Happy Halloween!

Welcome to the Haunted Harper-Knox House!!!!

Me, our pumpkins, and my $5 farmer's market mums in the foyer.

Trick or Treat!!! Okay, so I couldn't get enough of my outfit from my fab bachelorette party this weekend. So I wore it again! Lexi loves all the flashing ring. And one trick-or-treater's mom actually asked me if I was a real bride or a "hopeful bride"! Greg came to the rescue, and assured them we were getting married in 10 days......

Say hi to our "Pumpkin Pizza" from Papa Murphy's! It's hard to see in this picture, but it had olives for eyes, a pepperoni smile, and even a stem at the top. And Chrissy- don't worry- we ate some greens with it! :)

Greg totally won our pumpkin carving battle, despite feigning disinterest. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the sentimental fool is dressing up this year in the same costume he wore when we first met - the "secret agent"!!!! (a.k.a. "I'm too cool to wear a Halloween costume")

You can't really see it, but my pumpkin is a rilly rilly cute bat.

I win for cutest pumpkin ever.

Mount Helena Ridge Trail #373

The Mount Helena Ridge trail begins about five miles outside of Helena at the Park City trailhead. It is a national forest trail, which means it is maintained by the National Forest Service.

Here's a more detailed description of the trail: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/helena/recreation/trails/mthelena.shtml


To get there, we had to set up a shuttle. We left Greg's car at the end of the trail in Helena, and then drove the Subie out to the beginning of the hike. To get to the Park City trailhead, you take a pretty well-maintained dirt road called Grizzly Gulch. Along the way we saw these cool remains of old mine kilns.

The trail begins with a few switchbacks across some grassy, sloping meadows. This part is probably covered in wildflowers in spring. It'll be cool to see how different the trails look in the different seasons.




When we stop to catch our breath at the top of the hills, we are rewarded with some pretty beautiful views of the mountains.

The patches of bright yellow are birch groves, which are absolutely gorgeous right now. This was the only patch of birch trees in this mountain range; in person, it stands out like a splash of vibrant yellow paint.

After climbing the grassy hills, the trail descends into the forest. It's a lot chillier in here without the sun beating down! Kinda creepy too- we are about 90% sure we saw some fresh bear tracks in the mud. Note to self: get that bear pepper spray before next week's hike!!!

Greg, a.k.a. "Bug Hunter", catches a butterfly with his bare hands. Do Not Try This at Home.

Note: no animals were harmed in the making of this blog. The butterfly flew away a few seconds later, wings intact (and quite angry!).










Guess we know where to get our Christmas tree this year! Just kidding, of course we know it's a federal crime to cut down a tree in a national forest....







After about 5-6 miles, we find ourselves back in Mount Helena City park, and we meet up with the 1906 trail. Then it is a short, steep climb to the top. This is the first time we've actually reached the top of Mount Helena!





Time for the descent. We choose the Powerline trail, which is a straight shot down. The grade is so steep, it pretty much takes everything I've got to keep from sliding down the trail headfirst! Well, I'm just thankful we're heading down, not up. We'll save that for next week.



(Greg: "Sam, are you done taking pictures yet? The Pats game started a half an hour ago!" Okay, okay, The End.)

Anaconda

For Greg's birthday, we decided to visit the old mining town of Anaconda.

We heard that there was an Oktoberfest celebration going on in Anaconda. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see....

... except for some cool old buildings.

The Oktoberfest? Consisted of the Knights of Columbus selling hotdogs in the basement of the community center. Seriously. But at least there was sauerkraut!

So we hightailed it back to Helena, which is a regular hoppin' metropolis by comparison. The scenic drive was definitely worth the expedition, however.

As you can tell, we got some snow in the mountains...

... a good reminder to get those winter plug-ins installed. For our loyal readers in California, that's an engine core heater. It has a plug which comes out of the front grill of your car, which you literally plug into an extension cord or outlet to keep the fluids in your car from freezing. Awesome.

No snow back in town yet, though. For Greg's birthday dinner we head to Toi's Thai on Last Chance Gulch. It is without a doubt the best thai food we've had since Thai Market in NYC. Except Toi's panang curry is even better!!

One of our favorite places...

Welcome to the Lewis & Clark Brewery! This is one of the two breweries in Helena which have tap rooms in which you can sample the brews, and meet some of the locals...

http://www.lewisandclarkbrewing.com/main.php

... Our favorite brew right now is the Mad Max IPA, which has an insane amount of fresh hops!!!!

If you come and visit us in Helena, we'll give you your very own growler to fill at Lewis & Clark!!!

Direttissima Trail

Helena is lucky to have miles and miles of trails, not to metion a decent-sized mountain (Mount Helena), as part of its city park system. From our house, we can hike to several trailheads in less than ten minutes. The Prickly Pear Land Trust preserves the open land around Helena, and publishes a great trail map of all the local trails.

http://www.pricklypearlt.org/

Direttissima is Italian for "straight to the top," or so I read somewhere on the Internet. Our hike on this trail took us almost to the top of Mount Helena, but we stopped short of the summit. Here are some highlights:

Hmmm... which way to go?

Some gorgeous scenery along the way...

Stop for a photo-op!

The trees around here are ancient! This one appears to have been felled recently. There's nothing like the smell of fresh pine in the morning....

Believe it or not, we actually got some snow already! We took this hike back in September, and the mountains had a few inches, but all we got in town was rain.

Greg gains some inspiration for his bonzai trees...

How do the trees grow out of the rocks?Seriously!!!

Okay, we survived- time to head to Riley's for some footballl!

Welcome to our new home....

We thought finding an apartment in Helena would be easy, but as it turns out, most of the apartment buildings here are not pet-friendly. Since we carted Lexi all the way across the country, we figured we couldn't get rid of her now....

Our building, the Benton Tower Apartments, is a converted old church.

It's the first apartment we've ever had which has stairs!!

Hello Montana!

Okay, so truth be told, we had originally intended to keep a blog of our road trip across the U.S. when we moved from New York to Montana this past August. Unfortunately, we slacked off and had too much fun, although the utter lack of free wireless at most of the hotels is partially to blame. So instead, we thought we'd start one now to chronicle our new life here in Helena & keep in touch with all of our friends scattered across the country!!