So, after the two bird incidents on Sunday morning, I went to Red Lodge to visit a new friend and fellow LWS alum, and he was in the middle of a bee situation. He has a large hive on the roof of his parent's house, which split, resulting in a new queen and a bunch of bees out by his house, latched onto a young aspen.
They had a new bee box, and we gently bowed the aspen tree (there were three of us) and delicately scraped, at first with a paint brush and then by hand, the bees into the box. Mostly I held the tree, while the two of them used the brush. I did try it once. Crazy feeling. Like being directly connected to all their frantic motion. The two of them were really brave about touching the bees when it came time to scrape by hand. I couldn't do that. But it was still a victory to be so close to so many bees w/o a suit or anything when I used to be so afraid of them as a kid. Couldn't get many pics or video, too busy handling the tree.
Capped the day with a ride up the singletrack and jeep roads of the Main Fork of Rock Creek, up in the shadow of Beartooth Pass. What a ride. Those three miles of singletrack are outstanding, and the jeep road up to the trailhead at Granite Lake is reminiscent of the best of Alpine Colorado, places like Telluride and Leadville.
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| Couldn't get all the way to the trailhead, but I found the end, it was close. |
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| Shrek Johnson |
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| Wow! (Walking on Water) |