Spring is lovely, but often too rainy in Seattle, so we have taken two trips to Montana, where Spring is sunnier. The second visit was to see the Bitter Roots blooming in the mountains. They grow low to the ground with a small, two inch (5 cm) blossom that comes out before the leaves appear.
Bitter Roots (Lewisia rediviva)
Bitter Root is the Montana state flower. It grows on extremely rocky, high altitude, south facing slopes, which insures that if you're looking at Bitter Roots you are in a very spectacular place.
News & Notes
In Troy MT we visited our friends Tom and Alvira Jones, owners of Montana's Tree Farm of the Year (2011). We spent an afternoon touring their forest, and it is amazing. Don't get the idea of one kind of tree, lined up in neat rows; theirs is chaos. They mix all of the native species, they have trees of varying ages, they plant, thin and harvest continually. It is award winning!
Alvira and Tom Jones
At the tree "farm," Tom showed us several trees killed by bears. They scratch the bark off of the trunk with their claws (L), exposing the growing layer. Then they scrape their teeth along the trunk (R) to enjoy the sweet sap, killing the tree. They prefer larch (tamarack) trees.
We helped Julie and Jim with Libby Montana's Scenic Tour Of the Kootenai River (STOKR) bike ride. It is a charity event for Habitat for Humanity, and requires cyclists to ride 100 miles over a mountain. Our job is to give out drinks, snacks and 'congratulations' as riders reach the summit. (For details, see our page from the last time we helped out.) This year the weather was so beautiful that the fastest riders got to the top a half hour earlier than ever before ... our camera wasn't even ready!
STOKR's First 3 Riders Blast Past The Summit & Start Down Hill
Also, we were on hand to christen Jim and Julie's new pontoon boat ... it is unnamed, so send in your suggestions.
The Captain and His First (and only) Mate