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...

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...

(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...