hopeful

We got our first big snow of the year on November 1st. It was crazy - on the evening of the 31st we were all over the neighborhood trick-or-treating, it was fairly mild, and the streets were dry. Twelve hours later it was coming down fast and furious. Now, as I've mentioned previously, I don't mind winter temperatures but I am not a fan of winter driving in flat places let alone in the mountains. That said, I went out anyway that morning and slip-slided all the way to the gym. Coming back an hour later was even harder. I made it almost all the way home before I ran into trouble. After turning onto Beattie, which runs uphill at a pretty steep incline, all forward progression stopped. I was stuck.stuck.stuck. I spent about twenty minutes backing up and attempting to move forward, but my wheels just spun and spun. Finally, tearfully, I was able to pull over to the side of the road and hiked the last five blocks to the house. I hated Montana right then. I felt so enormously incompetent, I was embarrassed, and I thought I was going to spend the next six months sitting at home because I couldn't drive in the snow.


(Quick aside: my regular tires were totally shot before I left Illinois. I knew this. I went in for an oil change in mid-August and they told me they were totally shot. But I was losing my ever-loving mind at the time trying to get the house packed and I just didn't have time to deal with it. I fully intended to get new tires with new tread upon arrival in Montana. But I didn't.)

Several hours later, my father-in-law and I drove down to my van to see if he could get it up the hill. Is it terrible that I was elated when he couldn't? He's the best driver I know - the guy flew helicopters, for goodness sake - so if HE couldn't get my van up Beattie then maybe I'm NOT a Montana failure after all. I was so happy!

It took a shovel, a spade, and a bucket of gravel to get the van out. We drove it directly to the tire shop where my beloved minivan, Alexvander Hamilton, was fitted with studded snow tires.

(Quick aside: I had no idea what studded snow tires were. I didn't even know they existed. Sean thought this was crazy, but it turns out that studded snow tires are illegal in Illinois and that's the only place I've ever done any winter driving. So it's perfectly logical that I didn't know what they were.)

Shortly after this debacle I learned that you can also get studded thingamajigs that you can put on your BOOTS so that you can HIKE in the SNOW! What a miraculous invention! As we near the end of November, I am a newly liberated winter woman. My van and my feet have studs and I can go anywhere. Bring it on, winter!

I'm a sucker for a Christmas tree, or really for all things Christmas (thanks, Mom), so I was perhaps disproportionately excited when I heard that the live evergreen tree destined for the U.S. Capitol was planning a whistle stop in Helena.  The seventy foot tree started in the Kootenai National Forest in western Montana and is making the 3000+ mile journey to Washington, D.C. strapped on the back of a ginormous semi truck.



Since 1970, a different national forest has been selected each year to provide the U.S. Capitol Tree, or "People's Tree."  The tree hasn't come from Montana since 2008. In honor of the event, the Helena Area Chamber of Commerce along with several local businesses and organizations planned a two hour celebration in front of the Montana State Capital. There were cookies, hot cocoa, and carolers from the high school, and both the governor and the mayor spoke. Visitors were invited to sign their names on the tarp covering the tree, and people across the country will continue to add their names as the truck pushes on.


So it was a pretty cool event. You know what made it even cooler? My kids' elementary school, which is located about four blocks from the capital, planned to have the ENTIRE SCHOOL walk over to see the tree in a giant single file line. Even better, every kid came with a can of food in hand to donate to Helena Food Share. Even better, Helena Food Share didn't know they were planning this, so they were blown away by the 300+ canned goods brought by 300+ smiling kiddos in brightly colored winter wear. It.was.awesome.






That was a pretty great kickoff to the holiday season. You can read more about the U.S. Capital Tree here and even tracks its progress as it continues to push eastward.

Happy early holidays, all!

(I started this post a few weeks ago, and it feels strange to pick it up now; the mountains and hikes described herein are now covered in snow. But that's a story for another post. For today, let me tell you about the mountains of Helena, Montana.)

Helena, Montana lies just east of the Continental Divide, tucked in a valley with mountains on all sides. Just as in Chicago you can always figure out where you are by knowing the number system for the streets (thanks, Dad), here you can always get your bearings by the mountains. The city of Helena is nestled pretty closely to mountains in the west and the south; Mt. Helena is easily identifiable in the west, Mt. Ascension to the south. There's a great big valley before you get to the mountains in the north, but those are easy to find because of the Sleeping Giant, a range of mountains that look like a huge giant snoozing. The mountains to the east are similarly a ways off.

This is a photo of our neighborhood taken from the top of Mt. Helena:


Mt. Ascension is off to the right in this photo, and those are the Elkhorn Mountains in the distance.

It looks nothing like east central Illinois.

One of the privileges of my temporary life of leisure (AKA unemployment) is that I have time to hike in these hills. I also have extensive amounts of time to drink coffee. So that's pretty much what I do - hike and drink coffee. My partner in crime on these ventures is most often my dear, dear friend Malena (along with Charlie the Amazing Goldendoodle), though sometimes I go on my own. Sometimes I hike fast, sometimes I hike slow, sometimes I bring my camera, sometimes I don't. It's pretty great that within a few minutes of leaving the house I can be at a trailhead and on my way to the top of a mountain.

Malena and I hiked to the top of Mt. Helena a few weeks back. It's a great spot to see all of Helena spread out below:

From the west side looking east. You can see the cathedral in the middle.

Looking west.

Charlie the Amazing Goldendoodle

The Sleeping Giant (Mt. Helena view)

A few days after that I hiked to the top of Mt. Ascension by myself. These photos were taken on my phone so they aren't as sharp, but you get the idea:

Mt. Ascension from the trailhead

Trees

Helena from above

Snow in the distance

Mountaintop Hope

The Sleeping Giant (Mt. Ascension view)

 A tale of two summits. Hope you enjoyed.