Freezeout Lake

Freeze out Lake Migration

24 of March, Wednesday

Mike & I left the house around 8:10. Looks like its going to be a nice day. We saw two golden eagles as we crossed the Dearborn River, flying along. 9:45 - arrived at Freezeout Lake. We watched thousands of snow geese land on the lakes around 10:00. There were also hundreds of tundra swans already resting & forging on the bottom of the lake. Probably close to a thousand swans. By 11:00 all of the geese had come in from the grains fields & were resting. It was cool to watch these big gray lines in the sky getting closer & turning into the snow geese. Sunny with light clouds. A very beautiful day. There are many ducks sitting on the lakes too. Pintails, golden eyes are the only ones I could identify. I kept hearing a sandhill crane & sure enough one flew over, calling. Ate lunch in the car watching the resting waterfowl and listening to their talking. After lunch we drove around the whole perimeter of the reserve. We saw some horned larks on a fence-line as we went around. It was a long drive on a small gravel road plus they were doing some grading of it. We got back to the main lake by 3:00 & waited & watched as the geese got restless. Some of the snow geese from the other ponds flew over to the main lake to join the other geese. They made cool patterns in the sky as they came over us. They had a false life off at 4:30 & then at 5:45, they all took off & headed north. We estimated that there had to be over 60,00 them. We watched at they formed “vees” to follow each other out of the area. Their calls were loud. The swans & ducks all stayed put on the lake. We headed home after that arriving in Helena around 7:45. Beautiful day!

Fall Trips

We have been to Michigan on a road trip & also places close to Montana for hiking, canoeing & walking. We went to Michigan to attend a nieces wedding. Very nice. We enjoyed their company when they came to Montana to explore. We took them on many hiking adventures. We also visited relatives & explored the area.

Our next trip was to the Seeley/Swan Valley to canoe at Lindbergh Lake then on to Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. We had wonderful weather for a November trip. No one was on either lake. Saw lots of waterfowl, hawks & eagles. We stayed in two forest service cabins. Owl Creek Cabin near Holland Lake & Ben Rover Cabin near the town of Polebridge. Both were nice. The Ben Rover Cabin had 4 bedrooms so for just the two of use, quite a bit of room. The Owl Creek Cabin is one room & rustic. Good times till x-country ski season start.

Other than that we have been out looked at waterfowl, hawks & eagles at the Reservoir, been up Mt. Helena, right here in town & we walk around town daily. Very nice Fall so far.

Montana Magic

Great week-end. Our son & his wife spent the week-end with us. Our son chopped two cords of wood (we are very appreciative) & our daughter-in-law swam in s spring fed lake with our son kayaking next to her & us cheering her on. She is training for an Ironman. We had lots of conversation & a great barbecue with them & the in-laws. Great to see them.

Bear Gulch Pictographs

We took a road trip & camped on some ranch land in a pasture & hiked into & looked at some great pictorgraphs & petroglyphs. There were between 2,000 - 5,000 pictos & petros on the walls of this canyon. See: <"http://www.beargulch.net/"> for more information. 

Hawks, a badger, antelope, deer, rabbits, swallows, meadowlarks & sandhill cranes kept us company while in the area. We also stopped at a fish hatchery & looked at thousands of trout & salmon in long troughs swimming in crystal clear spring water. Good weather & company are always welcome.

Paddling & Hiking Continues

Canoed at the Reservoir on the 25th, 28th & 31st. Nice area to paddle. Trees all around the reservoir plus today (31st) we saw lots of kingbirds, redwing & yellowheaded blackbirds, ducks, geese & goslings, grebes, pelicans, coots, teal, red-tail hawks, bald eagles & herons in their rookery with their young looking pretty big. The carp were in big groups spawning & would swim in a circle & splash all over the place, there were hundreds of these doing the same mating dance. The hawks were making a new nest as their previous years nest was taken by a goose family! Warm again today. Its been in the 80's for about a week. Very nice canoe weather. Also this week we hiked up Priest Pass. Its nice having so many nice mountain hiking trails near town. On this hike we were looking for new cross-county ski trails. We like to discover new areas where we think we may be able to forge a new trail for back-country skiing. Lots of glacier lilies & spring beauties & butter cups. Very nice day for a hike in the mountains as it is a very beautiful time of year.

Update for the Outside LIfe

Mt. Helena Ridge(MHR) Trail - 15th of May, Saturday
Mike is in Michigan so I went hiking with friends. I walked over to their place & we started the hike, up Daisy Hill at 9:00 & then on the trail below parking lot, up to the Old Planted Trees trail, caught the Dump Out Gulch trail, then onto Hanging Draw Trail & over to McCulvey Trail & then to the left up another trail to the MHR Trail. Took us about 4 hours total. We stopped about 11:30 for lunch. Lots of different kinds of flowers but not too many of each kind. Nice day, around 60 & slightly windy. Great for hiking. 8.7 on my ped for the walk to their place & the hike.

Hauser to Beavercreek - 16 of May, Sunday
A friend & I hiked from the dam to Beavercreek this morning at 8:00. Got home around 11:30. Nice day, around 60 with light clouds. Suppose to get into the 80’s today. Saw some eagles, pelicans, cormorants & ducks. Something got killed on a rock along the route, looked like a birds had eaten something small like a mouse or chipmunk. This is around a 4 miles round-trip hike along the Missouri River.

Helena Holding Reservoir Mikes Back - 22nd of May, Friday
We canoed at the Reservoir this morning from 8:30 to about 10:15. It is full. Eagles, marsh hawk, red-wing hawks, grebes (western & redneck), cormorants, blue herons in the rookery, geese, coots, teal & some other ones we could not identify. Clear morning, beautiful with just a slight breeze. Nice canoe.

Note: I've also been working in the yard, clearing last years leaves, edging, planting, weeding & enjoying the yard. Update for the Desert Trip is still in the works.

Warm Utah to Cool Montana

Back from warm Utah to Montana (Utah trip will be posted later).  We canoed at the Reservoir Sunday morning.  Water is high now.  There was one snow goose hanging out with two canadian geese plus tons of other geese coupled up.  Lots of coots, geese, red-necked grebe + a small grebe with a crest on his head, misc. ducks, bald eagles, herons, red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, chick-a-dees & meadow larks.  Nice morning canoe, cool with the sun coming & going.