Deadman's Point

On the 21st Erik and I took a hike to Deadman's Point in the Blue Mountain Recreational Area. It's only about 20 minutes from our house. It's great to have so many wonderful places to explore and hike in.

This hike was about 5 1/2 miles in length with about 600 foot elevation gain. Deadman's point itself is a part rocky part grassy knoll on the south edge of the Rec. area. It's at about 4,000 ft and has 360-degree panoramic views of the Missoula Valley, Bitterroot River and the Sapphire and Bitterroot Mountains. The guide book didn't explain why it was called Deadman's point, but we didn't see any skeletons along the way.

We did see alot of pretty flowers starting to open up. I don'd know all the names of the flowers but I did know a couple. Here is the Arrowleaf Balsamroot:

Here are a couple Shooting Stars:

And some that we don't know the name of: Once we got to the Point (about 1 hour hike) We ate lunch and enjoyed these views:

This is a pitcure of Missoula. You can see on the far hills there are two with white spots. The one on the right is the "M" that we hiked to our first weekend here (and a couple times since). And last but not least your smiling hikers!

More To Come........

Tonya's Week in MN

Here is the promised post....finally!

From 4/5-4/14 I (Tonya) was in MN visiting family and friends. You may wonder why I went back so soon? Well, while I have missed everyone the main reason I went back was because my Dad turned 60 on 4/9. My sister, Tara, and her husband, Ryan also came back to MN from Texas where they live. So we had a long weekend of family fun. I was able to see the Passion Play for the first time with Mom and Dad on Good Friday. Saturday and Easter Sunday we did lots of family stuff, like celebrate my sister's birthday, eat, go bowling, eat and well, eat! ;-) Here's a couple pictures from bowling. The ladies:

And the dudes:

We had a good time together that weekend as a family.

I was also able to see some friends during the week but not everyone that I wanted to! Hopefully when we come back at Christmas we'll be able to see many of you! Or maybe some of you will visit us here! We're finding lots of great places to take you when you come! Check out the next posts for some pictures.

Quick Update

Well, I havn't added a post for quite a while and this one's going to be short. I (Tonya) was back in MN from 4/5-4/14 to visit the family. My Dad turned 60 so my sister and brother in law came back into town. We had a great weekend together and following week. Erik managed to survive in Missoula without me around to pester him. ;-) Here's one fun picture of me and my Dad at the Twins game on his birthday. (the twins got beat by the yankees. boo)
In an upcoming post I'll tell more about the trip home.
Since I've been home there has not been much going on. We've had cool and wet weather which means snow in the mountains, up to a foot in some areas! I've done the mundane things such as laundry and cleaning but I'm also on the job hunt and just sent my application in for my Montana Nursing Liscence. Your prayers would be appreciated as I look for a new job. Today I rode my bike into downtown to run some errands. It was fabulous!! While I was downtonw it started sprinkling and then turned to some light snow showers! Ugh, is this April or February!! So I waited it out in the library and then rode home in the sunshine.


We'd love to hear from you by email or phone!

Hiking spots

We've found a few hiking spots very close to our duplex. So last Thursday we went to check out one place that followed a ridgeline just across the little valley by our house. We hiked along the trail all the way to the top of Mount Jumbo. I'm not sure the elevation because I can't find the map that tells me that info. Here's a few pictures from that hike:

Start of the hike:

Looking out over the views:

Our little Rattlesnake Canyon:

At the top:

Watching the sunset in the parking lot:

It's a great hike and hopefully some of you will be able to visit us and try it with us!

Then yesterday, Sunday, we went for a hike with some new friends from Erik's work. They just moved here last July from Hudson, WI. We hiked in the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area which is only a 5 minutes drive from our place. They have great trails there for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and x-country skiing. We started out trying to find a cashe that was marked by GPS coordinates. We could see that it was across the creek but didn't see a good spot to cross until later. Maybe we will try again some other time. It was a good day for hiking. We all had a great time.

Here's a shot from the trail:

That's Selma, Tom, Elliot, Evan, Jennifer and Erik (I'm behind the camera).

It was a good day! That's all for now.

Until the next installment.........