Soft Rock and River Walk Park Hikes

We arrived in Hamilton, Montana on a Saturday and after asking about hikes Jen and Eric told us that they had four planned. There were quite a few more hikes in the mountains, but they were still heavily snow packed, which is something we try to avoid, (punching through deep snow is a great way to break your ankle). Sunday morning Jen asked if we were ready to take a hike named Soft Rock, (Eric was busy finishing his picnic table.). It was nearby and located in the foothills of the Sapphire Mountains. The area is located on public land, some state and some National Forest and we took the short drive to the trailhead. There were quite a few cars in the parking lot and two people were unloading their mountain Bikes. Shortly after we started the bikers passed us. Ahead the trial was level, for the first bit, and then headed downhill. Knowing that we would be hiking back uphill, I was a little concerned as we had just spent five months at sea level.

Reaching the bottom of the hill we started to climb up a gradual slope, and then headed back downhill to a small pond. The trail turned south and we started up a long gentle slope that got steeper. It really didn’t present much of a problem for two seventy-one-year-olds, Jen of course had no problem at all. Stopping we took some pictures and then Jen took us up a steeper section which ended up on a bloulder covered outcrop. A family was busy bouldering, climbing the boulders, and so we moved over to the next hill top. There Jen took a selfie of us with the Bitterroots in the background. It was a pleasant hike and a good easy hike to start the week.

The kids had to work the next three days and so Renita and I decided to go birding at River Walk City Park. After we walked the first stretch another birder mentioned that we should watch out for the moose. It was napping alongside the walkway but let us safely pass. Leaving the moose alone we took a detour and hadn’t gone very far when a bird above us let out a loud call.

Looking up we spotted a pileated woodpecker! I got some ok pics of it, but the best pose was a little blurred. I remembered a hint that our friend Dan had told us of changing our automatic focus spot and used his tip for most of the hike.

The pileated woodpecker flew off and we heard it continuing to call for a mate. Two northern flickers chased each other and a lesser yellowlegs waded along the Bitteroot River. Canadian Geese, and mallard ducks were everywhere. The flickers moved and following them we realized another moose was blocking our path.

Taking another detour we spotted a wild turkey, and a lbb that we couldn’t identify, (lbb stands for little brown bird). Heading back to the car we spotted the first moose that appeared to be sound asleep, but we still gave it a wide birth. The pileated woodpecker, (think woody woodpecker), had made our day. We have seen them before but this time we got a couple of good pictures. . What a start as we had hiked four trails in the first four days. Clear skies