Joe worked this afternoon, so we started the day with a trip to a coffee shop that makes the most incredible breakfast sandwich — they take something akin to the innards of a breakfast burrito, press them in a waffle maker, and shove it into a bagel. Then we hit up the Pine Creek trail to the falls.
Back in town, he headed off to work and I started looking at my assortment of flagged hikes, off-road routes, and waypoints. He recommended exploring the Gallatin National Forest down by Big Sky, and I happened to find an intriguing squiggle on a Forestry Service Motor Vehicle Use Map leading to a really awesome looking hike. (George’s method for finding interesting drives is looking for squiggles on MVUMs; it works.)
US 191 from Bozeman to Big Sky was gorgeous. The steep, shelf-road of unpaved washboard was very slippery, despite 4WD, and dumped me out onto what — for me — straddled the line between overland and off-road. Not substantially aggressive nor clearance-challenging, but still very rocky. But I made it, far later than I had intended to.
Also, for the first time in all my travels — in my haste, I brought my backpack but neglected to pack the camera into it. So I stooped to taking photos with my telephone. I will say, a Google 2 Pixel weighs a lot less than a Nikon D7500 with several lenses.
The ascent, at speed, was an absolute ass-kicking, but the payoff at the cabin was amazing. I want to come back one day, stay in this cabin (if I can figure out how), and bring my real camera along.