Hiking from Joyce's ranch

Friday our hiking group did another hike from Joyce's ranch. Joyce, Gary, Bill, Sue Ann, and me.

After a little initial confusion the night before as to the starting time, we finally decided to start at 9:30 am. Gary and I had thought the start time would be later and we planned on riding our bicycles to Joyce's place. But with the 9:30 am start we decided that was too early to bicycle there. The way the mornings have been lately it also would have been a chilly ride that early.

I was under the impression it would be a 3 hour hike so I didn't bring any food along to eat or water to drink. The 3 hours would fit between breakfast and lunch. It wasn't three hours. We hadn't turned around yet when Joyce commented we had been hiking for three hours already. I was surprised as I guessed only half that time had passed.

The hike started from Joyce's ranch up onto a ridge line using a mixture of public and private lands.  Most of the private lands were owned by the large lumber companies and they allowed the public to hike on them.

As the others sat on the rock out cropping I wandered to each side to look at the view. By now we were on the ridge line and could see back east to the Swan Mountain Range all the way from east of Flathead Lake to where it ended on the north at Badrock Canyon. Then I could see over Teakettle Mountain into Glacier Park. I could see miles and miles of snow covered mountains in the Park.

To the west lay mountain after mountain that stretched to the west and SW. These are not as high as the Swan and Glacier mountains so they did not have as much snow covering them.

Down below to the west was Smith Lake, Haywire Gulch, and Kila, Montana.

Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous! I really wished I owned a camera.

A little earlier we came across a house being built on the ridge line. At this elevation it was probably a summer home. A million dollar plus summer home. It was huge and made of logs. The house sat in a saddle straddling the ridge. We walked around and below the house on the west side. Large windows faced the view to the west. A porch was around the top floor where it was off the ground. Due to the landscape the east was ground level and the west was the second floor.

Some of our group were hesitant about passing too close to the house. But I felt since they built it on the path, and now the path skirted below the house on the west side we were justified on passing by. Sue Ann also wanted to walk this path so we would be closer and could look at the house. The others were nervous someone would come out with a gun to chase us off. From the sounds it appeared the workman were still building the house.

I suppose I should start playing the lottery, then if I won I could build me a house like this on a mountain ridge.

We took short cuts from Joyce's house to the ridge line. We would hike along logging roads then go straight up through the bush to get to a higher logging road. After a short walk along the road we would again go straight up. Sometimes the logging road would be old and filled with trees.

Sue Ann didn't like taking the short cuts as she had on her hundred dollar Lycra hiking tights and they didn't protect her shins as well as the jeans the rest of us were wearing.

At one point we came across an area where young pine trees were surrounded in tubes of yellow plastic netting. Probably another piece of private property? Most the land we hiked on was Plum Creek Timber Company land. They let people hike on their property, unlike people who build houses on their property. The timber companies are finding it more profitable to sell their land to developers instead of logging the land. As the timber companies sell more land to individuals, the less land will be available to people to hike on as these home owners then fence their land to keep people out.

We could see the Blacktail Mountain ski resort with its ski runs to our south / southwest and headed in that direction. We never got anywhere close before we turned around to go back.

As we headed back down we did the same as when we hiked up the ridge: we bushwhacked to reach logging roads. Once back down in the valley we crossed a small stream. Joyce's dog, Laddie, was happy and stood in the stream to drink. His head was downstream of his feet which were mudding the water. But he preferred drinking from the creek instead of the water bottle Joyce brought for him. Once his thirst was satiated I got to drink the rest of the water from his bottle.

While we left Joyce's ranch to the NW, we returned from the SW. Joyce's husband, Edley, was out cleaning up trees which had fallen over the winter. Using his tractor he was piling them on a large burning slash pile.

The cattle were about the pasture and in the sunny, warm, Spring day were quite relaxed to watch us pass by - as long as we didn't get too close to the baby calves.

It was almost 2:30 pm when we returned. 5 hours of hiking. We estimated that we hiked 8 miles. A slower pace due to our bushwhacking.

I have never been anywhere where there were so many deer ticks! A few weeks ago in these mountains other people got a number of ticks on their clothes. I never got any then. Today the same thing was happening as the people with lighter clothes were again attracting the ticks.

My good fortune didn't last as during my return trip I started to find a tick or two on my black pants. Then I felt one crawling on the small of my back. Another time while waiting for the women to catch up I took my shirt off and found a few more ticks. At the end of the hike I again took my shirt off and found a tick over my heart starting to burrow in. Sue Ann and Joyce were giving me grief and compared me to the TV show "The Bachelor" where the bachelor was taking his shirt off numerous times during the show.

When I got home I stripped and found more ticks. All total I must have had 10 - 12 ticks on me that day. I can't remember having that many ticks on me in my entire life. *sheesh!*

After the hike was over I helped Gary retrieve his trailer from his former property where we hiked the previous time. It was wetter earlier and he was unable to pull the trailer out without getting stuck - even with a four wheel drive. The trailer was loaded with logs. Using a shovel I filled in the tire ruts from the previous attempt, then Gary backed in and hooked up the trailer. We had no problems getting the trailer this time.