After leaving Great Falls at 7:30 a.m., we arrived at Silver Crest around 9 and were greeted before the parking lot by Search and Rescue vehicles.  Then as we exited the car to use the outhouses, a helicpoter came in blowing snow into our faces.

We asked what was going on, but the crew wouldn't give us much information other than to say they were on an active search operation. We asked if we could watch for anything since we would be in the back country, but they said 'no, we have everything under control." But it was still on our minds all day.

After parking our shuttle car in the lot, we found we couldn't get out, due to all of the sleds, S and R vans and other vehicles gathering for the rescue. We had to get out of the car and ask them to clear a path for us.

Then it was on to the top of Kings Hill, all seven of us cramming into Katie's Highlander for the 10-minute ride.
The day started out cloudy and snowing just a bit as we headed on the uphill part of our snowshoe adventure.  We took a few breathers but we all did well on this part of the trail.

Katie pointed out the blue diamonds along the way, so that others could learn the trail and, hopefully, lead others in the future and help guide the way as the trail is tricky in parts. Susan led the way on the last stretch going into the snowmobile  park as a group she had been with earlier had missed a turn.  And she had brought marking tape to tie on the trees in hopes no one misses turns again.

As we approached the flat area, we came across deep ruts that snowmobiles had made. It is frustrating when others don't respect the quiet trails and tear up the ski tracks.  There is room for everyone if we are just cognizant of all users.

High winds had been predicted, so we expected to be blasted when we entered the snowmobile area, but really, it was more of a breeze than a wind. And the sun was out. Our moods went up a notch for sure as the sun warmed us and the blue sky shone on us.

This section can also have a bit of a trick getting across the park area, avoiding snowmobiles while looking for blue diamonds that mark the trail. Katie pointed out that if hikes just go straight across the park, they will hit the snowmobile road, turn right and be going the right way. And this is actually better for skiers than following the diamonds that make for a backtrack that cause more skiing on the snowmobile track than necessary and possibly dangerous, especially on weekends when the sledders are out in droves.

We saw a variety of tracks (snowshoe hare, canine, bird, vole, deer), hoping to spy lynx, but no luck. The few we thought might be cat, were dogs from the mushers. They must have had at least one dog off sled, possibly with booties on.

We arrived back at the cars in the Silver Crest parking lot at just after 12 p.m. noon, with the Search and Rescue just packig up and leaving. We spotted two SR workers we knew and quizzed them about what happened. Luckily, the two stuck snowmobilers who had spent the night outside were in good condition, just very cold, so we had a happy ending on that situation. Camille got after one rescuer who mentioned that the people were in their 70s and what were they doing? Given that some of our gals are in their 70s and many of us approaching, she was right to give them a word or two.. Read about it here.

Katie and Camille shuttled the cars. The roads were bare mostly, making the shuttle very quick.  Then it was off to Bob's Bar for lunch, yum.

And home before 3 p.m. Fun day.
Read more about the Search and Rescue operation here.
​Who went: Camille, Susan, Heather, Bonnie W, Nora, Doreen, Katie

​Nora's GOLDEN LENTIL SOUP WITH SWEET POTATOES, COCONUT, SPINACH & LIME Recipe
SERVES: 6-8 NOTES:Only add salt at the end lest the lentils become tough-
1 medium sweet potato, peeled (mine was around 375 grams)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled
1 ½ cups split red lentils
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
3 inches fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 14.5 ounce (428 ml) can crushed tomatoes
14.5 ounce (428 ml) can light coconut milk
4 cups water
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1 ½ teaspoons black mustard seeds
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
2-3 dried curry leaves (optional) ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups tightly packed baby spinach (or more if you like)
1 lime, juiced
sea salt, to taste
chopped cilantro and yogurt garnish

Set a box grater over/inside your slow cooker insert. Grate the sweet potato directly into the insert.
​
Grate the yellow onion directly into the insert as well. Rinse the red lentils thoroughly, until they stop foaming up in the strainer. Shake the excess moisture off and transfer them to your slow cooker insert.

To the insert, add the garlic, ginger, crushed tomatoes, coconut milk, water, turmeric, cayenne, mustard seeds, cumin, curry leaves, and black pepper. Give it all a good stir. In all honesty it’s going to look sort of gross at this point.

Place the insert into your slow cooker unit, lock the lid on top, and set the cooker to “high.”
Let the soup cook for 4 hours.

Once the 4 hours are up, carefully remove the lid and stir the soup up a bit. Add the spinach, lime juice, and enough salt to season to your liking.

Stir the soup one more time and lock the lid back on. Keep the soup going on the “high” setting until the spinach is wilted. Serve the soup hot with chopped cilantro and a dollop of yogurt.

The gals had another journalist along, this time from the Helena Independent, on their MWA trip to Flesher Pass.

It all started at 8 am with a gorgeous drive facing the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountain Front. Three gals from Great Falls faced an icy drive over Rogers Pass up to Flesher to meet with three others from Helena, one of whom didn't show up.

Camille, June and Katie met with Mary Ann and Tom, the journalist. We all quickly put on our snowshoes as the wind was howling, blowing snow into our faces. It was also slightly snowing. The day looked very cloudy, and we wondered if we would get any views at all. We also marveled at the clearcut path that had been logged, obliterating the trail in places.In fact, in one place it is very hard to pick up due to slash piles and no trees for markers.  There is one small arrow marking the way that takes a bit to find if you aren't sure of the way.

But June and Katie had done a prior hike, so they were able to identify the sign quickly. And we did get some views about this time as the sun had come out.

We were surprised to find that sections of the trail were still broken, despite the snowfall we had been getting. In other parts, the blowing snow had completely covered the trail.  Tom and June did most of the breaking as we made our way to the top of a mound before turning around. A few of us fell, but nothing serious while Mary Ann lost a powder basket from her poles.

On the way back, we didn't retrace our steps, instead following the road. On the way, just before the cars, we came across piles and piles of the logs that had been cut. They had a sign on them indicating they were for sale.

We arrived back at the cars at 12:30, way ahead of our 1:30 estimate, so we headed into Lincoln to use the bathrooms and buy snacks at the convenience store before heading to the Blackfoot Pathways Sculpture Garden.

Since we still had extra time, June suggested we stop to see the giant bear at the Forest Service office and also ask about the cut logs.The lady there said they were cut by Northwest Energy as part of a powerline. We asked if she was sure they weren't a fire break from the Stemple Pass fire last summer, but she said no; that the Stemple fire didn't threaten Flesher Pass area.

Then it was on to the sculpture garden to meet our guide Becky Garland and her Welsh terrior Sarge for a lovely, informative tour, explaining about the origins of the park, the artists and interpretation of each piece along the way. For the tour, we met with some skiers along with Katie's husband, who had been invited since we had had so many drops. We had a group of eight as Tom hadn't come with us, instead returning to Helena after the snowshoe.

We were able to use boots instead of snowshoes, but there was about six inches of fresh snow, so we did get a workout as we enjoyed the sculpures.

We arrived back in town around 5 p.m. Later, Tom emailed us to say he had contacted the Forest Service, and the field officer said the clearcuts were the result of fire suppression efforts. Mary wrote to MWA to see what is going on with the logging. Hopefully, we will get to the bottom of this.
Update: We talked to Ranger Duane in GF and he assures us it is a fire break as he helped make it.
Read the article here.
Who went: Katie, June, Camille

We wondered if we should cancel: the roads had black ice according to the Montana road report, the wind was picking up, and we now had a 60 percent chance of snow, up from 40 percent the day before. But we went, thinking if Rogers pass were too bad, we could hike to Rogers Peak instead of continuing on to Flesher. So we left the DOB at just after 8 a.m. not knowing what to expect.

But June was super driver. We didn't encounter the black ice out of Simms; but Rogers Pass and all the way to Flesher was snowpacked and icy. She handled it well.

When we arrived at the pass, the wind was howling, blowing snow in our faces. We really started to get cold as we geared up and put on our snowshoes. Once we got moving, we warmed up, but the snow was still blowing the whole way to the outhouse, and flakes started to come down. At this point as we waited in line to use the pit toilet, we wondered just how far we wanted to go in this weather. And it wasn't only the weather; we had to break trail in one to two feet of snow, not that the deep snow was unexpected.

It was powdery, but still an effort, especially on the uphill sections. But we soldiered on, trading off breaking along the way. We noticed that a new trail had been cut; many, many trees had been cut down, and large slash piles remained.  The blaze was very wide, resembling a power line trail. We wondered what the lumber crew was up to as the cut part did not follow the CDT (Continental Divide Trail). At first, this cut threw us off; but both Katie and June, the leaders on this trip, knew the trail was dropping too much and going the wrong direction, so we backtracked, trying to find the CDT and get back on track. Miraculously about now, the snow lifted and most of the wind stopped, revealing gorgeous views toward Holter Lake.

At this point, Katie got our her phone and checked both Gaia and Google maps to see where we were in relation to the CDT. This helped us find a tree with an arrow on it pointing the way.  Everything looked so different with the trees removed.

So we finally got back on trail and proceeded another half mile before deciding to stop for lunch. June found us a nice log to sit on, sheltered from most of the wind, except for a few big gusts that blew the snow a bit. Then Katie and June went up to explore the ridge to see if we had any views into the Seeley Valley and the Swan Mountain Range. We had some views, but not that far. So the others followed us to see the vistas spreading on both sides of us.

We dropped down from the ridge to retrace our steps to the outhouse. Then instead of continuing to retrace, we took the logging road around, past a pile of wood for sale. As we approached the parking lot, the wind started to pick up again, blowing snow in our faces. June turned the car around to block the wind a bit while we took our snowshoes off and piled into the car quickly to get away from the gusts.  Then the snow started again as we drove down the pass.

The rest of the way back was better than our way out, with most of the ice melting into slush. June had clear sailing once we drove down Rogers Pass. On the way, we wanted to show Lindsie the Adams Stone Barn, but we couldn't remember which town it was in. We wondered if the barn had been "saved" as we knew it was up for destruction at one time. Closely watching as we passed Simms, then Fort Shaw, then Sun River, we wondered if we had missed it, but we spied it just past the Ramble Inn. (read more here).  We also told Lindsie about the assortment of bras gracing the ceiling and walls of this establishment. See for yourself here.

​We arrived back at the DOB at 2:45. 
​Who went: Katie, Susan, June, Nora, Lindsie

We had our chance at fame on our first of the year as Lindsie Hiatt from KRTV interviewed us and then came along on our trip, filming along the way. She just moved here six months ago from Fresno, Calif., and was happy to get outside on a trail in Montana. Katie had a fun time talking to her about Fresno, since her grandparents lived there and she visited often in her childhood.

Before we headed out for snowshoeing, Lindsie set up her tripod and large camera to interview Sue and Katie. It took quite a bit of time, but then we were on our way.

The day was perfect. With howling winds predicted for Great Falls, we escaped all but a breeze. The sky was blue, and and the trail well packed with a nice base and a few inches of fresh powder. At the bridge, we discussed if we wanted to continue to the three-mile marker, we we did. As we proceeded, we marveled at Lindsie, squatting down low and going off trail to capture shots with her cell phone. She said she was a one-woman show: she does all her own editing, splicing and completing the final product. She uses a combination of the nice cameras and her iPhone for footage. See the interview here. And the video here.

Along the way, we ran into a few skiers and one snowshoer, Kalah, who may join our group for future hikes. Then it was off to Bob's Bar for a late lunch before heading home.  We had hoped to talk to Janice to see how she survived a year of being the new owner and moving from Texas to Montana. We had such a cold awful winter that we wondered if she were questioning her move. However, we didn't see her. We asked the waiter but he didn't seem interested in finding her for us.

The day was a perfect one to start off the new year.

Who went: Desirae, Sue and Katie
We left GF at 9 am and returned by 3:30.