St Mary's Peak

Looking out toward the west from the B&B we have a prominent view of St. Mary's peak, which sits at about 9,300 feet. We had visitors at the B&B from Finland and they hiked to the top one afternoon and shared the experience at breakfast. I realized that I had never been up there and was inspired to do it. My wife Shelley and I made the hike with good friends Mike and Janet and our dog Tara. Here are a few photos from the top.

Willows

We have started planting more willows along the river bank in our continued effort to stabilize it and prevent further erosion from high water in the spring. With the help of our neighbors and their visiting family and friends we planted about 100 willows in a couple of hours yesterday. Most were planted near the water, but I planted a few up on the bank. These will have to be watered regularly.

A few of the willows we planted last summer survived the flooding this spring and we hope that we will have even better success this year. As always, predicting what the river is going to do is a gamble. We will plant another 2oo in the weeks to come.

Gonefishin

The Bitterroot is fishing great, with good clarity and still plenty of water in the river. I have been able to get out a few times to float and wade fish out in front of our B&B. The fish are really feeding on the surface, especially just after the sun goes down behind St. Mary peak. The river has changed a bunch, but I am starting to find the new fish hiding places. This is a photo of some of our long time guests and friends that recently spent a few weeks with us fishing and relaxing.

Annual Stevi "Pignick"

We attended the Stevensville "Pignick" today. Each year the Stevensville Fire Fighters Association cooks up a bunch of roast pork and much of the town shows up at Lewis and Clark Park with side dishes and desserts. There was old-timey live music and a great time eating and visiting with good friends and neighbors.

Happy Father's Day

The weather is beautiful this weekend. We spent much of the day outside yesterday attending the grand opening of the new River Otter Fly Shop, in Florence, about 10 miles north of here. The day included good food, good beer, fly tying demos, rod and reel demos, drift boat displays, live music and lots of good conversation in the hot sun.

Snow

Our cool spring continues and this morning, we woke to a mix of rain and snow! The picture shows the snow line a thousand feet or so above the valley floor. We are expected to get more snow in the valleys tonight with a heavy snow warning from the weather service.

Summer's almost here

We didn't loose much ground to the river, but looking downstream you can see the pieces of sod and topsoil that have fallen in the river.











Here is a closeup of the sod chunks. As the river continues to fall, it will be interesting to see if any of the willows we planted last year are still hanging on.