; it's messy. Refrigerate cake.

It was tough; it was really tough, at least until we hit the cat track for the last mile of the day. 

The day started off with three of us leaving 4Bs at 8:30 a.m.; we got on trail before 10 a.m. at temperatures hovering around zero but to sunny skies.  We found that the trail had not been broken. A skier had been on the trail a few days back, but the tracks were now covered with snow. Then when we left the O'Brien Creek trail, no one had been on this section at all.  The snow was very powdery but with no base, so we often broke through the thin crust.

June and Katie traded off breaking trail with the snow to our thighs at times. Both Katie and Gail broke through and fell in all the way, while June managed to stay upright the entire day. The whole way challenged us mentally as we were trying to keep from sinking all the way down with each step, trying to step one snowshoe in front of the other to prevent falling.

By the time we hit the cat track at the base of the Powerline, we were grateful for the hard-packed snow, even as we faced the steep uphill climb to get back to our cars.

We saw two snowmobile at the end of our day, but otherwise, it was a gloriously calm, quiet day under cloudless sunny skies.  We enjoyed seeing all of the tracks in the snow: snowshoe hare, squirrel, deer, elk and a cat or two around the bunny tracks. Unfortunately, besides a chipmunk and some ravens, we didn't see any critters.

We ended the day at Bob's bar for some hot cocoa topped with whipping cream, where we quizzed Tony on how to get to arch that he had in some pictures posted on his photo wall. He shared that to get to the arch, we would head toward Hughesville, turn right toward Barker and then take trail 739 for about two miles. This sounds like a great summer hike; or maybe we will try it this winter.

Who went: Gail, June, Katie

This winter, it seems we just can't catch a break in the weather. It has been below zero and blowing hard. With already three snowshoe hikes cancelled, we were eager to get out for some sun and exercise.

So seven of us headed up to Silver Crest to hike the new trail and then on to Memorial Falls.  The day started out at 8:30, a very frosty -3 degrees in the 4B's parking lot, with the temps reading 6 above in Neihart. So we hoped the predictions were right that it would be warmer at King's Hill than in Great Falls. The prediction proved true.

It was 11 degrees when we hit the trail at 10:15 a.m. We happened to meet up with fellow GiG member Camille and her husband Mike who also were going to travel the new trail, timing to see how long it would take.  They went the loop starting from the left while we took the right.

Luckily, the trail was already broken. Kuntzie had been on it the week before with a group and Katie two weeks ago, so the going was pretty smooth. However, the lack of snow (some are saying the least amount ever recorded), kept us watching our feet for branches, small trees, rocks and other obstacles sticking out or just barely covered on the trail.

Other than a few whoopsie-daisies due to the objects, it was a glorious day, cold but with enough sun to keep us warm. We made the loop in good time, under two hours for the three miles with a 20-minute snack break at the warming hut.

Then it was on to Memorial Falls to see the frozen beauty. The road department has been plowing the parking lot this year, so we didn't have to hike the highway from the Jefferson Creek pull out, thankfully.

After admiring the pretty, icy waterfall and the crystallized creek bank, we headed to Bob's Bar in Neihart for lunch, which included huckleberry cream drinks all around and sweet potato fries.

Who went: Cathy, Sue, Randi, Roni, Gail, Mary S, Katie