Hiking Blackmore

Dusty and Harlow and I hiked Mount Blackmore today, from the Hylite Lake parking lot. It's an elevation gain of about 4,000 feet; from 6,000 feet above sea level at the parking lot to the peak at 10,100 feet. 

I don't know if it was because I worked out pretty hard on Friday and Saturday, but this hike was a serious grunt. It was WAAAY harder for me than either hiking the ridge with Alli, or the Beartooths hike we did last summer. More difficult physically and really tough mentally. I also have some wicked blisters to show for it, including the bottoms of my heels. OUCH. 

The scenery was pretty difficult to look at though.

Harlow is becoming a good trail dog. She's figured out, for the most part, how far up ahead of us she can go, where to drink water from and also not to... do business... on the trail. She's also an expert map reader.

Remember when we had a puppy? This photo is about a year old, of Harlow and DJ reading the map during our Beartooths hike.

A few snowfields are still up there. We found one fun way to keep the pupperoni hydrated while not diminishing our water supply. Fetch, with snowballs.

Such a lady, with her paws crossed.

At our last stop before the summit push.

We finally made the summit, and were rewarded with some pretty amazing views. From Blackmore, looking down onto Bozeman in the Gallatin Valley, with the Bridger Range in the background.

And looking south, towards Yellowstone National Park. See those clouds forming? Yeah, I'm terrified of being on a peak or a ridge during a thunder and lightning storm. We took one more photo and booked it out of there. We got back down to the truck after only ab it of rain, but some big booming thunder.

Us, on top of Blackmore!

It was a haul of a climb, and coming down wasn't a cakewalk either. I'm always amazed at how well DJ and I manage during times of uncomfortableness. We kind of give each other our space, but keep an eye on the other person's safety and mental state. I feel like the physical pain of hiking, of doing something really, really HARD together somehow makes our marriage stronger.