Sue Ann arrived at my place at 10:30 am. After loading her skis into my car I drove us to Joyce's ranch. Sue Ann was leery about driving on Joyce's long driveway.
Sue Ann being Sue Ann talked a mile a minute during the drive to Joyce's ranch. Once I drove on Joyce's driveway Sue Ann stopped talking. The driveway was a thick sheet of ice most of the way. The temperature was still below freezing so the ice was hard and slick.
I drove slow and kept the car's tires in the shallow frozen grooves where previous vehicles had traveled. A few times the back end of the car started to slide sideways. I have a front wheel drive car so the sideways sliding wasn't because of my driving. I kept the car on the road. Sue Ann was quiet as mouse as I drove.
Once we reached Joyce and Edley's house Edley started their pickup and we loaded all the skis, boots, and poles into the pickup bed. The pickup was a crew cab so Sue Ann and I rode in the back seats.
We drove to Kila, MT then on Truman Creek road. On the map below find "Truman Creek" then continue right on the road until the white square. That was as far as we had Edley drive. By now the road was a single lane forest service logging road.
Even though the road had been plowed it was covered in a few inches of hard snow. Edley had driven a logging truck for several decades and was used to driving on these types of roads. Still, we didn't know when another turn around opportunity would come about.
The weather was great when we set out. With the mountains and trees we didn't feel any wind. The temperature was near freezing and the sky would alternate between sun and clouds. Occasionally it would snow, sometimes heavily with large snowflakes. When it snowed I would get my cap out of my backpack bag and put it on. Otherwise my hair would get all wet.
It was a little disappointing that the road was plowed. At times we skied in wheel tracks, other times between the wheel tracks. The slope was gentle and on and on we skied and climbed.
We stopped for lunch at a creek that ran year round. Someone, years ago, had built a square wooden box several yards in diameter and a yard or so deep. From the creek they had built a wooden trough to catch the creek and lead the water into the box. A drain must have been under the box which led the water under the road. An old weathered wooden sign was by the trough saying "Dedicated in memory of ___, Brian, and ___". The blanks are a male name and female name (remember, I am terrible at remembering names!
). We took off our skies and sat on the box and ate our lunches and admired the mountain and valley views.As we climbed higher we could see to the south and see the north side of the Blacktail Mountain ski area with four or so runs clear-cut out of the forested mountainside. Those north runs looked steep!
We also skied past some side roads that were gated to prevent motorized vehicle traffic. The locals who travel these roads are not happy about this. When their kids were young Joyce and Edley had ridden snowmobiles over these roads and mountains. That is banned now too.
I stopped and checked one gate to see how it works. This one wasn't locked though it was closed. The locking mechanism is inside a round metal cylinder. I guess that would make it harder to break open.
Near the top we found recent logging activity, which was the reason the road had been plowed that winter.
At the mountain top the road was no longer plowed. I was ahead of Joyce and Sue Ann. As they ski downhill faster than me (due to my crashing), I decided to start down the other side. We had started skiing around noon and it was near 4 pm now. Edley was to drive up the Patrick Creek side to meet us between 4:30 and 5 pm.
Even though the road had not been plowed here someone had driven the road and left deep wheel tracks. I tried to ski between the wheel tracks. There was only an inch or so of new snow and the snow below was hard and somewhat icy. I quickly gained speed. Not being able to steer well I dropped my left ski into the left wheel track. I found that this uneven stance was worth it as with my ski in the wheel track I was able to stay on the road and not go off and down the mountainside.
Sometimes my right ski would also drop into the wheel track. Even though the tracks were made by large tires I found it hard to ski with my legs so close together. Crash! Other times my left ski would be in the wheel track but my right ski would want to go right. Crash!
I would pick myself up and the moment I stood upright I would take off down the mountain again. Not that I wanted to, but the skis wanted to go. Whoa!!
After several more crashes I came to a place where the road split. I was sure the correct road was to the left but as this was a relatively level area with views of part of the valley and logging road below I stopped and waited for Joyce and Sue Ann. After about five minutes they caught up to me. They had noticed I had crashed a number of times. They admitted they had also crashed a few times.
As we continued down the mountain Joyce and Sue Ann skied ahead of me. The road was more torn up as more vehicles had traveled this far - some not wisely as it looked like they had gotten stuck - which "tore up" the snow even more. It was hard at times to find a good area to ski on. Sue Ann cursed the rednecks who stupidly drove up here.
Once we skied over the remnants of branches where someone had lit a fire in the middle of the road.
I am heavier than Sue Ann and Joyce and on a smooth stretch I picked up speed.
I could not slow down and yelled for Sue Ann to move to the right. She did and I got by her. Ahead Joyce was using her ski pole to try to get a full unopened car of beer out of the snow on the road. I somehow got around the right side of her and then I had a sharp corner to turn. My goal by now was merely to stay upright - to heck with steering. Finally I came to a flatter section and was able to stop without crashing. *whew!*Joyce failed to get the beer can out of the snow as she accidentally punctured it with her ski pole and the beer sprayed out. No matter as none of us drink beer.
The road was flatter now and occasionally we actually had to work to move forward. On one corner I looked back to see Joyce fall over sideways in slow motion. Even the best fall.
We noticed fresh vehicle tracks in the snow. Someone had driven up then back down the mountain.
The road again quickly went down the mountain and with my faster skis I again took off like a bat out of Hell.
This time I tried to ski on the right side of the road as the left side had few trees to stop me if I went off the road and over the mountainside. I found skiing with my right leg in the wheel track and left leg higher was harder for me to do. More crashes! For these crashes I was traveling pretty fast so it took a while for me to stop sliding.After a half mile to a mile I found Edley sitting in his pickup on a turnaround point. I made it - though I crashed again when I saw Edley and tried to stop.
I had my skis off and in the pickup by the time Sue Ann then Joyce arrived. We made it!
We think we had skied about 10 miles in 5 hours. I guess it was 6 miles up one side and 4 miles down this side. We skied to where the words "Patrick Creek" are on the map.
It was a long drive down the mountain side. I was glad Edley was driving as the road was steep and icy in many spots and slipping over the side of the road would not have been good.
We passed private land mixed with national forest land. If the loggers don't plow the road to do logging the locals have to plow it. The county doesn't plow these roads.
A long ski day, but a rewarding day. I expected to be stiff and sore the next day between my crashes and my efforts at keeping my legs from doing the splits as I skied. But I felt pretty good the next day. I guess I am getting in shape for skiing.
While the map shows a break between the Truman Creek road and the Patrick Creek road, they actually are joined together. Also the place where the Patrick Creek road splits is not shown on the map. Joyce said that road eventually goes to Lakeside.
On the map:
- white = private land
- light green = US Forest Service land
- dark blue = US Fish & Wildlife Service land
- light blue = Montana State Trust land (to be used for schools)
- pink = Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks land
- dark green = Flathead County land
- yellow = Plum Creek Timber company land
- orange = FH Stolze Lumber Company land
..... 
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