And the Winner is.........NIKE!!

The Primal Quest adventure race has been going on all week (see my June 25 post). The teams left from the base area here at Big Sky last Monday morning, climbed up and down Lone Peak, riverboarded the Gallatin, then headed for Paradise Valley, the Crazy Mountains, the Bridger Mountains, Castle Rock, Spanish Peaks, Ennis Lake, and back to Big Sky. Two teams, Nike and Merrell broke away from the pack in Paradise Valley and really never relinquished the top two spots for the rest of the 548-mile race.

Nike crossed the finish line last night at 9:30 pm, 5 days, 11 1/2 hours after they started, and we were there cheering like crazy people!! It really was very exciting to watch them ride in on their mountain bikes, right up to the mall, headlamps blazing and TV cameras rolling. They were even smiling!!

This little girl ran straight for her Dad and screamed, "Did you win, Daddy?!" All of them immediately popped a cold one, and this same child looked at one of the team members and said, "How do you like that beer?" She was clearly enjoying the whole spectacle!

Earlier in the day, on our way back from Bozeman, we stopped at the Storm Castle checkpoint to talk with the Primal Quest staff and volunteers. We caught Team MOAT (currently in 5th place) getting ready to head up the mountain for the orienteering section of the race followed by rapelling down the Storm Castle headwall. If you look closely at the picture to the left, you may be able to see the Primal Quest banner hanging on the cliff face. Now, that means, first of all someone had to go down that wall to hang the flag; secondly, all the teams must pass that flag on their way down. Exciting, huh??

We headed down to the Caribiner for dinner at about 7:00 and had some wine on the terrace. We were pleasantly surprised to find an excellent singer/songwriter, Greg Aulden, from New York City. He has a regular gig at The Back Fence, a corner bar in Greenwich Village. His set list included lots of covers from some of my favorite singer/songwriters such as Jim Croce, Dan Fogelberg, James Taylor, etc. So, he was a big hit with me and with the audience in general. I'm sure we will check out The Back Fence when we next head up to NYC.

After we finished dinner, and just as the sun was setting, we headed over to the mall to watch the winning Nike team ride in. Once again, I am so in awe of these amazing athletes. I hope you will enjoy exploring their website and keeping up with the rest of the race. The race ends on Thursday and I'm sure we will be watching many other teams come in. It makes a marathon seem like a piece of cake - good inspiration for me!!

Wildflowers in Big Sky

Today was the annual wildflower hike sponsored by the Big Sky Hikers. This is a group in Big Sky which meets every Thursday morning for organized hikes with knowledgeable leaders. Our hike today was led by "Dr. Jeff." Jeff is a retired pediatrician who practiced for 30 years in Helena, MT, and has put a lot of energy and passion into studying and identifying wildflowers. And, he made it fun for all of us to understand the characteristics of the wildflower genus and species in a very user friendly way.

We had plenty of time to examine the details of the flower, but there was also ample time to gaze at the beautiful landscape which surrounded us. I picked out some of my best pictures of the individual flowers to share with you, left to right, below: Heart Leafed Arnica, Calypso Orchid (Fairy Slipper), and Crazyweed.

In addition, one of my fellow hikers has posted a photo album on Kodak complete with labels identifying each flower. The wildflowers will peak over the next 3 to 4 weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Enjoy!!

Fast Cars and Primal Quest - Are You Kidding Me??

This has been an exciting few days in Big Sky.

First, there was the Bullrun Rally on Sunday. This is an invitation-only road rally where the participants pay $20,000 for the "privilege" of driving their high-powered exotic cars (including 2 - not 1 but 2- $250,000 C8 Spyders) from Calgary, Alberta to Scottsdale, AZ. 100 cars left Calgary Sunday morning for the first leg - 600 miles to Big Sky. On Monday morning, they left Big Sky for Aspen, CO 780 miles to the south. They expect to be in Scottsdale by June 27. Yes, conspicuous consumption is alive and well here - even Paris Hilton turned out for this one.

Now from the ridiculous to the sublime. On Monday, Primal Quest began here. Here is a video of the race start from the base area. This adventure race is generally thought of as the Super Bowl of adventure racing - the hardest race out there. Teams of 4 have up to 10 days to run, kayak, mountain bike over 500 miles. Sleeping is not required. It's not a relay. The teams have to stay within 100 meters of each other and must have at least one female team member. The elevation change over the entire course is approximately 90,000 feet (3 times the height of Mt. Everest). Now, you tell me, who's crazy??

Appropriately enough, the teams are headed into the Crazy Mountains today. The course today called for them kayaking the Yellowstone River, but the near crest conditions on the river forced the course change to biking through Paradise Valley. I think their experience on the Gallatin River here was enough to make believers out of all of them. The water conditions here are such that I would certainly not venture into them - but, hey, compared to these guys I'm a super wimp!!

If you are familiar with Lone Peak and Liberty Bowl, you will appreciate this statistic. Word is that Team Nike made it up to the 11,166 peak from the 7,500 base area and back down Liberty Bowl to the base area in 2 hours. Good grief!!! I am in total awe of this accomplishment. To put it in perspective: when we hike Mt. LeConte up the Alum Bluff trail, we gain 2,500 feet. We were amazed when our 16-year old son reached the summit in 1 hr 50 min - and that was just one way!

The race concludes here and we look forward to seeing these warriors return. If you want to follow the race, the tracking map is available online. Also if you click on one of the YouTube videos and follow the links, you will see some amazing videos of the course and this beautiful country surrounding it.

Barack Obama and The Road Ahead

I just came across this You Tube video of Barack Obama speaking to his headquarters campaign staff in Chicago, shortly after winning enough pledged and super delegates to become the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for President. It's about 13 minutes, if you choose to watch it.

Much has been said in the media since he declared that he would not participate in the public financing system, including Friday's op-ed piece by one of my favorite columnists, David Brooks at the New York Times. Brooks generally "tells it like it is" in a concise and often tongue-in-cheek manner, and this column is no exception, in my opinion. I agree with Brooks that Obama is far from "naive". I think that he has decided that this election is the primary cause of his life (replacing campaign financing according to Brooks).

This is where the video comes in. As he says to his campaign staff: "If we had lost Iowa, it would have been OK. One of the other Democrats would have emerged... and we would have moved forward. But because we won, ...now we don't have a choice, because, now, if we screw this up, all those people who I've met, who really need help, they're not going to get help... Now everybody's counting on you, not just me... the whole country is counting on you to change it for the better."

My takeaway is this: Obama has decided that this is the real deal, and whatever it takes, he needs to win. We are witnessing, I believe, his coming of age politically. Faced with the choice between accepting the $84 million in public financing and whatever the Democratic National Committee might be able to add vs. the Republican National Committee's very deep pockets, vs. the ability to raise hundreds of millions from his 1.5 million small (public) donors, I believe he made the only choice he could make. Politically, it was certainly the correct strategy, but how do you tell 1.5 million supporters that their millions of contributions (averaging less than $100 each) don't count?

Now, as one of my good friends said lately, "I thought you liked John McCain." I still do. I admire his record of "straight talking" and not always toting the party line. I have always loved mavericks (big surprise!!) And, had it been any other candidate other than Obama, I probably would have supported McCain. The deal breaker for me is the "vision" thing.

Obama's vision is born of his community organizing experience and his belief in the power of the grassroots community to effect change. This may be the first time a "naive" community organizer has had enough political savvy to actually get elected. Try to think of it as a combination of the positive points of Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter - strange as that may sound. I voted for Richard Nixon (yes, I confess) because he knew how to navigate Washington, and I voted for Jimmy Carter because of his idealism.

Let the games begin!!

First Day of Summer ?!!

We are having a gloriously beautiful first day of summer here in Montana. Everyone here is commenting on how much snow is still on the mountains. In the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, our local newspaper, there was a picture on the front page showing one of their reporters skiing in only shorts on the first day of summer!! Of course, the lifts are not operating so he had to hike to the top of the mountain to have the thrill of skiing downhill. For me, I'm just not that avid of a skiier.

Here in Big Sky, as you can see in the picture to the left, Lone Peak is still covered. I even heard an avalanche control blast this morning. There's a wilderness outdoors group here this weekend, and they are up on the mountain. An avalanche would not be good - there has already been one avalanche last week in the bowl.

We went on a 3-mile hike yesterday and found the first sure sign that summer is here - the glacier lilies are blooming! They are the first wildflowers that pop up after the snowmelt. That's Jim's hand holding the flower. We also spotted some spring bulbs in front of Huntley Lodge - spring, summer??? I'm confused!! However, the snow is beginning to melt, and running off the mountain in huge volumes. We had temperatures in the 70s today. If that continues, the snow will soon recede to 10,000 feet, a more normal summertime altitude.

Down in the Meadow Village, the North and South Forks of the Gallatin are overflowing their banks. Thankfully, there's no flooding, and probably won't be. But, the power of Nature is so visible and present here. I think that's one of the things that draw me here every summer. When I'm in the beautiful Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee, it's easy to forget what it's like being here. The Cumberlands are my roots, my home and the most comforting place in the world to me. But, the raw, powerful, majestic beauty of the Rockies just leaves me in awe and uplifts my spirits as I stand in its midst.

Montana State of Mind

We are sitting on the deck, looking at the snow-covered mountains. The outside temperature is 60 degrees, and the high today was 68. Snow continued to fall up until last week, and combined with the low temperatures (41 degrees last night), the snow line is at 8500 feet. Even the ski runs off the top of Andesite Mountain - Ambush, Tippy's, Hangman's and Silver Knife - still look skiable!!

This has been a very wet spring for Montana - much needed drought relief. As we drove up the canyon yesterday, we were amazed at the raging torrent in the Gallatin River. Snowfall this winter was 150% of the snowfall in the previous winter and the runoff from the snowmelt combined with the high spring rainfall has the river rolling. We actually saw some rafters trying to tame the white water rapids - they had quite a ride!!

It's good to be here. Before we left TN, the goldfinch were absolutely flocking to the thistle bag outside the second floor window. I think they were trying to convince us to stay. We will miss them - and you - while we cool our heels here in Montana!

Father's Day

Three generations gathered for Father's Day on Sunday. We are having so much bird activity up here that we decided more birdhouses were in order. So, after brunch (prepared by yours truly) the three men took charge of installing 2 bluebird houses on the bluff. Although we are overrun with goldfinches, chickadees and hummingbirds, we shall see whether the bluebirds might be interested as well.

Lisa and I spent a quiet, after brunch couple of hours. I am finishing Barack Obama's autobiography Dreams From My Father, and the second floor deck was an excellent spot to relax and enjoy the breeze. Lisa's quiet time was interrupted when Will decided it was "tickle" time - I'm not sure who squealed the loudest!

Later in the afternoon, Jim and I spent a few hours with Arlyn Ende and Jack Hastings in their home, Deepwoods Studio. Arlyn and Jack are both working artists - click on their names for more information. Arlyn and I met through the Obama campaign. Jim and Jack, being fellow cynics, got along famously. For me, it's such a treat to be in the presence of two people who have lived creative lives - they just see the world from a different perspective and, I think, see things that more practical souls like me don't always see.

We leave for Montana tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the cooler, less humid climate and to seeing our Montana friends. As always, you have an open invitation to come see us!