It is a joy as a father to help my children experience the mountains. To see the absolute joy on their face as they see new country is something I’ll always cherish. My children have long been exposed to Montana’s mountain country. This past week has been full of new areas explored and experienced. My daughter Angela and I were on several horseback rides. We were up on Teakettle Mtn, up McGinnis creek, and up Big Creek.There are magnificent views from the top of Teakettle Mtn. We rode up here one evening amidst very ominous clouds. We didn’t take any raingear along and just as we started down it began to pour. Lesson learned!

Another trip was to explore a new area up McGinnis creek. All the country up the North Fork of the Flathead is magnanimous. Huge valleys with beautiful views. The many old logging roads in this area have been closed and abandoned for vehicle travel so they are excellent areas to explore on horseback.

Cody was able to fly in from Minneapolis for a quick 3 days.  He got off the plane and stepped into the saddle. We took a overnight trip up to Badger cabin – a forest service facility up the south fork of two medicine.

Twelve hours earlier Cody was home in Minneapolis. Now he was catching cutthroat in the backcountry. We stopped at a hunting camp just short of Badger cabin to spend the night.

The next day we rode up big river trail to the Long creek trail crossing to fish the middle fork of the flathead. Fishing the river is always fun and I enjoy riding into the back country on this trail.

Gotta love Montana’s wilderness!!