New Year, New Bear Canyon

The end of 2017 was very much like the start of 2018, and even included the same-named trail, though the two could not be more different than summer and winter. Bear Canyon Trail in Tucson leads to seven waterfalls that run for about 30-seconds in the Spring, whereas Bear Canyon Trail in Bozeman offers a steady stream of running water even in the dead of winter. Both trails will either kill you or do you great harm if you step off the trail; in Tucson you'll get your eyes gouged out and/or skinned alive by all of the plant life, and in Bozeman you'll get lost and exhausted in waist-deep snow. Nevertheless, we always manage to have a good time.

The drive from Billings to Bozeman is a doozy, and there is always a good chance the highway will be iced-over as you get closer to Bozeman, but we didn't seem detoured by this as we headed out for a day hike. This was one of the few times we smoothly got our shit together and out the door on time so as not to arrive back at our car in the dark. Finding accessible trails in the middle of winter is a challenge in and of itself, and though they aren't maintained like they are during other seasons, we were surprised at how much trails still get used. On this one in particular, a couple of people passed us on fat-tire bikes, because here in Montana we just ignore winter until it goes away.

Everyone puts on their sweaters in the winter. 

 There is more than one trail, we turned left along that fence then up a decent incline.

 While you're busy worrying about basic survival, one of the challenges of hiking you don't really think about is where to look. Obviously you need to watch where you're going, but you need to look around for wildlife both because it's way cool and for your safety. I was looking off to the right of the trail when I saw something that looked like an up-ended tree stump. I looked a second longer and the stump picked up its head and was actually a motherfucking moose! Most likely a female, she was laying in the snow next to the running water, and either didn't notice us, or didn't care. We had Louis with us who also didn't seem to notice the moose, or didn't care. It was pretty much the coolest experience of my life. Until I spot a bear.

I can't decide if the incredibly deep snow makes the drop-off better or worse. You definitely won't fall down the hill that quickly. 

If someone had told me that one day I'd be on the side of a mountain, in the middle of January, in the snow, by choice, I would have told them to go fuck themselves.

 The best part about winter hiking is how untouched everything is; not any more so than during other seasons, it's just obviously more noticeable when everything is covered in a comforter of snow. We took a different trail back down and came across fresh moose droppings, most likely from the female we spotted. Never has seeing poop been so neat!

We surpassed our goal of getting back to the car before dark, but we were still in Bozeman once the sun went down. And if there is one thing everyone is after hiking, it's hungry (sometimes even a little hangry). We ate dinner then drove the two and a half hours home.

In the Wild at Wild Bill Lake

Like my waistline, I've let my blog go. And despite my stellar record-keeping (Instagram), I managed to miss one of our Montana-roadtrips before ringing in 2018. It always felt like we weren't venturing out nearly enough, but as I go through these, and as I get further and further behind, I realize just how far we've gone and just how much we've seen. We're not lucky, wealthy, or anything special; where other families might spend money on new cars, or new tech toys, we spend ours on this. And car parts.

Obviously, we weren't pleased to have our first hiking and camping season behind us, and finding places to be outdoors in the beginning of winter can be a bit of a challenge (by winter 2019, however, I hope for us all to have snowshoes). But there is still plenty to see and plenty of places to go, and we discovered that the more we looked for trails and other sights, the more we found them. Imagine that.

Jacob either knew about Wild Bill Lake in Red Lodge, or had just learned about it, but that was where we were headed in early December of 2017. Turns out, we were pretty much the last people on earth to hear of this place; apparently it is quite a popular area to find and chop down your Christmas tree. The drive isn't very far or perilous (unlike our trek to Rabbit Gulch Trail, which we did the week before this), and the lake is just far enough to make you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but not so far that you can't make it home before dark. (We, of course, are of the breed who can never get our shit together early enough so we always get home after dark.)

You can drive to the lake, which we might do this summer, but the road is closed and not maintained during winter so that was our "trail," and where we passed several people hauling their chosen Christmas trees on sleds, something I bet Clark Griswold wished he had thought of. 

West Fork Rock Creek 

The following succession of pictures makes me laugh. I just wanted a nice picture of me with my dog in a picturesque location, which was apparently too much to ask.

 Once Jacob realized what was happening, he stopped taking pictures...

 Wild Bill Lake. A popular spot in the summer, not so much in the winter.

 The amount of snow makes it look deceptively cold, but it was a pleasant, mild day. Unfortunately, the sun sets earlier and the temperature plummets with it.

Our trek to Wild Bill Lake certainly wasn't our longest adventure, but as I said, it's far enough away to lose cell phone signal, offers the requisite mountain views, renders the appropriately sore muscles, and simply makes you (us) feel good. It would make a very pleasant day-trip, though Red Lodge and the surrounding area can be extremely busy during the weekend and on holidays like Memorial Day and the 4th of July (this place, in particular, is hoppin').

'Trippin' to Tucson: 2

It's the first official day of Spring, the perfect time to talk about Christmas. It will make me feel better about my continued over-eating.

In 2017, we traveled to Tucson, much like we've done in recent years, only this time my brother and his new family journeyed down (and over) from Boston, making it the first holiday we would all be together in 11-years. Coincidentally, the last time we were all together for the holiday was also in Arizona, only we traveled to Mexico and were minus two spouses and three children. This go-around probably had the same amount of alcohol but had way more naps and didn't involve a run (read: slow creep) for the border.

Of those three children I mentioned, this trip would be Holden's third to Arizona. The first was over Thanksgiving when he was just a grain of rice in my belly, and the second was when he was 10-months old, so this trip was bound to leave a much bigger impression.

Good thing we made it with this pilot! 😉

Because what else do you do before a big layover then subsequent plane ride but have a giant ice cream cone? Mom and Dad had a beer at 9:30am so I guess it works out.

Grandpa, The Online Travel Savant, booked us early flights so that it was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived, which worked out well for everyone. Yes, early mornings with children are not the most fun, but best to just get it over with. After a car ride, plane ride, train ride, plane ride, another car ride, then a dolphin ride, you'd think they'd be sick of traveling for the day.

 This was Day Two, around 9:30am. Every pony in the pool!

 BODDINGTONS! No, I did not get it by riding in a taxi driven by Angus, my mom happened to have it in her refrigerator. HIGH FIVE!

It tastes like bananas. Seriously.

We made the Ugly Christmas Sweater cool before it was cool.

This trip was a lot more tame than we've had in the past. We ate all of our meals at the house, I even made lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner. There weren't any activities, like the year we visited the zoo, just non-stop playing in the pool, which is all we really want from a vacation to see family at this point. With Zoey being older, she doesn't really care what we do as long as she's glued to Grandma, Holden just wants access to his dad, and I just want access to alcohol. With my new-found passion for hiking, though, I did want to get out and hit the trails and see what Arizona hiking is like. I was a bit snobbish at first, all like, Well, I'm from the mountains of Mooooonnnntaaaaaannnna. *hair flip* But hiking in Arizona is hard-core - the terrain, wildlife, and plant life will all kill you.

 My Spirit Tree. Hashtag: don't touch me.

 Pima Canyon Trail in the Catalina Mountains.

The city of Tucson fading behind us.

Hang loose and hike.

 No matter the time of year, coming from Montana, lined leggings are never the best idea.

 Water was here.

This is a perfect example of always learning. This stack of rocks - what we call a "Stacky" because we don't know how to pronounce the actual name - is a cairn, and unless you are a Park/Forest Ranger, are dangerous, misleading, and disrupt organisms. And, unless you are a Park/Forest Ranger, should not be building them. Rangers use them as guides for a trail that becomes hard to follow, so when people place them anywhere they please, could inadvertently lead people away from the trail. We have since learned better, believing they were merely our way of saying, "We were here!" which is stupid and doesn't really matter; nature certainly doesn't care if we were here.  

 My face always looks so good in a hiking selfie. Here, particularly, it's because it was hot as fuck. Winter in Arizona is chilly, but still about 60-degrees warmer than we're used to so we were sweating buckets. And one major thing that Montana trails have that Arizona trails don't: water.

It was all at once surprising, pleasing, and a little spooky to have hiked far enough that Tucson ceased to exist. And because of the increase in temperature and sunshine, we forgot that it was, in fact, December, so we wound up hiking back in the dark to - yes - the last car in the parking lot. 

Aaron, Ashley, and their daughter, Harper, arrived on Christmas Eve, then it was Christmas in full-force.

 And thus begins The Great Christmas Build.

 Holden showing Grandma how his race car track works while Ashley flips through the latest Pioneer Woman cookbook that all of us ladies got. It's like our religion.

Zoey was absent from school for her Christmas choir concert, so we all got a private showing instead.

 The Ann's (Harper Ann, Zoey Ann).

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

We had a couple of days to spend with Aaron and his family before we were due back to Montana and my brother - surprise, surprise - suggested we go hiking. It's not often that the four of us can squirrel away without children, much less hike without children, so we took full advantage, choosing to do the hardest, longest, of all the trails, the Bear Canyon to Seven Falls Trail. In both hikes, having the children with us would have SUCKED so thank goodness for Grandparents!

That's a river in Arizona for ya!

We sat here with our late lunch with this view to our left....

...and looking back at the trail on our right.

It was Jacob and I's first time hiking with other adults and we had a great time; great company and some great laughs.

We arrived home to a very happy, relieved Louis who was taken care of and loved by a good friend of ours. Then he got a Christmas stocking from Grandma and forgot that we had ever been gone.

 His 13th Christmas, he's got this thing down. We rip open just enough for him to get his snout inside then he does the rest.

 Worth it!

Even though we were home and Christmas was essentially over, Holden asked to watch his favorite movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Every day last year, and almost every day this year, Holden asked to watch this movie, of which I am only to happy to oblige. In fact, I'll watch it right through New Years Day evening (and maybe a few times during Christmas in July).

We're glad we were able to have the loud, messy, family Christmas; it was a lot of fun, we made some good memories, and it wound up being the springboard to my brother and I communicating more often. As we get older, Jacob and I have started to appreciate - and want - both the big, family holiday, as well as the quiet holiday in which we carry on or start our own traditions; especially as our kids get older and form lasting memories. It's fun not knowing what the next years will bring, but we'll sure remember them.