Hiking in Refrigerator Canyon

One thing I really love about Montana is the access we have to the great outdoors. All across the state, there is excellent hiking and outdoor recreation. Jeff and I decided to take advantage of this access with a nice hike last Sunday to celebrate our anniversary weekend. We did about 10 miles on the Refrigerator Canyon Trail near Helena. This post contains a lot of photos, and I hope you'll enjoy looking through them. 

Within about a quarter mile, you find yourself hiking through a slot canyon. This is the actual Refrigerator Canyon and it was easy to understand why it was so-named. The canyon was much cooler than the surrounding environs, and a cool breeze was whipping through as well. I imagine it would feel very refreshing on a hot day. 

Here's a photo looking back toward the slot canyon once we had left it--

The wildflowers were blooming in great abundance along the trail. One of my favorites, Indian Paintbrush is below. There were many other flowers all along the trail as we hiked. And interesting to notice different flowers and plants as we climbed in elevation. 

The trail was a gentle uphill climb, mostly through forrest. Nothing too strenuous, but work nonetheless. 

At about two miles, there's a nice overlook with a rail fence. It would be a great spot for a picnic and a good turnaround spot for a shorter hike. Also nice for photo ops! 

We decided to press on and go a little further. 

After a while, we entered the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness Area, which is different from National Forrest in that no motorized vehicles are allowed in Wilderness Areas in Montana. There are a few more protections to preserve the land as it occurs. 

We kept trucking along and came to another scenic vista. Neat to see how far we had come!

When we planned our hike and left the car, we intended to do between 6 and 8 miles of hiking. We had read about a trail junction that we thought was about three miles in, and decided that would be our decision point. Turns out, the trail sign was actually four miles in, not three. At this point, we thought we were close to cresting the ridgeline and wanted to try to go for that accomplishment, so we went on, still uphill. 

After continuing on switchbacks for a another half hour or so, we started to feel like we would never reach the top of the ridge in a timely manner, and we'd already done more than we had planned. We decided to go back to the trail junction sign and stop for a snack. The downhill effort to get back to the trailhead took about half the time as the uphill climb, not surprisingly, but our legs were completely shot by the time we got there. Thankfully the wildflowers kept our spirits high!

This is a plant that I was told is called "Mountain Sunflower," but I'm not sure what it's official name is. It's cheery and so pretty. 

We encountered very few people on the trail on the way up. We did see one older gentleman with his dog at the trailhead as we headed out and spoke to him a bit. He was planning a multi-day hiking and backcountry camping excursion and was getting his gear organized as we struck out. He said he had hiked the trail "probably fifty times," and knew it very well. We didn't see another person until we had turned around and started heading down. Then, the closer we got to the trailhead, the busier the trail became. We did run into the older gentleman again and he asked how our hike was. We described how we had turned around at a point that we thought was just below the ridgeline and he confirmed that we were close, but also said that once you get to the top, there isn't a good view of anything anyway, and that we had already seen the best views by that point. That made us feel better about turning around a little early. Then he asked us, "Are you going to the York Bar for a burger?" In my mind, I thought, "Yes, Definitely!" even though we hadn't planned on it at all. At that point, a hamburger sounded too good to pass up. The man said they were really good. We thanked him and wished him well on his hike.

We made it back to our car about four hours after we had left, and were pretty tired and hungry from our effort on the trail. Jeff and I deliberated if we should stop and have a hamburger in York, which is a tiny, tiny town that you drive through between the trailhead and Helena/Interstate, or if we wanted to just get gas station snacks and get on the road for home. As we drove back down the canyon and hunger set in strong, we decided we had better stop. Plus, it's probably bad karma to ignore on-trail advice from a seasoned veteran, right? 

Pulling in at the bar, the patio was full of people. A good sign that this was the place to be. Then we walked around to the front and were greeted with this-- absolutely classic small-town Montana, right here. It's not just the York Bar, it's "The Friendly York Bar." We instantly knew we had made the right decision to stop.

 The atmosphere inside was very much a friendly, small-town Montana rustic bar. It was just perfect. The hamburger and onion rings tasted pretty good after our efforts on the trail, too. If you're ever in the area, definitely stop at the York Bar. It's definitely a slice of good old Montana Americana.

And if you're in the Helena area, the Refrigerator Canyon trail is a good one to consider hiking. We really enjoyed our hike and would definitely plan to do it again and recommend it to others. Gotta love Montana!

Coralville 4th Fest 5K Race Recap

I mentioned in my previous post that I had done a 5K while I was in Iowa. I love to schedule a race while I'm traveling because it forces me to get out and get active, especially when it may be so much easier to just lounge and laze the trip away. This time, I found the Coralville 4th Fest 5K and convinced a few family and friends to do it, too!

Long before we left for our Iowa trip, I had scouted the interwebs for possible 5Ks to run. The best place to look for Iowa road races and active events is on the Fitness Sports website: www.fitnesssports.com. Fitness Sports is a running store located in West Des Moines, where I used to buy all my running shoes back in high school and college and where I always refer my friends. They have, for a long, long time, put every road race they can get info for on their website, organized in calendar form. Super handy when planning your Iowa racing schedule or when looking for a race while traveling!

Anyway, I found the info for the Coralville 4th Fest 5K Fun Run and thought it would be the perfect chance to sneak a race in with some family and friends. Jeff and I had stayed with my friends Wade and Nicole and their sweet kids the night before the race, and they decided to join us for the run. As did my brother Ryan and my Dad. My Mom and Ryan's girlfriend Marissa were there, too, as moral support and photographers. So great to have such a big, fun group to run with!


Start time for the race, which started and ended at the Coralville Recreation Center, was 8:00 a.m. We got there in plenty of time to register on race day and use the bathroom. It appeared as though the turnout was between 100 and 150 people. Pretty small race but definitely bigger than some we've run, especially here in Montana! Signups were fairly well-organized. We got our race t-shirts when we signed up, too:

I don't really understand the design. I don't know why they didn't just use the logo that they had on their signs and on their website:

Instead, these t-shirts are about as silly as it gets for a race tee! The clock is running but it's OK because it's "Lovin' every minute of it." Does that have anything to do with the 4th Fest in Coralville? or the Rec Center? I don't know. Whatever. Add this t-shirt to the stack of other race tees that are ultimately destined to be used in a t-shirt quilt. Besides, I secretly have a fond admiration for 5K race t-shirts that are silly, absurd, tacky, or make no sense. This one definitely fits that bill!

Soon it was time to line up to start the race. The temperatures were in the mid to upper 60's but man was it HUMID! There was definitely a lot of sweating happening. The race website also stated that the course was hilly, and they weren't wrong about that. Click here to view a course map. Almost immediately after starting the race, we rounded a bend and began a long uphill climb. I had started out pretty conservatively on the race because I'd been having some knee pain and I wasn't sure how my knee was going to feel. After I started going, though, it felt mostly OK-- not great, but OK. So, when we got to the hill I really tried to power up it and I passed quite a few people on that first hill.  Most of the course was run on bike paths and neighborhood streets. It was a pleasant course to look at overall, but the hills were definitely tough.

As the race went on, I continued to pass more people here and there and was feeling OK. They didn't have their miles marked and I don't have a fancy GPS running watch (but lately I've been thinking that I'd like to get one...) so I wasn't really sure of my pace. It wasn't until we rounded the last few corners and I knew we were getting close to the finish line that I thought I'd have a chance to get my PR. I sprinted as best as I could to the finish, which was all downhill...and then I forgot to hit the "stop" button on my watch. And, the race event officials didn't time the race. So, as near as I could tell, I finished with a time somewhere between 26:30 and 27:30. I'm not really sure. So, I don't know if I got a PR, but it might have been close. Time to start thinking about getting a Garmin or Soleus or something similar.

Wade and Ryan had both finished ahead of me, and Mom and Marissa were there to greet everyone at the finish line, too. As we crossed the line, they tore off the bottom part of our bibs, ostensibly to take note of finishing order. Mom got some nice finish photos of us approaching the line. We cheered people in and milled around for a bit. Then, there was a "Kids Marathon" of 26.2 yards, which was basically a run from one end of the parking lot to the other, that Wade and Nicole's daughter Addison completed. Super, super cute! She was pretty pleased with her finishers ribbon. 

Ryan, Jeff, Me and my Dad approaching the finish of the race.

By now, we had scouted out the apparent results of the race and it looked like I had earned a 3rd place age-group prize, so we thought we'd wait around a little while longer for the awards ceremony just to be sure. We waited... and waited... an hour came and went and they still hadn't gotten to the awards. Apparently there were some disputes among runners over their finishing order and it turned out that the race officials hadn't kept the bib numbers in the correct order as people crossed the finish line, so they weren't sure of the actual finishing order. But, not to worry, because for some reason, even though they hadn't timed the race, they had someone who was video recording all the finishers crossing the line. So, their plan was to review all the video and note the bib numbers of people as they crossed the line. Then they could be absolutely sure about the finishing order and who won which prizes. They planned to do that later in the day and call the winners so they could come back and pick up their prize. So, after waiting around for quite some time, we finally dispersed and went our own ways.

This event left a bit to be desired in terms of organization, but overall the race was fun and I'm glad we did it. Most of all, I enjoyed the chance to be active outdoors with friends and family I don't get to see very often. Thanks to everyone who came along to join us!

**UPDATE: Earlier this week, on July 1, I DID get a call from the Coralville Rec Center asking when I was planning to come in to pick up my award from the Fun Run. So, I had won a plaque for being the 3rd Place Female, Age 30-39 (It's a major award, guys!) Even after explaining that I live in Montana and couldn't jaunt down there to pick it up, they were disinclined to mail it to me. My brother's promised to pick it up for me so I assume I'll see it next time I see him. :)

Thankful Thursday ~ Soundtrack of the Prairie

Happy Thankful Thursday, everyone! I hope you're all having a great week! The weekend is just around the corner!

What do you think of my new Thankful Thursday post header?

First off, you may have noticed that my blog looks a little different. I was a little tired of the previous look and so I'm working on tweaking it. You'll probably see a bunch of changes throughout the next little while as I keep working on finding a new look that I like, and adding features. Let me know what you think. I don't really know what I'm doing, so input and advice is greatly appreciated!

Next, a bit about my new Thankful Thursday image. I'm going to start each Thankful Thursday post with that picture because I like it, and for uniformity's sake. It's the inside of a "Mind Jar," which we made at school this past week. We were exploring the Virtue of Peacefulness and this was one of the projects/crafts we made to go along with that. I just think it's so pretty and it makes me think of a lot of the people and things I am thankful for, so I think it's appropriate as a header for Thankful Thursday posts. :)

Everyone's Mind Jar, all in a row. So pretty!

I got my Thursday started off right this morning with an easy three mile run. I don't run with headphones or music when I run outside. When I lived and ran in a town, I never went without music, but since living out here, I've made the change to running with my thoughts and nature as soundtrack. Jeff originally suggested that I go without headphones out here so that I could hear a rattlesnake, if there were one rattling. Sound advice, although, ironically, I have never actually heard or encountered a snake when I have been out for a run! (Jeff HAS...)

At first, it was really difficult for me, mentally, to get used to running without music or podcasts. Music especially was a motivator for me while running, and sometimes a distraction. Over time, however, I've grown accustomed to not running with music. I think I'm more in-tune with how I'm feeling as I'm running. I think I'm mentally tougher because I don't have the distraction. Most of all, however, I've grown to really enjoy listening to my surroundings. As I ran this morning, I had no idea what I'd write about for today's Thankful Thursday post, but as I kept plodding along, Meadowlarks and Mourning Doves cheered me on and made my run even more enjoyable. I realized that I am really thankful and glad to have their songs as the soundtrack to my run!

The Western Meadowlark is actually the State Bird of Montana so that makes it even more special to me that I get to listen to him sing. I feel like the Meadowlark is welcoming me to his State and to the prairie. Jeff was just telling me the other day that the Meadowlark has many songs and spent some time pointing a few of them out to me as we listened. Here's a great video that not only shows the beautiful, bright-colored appearance of the Meadowlark, but also shares several examples of his song:

Carol and Tom also have this really neat ceramic Meadowlark in their garden. Ok, I'm a bit biased because I gave it to them! But it's probably the closest I'll get to photographing a Meadowlark up close!

I've also been hearing a lot of Mourning Doves lately. These birds are common all over the country and I remember seeing and hearing quite a few of them in our backyard growing up in Ames. Some people confuse their cooing with an owl's hoot, but it is a little different:

I also see and hear Pronghorn Antelope frequently on my runs. Did you know that the Antelope is actually the fastest North American land animal? It's second-fastest in the world after the Cheetah. Pretty cool, huh?! We have them in great numbers around here. This time of year, the does are having their fawns. It is a very rare treat to see an antelope fawn in it's infancy-- I've only seen one or two since living here. But recently when I was running, an Antelope doe was acting sort of strange. I came upon her in about mile 2 of my 6 mile run and she ran just a bit ahead of me and then stopped and looked at me. As I approached, she took off another 100 yards or so, then stopped again. This went on for about a mile of my run. Jeff had told me in the past that sometimes if a doe has a fawn, she'll act this way to try to lure predators away from the fawn, who is likely curled up in the grass somewhere. Her pattern of running ahead and sort of baiting me was unmistakable and it really kept me entertained for about 10 minutes of my run that day.

Kind of hard to see, but this is the antelope doe that ran with me a few weeks ago.

Antelope make a funny but distinctive sound, too. It sounds sort of like a cough, or a person clearing their throat. I couldn't find a good video with the sound, but National Geographic has a great fact page on Antelope with an audio button you can click to hear their sound. With that doe on my run the other day, I may not have initially noticed her if she hadn't coughed. Again, when I first moved here, I don't even remember noticing the Antelope sound. Now, I again find that it's a common component of the soundtrack of the prairie.

Sometimes, too, I am serenaded by the "sweet" sounds of coyotes if I run in the mornings or evenings. We're pretty sure there's a den in our pasture, so hearing coyotes is pretty common. Here's a video of a coyote pack howling at night. If you have a dog, you may want to pay attention to it's reaction-- when I played this, Harvey became very interested!

Ok, so "sweet" probably isn't the right word to describe the sound that coyotes make, but it is more and more becoming a sound I associate with my home on the prairie. So, in that sense, it's sweet to me.

I'm thankful that I get to live and run in such a place that has really great nature sounds. There's also the sound of the wind in the grasses and fields, and of course, the sound of the dogs who accompany me on my runs! It makes me happy to hear their feet padding along in the gravel or grass and to hear them panting and breathing next to me. Harvey, Iggy and Abby each come along on runs sometimes. Harvey is definitely my number one running buddy!

Harvey! Harvey is fast and he likes to be first!

Iggy is old, but he still likes to come along and plod at his own pace.
We officially adopted Iggy this spring. He's a Saint Bernard mix.

Abby is Tom and Carol's Golden Retriever. She never stops smiling!
Out of all three dogs, Abby is the one who is closest to my running pace. 

Do you run/walk/hike with headphones or music? Next time, I challenge you to take them off and notice all the sounds that you hear. You might be surprised at the richness of the soundscape!

Today was the last training run before my Governor's Cup 10K race! I am so excited to do this race! I haven't done any "official" races yet this year, only virtual runs, so I'm really pumped to get the racing season started. Jeff and I are leaving tomorrow morning for Helena and I just can't wait to get down there and start taking in the entire event! I am doing the 10K and Jeff is doing the 5K on Saturday morning! In the spirit of today's post, I wonder what the sounds of the race will be? Anyway, wish us luck!

What are you thankful for this week? What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Thankful Thursday ~ School's Out For The Summer!

School's out for the summer! Our last day of school was actually a few weeks ago, on May 21. I spent that first weekend at State Track and in Bozeman and then all of last week was spent catching up on housework and me-time. Yes, I'm posting my Thankful Thursday post on Friday (sometimes that happens. I don't have all my shit together all the time, but who does? That's why you like this blog, right? Because I'm real? I'll tell myself that anyway... ;) ) and today I'm thankful that school's out for the summer! 

So what does school being out mean for me? In actuality, I still have to work over the summer. I'm not a teacher and I'm not employed by the school, I just work in the school environment most of the time. My co-worker and I are actually running a summer program for the kids in our program. So, we meet with them two days a week and continue therapeutic services, interventions, and a whole lot of positive skill-building throughout the summer. It's a little like summer camp or day camp for the kids. We do crafts, activities, and have deep and meaningful discussions and sharing circles. It's pretty fun, actually. Even though we're the ones as adults who are supposed to be serving them, and we are, often times it's the kids who teach me something. I get just as much "therapy" from them as I hope they get from me. That's definitely something to be thankful for.

In our first week of summer program, the kids painted flower pots in "a way that represents their personality," then they got to plant flowers in their pots and we had a discussion about what it means to take care of something, and empathy.
This is my flower pot, which I painted to match my patio furniture. :)

I'm also spending a lot more time with Jeff, which is awesome. Last week I helped him with several cow chores, including feeding range cake, some fencing, and setting up back-rubbers out in the pasture. I've also helped him with some farm and crop-specific stuff, too. It feels great to be involved and know that I'm helping out with our operation in a tangible way.

Cows eating cake. Love these ladies! 

Here's my arm, holding some barbed wire as we stretch it across the creek. I'm a RancHER. :)

Scouting out the pea crop. What do you think, Harvey? 

I'm thankful for more time during the summer for outdoor recreation and fitness pursuits! And again, thankful to be able to do more of that with Jeff, and Harvey of course, too. Last Sunday we went for another pasture bike ride. We think we covered between 8 and 9 miles. Photos from our previous pasture ride can be found HERE. The weather was warmer this time, so we made sure to find plenty of water stops for the dogs...

Harvey and Abby are enjoying some wading and a drink in the creek that runs through the pasture.
Jeff and I opted to remain on the bridge.

Of course, I'm getting in more running than I did during the end of the school year. I'm thankful that I have a little more flexibility to fit in some runs, and more time to fit in longer runs. Governor's Cup is just over a week away!

Here, Iggy is accompanying me. We officially adopted Iggy earlier this summer.
He's old, but he still likes to go for runs at his own pace.

And I've also been helping Carol, Tom, and Jeff with finishing up with planting our garden. We've got our raised beds full and the seeds are sprouting and yesterday we transplanted our tomatoes and peppers. We're all set, just need to keep up with watering and weeding and we'll be enjoying bountiful harvests, soon! We have already been eating the spinach from the garden and I think there are radish sprouts ready, too. I'm thankful in advance for the yummy veggies we'll have all summer long! Can't wait! 

Also, thankful for honeybee pollinators! Look at the size of those bumbles! 

Big bumblebees on chive blossoms! Seriously. We did NOT have bumblebees this large in Iowa! 

So many things to be excited about and thankful for when it comes to summer time! What are some of your favorite summer activities? What are you thankful for this week?

Harvey is thankful for pickup rides. I'm always thankful for Harvey!

Skiing At Red Lodge

Today's post is all about the fun weekend we had skiing in Red Lodge, MT! We made plans a long time ago with friends of ours from North Dakota to meet up for a ski trip and Red Lodge was the perfect place because it was more or less meeting in the middle for both of us.

Jeff and I drove down on Thursday night last week, after I was done with school. We stayed at the Pollard Hotel, which is right on Broadway in the center of town. It was a neat, old historic hotel that had been restored, with an excellent bar and restaurant on site. We ate in the restaurant on Friday evening. I had a really good dish of clams in a chorizo broth and Jeff had a steak. Great food!

Saturday evening, Valentine's Day, we enjoyed drinks at a lovely wine bar called Bridge Creek Backcountry Kitchen and Wine Bar. We had actually stopped there for wine and appetizers before dinner the first night, too. We had the cheese plate, which was good, but the tuna steak tartare was outstanding! The wine we had each time was really great, too. Even though our dinner at the Pollard was really good, after discussing it later, Jeff and I both agree that we sort of wish we had made our full dinner reservation for this place instead. They had some really interesting looking dishes on the menu and again, the wine selection was great, too. Next time!

Our main dinner event on Saturday night for Valentine's Day was reservations at Carbon County Steakhouse.  I noticed on our way in to our table that this place was a Wine Spectator award winner. It definitely lived up to expectations! We enjoyed appetizers of cast iron seared mussels with drawn butter, which was perfectly cooked and so, so delicious. Then, we each chose a beef entree for our main course. Jeff had a steak with crab and hollandaise sauce, I had beef strogonoff, and our friends shared a Delmonico.  Everything was outstanding! I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Red Lodge, and I can't wait to go back myself!

I didn't take any photos of the food and wine portion of our trip because I wanted to enjoy dinner and our company without pulling out my cell phone. You'll just have to click on the website links to get an idea of what they have and imagine it for yourself! 

I did get a few photos of our skiing adventures, though! 

Standing at the summit of the mountain!
The ever-flattering ski photo... 

The weather while we were in town was unbelievably warm-- in the 40s and 50s! And sunny! Definitely spring skiing conditions. I'll admit that I was really skeptical that the snow would be any good while we were there, but it far exceeded expectations. The snow was soft and fun, easy to ski! 

Jeff and I both worked on a lot of skills to continue getting better at skiing. He's now much more of a daredevil than I am, taking on black diamond mogul runs. I did get better at maneuvering around bumps this time, which I am proud of, but not as confident as he is. I still find that I love to fly fast down groomers more than anything else! I think over the course of the two days, I'm most happy with how I continued to regain confidence and skill on my skis. 

Clockwise from top left: Tyler and Shannon riding the chair ahead of us, Jeff after pounding out a black diamond mogul run, view over the side of the mountain, Valentine's day sign, and ski selfie!

The most unfortunate part of the skiing was that about half the mountain was closed due to lack of snowfall. We would have loved to have been over on those faces to check out that terrain, but the mountain was big enough to keep us entertained over the course of two days, especially as our skills and confidence continued to grow. They desperately needed snow at Red Lodge and we did have to be pretty cautious as we skied to be on the lookout for rocks, grass, dirt, and bushes poking out. All the same, as I mentioned, the snow conditions far exceeded my expectations and the overall lack of snow did not keep us from having a great time! 

Having a great time!

What really made the weekend great, more than the skiing and the excellent food and drink we enjoyed, was spending time with our friends Tyler and Shannon! We have been really lucky to meet them through our involvement with Farmers Union and this was the perfect way to get to know them even better. We had some great conversation and some really fun times, whether chillin' at the chalet on the mountain, at the hotel, or over a delicious dinner. It seems like we are all compatible travel companions. When you find people you travel well with, you should hold on to them! Just too bad we don't live closer together! Although, Red Lodge makes a pretty fantastic meeting place! 

Left: Jeff and Tyler skiing down a long run. Top right: Jeff starting his hockey stop. Bottom Right: Shannon cruising on her snowboard!

Our Red Lodge weekend was definitely a success and a lot of fun on many levels. Now, Jeff and I are not sure if we'll have another chance to go skiing this winter. Things get pretty busy for us as we are heading into calving season. There may be a chance to sneak down to Showdown one more time-- you never know. For now, we're not packing up the skis for the winter yet! 

How was your weekend? Any highlights?

Jeff had flowers and chocolate delivered to our room on Saturday afternoon.
Big surprise when I walked in and saw them!