Monday, April 19, 2004
Last weekend I headed out the the Sweet Corn Festival somewhere near the end of the world in Cooke City, Montana. Guy Zoellner and I rolled out early Saturday morning, and arrived in Cooke City to find about 6 inches of fresh had fallen in town that morning. As everyone tried to get the logistics organized of getting skiers up to Daisy Pass, the clouds parted and it looked as if the skies were going to turn bluebird on us.
The town had much less snow than I have seen in previous years, so we had to hitch a ride in a truck up the road to where the snowmobiles could start running. After that is was about a 5 or 6 mile tow on our snowboards behind a snowmobile. We arrived at Daisy Pass and the snow was decent. About 5 inches of fresh layered on top of solid ice so it made for some variable conditions in windy areas.
As we started hiking, the weather started blowing in and we were in for a day of riding in pretty flat light and some windy conditions. We headed out to explore some new terrain further north than I have ever been in that area. We got some pretty good runs in and when the clouds lifted we got the occasional glimpse of some really impressive terrain. We paid the price with a long boot out though. We rode most of the way down off the pass and due to lack of snow had to walk the last stretch into town.
Sunday morning we got an early jump on heading back to Bozeman. We cruised through the east side of Yellowstone park and saw massive amounts of wildlife, as always. A guestimate of elk herds that were probably 300-400 head strong. We got delayed for about a half hour by a 200 head herd of buffalo in the middle of the road.
We stopped for a good hour long soak in the "Boiling River" to top it off, and called the weekend good.
Cooke City, Montana, Saturday Morning, April 17, 2004
The town had much less snow than I have seen in previous years, so we had to hitch a ride in a truck up the road to where the snowmobiles could start running. After that is was about a 5 or 6 mile tow on our snowboards behind a snowmobile. We arrived at Daisy Pass and the snow was decent. About 5 inches of fresh layered on top of solid ice so it made for some variable conditions in windy areas.
Guy Zoellner, looking south toward Miller Peak.
As we started hiking, the weather started blowing in and we were in for a day of riding in pretty flat light and some windy conditions. We headed out to explore some new terrain further north than I have ever been in that area. We got some pretty good runs in and when the clouds lifted we got the occasional glimpse of some really impressive terrain. We paid the price with a long boot out though. We rode most of the way down off the pass and due to lack of snow had to walk the last stretch into town.
The Beartooth Highway
Sunday morning we got an early jump on heading back to Bozeman. We cruised through the east side of Yellowstone park and saw massive amounts of wildlife, as always. A guestimate of elk herds that were probably 300-400 head strong. We got delayed for about a half hour by a 200 head herd of buffalo in the middle of the road.
Buffalo in Yellowstone National Park
We stopped for a good hour long soak in the "Boiling River" to top it off, and called the weekend good.
