FIL's mountain place

[Hereford76]

Spent last weekend enjoying some time on my fil's place - beautiful place, pictures don't do it justice. took about 4 cord of dead standing pine out right at the timber line below either mad wolf or bad marriage mountain (can't remember all the names) for firewood this winter.... need about 4 or 5 more (hopefully this coming week)

he has some nice soggy calves coming home soon

boundaries are
West - glacier park
South - Two Medicine Divide (Looking glass hwy)
East - HWY 89 (Kiowa)
North - Cut Bank Creek Divide

 

[WichitaLineMan]

A heretic in the family?

 

[ALACOWMAN]

looks like a business man :cowboy: beautiful country

 

[Hereford76]

those cows gradually have lost their white faces over the last 20 yrs or so.

 

[bigbull338]

that sure is a pretty place.

 

[I luv herfrds]

I was going to say the cattle are the wrong color. ;-) :cowboy:

 

[40-4171]

What is the altitude?

 

[Hereford76]

What is the altitude?

depends on where you are standing

i looked this stuff up cause u got my curiosity
kiowa,mt = 5082
mad wolf mtn = 8400something
bad marriage mtn = 8300 something

so his place is everywhere in between

 

[TexasBred]

Beautiful country....I'd get nothing accomplished as I'd be too busy just enjoying the scenery.

 

[1914 Hereford]

Beautiful country!!! Reminds me somewhat of home.

 

[3waycross]

Looks a lot like my Elk hunting country. Beautiful place and it looks like it's pretty good to cattle too.

 

[DOC HARRIS]

The entire country there is absolutely breath-taking! The "Going-To-The-Sun" road is winding around in those mountains, and anyone who has never traveled that Road has really missed one of America's beautiful drives! The scenery is the way God meant it to be! When you make the trip, be certain that you go over one way, and then turn around and go back the other way! The scenery is entirely different! And watch out for the idiots on bicycles.

DOC HARRIS

 

[Hereford76]

go over that pass - "going to the sun" hwy from west to east in a big old pickup during the heat of tourist season. the first time i did i about shat myself - no guardrail on half of it and there is hardly any room for two way traffic. my hands were sore from gripping the steering wheel when i losened up the grip coming down the east side. we used to haul our mountain bikes up there and then coast down to the west in the light of the moon - got your blood pumping.

this chunk of ground (my fil's) had a movie filmed on it with robin williams and some black dude. dreams may come or something like that - i watched about 15 minutes of it and that was enough.

 

[DOC HARRIS]

go over that pass - "going to the sun" hwy from west to east in a big old pickup during the heat of tourist season. the first time i did i about shat myself - no guardrail on half of it and there is hardly any room for two way traffic. my hands were sore from gripping the steering wheel when i losened up the grip coming down the east side. we used to haul our mountain bikes up there and then coast down to the west in the light of the moon - got your blood pumping.

this chunk of ground (my fil's) had a movie filmed on it with robin williams and some black dude. dreams may come or something like that - i watched about 15 minutes of it and that was enough.

"76"
I detect that you are not comfortable with "Mountain Driving"! I have lived in "mountain country" most of my life, and it is true - you have to get accustomed to "narrow trails" :???: and "no guard rails" :shock: :???: :arrow: :cry2: But the scenery is WORTH every deep breath, shaking hand and sweaty palm! Just learn to keep your feet OFF of the brakes, or you will - - SUDDENLY - - have NO Brakes! :shock: :help: :welcome: :wave:

DOC HARRIS

 

[KNERSIE]

The entire country there is absolutely breath-taking! The "Going-To-The-Sun" road is winding around in those mountains, and anyone who has never traveled that Road has really missed one of America's beautiful drives! The scenery is the way God meant it to be! When you make the trip, be certain that you go over one way, and then turn around and go back the other way! The scenery is entirely different! And watch out for the idiots on bicycles.

DOC HARRIS

So its not only a 3rd world problem?!

Always amazes me that you put a cycling shirt and a cycling helmet on a everyday penpusher and they think they are riding the Tour d' France and all traffic must just yield to them.

 

[Brandonm22]

Heck it happens even in Alabama. I was driving Mother to Church one Sunday, pulled out of her drive, and we were in the middle of some slow replay of the Tour De France. There were over 200 of them (and that is probably a low estimate, because I didn't see the whole thing) out on her no passing low visibility country road. Nobody will yield. Nobody will flag you around or step aside and they were riding 5 or 6 abreast. With the wrecks and all, it took me 35 minutes to take the truck 5 miles and Mother missed Church over it.......she was not a happy camper. We got no notice that they were holding a bike race/rally much less that our farm was on the route......and this was not the only time that unscheduled weekend bike races just showed up uninvited.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Doc it is the idiots who hog the road, suddenly open their door in your lane, turn in front of you, stop in the center of the road to take a picture of a tree or some other stupid thing on Going To The Sun.
Had that all happen to us on our first trip and it wasn't even the peak season yet. :roll:

 

[40-4171]

What is the altitude?

depends on where you are standing

i looked this stuff up cause u got my curiosity
kiowa,mt = 5082
mad wolf mtn = 8400something
bad marriage mtn = 8300 something

so his place is everywhere in between

Considerable variation from low to high. Just like home.
Couple more questions: What is average precipitation?
What is average Summer and winter temperature? Day and night.
How many acres does it take to run a cow year round if you take care of your grass?

 

[Hereford76]

What is the altitude?

depends on where you are standing

i looked this stuff up cause u got my curiosity
kiowa,mt = 5082
mad wolf mtn = 8400something
bad marriage mtn = 8300 something

so his place is everywhere in between

Considerable variation from low to high. Just like home.
Couple more questions: What is average precipitation?
What is average Summer and winter temperature? Day and night.
How many acres does it take to run a cow year round if you take care of your grass?

i'd be ballparking at best... i had some cattle on his place summer of 2000 when we had no grass or water at home and it wasn't real wet up there either. its about 80 or 90 miles straight west of here and right on the front. the cattle did pretty good up there but i think shade and good running water all year makes a huge difference. i'd bet average precip in rain would be something like 10 to 12 inches but over the last 10 years its been all over the map and the snowpack can be huge or very little - the real constant is the wind as anyone from browning, cutbank, shelby can tell you. spring of 01 i went up there right after a 3 day storm 6/8 - 6/10 and i still have never seen so much snow - draws that were leveled with probably 50ft of snow. it was a freak deal, as the snow started to melt whole bands of cows would start to pop up buried alive and some still in a standing position. something like 300 grizzlies were counted in that very vacinity as the snow melted and the bears were going around eating the udders of the cows and moving to the next - a hadful of ranchers went out of the cowbusiness that year. cut bank just east of there supposedly recorded the lowest temp in the lower us -85 without windchill. he uses the place as a summer deal only and runs right at 200 cows up there on maybe 2500 acres but not sure on total. everytime someone goes up there later in the season the cows that are close get moved to the lower pasture and i'd bet right now there is probably 70 head of stray cattle also. just about everyone close to him up there uses that pasture as a holding place in the fall for strays as it is fenced pretty well. the neighbor to the north takes in a ton of pasture cattle and dumps them at his home place - when the trucks roll out he kicks the cows out on the hwy for the summer and they end up all over that country - some new poor desperate rancher gets had every year.

 

[40-4171]

That's a very interesting post. Thanks. Sounds like that country could be a real challenge for someone not knowing the history.