EISPIRATEN

If you haven't been on the creek route to Dawn Mine lately, now is your chance before the summer heat arrives. The trail took some damage during the winter storms, but the Restoration Legacy Crew has been fixing it up. It has some impressive staircases, and lots of rock work in general.

We started at the Chaney Trail gate in Millard Canyon, hopped on the Sunset trail to the cabin, then followed the streamside trail to Dawn Mine. It was a warm, early April day. The bugs weren't too annoying and the cool water was very refreshing. This is one of those relaxing paths where there are a bunch of distractions and shady places to sit and chill out by the water. One pool looks like you can easily slide into it. You can hunt for old mining artifacts in the creek or old cabin foundations. This time we watched for flowers and animals. In addition to the typical birds, squirrels and salamanders, we caught a glimpse of a baby black bear running up a ridge.



And I thought this was an interesting flower.





We hung out at the mine site for about an hour, listening to nature.



Then a large group showed up. They were on a work-bonding trip. So we left them to their bonding and returned the way we came.

And I thought this was an interesting flower.

Maybe Sicklepod Rockcress?
http://snowbirdpix.com/montana_plant_page.php?id=1593
https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=11414

That looks like it.

This was the second trail I took my son on in the beginning of the pandemic. My boy was climbing the walls and I just couldn't take another day of online learning so we had a ditch day (lol). My son was upset that he could not get in the mine until I showed him the mines interior map. We just went back 2 weeks ago and the trail through me off. All the work they did sure came out nice. I was used to the old trail so the nice rock stairs had me scratching my head.

Baby bear!