Having the day off on Monday, I bowed to the wishes of the local trail guidebook and lit out for the abandoned lookout tower atop Berray Mountain. I also bowed to the wishes of Emma, who’s always spoilin’ for an adventure; Becca, who’s always willing to go along; and their friend James, who was dying …

Some of my immediate family gathered last week to spend some time together in the mountains. On Thursday evening we hiked up Rock Canyon past the old beaver farm, up past the abandoned mine with its cascading waterfall, and in the darkening twilight we ascended the switchbacks to Rock Lake in what became the darkest …

One advantage of living in the boondocks is that places like this are pretty easy to get to. The trailhead for this adventure is about an hour from my front door. I got out of work later than expected on Friday and so did not start up this trail until 8:10 pm local time. And …

Okay, a few more pictures of our hike. Here’s Becca on the tippity-top of Chicago Peak, shooting the opposite direction of the image I posted yesterday. This one gives a better sense of altitude. Here we are on the trail, heading out. The ridge above leads to Chicago Peak, so named (I assume) because the …

Well it doesn’t look like it here, but it was quite a climb to get on top of this peak in Montana’s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. This is the only way I could situate the camera to take a picture of all of us while still giving a sense of the terrain. From the left it’s …

We were headed down the mountain on Saturday before I remembered to ask Rich to get a picture of us. Rich still took the picture I’m posting, but it’s us. (Looks like his camera’s tilted too.) So here is Emma and me a hundred feet below the summit. Most of the peaks you see in …