For Thanksgiving this year, we drove down to Las Vegas to see my brother. Frankly, I can't stand the town. I don't enjoy gambling and I loathe frat party culture. I regard The Hangover films as quasi-journalistic in that they unapologetically fetishize the (white male) juvenilia around which the city's economy really does revolve. As a New Yorker … Continue reading Charleston Peak Loop
On a lonely mountainside, overlooking a particularly beautiful stretch of the Missouri River, lie a dozen concrete crosses.1 Fractured, sun-bleached, and barely visible through the dry grass, each of the tiny monuments is emblazoned with the name of a smokejumper who died here in the devastating Mann Gulch fire of 1949. Even by Montana standards, Mann Gulch is a harsh and remote … Continue reading Mann Gulch
June in Montana is still too early for hiking without snow-shoes above a certain elevation, so we settled on a popular Bozeman-area hike for our Saturday family excursion. Like many of the short trails around Bozeman, this four-mile out-and-back through Sypes Canyon is (unfortunately) a dual purpose trail. Mountain bikers abound—none of whom seem aware of … Continue reading Sypes Canyon
We're in Portugal for a few weeks visiting family and I thought it might be fun to look into hiking here. Like much of Southern Europe, the concept of recreational walking is thought to be more than a little odd. Walking for fun? This mentality is slowly changing however and the country now boasts at … Continue reading Convento dos Capuchos to Monserrate
My mother was in Montana recently to see her granddaughter (now 15 months!) and as she orients her travel plans around the timeshares she owns, she booked a stay at Whitefish Mountain Resort—just days before they officially opened for the summer season. The place was deserted, but we made the best of it and tried to determine which … Continue reading Stanton Lake
Crow Creek Falls is variously known as the "jewel of Helena National Forest" and the "Crown Jewel of the Elkhorn Mountains." I'm not sure the hyperbole is entirely deserved, but local thrill-seekers have enjoyed visiting the waterfall since at least 1895, when a local newspaper described the hike as a mere "one day's ramble." These days—thanks to a well maintained … Continue reading Crow Creek Falls
The Trask Lakes lie in the Flint Creek Range just west of Deer Lodge but unless you have a high clearance vehicle, getting there is a bit stressful. The last 12 miles or so traverses dirt roads ranging the spectrum of quality from moderate stretches of cow shit-scattered gravel to what might be described as bisections of … Continue reading The Trask Lakes
After a couple of months abroad, it's good to be back in Montana during the glorious month of August. For my 32nd birthday, we headed to the tiny (ghost) town of Pony, a gateway to the Tobacco Root Mountains with convenient access to a large swath of the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest. Named for an early prospector of … Continue reading Hollowtop Lake
The Madison River is probably best known for its fishing. The trout draw fly-anglers from around the world and Bear Trap Canyon—a unit of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness administered by the Bureau of Land Management—is a particularly popular strech. While driving to the trailhead, I passed dozens upon dozens of families and fishermen camping along Bear Trap Road … Continue reading Bear Trap Canyon
This is another wonderful day hike within a reasonable driving distance from Butte (26 miles south of the city, to be precise) and it's a trail nearly everyone in town seems to have hiked at some point. The Humbug Spires Primitive Area is an 11,175-acre wilderness area run by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)—also known as the … Continue reading Humbug Spires