the hike up to thompson-seton was not as challenging as I expected. There was a bunch of snow on the way and the ice ax was a handy tool to bring along. Plenty of trees down also, there were about a dozen from the trail head to Inuya pass and another dozen or so to the notch, beyond I couldn’t tell because the snow was seriously deep. Having said that, it was easy to follow the trail so far even given plenty of old snow drifts on the way, which were up to three feet deep. The creeks were also a challenge to cross on dry feet, in a fun way, though. From the notch on there was no way to follow the trail, solid snow cover for most of the way and I just worked my way to the summit via the ridges, a combination of scree scrambling, walking on cornices and traverses… another rocky mountain high!
Category: News
Red Meadow Lake
First time I got to the red meadow lakes this year, still had to hike the last mile or so over snow to get there, beautiful bike ride as always. This was the most tour divide riders I’ve ever ran into on this ride, first two Swiss guys, here seen crossing the last snow just before the lakes, another group of four heading up and after I got back to Polebridge a couple, Richard and Leah, who ended up camping at the hostel…
Brown Pass II
it was good to get back to brown pass and into hole in the wall. Another rocky mountain high! The photo of brown pass was taken from the Hole in the Wall trail, then we look at the plug that still blocks the Hole in the Wall trail and Hole in the Wall campground itself from the trail junction.
Here are some more impressions from the trip back down. 
polebridge parade
Big Thanks to REGI for these great photos:
Brown Pass
here we are at brown pass looking at some avalanche debris that came
of chapman. Then a view from brown towards the waterton valley and cleveland in the back, more debris from the some avalanche. Then i have a few shots on the way up, here
a picture of me and Rita Wirtz, the north fork back country ranger, on the scree bar after we crossed the first snowbirdge. Waterfall
on the climb up, everything is certainly running big and high now! And finally
a look at the waterfall coming out of hole in the wall; we both were wearing big smiles on our faces,
what a glorious day!
rocky mountain high
This is the outhouse on top of Numa Lookout, you get the idea on the amount of snow still up there, no doubt it is still winter up here. 
north fork flora
here are some flowers and a shroom seen on the way up to Numa Lookout.
the first was is a fairy slipper, an orchid, the comes a western clematis
and a morel looking mushroom: 
high waters receding at hostel
the river waters peeked Wednesday afternoon and have been receding since… so far the temperatures are cool enough to slow things down enough to have a high but not unusually so runoff and keep the river in check… also it’s not quite over yet and still plenty of snow in the high country we will see what happens between now and the fourth of July!
high country news
here are some photos from an outing into the high country…
… maybe some of you know exactly where this is…
¡Stop the Megaloads Now!
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoKW771tG_Q’]
hay – spruce – red meadow loop
the spruce creek cut over from hay creek road to red meadow road is finally snow free and dry enough for a good ride. there is still plenty of snow past the red meadow gate and it might be a while.. latest rumor I heard was that the great divide race might be rerouted around the flathead this year…