A Hiking We Will Go

I thought I would post some pictures of the first REAL hike of the year that Laura and I have gone on. We hiked in 4.5 miles to find a cache and had a great time getting to it. Remember those packs we got back in January? Well we got them out and took them along for their maiden hike. We hiked up Burr Creek to Fred Burr Reservoir. It is a reservoir in the mountains and in the summers it looks very nice - however it wasn't exactly a pretty lake yesterday. The lake didn't have much water in it - most of the water was rushing down the creek. You can see the snow wasn't far from us and we had snow and rain for most of the hike - in fact it was hard to get a picture of the lake because the rain was falling and getting on the lens. It was nice to have the rain though... That way we could test out our packs and be sure they are going to be water proof for future hikes when we will need them for several days.

The picture of the lake, or lack there of, is looking West - if you could see through the snow storm then Idaho would be out on the horizon. We were just Northwest of Hamilton, Montana - which is around 40 miles South of Missoula.

There were a few waterfalls on the other side of the creek which were several hundred feet tall. The one pictured was quite some distance away and I had to zoom in nearly all the way to get a good picture of it. The picture really doesn't do much justice for the size of the falls.

On our way back to the car, actually not long after we turned around, we came across some tracks on the ground which were not there when we hiked in. We determined the tracks to be that of a moose which had passed by no more than fifteen minutes prior - because it had only been that long since we hiked pass. We never found the moose, but I am sure the moose saw us. We were not exactly quiet - when you hike in bear country you don't want to be quiet - you actually want to talk and make noise so you don't surprise any bears. If they hear you coming they usually retreat before you arrive. Two of Laura's friends have already seen Black Bears around Missoula and in the Bitterroot Valley, where we were hiking at.

We also passed by some flowers which we didn't know the name of, but I took a picture of one of them in hopes that someone could identify it. And finally here is a photo of the mighty hikers near the end of the hike. We look quite stylish with our packs on - you can see we tied our sleeping bags on as well to see how well they would ride along with us. Overall we were very happy with our packs and can't wait to get out and use them this summer! We are also getting excited about our trip to Yellowstone to hike into the most remote location in the lower 48 states. It will be nearly 30 miles to the nearest road, which is an old logging road which isn't used much any longer. I will tell more about that trip later. Until again

-=Nolan=-