Day 38: Sacagawea Peak outside of Bozeman, MT

It was a quiet night. As soon as the sun was up, so was I.  I had coffee and a sausage biscuit at the McD's inside the Walmart, where many other employees were starting their shift.  By 9am I was on the road to the Sacagawea Peak trailhead off Mt 86.  The left turn-off is just past the MM21 northbound. That 6.5-mile drive up the road was a hairy drive, but it was this way in 2009 with more mud.  I didn't even get started until after 10am, with a parking lot that was quickly filling up.

The trail to the peak has been re-routed a bit since I last did this.  It no longer passes Fairy Lake.  The trail goes straight up the pass, making it steeper but shorter.  We hiked through a lodgepole forest before coming to the open meadow. There wasn't much snow this time so we pranced across the switchbacks. It took us 1:17 hours to get to the peak.  A young father with his three teens were the only other ones on this narrow peak, with clear skies in all directions.  Yellowstone National Park was visible from the peak. It was in the 60s and winds were calm.

I wanted to linger here longer, so I took a trail to a secondary peak (Naya Nuki peak) where we saw three mountain goats by two hikers and a dog. This added another 1.3 miles to the hike, across a welltrodden trail of crushed rock that could easily tumble downhill in an earthquake. The dogs kept their distance, but the goats got defensive and hopped down the steep north slope for protection.  The father with his three teens were ahead of me and hopped around the northern slabs, but I turned around and began my descent.  Plenty of people and more dogs were still ascending as I went down. There was plenty of water for the dogs but they were exhausted nonetheless when we got back to the van.
http://www.mapmyhike.com/workout/2325771569

There is just so much to see in Bozeman, and scentic, remote trails to explore.  I saw some of the signs for these trails as I drove back into town.  The dogs were resting comfortably in the van while I tried beer at two different breweries.  I was done with walking so I just drove around town and the construction zones.  So many new brew pubs have opened up in Montana since 2009 and that includes Bozeman with its eight (!!!) breweries.