LABOR DAY AT THE CABIN

Rocky Mountain Front – seen across Nylan Resavoir.

Unfortunately, this is the only photo I have for the weekend – next photo I tried to take – the batteries needed replacing.

The early morning view did not bode well for the day - it was so foggy, we could barely see the little town, Belt, at the bottom of the hill.

Diane cooked the day before – Chili, and lemon bars, and brownies – This morning, I baked up two loaves of bread I mixed up last night, and whipped up a batch of blueberry Scones. (Sherri, they are so delicious)

I waited for Diane to return from church, and for her daughter Shelly to arrive from Bozeman so we can leave for the cabin.

Fall is definitely in the air – the high today and tomorrow will be in the 60’s – time to put away the shorts and tank tops, and bring out the jeans and sweatshirts.

We finally headed out – right toward a very stormy looking area – luckily for us, we drove right through the storm, and on toward Benchmark – where it looked like there hadn’t been any rain in days.

We drove across the prairie, through the foothills, and right into the Rocky Mountains. It was about a 100 mile drive from Belt. The Rocky Mountain Front is so breathtaking. I just can’t get enough of it.

40 or so miles was on a gravel road. Dusty, Dusty. But we still managed to roll down the windows and breath in some of that fresh mountain air when other traffic was not present.

We arrived at the cabin, took down the bear screens, the wooden window covers, turned on the water in the springhouse generally made ready for our time there.

It is an old hunting cabin built in 1935. It’s basically, a large one room cabin with partial walls separating the kitchen and dining area from sleeping area. It has a deep front porch, and a low roof. There is a wood cook stove in the kitchen, and a wood burning heating stove in the sleeping room.

Shelley is a real Mountain Woman. She immediately jumped in with a broom, then started fires in both stoves, and even went out and chopped more wood. It took awhile for the logs to warm up, but by dark we were quite cozy.

Now, realize this – no electricity, no internet, no electric lighting, no running water. It was heavenly!!!!

All that food we brought – for just three women. Well enough if we were hiking some of the trails in the area (the cabin is at an elevation of approx 5700’, and it goes up from there.) Lots of cliff faced mountains. Snow was predicted at the
6000' level, but, hey, we had 300 feet to spare!

It turned out to be a very relaxing inactive couple of days. We all grabbed books, curled up in the blankets and read.

The most activity was Shelley keeping the fires going, and taking short walks with her dog, then back to the books.

The first nite, we went to bed with the sun, well we had too – there were no lanterns there, and all the candles were mere nubs. That was about 7:15 when we settled down for the nite. I had my headlamp for reading - but I hadn’t counted on the bugs, millers, and they kept dive-bombing into my face. Very annoying.

We woke up at about 8 a.m.!!!! Had breakfast cooked on the wood stove, and once again settled in with our books. Continued this all day, and through that night. At one point, I caught a movement out the window – it was a large doe. It looked so close – walking just outside the windows. It took a bit for me to realize the difference from other deer I’d been seeing. I was used to seeing the smaller white-tailed deer. This was a large mule deer, fat and sassy

Woke up Tuesday morning,and started packing up for the ride home.

Once again, the beauty of this area is overpowering. It doesn’t matter that my camera was dead, photos cannot do it justice – it has to be seen in person to be appreciated!

Until next time,
Bear Hugs
Boots

I’m out looking for myself, if I return before I get back, Please ask me to wait!