Montana Snowboard Road Trip / Backcountry Hike up Hyalite Canyon / Bridger Bowl Ski Area

On da road, drive till 1:00am, duck into a rest stop along highway. Turn on the furnace in da Four Wheel Camper, nice and cozy inside 65 degrees, outside at 6 degrees. Fold out the couch and there is no need to pop up the top on camper. Plenty of room. 

350 miles first night of driving, 650 miles next day. 1000 miles to Bozeman, Montana. Arrived after 650 mile day in Bozeman at 4:30pm. Plenty of time to wander around Bozeman & pick up supper for back at hotel. 

At Bridger Bowl, 16 miles up the road from Bozeman. There is no lodging at Bridger, so there is a daily pilgrimage up the mountain road each day. That part of the beauty of Bridger, people aren’t just hanging out, they are there to snowboard or ski.

It cool that I can just pop up my FWC in the lot and have a place to get dressed or organize for the day on da mountain.

Sundown after a good day on the snowboard.

I saw many Four Wheel Campers in Montana, I actually bought my FWC in Bozeman in 2020. My FWC and F350 Ford next to a FWC mounted in a Ford Ranger.

Beautiful waterfalls we reached on a hike up into Hyalite Canyon. I was able to witness some ice climbers along hike. This is some true backcountry surrounding the Hyalite Canyon area.

Classic Ford 4x4. 

Livin’

A bit more snowboarding at Bridger Bowl. A great trip with good variety and meeting many likeminded adventurers. I learn things on every adventure.

1008 miles back to Minnesota. Exited Bozeman at 7:00pm, drove till 1:30am. Same plan as on trip out. Stopped for the night at a highway rest stop. Got a solid 5 1/2 hour sleep and finished road trip next day.

Ride on!

 

Images from my Minnesota 7 Day Remote Winter Camping Trip / Four Wheel Camper / Part 2

Met da local loggers this morning… ha! 

That’s why the road is plowed out so good.

All good, they are currently cutting logs for a log home up towards Walker. 

They couldn’t get their tire chains on… well I happened to have an add-a-chain link in my truck so I helped them get the chain on the tire.

I befriended a logger, had some extra individual chain links, I gave them to him to help mount the chains on their semis. He told me about an area they just finished cutting. The logs are for a log home building company in Walker. It's about 4 miles off the pavement, they basically cut a new road, so it is remote. 

Ice fishing village out on a lake in the area. Good times driving the ATV out on the ice.

Big time logging tractor to access the remote timber the loggers were cutting for the log homes.

Safe travels and good adventures to you’all. 

Heading to Montana for some good mountain snowboarding.

Ride on!
 

Cold Spring Breeze

 

Adding a Kawasaki 2021 KLX 300 to the Garage

Transition into Springtime 

Sunset camping in the farmland. 

Back on a Moto after 8 months without one. 2021 Kawasaki KLX 300 / street legal enduro.

Bolted up North for a couple days. Dispersed camp on a forest road. 

Tail of couple knobbies.

Garage loaded with good time recreational vehicles. 

Ride on!
 

Night of the Wolves @ -26 Degrees

This was a 6 day winter camping trip to Northern Minnesota where temperatures dropped to -30F two nights and three nights of -9F. Daytime temperatures at 0 or below. A test of Man and equipment. 

On the second day I took the LAMERE fat bike out on forest roads and snowmobile trails. There was a set of fairly fresh wolf tracks down the Forest Road that I drive in on. All winter in this area I have seen the tracks and scat from wolves. 

The second day in the forest after a good roaring campfire the previous nigh. Spent the coldest night camping in the FWC @ -30F yet. The propane furnace kept the camper at 65-70 degrees.

So I’ll get to the wolf story. I set out on the fat tire mountain bike about 1 1/2 hours before sunset on the forest road that I was camped off.  It was about 0 degrees, beautiful fresh snow and crisp. It wasn’t long before I noticed that that I was following a pack of wolves. I figured there was 3-4 wolves. They were traveling the forest road and dipping into the deep snow along the road occasionally. I came to a trail marker and fork in the trail. The nearest town was 16 miles from that point. I decided to head north. 

Well the trail opened up into a large swamp. Right away I sensed that this is where the wolves that I was trailing might be headed. About a quarter mile on the snowmobile trail I was riding on, I saw the first wolf cross about 40 yards in front of me. The above photo shows him standing broadside. It was the best I could do with my phone camera. I had stopped and we stood and looked at each other, it was very cool. I started to slowly roll ahead, at that point I realized that there was another wolf, number 2 running parallel with me, about 30-40 yards away with me through the swamp. Wolf number 2 then ran into a stand of pines and I lost sight of it. At that point the wolf out in front ran back on the snowmobile trail ahead of me. It was a very cool experience I was just rolling slow on my bike watching. The wolves weren’t running scared, I believe they were curious of me, I was not the typical shape of a human and the wind was in my favor, so that they didn’t scent me.

My photo of the wolf track is of the wolf that ran in front of me. He cut into the swamp and towards the woods, he was cutting back to get downwind. Animals tend to circle back to where they started from. So I sat and watched hoping for another sight.

After about 15 minutes I put on another layer of clothes and had a snack. It was getting to be twilight and the temperatures were dropping, probably about -10F at that time. 

As I started to head back to camp, I was about an hour by bike on the trail, I came across the 2 sets of wolf tracks that crossed the trail back where I first saw the wolf. So basically I had split the pack after I moved forward, the remaining 2 wolves crossed and probably regrouped with the first 2 wolves that I saw. So there were 4 in total. 

Good sized wolf print from wolf that was running ahead of me. 

These are the 2 sets of tracks that crossed behind me. See how the track came together in the deep snow. The wolves will step in the the leaders tracks in the deep snow so as to save energy and be efficient.

So it was an hour ride on the bike  in the dark on the snowmobile/forest road back to camp. Needless to say, I kinda kept an eye on my back trail. It was another -30F night in the north woods. 

Ride on!

Camp the morning after the wolf adventure.