Back in the 70’s my father and I used to ride trail cycles over white rock pass and drop into Badger Cabin. I haven’t been all the way back into that area since then. This is a popular stop for CDT hikers that often camp on the cabin porch even though the area is off limits to public use. Tanner, Freckles and I rode in on the South Fork of Two Medicine trail planning to do some volunteer trail clearing and maybe make it back to all the way to Badger. We got a very late start around 2:30 and were fortunate that we met another party that had cleared the trail about 1/2 way. As it was, I exhausted both batteries for my electric chain saw and finished cutting just the impassable deadfall with my silky hand saw. We didn’t arrive at Badger till well after 9 and were treated to a beautiful moonlight evening.

The evening ride coming into the area was gorgeous also.

The early morning sunrise didn’t disappoint either

This was just a quick overnight trip to see the area again and so we headed out in the morning. We weren’t 1/2 mile up the trail when I spotted a huge grizzly on the open side hill. We made our presence known and the bear elected to scamper up the hill rather than challenge us. Huge sigh of relief as we did not wish to reverse our route or have a serious encounter with this big boy.

As there were no Forest Service personal in the area we took liberty and camped inside the fenced area. Payback for trail clearing?

The enormous amount of snow we received last winter really took a toll on the backcountry trails. I’ve received reports of many trails that are impassable do to downfall and excessive snow in the higher elevations.

I took Tanner up the Morrison creek trail to do some volunteer trail clearing. We didn’t make it 1/2 mile up the trail and ran into 2′ of snow. Rather than fight the snow we elected to back out and ride in on the granite creek trail, which is couple miles back down the road. Granite trail runs at a lower elevation so didn’t run into any snow, but wow did we run into downfall to cut.

This area is wilderness so chain saws are prohibited. I probably cut 40+ trees in the next 2 days. Most of them to large to move so they had to be double cut to remove the section on trail.

If you’ve ever been out on the trail, come around a corner to a scene of large downfall that someone has already cut through, then you know the value of volunteers and forest service trail crews. It is important to contribute back when you can.

There is some beautiful country located along the Lewis and Clark National Forest. 

Connie and I took a ride into the south fork of Two Medicine. This is a beautiful area and usually a fairly easy early season ride. You do ride along the creek bottom, so there are multiple crossings. 

This can be a very hot ride, but we were fortunate with a cool day with a nice breeze.

This is an area known for having quite a few grizzly bears. We didn’t see any, nor did we see any fresh tracks or scat. We did get to see a cow moose with her young calf feeding along the river. We made our presence known and let them move out of the area before preceding. We also saw a cow elk and lots of elk sign.

We were just out for a leisure ride and trail recon. At this time no trail work had been done, so we encountered 40+ down trees. We were able to ride around the obstructions, but did finally hit an area with substantial blowdown and had to give up at about 4.5 miles in. This area is not wilderness so chain saws are permitted and it won’t take long to cut these trees out.  There is a lot of snow in the higher elevations of the back country as you can see in these pictures. It’s going to be awhile before you are going to be able to access the passes.

We came back and had lunch by the creek before riding out

The views riding out are even more magnificent than those riding in.

With springs work winding down in ND, Connie and I were able to head back to our place on the mtn. It is absolutely beautiful here at Apgar View Ranch. The horses are knee deep in grass and loving it.

Cool spring mornings up on the mountain are fabulous. Nothing better than coffee on the deck in the morning sunshine

There are a few remnants of snow banks still here. The tremendous amount of snow received last winter did do some damage. Trees broken off that fell over the fence, and just the excessive weight of the snow snapped many of the nails that hold the fence rails on. Quite a few posts will also have to be re-set.  Hopefully we won’t have that kind of a snow winter again for a long time.

Callie – our German Shepard pup had a little accident while moving horses into the pasture one morning. She has a bad habit of grabbing the horses tails. We’ve scolded repeatedly but she still sneaks in once in a while. Tanner decided he’d had enough and gave her a little kick. Nothing vicious but with steel shoes on it was enough to dislocate her nose. Lots of swelling, bleeding and a crooked nose, but  the vet says everything should heal up fine. She was lucky. Hopefully learned her lesson.

Lots of snow yet in the backcountry. Next week we’ll start some lower elevation rides, but it will be quite a while before any passes are open or the rivers drop to levels that can safely crossed.