Tansy At Twilight - Maclay Flat, Missoula, Montana

Pack in a lawn chair and sit awhile, cool your dusty, summer-hot feet in the Bitterroot River, maybe even at this same perfect spot on Maclay Flat just south of Missoula, Montana. 

“The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it. “ — Chinese philosopher

Vanilla Smell (but don’t taste…) - Ponderosa Pine - Kootenai Creek, Stevensville, Montana

“…a smell … likened to vanilla or butterscotch exudes from the cracks between slabs of bark on the tree, creating a unique type of Rocky Mountain aromatherapy.” - Katherine Court in Field Notes: Ponderosa Pine Bark. (Learn a LOT more from the Montana Natural History Centre!)

Focus Further - Kootenai Creek, Stevensville, Montana

“It is never quite safe to think we have done with life. When we imagine we have finished our story, fate has a trick of turning the page and showing us yet another chapter.” - L. M. Montgomery (1874-1942), Rainbow Valley, chapter 13

Rooted - Kootenai Creek, Stevensville, Montana

“I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.” - John Muir (1838-1914)

Kootenai Creek, Summer - Stevensville, Montana

Finally! A summertime version of hiking Kootenai Creek that I’ve been waiting for ever since our snowy ramble.

Waterworks Hill, Gilded - Missoula, Montana

Irrepressible sunbeams highlight Waterworks Hill's golden autumn grasses from amidst the hazy, storm-portending blues of a soon-to-be-blustery day. (A very slight - & fleeting! - bout of self-satisfied preening occurs as I discern the higher spine trail of the left hill and realize my rather uncommitted hiking has included a stroll up that ridge...)

No Barrier at All - The Teller Trail, Corvallis Montana

"What have we to do this day, more pressing than the call to wander. " Pat R

"Dear old world', she murmured, 'you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you."

- L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1

Thanks to guest blogger Pat Richards for sharing views and thoughts from her Montana wanderings!

To see other far-flung paths Pat's feet have trod, take a peek at JourneysWithGod.com.

View To Mount Jumbo - Missoula, Montana

Hiking with friends atop Missoula's Waterworks Hill trail system, we paused briefly - only to take in the widespread views, of course. Pointing out a route I'd taken last year that popped up along Mount Jumbo's ridge and then down its face, directly around the "L", I suddenly realized how big a hill that is. Plodding along the trail, your vision and concerns are more immediate and close. But stepping back a bit - or maybe a lot, as in this physical instance! - your perspective widens, which can give room to feel a bit proud of how far you've come.

Of course, it's always good to have a balancing factor: one of our little group pointed out a barely smaller hill to the left (out of this photo frame) and recounted his grandpa's telling how, back in the day, his grandma would go over the hill  every day to work in East Missoula - and back (uphill both ways - for real!). We sincerely hoped she had a trusty mule or horse to make that commute.

Rainbow Remainder, Missoula, Montana

Rainbows graced the skies over Missoula, Montana, courtesy of a thunderstorm which capped a hot, hot day.  We’re finally getting weather up into the 90’s F . To entonophobics (people with a tick phobia) like me, this signifies that ticks will head higher up the mountains, and fear-free hiking season begins. Call me a wuss, but if you’ve ever found one of those little bugs crawling on you - hours after you thoroughly checked! - you may understand the creepy factor.

Blodgett Overlook Trail, View to the West, Hamilton, Montana

“Every view from up here was mighty.”
 - “Dancing At the Rascal Fair” by Ivan Doig,  p. 278