It’s been a bit since i’ve wrote in here. Life has been interesting, doing many things, work wise and ministry. Recently I went on a couple of grand adventures in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness of Montana. I want to tell you about one of them!

A mountain goat watches me on some rocks above the Leigh Lake Trailhead

The Cabinets are my home range, where I fell in love with the outdoors and photography as well. The last weekend in May the aurora was supposed to be out. I planned to get a dream shot over Leigh Lake. Having never been up above on the south side I ventured out that Sunday evening, the first day of June, after helping my grandpa with some spring cleaning. He still lives in Libby.

Anyhow things started out smoothly. I seen a solo billy mountain goat and some young ones further on closer to the lake as well. They were pretty stinkin’ cute. Then I came to the creek crossing. This was my first major obstacle. I could not cross where I had planned. It was pretty high and I had to do some minor bushwhacking to find a safe place to proceed. Taking my shoes off and using all fours at times for balance I made my way across without falling. Gear and shoes dry! But let me tell you the pain from that cold water in my hands and feet was excruciating for about 30 seconds after I made the other side!

This is only a small part of the raging creek

From then on it was all off trail scrambling and about 2000 feet of elevation gain to my destination. This was my first major steep hike of the season and my legs felt it!! But let me tell you when sunset approached I didn’t notice my legs anymore. Beautiful tangerine colored clouds kept spilling over snowshoe peak, the tallest in the cabinets. I kept stopping and finding compositions to take pictures of it. And it lasted a long time!

Sunset high above Leigh lake with clouds spilling over Snowshoe Peak

As darkness grew I attained the ridge and stopped for a minute. It was then I noticed something catching in my throat. I began to cough and clear my throat excessively. Now I was worried I was having an allergic reaction to something way out there in the dark, alone off trail. But walking towards my pack I heard a faint sound of air coming from my shoulder pad where my bear spray was kept. There was a small hole in it and it was leaking out! Somewhere down below in my scrambling I had hit it on a rock! At least I knew now I was safe. Just uncomfortable and had to clean up a mess! Then I saddled up and made the upper ridge in about another half hour of hiking. There was between 3-10 feet of hardpacked snow on the ground most places still! And a bit eery up there. I found several crevices and a couple smaller caves in the area as well. Not what I was expecting, but cool nonetheless.

The moon just after sunset. The high country has clean skies that really show the moon off

At this point I was exhausted, having been up all night the evening before chasing the Northern Lights and taking a couple of naps that day to ward off the dreariness. But it was upon me hard now! And things did not look good for the aurora. Being up so high I had some service and the forcast to see any was bleak. I did not bring a tent but found a bare spot of ground under an ancient alpine larch and made my bed, moving some of the larger rocks out of the way. I was a bit scared, having never been there and my first night out alone of the year. Realizing I had not read the Word that day I opened up the Bible app. I rarely check the verse of the day but looked just then. It was Joshua 1:9 “Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the lord your God is with you wherever you go”

It was after midnight now and with that passage my trust was enough to close my eyes and drift off….

Sometime in the wee hours I felt something jump on my belly! A small rodent of some kind! Freaking out I awoke yelling in tongues as the animal hopped off me and scampered into the night. Almost as if it was a dream, I was not completely sure it had happened as I drifted back to sleep. An hour or so later I woke up and glanced at my phone. Aurora alert!! Peering as close to north as I could with the small cliff next to me there it was! A bright green line stretching across the horizon! It was 3:00 am. Only an hour until the first light of dawn would hit! And I had no composition ready. I had to move fast!

Now let me tell you a little something about the human experience in a situation like this. Barely any sleep, pitch black moonless night (it had dropped below the horizon), high up on a ridge I have never been on before with old snarled trees and random caves and drop offs around me. Trying to find a place that adequately shows off the lights and the environment. Am I setting the scene enough? I unzip my sleeping bag, throw all my layers on (it is cold), boot up and throw my pack and headlamp on. Venturing into the blackness using my topo map, satelight map, and whatever my eyes can see I make my way along and down the ridge. Seeking something distinctive! I find an old snarled snag and set up. A couple of shots in I decide I want something else and hiking back up the ridge line making it to camp. There, just 100 feet on the other side of that small cliff is where I found my spot! Just as the first light of dawn hit the eastern sky, the northern lights grew the strongest, purples and greens stroked across the night like a large paintbrush, and I captured a moment in time.

Oh and that rodent? I seen it later that morning. It stared at me before running to its home, only a few feet from my sleeping bag. Turns out as I was romping around that early morning chasing the lights it had came back, and chewed many small holes in my bag.

I made my way back down to the lake and relaxed a while there, before heading back down the trail and back to Libby. And then to my home in North Idaho. A worthy trip with new memories of a godly expenditure.

The last aurora image is available as a print and I am considering doing it as a limited edition. For information on that please email me. Thank you for reading along. I hope you all have had a great start to summer.

God bless you and may your days be filled with wonder and a sense of knowing there is more than what we see in our lives.

P.S. It turns out as I got back into civilization I read that the aurora experts put out a late night report that the states in the far northwest US could experience the lights right at dawn. The east and midwest would already be way to into the morning to see them if they hit. Talk about being at the right spot and moment in time!

Aurora chasing in Montana’s Cabinet Mountain’s Wilderness

Winter Snowshoe into Crater Lake National Park