MONTANA Early-Mid April 2021 BACKCOUNTRY HIKING ADVENTURE
It was early March, and with a lackluster winter coming to an end locally, I felt a strong need to seek another adventure to reconnect with nature. I decided to go back to Montana to view the Milky Way and explore several new areas. Before I made any arrangements, I researched viewing the core of the Milky Way positioning. My research identified if weather conditions were good, I would see the body just above the S / SW horizon from 2:00 am to 4:30 am local time. The other challenge I had to consider, the high country I would be hiking would still have 30 to 50 inches of snow on the ground and require me to ship out my snowshoes.
Each of my adventures is a journey defined by a roadmap built upon past experiences exploring and discovering. My evolution as a human being has taught me to be present, having a higher consciousness, and coherent with the environment. Situation awareness is foremost at all times to be able to observe magical experiences. As with any of my past adventures, this adventure had many high points but had some low points.
Summary of experiences are:
Photographed my first albino Elk
Reconnecting with the ability to visually see the Milky Way with the naked eye
Laying down in the snow looking up at the cosmos (3:30 am) having the same thoughts as I did in my early teens
Challenging myself to survive tough cold / snowy weather hiking conditions created an exhilarating experience
Falling to sleep high up on the side of the mountain in complete silence to be woken by 40+ winds and heavy snow squalls
Wolves howling just below me by but the heavy snow squall restricted any visual observations
Great connection with two Bull Moose
Overall, it was another fantastic adventure. As you may have noticed, I love snow/cold weather, testing myself exploring remote wilderness areas discovering new experiences alone. Continue reading my story below to get more insight.
BIG TIMBER, MT - BOULDER RIVER TO THE HIGH COUNTRY
I started my adventure by investigating the boulder river high country area. Even though I knew it was early April and there was still a lot of snow in the higher elevations I wanted to explore, I knew the chances of seeing anyone would be close to zero. Driving up the first day, I came across a herd of Elk when I noticed something unusual. I picked up my binoculars to get a closer look. It was an albino female Elk. I just sat there watching when the herd slowly made its way towards me. I took the picture below just before they made their way into the pines. My first time was seeking an albino Elk, making it a very magical experience!
Albino Elk grazing with the heard. Took this with my Nikon D6 with a Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens.
The next day I drove as far as I could before the snow was too deep. It was a beautiful morning with clear skies and no winds allowing the warm sun to bring the temps up into the mid-’40s. I hiked up the hardened snow-packed path ( by snow machines) for 5 miles and decided to sit along the river, taking in the views with just the sounds of the river. As I was sitting there, some Golden Eye ducks had made their way towards me and took a few photos.
Situation awareness data point; as I made my way back down to where I parked, the hard-packed down snow had become very soft and difficult to walk through. Lesson learned I had not brought my snowshoe along. This experience would be a precious life-saving point for my next hike.
Took this picture with my Nikon D6 swiping out the Nikkor 600mm lens for a Nikkor 50mm lens sitting on my backpack with a timer set.
One of the great pleasures of the day was the clarity of water flowing down the river from melting snowpack. With the bonus effect of no wind allowing me to hear delicate sounds of water flowing over the small rapids just 20 yards away.
Sitting along the river eating lunch a group of ducks landed in a pooling area of the river. I picked up my Nikon D6 / Nikkor 600mm lens. As the Golden Eye ducks approached I was lucky to be able to capture this male taking off.
Driving back from a long day of hiking, I assessed my options of taking advantage of the clear skies to photograph the Milky Way early the next day. I decided to go to a place that would be an hour's drive from my hotel.
Once back, I quickly ate dinner and made sure all my equipment was packed. I would be using my Nikon D850 with a Nikkor 20mm f/1.8 lens for this photograph. I went to bed by 8:00 pm as I had planned to get up a 2:00 am.
By 2:30 am I was up and in the vehicle, it took me 1 hour, and 20 min's to get to the position I had selected. The reason it took much longer than I thought it would was due to all the Elk and Deer grazing along the road. Twice I came within inches of hitting an Elk (lucky I had slowed down in anticipation this would happen), making a last-minute decision to jump in front of me. That was one stressful drive!
When I finally made it there, and jumped out of my vehicle. Once the cabin lights turned off, looking overhead, I became overwhelmed by the clarity of seeing trillions of stars and the Milkyway.
I quickly set up the tripod and my Nikon D850. My objective was to practice photographing the Milky Way as I live in an area of so much light pollution it would take me an 8-10 hour drive north to have a chance like this. What made this experience so fulfilling was being in a remote location with no wind, temp of 12˚, and complete quietness. I was in complete awe as I was trying to absorb all of this. Then just as twilight was beginning, I heard a pack of wolves howling in the distance. As I took it all in, I kept thinking about how I would love to start every morning out this way. :)
My biggest lesson learned was I should have scoped this out much better the day before marking the location of the tripod and the positing angles of the camera. By doing this it takes out of the equation all the challenges of setup in the dark. Even though this is not framed perfectly I am happy with the results.
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 20mm f/1.8 lens. ISO 3200 at 15 seconds. Temp= 4750k
The following two days, winter had reappeared, bringing much colder temps with off and on snow. I ventured off to two different areas exploring but was surprised not to see any actual wildlife activities. My observation was that each morning driving out, the Elk and Deer were grazing along the roads where there was little to no snow. Meaning snow depths at the higher elevations had pushed most of the wildlife down into the valley base. The good thing I did was not to let these two days go to waste. It allowed me to clear my head of all the noise from my job and life and reflect on my future goals.
South of Big Sky Montana
After four days near Big Timber, MT, I made my way over to a location where I would be spending the last seven days of my trip south of Big Sky, MT.
The first thing I did before reaching my designation for the week was to scope out several areas to get an idea of what type of snow conditions I would be experiencing. Checking for any tracks and other signs of wildlife activities and picked two different positions for photographing the Milky Way if conditions were acceptable.
Here is a picture of one of the dirt roads I would use to get to a trailhead.
Here one of the dirt roads I took reaching further back into the remote area enjoyed hiking in. Lucky I had the Toyota FourRunner otherwise there were several sections of thick muddy ruts I would not have made it through.
Stopping at one of the trailheads I would be hiking out of. I wanted to scope out to see what type of wildlife activities there were.
I was up at 2:30 am local time and out the door by 3:00 am for a 27-mile drive. What I did not count on was a light dusting of snow had fallen once I made it over the pass. The roads were very icy. Once I arrived at the spot I had picked out the day before; I could see some clouds but not too bad. Light winds were making the 5˚ temp feel much colder.
For over an hour, I took as many photographs as I could. With the clouds moving quickly over the mountains, I wanted to make sure I would have an exemplary sequence of pictures to work with in post-processing.
After returning from this adventure, I was delighted with how the effort to photograph the Milkyway that early morning turned out.
What I found very interesting was that vertical light eliminating from the lower center of the photograph. My only conclusion, the light was coming from a cabin about 4 miles away tucked back in a small valley. Not all the photo’s had this in it though which still makes me scratch my head. Overall it is a great experience!
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 20mm f/1.8 lens. ISO 3200 at 15 seconds. Temp= 4750k
As nautical twilight started to appear, I backed up my equipment back into the 4Runner and had some breakfast. Then I headed down the road for about 5 miles to where I would go hiking for the day.
After viewing the Milky Way I headed to where I was going to go out hiking. As you can see in this picture the roads were snow covered and very icy. They do not use salt here. They let the sun melt the snow and ice off the roads.
My first day of hiking off-trail in this area would require me to remember my situation awareness key point from my first day. You may ask why this is a crucial survival point to remember.
This time of year, snow depths will vary significantly for many reasons.
Areas where I would be hiking, would have snow depths that could reach up to 45" +.
Temperatures overnight will drop well below freezing, re-Harding the soft snow from the day before radiating sunshine heat.
Thus, when starting my hike with temps in the single digits, the hardened snowpack would not require me to start the day out using my snowshoes, even with my 35lbs backpack. I had to make sure I packed my snowshoes for later in the day as the snowpack would soften up. Otherwise, if I had not packed my snowshoes, I would most likely not be able to hike back out and would have to spend the night out there.
Starting my hike with a few inches of fresh snow @ 5˚
Here I am walking out on top of the snow 30”+ without any issues of breaking through. It was a beautiful morning!
Just after I took this picture around 11:00 am I was packing up my gear when I took a step and broke through. It took me 3 hours to hike up to this point. If I had not brought my snowshoes it would have made it physically impossible to make back to the trailhead before nightfall!
Here is an example where I broke through hardened snowpack. When you see the sagebrush sticking out of the snow you would not think it is too deep but I was up past my knees at this point. Think about how hard it would be to hike back with every step breaking through the crust!
The following day, while not far into my hike, I came across these two bull moose. The hilarious aspect of coming across both of them was by accident. I went to do my morning business in the willows when I noticed both bedded down not more than 25 yards from me. They both were looking at me like, what the heck are you doing over there. :)
Once finished, I positioned myself much further away as not to disturb them and to be able to frame them nicely in my 600mm lens. What even made this incredible experience even better was the moderate snow falling.
The challenge I had was to get both of them in focus. I had to rely on my Nikon D6 / Nikkor 600mm VR lens great technology to allow me to set my settings at f16 with a shutter speed of 1/160 of a second. I was using a monopod for this photo. By the way, I only use a monopod for all my wildlife photography I only use a monopod.
The following day I stop by to see if they were still around and they were both feeding. This would be the last time I would see them.
My last day of hiking took me into the same area I had been in the previous three days. During my drive-out, the weather report stated that there would be high wind advisories with heavy snow squalls by mid-day in the higher elevations. Knowing this, I made sure I pack an extra layer of clothing to change into just in case.
There had been a light dusting of snow overnight that had me all excited as I would be able to see if any wildlife was moving with fresh tracks. With a heavy cloud cover, very little wind, and the temp around 12 degrees made the start of my hike very enjoyable. About halfway out, I heard a single wolf howl not too far from me up in the trees where I had been the day before. I decided to head up into the trees where I found two separate sets of tracks. I decided to follow them till the terrain became difficult to navigate. Truth to be known, my situational awareness internal compass was giving me the “Danger Will Robinson” message.
I came across many Wolf tracks but this one I decided to follow to see where it went as it was very fresh. It took me into a very steep and difficult terrain where I decided to turn around. My GoPro was on as I wanted to document this segment as I did with many other key moments. Looking back at the video I realized how difficult the terrain was to navigate following these tracks. It was another amazing experience.
I then proceeded to go to a spot where I could sit, giving me an excellent 270˚ observation perspective of the surrounding area. But before I did, I had to take two different pictures of myself, offering different perspectives of the terrain I was navigating.
This picture of myself is looking SE at the end of this small valley to the to of the mountain ridge.
This picture of myself is looking SSW at the other valley running south to north where I had started my hike with another mountain range in the background.
I proceeded over to the spot I had picked to nestle in and watch for any wildlife navigating the mountainside. When I took this picture, the clouds were breaking up as I welcomed the warmth of the sun. The mistake I made was I decided to take a short nap.
Taking a picture of myself just before I took the short nap.
After about 30 minutes of pure quietness, I woke to strong 40+ gusts of winds going through the pine tree right behind me. Lucky I had brought those extra layers as the temperature was dropping quickly. As I finished adding the additional layers, I noticed fox tracks just below me which were not there before.
You can see the fox tracks moving from the left to the right.
I then started looking around when I noticed this beautiful fox over to my right. Lucky I had my camera in my hands, ready to go, and was able to have a picture proving this happened.
After I woke up from my nap I noticed this Fox just above where I was. Too bad I was taking a nap their tracks had come down very close to me zig zagging back and forth looking for food. This is the only Fox I saw the whole trip. ;(
As much as I tell myself, “expect the unexpected”, I decided to take a nap, dreaming of waking up to a wolf or grizzly cold nose in my face. Why the fox had not come up and stuck their cold nose in my face to wake me up, I will never know! Just another reminder to always be present and prepared for the unexpected.
Just after taking this picture, snowflakes were starting to fall with strong damp winds coming out of the NE. Visibility was becoming very low, so I decided to head back.
In this picture you can see the big snowflakes falling as I made my way back to the trailhead.
Back at the trailhead the snow was not falling as heavy from where I took the picture above. By the way, my Toyota 4-Runner rental took over 2 hours at an outdoor car wash to clean off all the mud that was caked up underneath.
The following day I would be packing up and heading back to Bozeman, MT. While having dinner, I check the weather forecast for 3 am where it stated partly cloudy skies with strong winds. Not to waste an opportunity, I decided to go out and hope for the best and maybe have a good chance of photographing the Milky Way.
I was not disappointed!
The challenge I had was to frame this correctly. When I arrived at the spot I wanted to set up, there were too many clouds. I decided to go to a different location about 5 miles further north, where there were not as many clouds. Making things more challenging was the strong NE winds with the temps in the upper single digits.
Once back home, I was thrilled with the outcome of the photo. It is always challenging to capture the entire experience while photographing this moment in time. But, when you look at this photo and see all the stars with the core of the Milky Way, it takes me right back to that moment. What is missing is a panoramic view. The number of stars looking 360˚ around at 45˚ above the ground plane was indescribable.
Living in a high-lighted pollution area, you are missing so much. There is no way for many people to connect with the earth and our enormous universe. I am always very grateful as a kid and an older adult, having a presence and higher consciousness of this environment and the tremendous experience it offers!
What an experience I had on this early morning!
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 20mm f/1.8 lens. ISO 3200 at 15 seconds. Temp= 4750k
Once twilight started to appear, I packed up my equipment and went back to where I was staying. I took a short nap, finish packing, and took my time heading back to Bozeman, where I had a 6:00 am flight out the following day.
Overall, this trip fulfilled my need to reconnect with nature, giving me a tremendous opportunity to recharge my internal batteries and feel alive again.
Tom