Upstream

 Our progress up the south side of Pintlers was measured by numerous species accounts of flora and fauna as we followed tributaries of the Big Hole River upstream. The absence of icterids, such as yellow headed blackbirds, marked our transition from the agricultural fields of the Big Hole Valley into the foothills and lower lake basins of the Wilderness. A pair of sandhill cranes with their Jurassic trumpeting bade farewell as we entered into the montane zone where whortleberries were nearly as abundant as the swarms of mosquitos. The subalpine forest welcomed us with healthy stands of Pinus albicalus and their cohorts; clarks nutcrackers. As we crested the divide, forests of turned to burned skeletons of five needle pines that provided cavities for black backed and three toed woodpeckers. 

Photo by Evan H

The evening thunderstorm sounded like rainstick as it broke the water tension of undisturbed Hidden Lake while a soft mist rose from the recently charred trees. It may have been steam from the slowly dying embers of the fire or just lingering heat of the day's hot sun. 

The blooming beargrass was the only redeeming vegetation in an otherwise barren landscape and the sunset created a glow reminiscent of the previous season's forest fire.

The rain rinsed off thoughts of civilization leaving us surrounded only by simple and tangible elements of the natural world where we could attempt to understand a wild but simpler place for the next five days. In the end we followed that same rain from the headwaters of the east fork of the Bitterroot River downstream to its confluence with the Clark Fork in Missoula. I can't wait to get back upstream.