Big Sky, Montana, United States
My brother Doug was the third of my four late summer/early
autumn visitors, but his busy schedule is such that his slightly under 72 hours
on the ground in Montana constituted a long visit by his standards. The last
time we saw each other was at our mother’s funeral in January, so it’s been
nearly eight months.
Doug guessed that it had been about 15 years since he saw
our second cousin Deb and her husband John when he joined them on a canoeing
trip in the Adirondacks. The weather
suddenly took a turn to the cloudy and rainy side with Doug’s arrival after a
couple of the warmest days of the summer at the beginning of September,
including the only day to go over 90* in Bozeman for the entire season. The weather canceled Deb’s and John’s outdoor
activity plans, so we went over to their house for lunch on Friday.
I decided to make lasagna for Doug’s visit, just like mom
used to make. And then it occurred to me to offer to take a pan over it to Deb’s
house for lunch since it has a family connection. Our father and Deb’s mother
were first cousins. We spent six weeks at their house during the summer of 1976
while we were between house moves, during which time my mom learned to make a
number of new dishes from Deb’s mom (Audrey), including what I call “WASP
Lasagna” since there is not Italian in any of our ancestry. After that lasagna
became a regular item on our meal rotation every few months, and unless I’m
making some kind of fancy alternative version of lasagna, what I learned from
my mom is still pretty much the standard that I use.
And yes. it rained, so it was a good time to
sit around inside and reminisce about the olden days of growing up at out mini
family reunion.
Doug is an avid skier, so I had a pretty good sense he’d be
interested in doing some summertime reconnaissance on the Big Sky resort for a
possible ski trip. We targeted a hike in
the area for Saturday but ended up getting a late rather hungover start to the
day and settled for the much shorter Beehive Basin hike late in the day that I
did previously in July. Unlike July, by early September there are few
wildflowers left, but the positive was that the sun came out as we got up to
the basin and got to see it in the golden late afternoon/early evening light.
Dug wanted to stay overnight at Big Sky, so we stayed at the
Huntley Lodge, named after resort founder Chet Huntley, a national newscaster
in the post-WWII era. I have to admit that compared to some of the ski resort
villages in Colorado, the mountain village at Big Sky is rather small and a
little bit disappointing. Of course, in September after the summer high season
ended, things were really quiet and we got a decent deal.
We stayed overnight because Doug booked us on the Lone Peak
Expedition around noon on Sunday. Lone Peak is the towering mountain with a
summit of over 11,000 feet at the center of the Big Sky ski resort. While very
intimidating looking, there is an aerial tramway to the top of the peak that
services black diamond and double black diamond terrain. I’m not usually inclined to spend to money to
take the tram to a peak in summer, but I went along since it will probably be
my only time on top. Even though I plan to be back in winter, my level of
skiing skills are such that I feel quite certain I won’t be taking the tram to
the peak on my lift pass. I guess it
also seems kind of a lazy way to get somewhere with a view to someone who’s summitted
29 of Colorado’s 54 fourteeners.
The “expedition” involved meeting a guide for a
group trip to the summit, the first stage of which was a ski lift from the
village to mid mountain, the second a truck/Jeep ride along a rocky road below
the peak to the base of the tram, and the third the steep four-minute tram ride
to the summit station. We then had about half an hour at the top to walk around
and take in the views in all directions. While we were fortunate that the peak
was not obscured within the clouds, the high clouds and misty air made for
rather poor visibility. I somehow felt
like I didn’t get my $75 worth out of the trip that lasted a little over two
hours in total from base to peak and back. Doug seemed impressed by the ski
terrain, though, so I think he and Aviva will be back to try Big Sky out in
winter sooner or later.
2025-05-23