The Montana "Man Trip", part VIII: Webb Mountain Lookout

I had asked everyone to bring one nice outfit for portraits.  We finally had some downtime and good weather, so I took pictures of Laura and Johnny.



I have enjoyed combining long-exposures with portraits.  I'm not sure if the models love holding still so long.  There are multiple takes of this shot where Laura's hair is all over the place in the wind.



It was already mid-afternoon and I wasn't sure that we'd have time to drive to and hike to Mt. Henry Lakes.  The forest service roads took a lot longer to drive than I had anticipated when looking at maps back home, so we elected to go to Boulder Lakes Trail which was closer than other afternoon sights.  Also, the trail was supposed to be a good bit shorter than other options, which would be good for Uncle John.  

We arrived to find a gate blocking vehicle traffic farther out from Boulder Lakes trailhead than we had thought, making the hike just as long as Mt. Henry.  I'm sure Boulder Lakes is a treasure of its own, and may have offered more chances for wildlife encounters, but I really wanted to go to Mt. Henry Lake for it's talus mountain slope and alpine lake qualities.  Laura convinced me to go with my gut, so we took off to Mt. Henry Lake trailhead.

I am into maps and was very glad that I had the OnX Hunt Maps with the free base layer on my phone (most useful for hiking trails) and the MVUM and Topo Maps on the Avenza app (most useful for forest service roads and landmarks).  We also had ordered a paper map of the area near Webb Mt. from the Forest Service here and it was particularly handy to have for navigating in the car.  We looked at the paper map and decided that FS 337 would be the best driving route to get to the hike.  We considered taking CR 92 the whole way, but it appeared that a section of it was closed to vehicle traffic.  FS 337 proved to be a gravel road the whole way, with a fair bit of trees and other debris in the way.  It meandered over some topography and under the base of Mt. Henry.  We actually passed pretty close to the lakes, but the slope was way too steep if we were to go straight up from the road there.  Just near the base of the Mt., a black bear ran across the road in front of us!

When we hit the smooth pavement of CR 92, we unanimously voted to give it a try on the way back.  Worst case, we'd find out that it doesn't go through after only a few miles and we could head back the way we came.  Turns out, it goes all the way through and took us back to Lake Koocanusa right near the road to Webb Mt.

The trail to Mt. Henry Lake had a few moderately steep sections, but it wasn't too bad for us flatlanders.  It was up almost the entire way to the lake, so we knew it would be a breeze on the way back.  After hiking through the pines for about 1.5 miles, we saw a clearing in the trees on the right.  It didn't take Johnny long to jump in to the icy cold waters, keeping with our tradition of swimming in absurdly cold water that started at Prince Edward Island.


The water was very refreshing after the hike, but also numbing.  Johnny and I did a few cycles of swimming and then sunning. 







Laura elected to stay dry, preferring wildlife viewing over nerve shocking.  She was plenty entertained by the curious and abundant trout.  Why didn't we bring rods?!  I even threw a few bugs in the water and the fish swarmed and consumed the prey.  Why didn't we bring rods?!


We got back to the tower pretty late, but Uncle John and Laura made brats in the wood stove (too windy for us to get a fire going), while I photographed the sky.


I said "while I photographed the sky", but Laura actually came out and bested me with the point-and-shoot camera.  I got this same shot as a long-exposure, but 5 minutes after she did.  She'd see beautiful colors and take the picture.  I'd spend too long setting up the filter and settings on the other camera for long-exposure and would miss the best of the colors.





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