Blacktail towards Foys Lake

Wednesday October 2 I hiked on the Foys to Blacktail Trail with Joyce and her daughter Kendra.  Plus Joyce's granddaughter originally from Alaska.  (I already forgot her name.)   Joyce and Kendra had hiked on this trail a number of times as they both live close to the trail.  The last time I hiked on this trail was back in October 2017.  https://tallpineshiker.blogspot.com/2017/10/foys-to-blacktail-partial-hike.html

That last hike on this trail was quite a few years ago. Since then I only hiked once in 2018 and once in 2019 before this recent hike.  Boy, I got out of the habit of hiking!

At the start at Blacktail, this formerly was a military site to watch for missiles coming from the Soviet Union back during the cold war.  The site was decommissioned many decades ago.  I don't know why this structure is still here and what it used for.

 From the top of Blacktail Mountain looking south.

 From the top of Blacktail Mountain looking east at Flathead Lake.

At the trailhead.   Joyce brought, Laddie, her dog along.  That was the largest dog.  Kendra brought her two dogs along: Precious and Rio.   Rio was still a puppy and he wanted to play/fight with Laddie, who was an older dog and didn't want to play/fight.  A lot of time was spent by Joyce and Kendra in keeping the two dogs apart.   Precious was a small dog.  She kept up with us.  Still, partway through the hike I carried Precious to give her a break from having to walk and keep up with us.

Starting down at the trailhead.  Since we started at the top of the mountain we hiked down more than up on the trail.

The north end of Flathead lake.

Looking back at Blacktail Mountain.  On the left is the "white dome" we started near.  On the right is the Blacktail ski area.

Most of the trip was among the trees as we didn't hike on any ridgelines.  So not many long views.   The wind came up strong during the hike so the trees helped.  We didn't feel the wind much but we could see the tops of the trees swaying.   The temperature was in the upper 50s so the trees keeping the wind from us mostly helped us from getting cold.

There were a number of wild Oregon grapes growing along the trail.

And we seen at least four piles of bear scat on the trail with the seeds from the Oregon grapes.  I know what the bear was eating.  Fortunately no sight or sounds of a bear.

Joyce and Kendra brought water along for their dogs.  At the end of the hike they gave them some more water.

Our hike was 6.2 miles long.  We hiked from Blacktail to the USFS boundary line.  Joyce is now 90 or 91 years old.   She did very well.  I'm not near as old but I did well too.

R.I.P. Patti

Today I learned that my former hiking friend died on September 9 from pancreatic cancer. I am sad.  Patti came up with so many, many interesting and good hikes.  Many of the best hikes I have been on.  She would easily get me to take a break from my ranch work and go on a hike with her and others.  If you have noticed I haven't posted much about hikes since 2016.   That was when Patti moved away from Montana due to her place of work being bought and she found another job.  I no longer had a person to convince me on a regular basis to take a break from ranch work and go on a hike.

R.I.P Patti.

Turquoise Lake September 7, 2010.