Elk Mountain

All four of us resolved to hike together.  Dave did such a good job of picking out the Scalplock Lookout hike that we let him research the hike for the group.  He picked Elk Mountain because it was “only” about three miles up once the trail started.  Unfortunately, it was also 3000 feet of vertical climb.  We did not reach the summit, but it was a great adventure.

The trail is not well-marked, and we drove past the turn-off twice before we drove out on to a gravel access road at the base of the mountain.  Even then, we had to use my Gaia app and research some trail maps before we confirmed that we were in the right spot. The right spot is on Road 1066 directly across from Mile Marker 192 on Hwy 2.

There is no trailhead sign that we could find, but we did find an unmarked trail to the right of the gravel road (and just before all of the “no trespassing signs”), which leads to the railroad access road.  That access road crosses the tracks.  Soon after that, there is a trailhead sign for Elk Mountain.

This hike was a lesson in patience.  Everyone has different hiking styles.  Dave and I like to get up and go.  Ruth and Julia prefer to rise a bit later and enjoy a pancake breakfast. As a result, by the time, we started hiking,  the sun had already come up over the mountain.

The steep ascent grew hotter and dryer as we climbed.  The hike was challenging for all of us, but Ruth had never hiked anything quite so challenging.  Ruth is almost always in a good mood, and that changed as the hike became more and more brutal. 

We took a long siesta in a meadow to discuss whether to proceed.

Ruth was willing to continue or wait for us as we continued, but we decided as a group to head back down.  While the descent was not as heart-pounding, it wasn’t easy either.  I slipped a few times and almost ended up flat on my butt.  Turning around improved Ruth’s mood.  Soon, she was back to smiling and singing. We made it to the railroad tracks and back to the vehicle, no worse for wear.

The women decided that the hike wasn’t nearly as beautiful as some of the other trails that we hiked in the park.  On the other hand, Dave and I appreciated the challenge of the hike. We also appreciated the solitude of not seeing another hiker for four hours.  That doesn’t happen on the popular trails.

Someday, I’d like to finish that hike, but there are so many great trails in the area.  I know one thing. I want to return to this area of Montana again but with the Brew Hut (Scamp trailer).

That night, we celebrated our hike with excellent “Jersey-style” pizza at North Fork Pizza in Columbia Falls.  Then we hung out at the Farmer’s Market, which included live music.  A great day with friends!  One more day to hike, and then it’s time to go  back home.

Scalplock Lookout

After hiking the Highline Loop, we spent a day driving around Flathead Lake, which claims to be the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the Western states. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of state park units, a winery, and a brewpub.

On the next morning, Dave and I got up early to hike Scalplock Lookout, which Dave picked out because it looked challenging (over 3000 vertical feet in 5 miles) and did not require driving through the national park. The trailhead was an easy drive east on Hwy 2.

I was concerned that the climb would be unpleasant, based on some reviews. However, Dave picked a perfect hike for both of us. The ascent was gradual in the beginning, crossing a creek on a wobbly bridge rated for one hiker at a time. Although it was very windy, the heavy forest shielded us.

The terrain seemed like favorable grizzly country, so we passed the time alternately yelling out, “Hey Bear;” and out-of-tune singing of old classic rock songs from our youth. Eventually, we rose above tree line and were greeted with amazing views and brooding skies.

From the false summit, we climbed more steeply across a beautiful meadow of wildflowers. If I was a bear, this is where I would hang out all day, but no bears were seen on this hike.

At the summit, there was an unoccupied ranger lookout: a sign indicated that they would be back by the weekend. We ate trail mix at their small picnic table (who hauled that up there?) and rehydrated. We gave each other high fives just like we did in ninth grade basketball and headed back down for just under ten miles. A perfect hike and a great day with an old friend.

Hiking the Highline Loop

Yesterday, Julia and I woke before dawn and drove into Glacier National Park, arriving at Logan Pass just before 7 a.m. As soon as we parked the car, we saw three bighorn sheep sauntering across the parking lot, completely unafraid. It just seemed wrong to post a pic of these animals so here’s the bighorns who hadn’t crossed the road yet.

This was the beginning of the Highline Trail, which was probably one of the easiest and most beautiful eight-mile hikes I’ve ever completed. The trail is basically level and provides spectacular high elevation vistas. The trail is narrow in the beginning, so chains have been installed against the mountainside so that one doesn’t fall off. After that, the trail widens and no such safety measures are necessary.

The snowfield looks tougher than it was and didn’t last long. We saw one deer, a couple of grouse and many marmots.

The best part of the hike was the scenery.

After hiking about six or seven miles, we came to an innocent-appearing sign, which said “Wall Garden Trail, 0.6 miles.” Julia then mentioned that she had read about this little trail and that it was worth hiking. I looked up at the steep ascent and muttered something unpleasant but started hiking up.

Without question, that was the longest, toughest 0.6 miles side trail that I can remember. That trail absolutely kicked my butt going up and down. Was it worth it? Yeah, probably. We ended up sitting on top of the Continental Divide, looking down upon a glacier and several lakes with the valley opening up to us below.

After the knee-aching descent back to Highline, we made our way to the Park Loop Trail and descended another four miles through full sun and burned-out forest. Julia had become quite grumpy and put on her angry, determined face to gut out the final descent. I was afraid for my life so did not take further photos. There wasn’t much to photograph in the final section anyway.

After driving back to the cabin, I collapsed and was asleep by 7 pm. Julia rebounded and was annoyingly energized until about 10:30 pm. Later, I learned that one of my college friends completed the same hike with hardly a complaint a few days earlier. I must be getting old! Or maybe I was lulled into complacency by the first six miles of the hike. Anyway, I’m feeling much better on the day after.

Hungry Horse, Montana

Our trip to Montana is a Julia-inspired trip, so travel is different than a Brew Hut trip. We drove down to Chicago after making a quick stop in Whitewater for lunch with our son Justin. Then we checked into the Sheraton for a stay, park and fly package.

Our package included a $15 voucher for food and beverages, so we dined during happy hour and turned in early. Our early morning flight was delayed due to the need to find a replacement pilot for the one who didn’t show up. We ended up still landing in Kalispel in the early afternoon.

The accommodations were lovely: a log cabin just outside of Hungry Horse, Montana.

Our friends, Dave and Ruth, arrived a few hours later. I’ve known Dave since middle school. When Dave and I bicycled across Wisconsin in our late 20’s, he met Ruth. They later married, and Julia became very good friends with Ruth.

After an evening of burgers on the grill and brews on the patio, we were up early this morning to hike up part of the Columbia Mountain Trail, which is just outside Columbia Falls. The weather and hiking conditions were spectacular.

We all marveled at the incredible blue color of the Montana sky.

In the afternoon, after a quick stop at the Backslope Brewing Company, we drove to the Hungry Horse Dam, parked the car, and hiked back and forth along the top of dam.

Great hiking, friends and beers. A recipe for a wonderful trip.

Dog Days of Summer

Sirius is the Dog Star.  It disappears into the sun’s glow from July 3rd to August 11th. According to the Greeks and Romans, the dog days of summer produce heat, drought, thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, and bad luck.  I’ve experienced some of those things this week while making trailer repairs and completing hikes in the summer heat.

For me, it’s all about the humidity.  I was perfectly comfortable last September out west with hot, low humidity days and cool nights.  However, the high humidity and heat  in Wisconsin make me want to curl up on the basement couch and take a long nap.

Having said that, I did take care of a couple of repairs this week on the Brew Hut.  The first was rewiring the trailer plug again.  I am not getting any 12 volt power from the Nissan at the 7 wire connection. Instead, I was getting 12 volt power running from the trailer battery to the trailer plug.  That situation was causing blown fuses at the trailer battery.

Lots of other people on the internet seemed to have similar Nissan issues.  The brown relay under the hood was properly activated.  There might be a blown fuse somewhere, but the schematics in the owner’s manual are terrible.  One guy reported that he replaced the tail light fuse, and that fixed his 12 volt power problem.

But then I got to thinking. Maybe I really don’t want 12 volt power going to my trailer battery, which is a sensitive Renogy pure gel battery.  Gel batteries have a particular way to get charged, and a 12 volt line from the truck feeding constant voltage might not be the best idea.  So I just removed the 12 volt trailer wire from the connection at the trailer plug. So far, so good with no more blown fuses.  Now, I will simply charge the Brew Hut battery with either solar or a charger that I can plug in when I have AC power to the Brew Hut.

Some of you more savvy electrically-minded folks (than me) might be asking why my trailer converter isn’t charging the battery.  Ahhh, that’s because I believe the converter is dead.  Plugging into power wasn’t charging the battery or running the 12 volt appliances.  I ordered a new converter from progressive dynamics.  I haven’t decided yet whether I will need help swapping out the old dead one, but I’m not going to do anything with the new converter until it’s cooler out.

The final completed repair this week, and the one that convinced me to stop working on the Brew Hut until it’s cooler out, had to do with the water tank.  On the way back from Texas this spring, both metal straps securing the water tank snapped, allowing the water tank to “move freely about the country.”  Well, only a few inches from side to side in the water tank compartment, but that wasn’t sustainable without causing further damage.

I bought some strapping earlier this year to replace the snapped strapping under the grey tank.  That was a pretty easy job, although I’m getting to the point where crawling under the trailer isn’t my favorite activity.  The water tank is located at the rear of the Brew Hut, under the bed inside a fiberglass bench enclosure with a small access door.

There just isn’t much room to work under there.  I had all of the windows and door open, and I was soaking wet with perspiration dripping into my eyes and everywhere else.  I unscrewed the original broken strapping from the floor. The new straps needed to be screwed to the floor on both sides of the tank.  I was able to move the water tank over a few inches to barely access the back side (good thing I don’t have big muscular arms or hands).  After screwing those ends into the floor, I moved the tank a few inches in the opposite direction and attached the front side straps.  The original metal straps lasted 18 years.  I hope to never have to do that again.

Julia hoisting a Belgium style beer

Yesterday, we did what many Wisconsin folks do when it’s to hot and humid.  Julia and I went to a new brewpub:  Union Corners Brewery on Winnebago Street on the east side of Madison.  I’ve told Julia that I never want to live in Madison again, but if great brewpubs like this keep opening on the East Side, I might have to change my mind.  There are condos upstairs, and I was seriously thinking about buying one and never leaving.

The owner spent some time with us, talking about the difficulties of building the brewery and just getting things done in the People’s Republic of Madison.  In the end, although opening took much longer than was expected, Union Corners Brewery is a very comfortable space with 24 excellent beers on tap.  They currently feature 3 of their own beers, and that is going to quickly increase.  I had a Berliner Weisse beer that was perfect for a hot day:  mildly sour and low alcohol.  Julia had a Belgium Single with a malty, sweet finish.

The next Brew Hut journey won’t happen until August.  Until then, I’ll be taking daily long walks through Lodi, which end with Callie jumping into the creek.  We also like to hike at  Gibraltar Rock, which features shade and fewer mosquitoes/biting flies.  Later in the summer, we will travel with friends to Montana.  You  might not hear about that one until we get back, depending on internet connectivity.  With higher elevation, we should be experiencing cooler weather on that trip, I hope.