2008 July 3 Roger's Pass on Highway 200, Montana

Roger's Pass is well known as having the coldest temperature in the 48 states. Today is was sunny and 80 degrees with ample wild-flowers. A trek to the top of Roger's Pass trail offers a great view of the continental divide.

2008 June 30 Voyagers Minor League Baseball & UFO Film

A fun time at watching Minor League Baseball, the Chicago White Sox A leauge team, Great Falls Voyagers. The Voyager mascot is a nod to a legendary UFO sighting in1950 over Legion Field. At the time, it came from the local baseball announcer, a trusted source in the community especially before the era of television. To this day, the UFO film has not been explained.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_UFO_Incident
http://www.nicap.org/mariana.htm

2008 July 1 Dailey Hill near Evans, MT

During a very rainy drive through the hills of Cascase countiy on July 4th 1982, my Dad pointed out a window at a hill and said it was called "Dailey Hill." With permission from the current owner, we returned to hike around on what is still called Dailey Hill. Dailey was George & Ida Dailey, my great-great grandparents who first home steaded there in the earliest part of the 20th centurty. The remains of their home was buried about 15 years ago. Stories have it that George, who never had a car, would sometimes would be heard driving his horse wagon, singing, after returning from the bars in Stocket, MT. George and Ida had 9 children, but only 3 lived into mature adult hood. They had 2 kids die in the Flu Plague of 1918 (including my Great Grandfather, Charles Dailey). George and Ida stayed on their hill until 1944, at 80+ years of age. The had a son, Robert, who was know to be mentally slow, or was likable enough but was often getting in the way; likely retarded. Some have surmised that George and Ida stayed on their hill so long as a way to keep Robert at home. When they finally got to old and had to move away, Robert went to the state mental hospital and died there in the 1950s.

2008 July 3 Dearborn River Montana

I had long been curious about the Dearborn River, especially its narrow shutes and canyons up the main dearborn river. The Dearborn is usually only floatable through June, though this was a higher water year. I followed a train of horse packers up the "Devil's Glen" trail, though didn't quite reach that point. Rain the day before had left the trail most so it was easy to follow. On the return, I saw large claw prints mixed into the horse show tracks; I hadn't seen any claws on the way up. As the area is part of bear country, and I was hiking alone, I made a quick trek out and tried to make as much noise as possible. The Dearborn River eventually flows into the Missouri River.

Dearborn River High Bridge http://www.metnet.state.mt.us/Special/Quarries%20From%20The%20Gulch/HTM/Dearborn.shtml