Musings from the last best place - Filed under 'Hiking'

Find your hike - SummitPost.org

I love it when the web works like it's supposed to. I'd like to hike to the top of Heart Mountain in northern Wyoming sometime this winter. I've driven around Heart Mountain for years, but admittedly have never looked for the trailhead that would take me to the summit - although I was quite confident that there must be one. So the other night I did a quick Google search and immediately came up with an excellent description of the trail on SummitPost.org. The description includes photos, a description of the hike, and detailed directions to get to the trailhead. Bingo!

You can check out the Heart Mountain Summit Post here, and then traipse through the site looking for the next hike you'd like to bag: http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/282559/heart-mountain.html.

Biking and Hiking in Bozeman, Montana

Yesterday, I took a personal leave day from scheduletown.com to spend some time with my family. In the morning, we went mountain biking up Sourdough Canyon. We only went up about three miles - don't think I'm ready to take the kids on the Wall of Death just yet (Am I ready? Probably not!). There's an outhouse along the trail, and it was near there that we had a bit of a close call with what we suspect was a bear - we chose not to stick around long enough to find out for sure. But the fresh scat on the bushes down by the river was a pretty good sign, along with the huffing in the underbrush. Needless to say, our idyllic moment beside the creek didn't last long.

In the afternoon, we decided to hit the new Drinking Horse Mountain Trail. It's been open only a few weeks. If you're familiar with Bozeman, it's located directly across from the 'M' trail and starts near the fish hatchery. It was a cool little hike (about four miles round-trip). We took the 'easier' path; the wife and kids weren't feeling particularly energetic after our morning ride. At the top, I took a few snapshots before we returned down the same trail.

All in all, it was a mentally, spiritually refreshing day. It's always good to spend time outdoors - especially when you're living in Montana!