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Low key day, today. About 8 miles of walking, but only 4 of it was hiking. I found a Yucca in the valley that I want to keep an eye on- I’ve never seen one bloom. Probably sometime in late June or early July is my guess. I also found the Larkspur shown above. At…

May has come to a close. It’s been an amazing Wildflower Month. The Lab and I have walked on Mt Helena (or the other South Hills trails) a minimum of three times every day since May 1- literally morning’ noon, and night, well evening. After six months of snow on the ground and the winter…

May has been amazing. Particularly from a wildflower perspective. I have ID’ed over 100 species of flowering plants in the last 30 days. I have also hiked on Mt Helena every day so far this month. My hiking total (as of May 30) is 147.5 miles. I am likely to go over 150 miles tomorrow…

Today was epic. Well over 50 flowers ID’d; over 9 miles of walking, with about 6.5 hiking; two new birds, a Snowshoe Hare, a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell, and litterally dozens of fields and hillsides covered in flowers. Plus, the Lab found a couple of big snow drifts and went slighty berserk rolling and snorting and sliding.…

In addition to Mother’s Day, today was a good friend’s birthday. A dozen folks joined us on a wildflower walk across the lower east side of Mt. Helena. we ended the walk with a fantastic Huckleberry cake. I feel like this needs to be an annual event. Finding Wart-berry Fairybells on the sunny side of…

Today was a day of change. I saw rivers today that were so differnt than they were two weeks ago. The Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin are rising. The point where the Missouri River begins was churning and chopping. And I had it all to myself- well, with the Labrador. No one else was there to…

At 7:10 this morning I stepped out of the car with the Lab and was amazed at the sheer number of birds singing. The Lab and I went to the Scratchgravels for a nice gentle meander walk about. I was hoping to get another picture of the Nuttall’s Violet, and I wanted to see how…

Obi and I went to the Helena Ridgeline after dinner this evening. I didn’t really think that was what was going to happen, but…. We started up the Mini-ridge trail to see if any of the species that we saw on Sunday starting to show signs of life had progressed. The trail was pretty sparse…

The wildflowers are really starting to pop in the greater Helena area. Today I found and photographed five new species of flowering plant. I didn’t find any new species of birds, but I suspect that that will begin changing quickly. One of the new species that I found today was Lyall‘s Rockcress. My good friend…

Today was a good day. I feel like I spent the entire day refilling my bucket instead of draining it. It’s 12 hours on the dot since we left the driveway and I am still working through all the amazing experiences and sightings we had today. I needed to make a trip that would typically…