Kite Butte

I woke up about an hour or three earlier than usual, and headed out to town to mail a few postcards and stop by the grocery store to buy some dishwasher soap. On the way home i stopped at the Cornerstone Deli which ended up being the best idea. i got a pita sandwich full of delicious tomatoes, avocados, lettuce, onions and sunflower seeds. The sandwich was sevred with red mountain potato chips, which were almost purple. I also ordered a side of sweet potato fries with honey mustard, MMM! Today has been partly cloudy, but mostly sunshine. I may be a little biased there though, maybe it's just cloudy. The air is still pretty cool, but overall, a gorgeous day.
I finally hiked out to Kite Butte.As i left the cabin and started trucking down the road, the band of horses that hangs out in our area started to crowd around me, looking for treats and attention. I just kept walking, so i suppose we must have looked like a parade. They turned the other way when i reached the cattle guard though.
I got off the road pretty quickly and out into the prairie and the sage brush maze. I stumbled across a bone yard. And collected several pieces of pelvis, a section of spine, and other various parts. Luckily, i didn't find the intact skull until i was almost home, or else i would have had to carry it the entire time. Dad passed right by me on the quad, but he didn't see me. I climbed over a few rocky ridges until i came to the base of the butte. I stared up and decided i would leave my big bag of bones behind. I also left my sweater behind, good idea.
It didn't take as long to summit as i thought it would, and it wasn't as abrupt as i'd expected. I was climbing the face, so it was steep and up near the top was an abrupt cliff but i found a winding way up it and managed not to stumble on the big loose rocks. As soon as i reached the top i was shocked, the other side of the butte just sloped down gently to meet the valley again. But I'm still glad i took the exciting way up. The view was incredible in every direction, you could see three mountain ranges, maybe four. The Castle peaks, the Big Belts, it was all spectacular. Some of the mountains are topped with the fresh snow, but most of them are just timber and grass.
On the way back down i took the butte's sloping backside, and attempted to run down the hills. I'm glad i didn't break an ankle because almost immediately i was skipping over brush and sliding across rocks and dodging badger dens and gopher holes. I managed to make my way down anyway without much problem. I saw Dad and his boss Lisa on the way back and they were setting up for a few time lapses, i asked for a ride back, but they were going on a ride, and i'm really glad i ended up walking anyway because i found that skull!
So now i'm just sitting here eating a salad and staring out the window at the gorgeous clouds and the great big sky. It's a great day!