Archive for ‘May, 2008’

Some different mountain views

At times, the views in the mountains change from moment to moment…

Living here – in Montana, in the shadow of the Continentel Divide has been my choice for fourteen years. I was thrilled yesterday when I discovered that Mountain Jobs had discovered From the Front Porch. Further, that the summary was so how I hope the writing and the photography is perceived as well as an accurate vision of how I hope I am living my life here. The Mountain Jobs Blog Post titled “Big Sky Country: simple pleasures living in Montana” made my day!

For those readers who hope to someday live in the mountains, Mountain Jobs is an employment network. The company and the site work to bring employers together with people looking for the mountain lifestyle. While the company is based in Jackson, Wyoming, it serves employers and job seekers from the entire mountain west.

From Wednesday through last evening as I write this post that will appear Saturday morning – the mountain views have changed from moment to moment.

Driving home Wednesday afternoon, clouds were starting to build up along the mountains surrounding the valley while all the while the sky was a brilliant blue…

Flathead Lake Sky

Flathead Lake Sky

Flathead Lake Sky

Flathead Lake Sky

The sky and mountain views glowed with the colors of the rainbow that evening… a scene I captured in yesterday morning’s post: Mountain Sunset Alpinglow

Yesterday (Friday) morning the mountain views were VERY different…

Cloudy Mtn

Cloudy Mtn

Cloudy Mtn

Cloudy Mtn

The views in the mountains change from moment to moment…

Montana Sunset Alpinglow

Wednesday evening with thunderstorms forecast – 9:00 p.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time (sunset is close to 9:30 now)…the sky to the east looked interesting, the wind was kicking up and sounding fabulous in the pines. I called to Karl, grabbed my camera (and pepper spray!) and off I went. Karl did not follow – he hates thunder and seems to have a sixth sense about it -…I whistled and called and watched him head from the driveway back to the house…Rats!! – I hate to walk without him – it is our thing!! But the sky called and so I went…. but halfway along as I was looking at the vista which was beautiful beyond words, my good dog appeared – panting, wagging tail – …. I love the following photos, but more than those, I love that my dear dog put aside his fear and followed…

Oh, there was no thunder that night – and more important, no lightning …often the clouds pile up and it rains or snows in the mountains but not in the valley. We never even heard rumblings in the night…

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

You can just barely see above what you can see below with more intensity…the setting sun, once again casting the tops of the trees in gold, bronze, deep red – the colors of Fall in the height of Spring. I stood – in awe – with my mouth open in amazement at the color feast spread out before me. I have seen the setting sun turn the tree tops in my woods gold but I had never seen the array of colors that I did this evening. I took a lot of photos and as I took each I knew that there was no way I was capturing the feast of color spread out at the foot of the mountains. With each photo, I hoped I could capture what I saw – from where I stood there was a wide expanse of glowing trees, snow covered mountains and building thunderheads – magnificent! For a long while I just stood and watched the color and the light.

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

And below…looking the opposite direction – West – as we headed for the house…the sunset through the trees…

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

My property sits in the woods on a plateau of foothills before the land gives way to the Swan Range – Continentel Divide – to the east and the floor of the Flathead Valley to the east.

Cinderellie, Cinderellie

The Calypso orchid or Fairyslipper (Calypso bulbosa)….

A very small foot to fit in this “slipper” – these are less than an inch. They are easy to miss in the woods as they are often bent downward so that only the purple “underside” is visible and looking very much like the back of a wood violet. They are my favorite thing to find. Montucky at Montana Outdoors has much better capture of these beauties: Calypso

A correction on yesterday’s post…those are Gardenia – which I’m very happy about. I love gardenia – my father gave my mother and I gardenia corsages for Easter. The scent of the gardenia in the refrigerator…waiting for Sunday – to put on my very special Easter dress – a vivid and beautiful memory. The scent always transports me.

Almost home….looking back

Where Karl and the last trees are – before things open up – is the eastern edge of my property. I’m taking these photos about a third of the way from that edge – towards where my house sits.

Karl’s day

For new readers…Karl is my Karelian Bear Dog.

Photos today from weekend walks…

Karl

Black dog with fur made for cold winters … a little sun and temp above 50…getting warm fast!

Karl

Karl

Karl

Laughing…or maybe sniffing the air??

Karl

Waiting for me to finish taking photos…and waiting….

Karl

Home.

Whitewater Festival – Bigfork, Montana

When I moved to Whitefish, Montana in February of 1994, Bigfork – 30 miles to the south – was pretty much closed up in the winter. Bigfork has been the artistic center of the Flathead Valley – lots of art galleries featuring a number of talented and well-known local artists, a community theatre, shops and restaurants. Until recently a large percent of the population was summer residents. Now there is enough activity year round for everything to stay open. I moved south of Bigfork in fall of 2002, then bought a home west of Bigfork and my current property is 7 miles north of the village, but Bigfork is and has been my “home” community since the first move in ’02. There is very little “town” as far as residence with most of the population living in the rural area around the village. There is an active and fun Chamber of Commerce and a lot of community involvement in village projects: spring cleanup, holiday decorating, artwalk and numerous festivals throughout the year.

Bigfork is located on a bay of Flathead Lake where the Swan River feeds into the lake. There is a mile of river called the “Wild Mile” which flows from above Bigfork to the bay with enough force to generate electricity courtesy of the electric plant located just before the village and the bay. The “Wild Mile” typically has class III and IV rapids this time of year and is home to the Whitewater Festival, an international kayaking event. Bigfork’s Whitewater Festival is unique in that it is one of the few whitewater competitions that is in a location easy to get to and to watch. An old forest service road which is now public access, borders the wild mile. There are numerous vantage points to get to a spot to watch the kayakers on the race course. At the base of the electric plant there is a hole which makes for the “rodeo” spot where the kayakers do their tricks for points.

The bad news for spectators is that the festival falls on or right before Memorial Day weekend. More often than not, it is cold, drizzly and not all that conducive to sitting by a roaring river…the kayakers are in their suits and under the water as often as on top so I don’t think the rain or cold makes much difference to them…except at night when the majority of them are in tents in the area.

Yesterday morning it was cool and gray, but the rain looked to hold off until this afternoon. I headed to Bigfork to see what I could see and hopefully get a fish taco from the street vendor that normally sells them during the festival. I struck out on the taco – either I was too early or she is not there this year – but I did get some photos…

Whitewater Festival

Whitewater Festival

Whitewater Festival

Whitewater Festival

There is a city park by the electric plant that becomes the “campground” for the kayakers.

Whitewater Festival

Whitewater Festival

Around the bend a bit and to the left of the electric plant is the race course finish and the rodeo spot. The water is wilder here than it shows in this photo.

Whitewater Festival

The bridge over the river as it exits the electric plant area and before it enters the bay was built in 1911 per the plaque. The bridge was recently upgraded but I noticed that when I stood on it to take photos, it was vibrating and rocking from the force of the water underneath. The one car at a time thing always makes me nervous – for some reason, not everyone gets that it really means one car on the bridge at a time…not just one lane…people in a hurry will follow me across without waiting for my car to clear…

Whitewater Festival

Whitewater Festival

The 2 photos above show the power of the water and the height of the rapids a bit better. It is pretty wild in this section right now which is just below the bridge before the river becomes the bay.

Whitewater Festival

From the oppositie side of the bay, looking to the right you can just see the electric plant, the bridge and the rapids below the bridge

Whitewater Festival

From the same point as the above photo – the road goes towards the village – straight ahead is the end of the forest service road – close to the end of the wild mile race course. The start is just after a spillway about a mile distant.

Whitewater Festival

Looking directly at the village – again from the same spot… Those buildings are office space built at the rear of shops that border the Bigfork main street: Electric Avenue.

Whitewater Festival

Still from the same spot but looking across the bay to where the bay joins Flathead Lake.