Outdoor Happenings

National Public Lands Day at Lone Pine State Park

Montana State Parks is partnering with the Montana Conservation Corps and the Kalispell Rotary Club to host a free National Public Lands Day event at Lone Pine State Park on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Volunteers will meet at Foy’s Lake at 8:30 a.m before splitting into work crews and completing projects throughout the park. All skill levels are welcome and safety equipment will be provided. The Kalispell Rotary Club will provide a complimentary barbecue lunch for all volunteers.

The volunteer work day will wrap up at noon, followed by lunch at 1 p.m.

For more information contact Brian Schwartz 406-755-2706, extension 3.

Mushroom hike on Whitefish Trail

The Whitefish Legacy Partners will host a wild mushroom hike on Sunday, Oct. 2, at 2 p.m.

Fall rains always bring out mushrooms, and participants on the free, guided hike will search for the wild fungi and learn general classifications and identifying characteristics.

Dale Johnson, who has been exploring the woods for wild mushrooms for more than 25 years, will guide the hike. Hikers should bring a basket to collect mushrooms. Guide books will be provided.

To participate in this hike, meet at the Woods Lake Trailhead at 2 p.m.

For more information about this hike and other scheduled outings, call 406-862-3880, email [email protected] or visit www.whitefishlegacy.org.

Photographer retraces 1915 Glacier journey

The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Glacier National Park will host a “Brown Bag Luncheon” presentation by photographer and writer Chris Peterson on Wednesday, Oct. 5, from noon to 1 p.m. at the park’s Community Building in West Glacier.

Peterson’s book, “Through Glacier Park 1915–2015,” shares his experience recreating Mary Roberts Rhinehart’s 300-mile journey through Glacier in 1915.

Rhinehart wrote about her expedition, which started and ended at the East Glacier train station, in her travelogue, “Through Glacier Park 1915.”

Using Rhinehart’s book as a guide, Peterson retraced her ambitious route through snowstorms, hurricane-force winds, blazing heat, bear encounters and the thick smoke of wildfires. Peterson walked roughly 240 miles, half of it with his autistic son, HJ.

Peterson is the editor and photographer of the Hungry Horse News. He grew up near Rochester, New York, and moved out West in 1998 to take a job as the weekly newspaper’s staff photographer.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Golden eagle migration in Glacier

Join Flathead Audubon and trip leader Steve Gniadek on Sunday, Oct. 9, from 1 to 4 p.m. for a leisurely and mostly sedentary field trip to observe migrating golden eagles and learn about raptor migration routes and patterns.

Unlike the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch site, where birds pass at eye level, Golden Eagles migrate high over the McDonald Valley in Glacier National Park, with peak numbers in early October.

No hiking is required to see golden eagles and other raptors from the Lake McDonald Lodge parking lot, one of Montana’s premier locations to spot the species.

Depending on the weather, dozens of golden eagles may be observed in a single hour.

Participants will meet at the Lake McDonald Lodge parking lot and should bring a lawn chair and binoculars. Spotting scopes are recommended, but a few should also be available for sharing.

Everyone is welcome to stop by anytime in the afternoon. If you have questions, email Gniadek at [email protected].

Audubon hosts meeting on sandhill cranes

Laura Katzman of the Flathead Land Trust will be the featured speaker at Flathead Audubon’s meeting Monday, Oct. 10.

Katzman will talk about bird habitat conservation accomplishments in the Flathead and Mission valleys completed by Flathead Land Trust and its Flathead River-to-Lake Initiative partners over the last three years.

She will also describe Flathead Land Trust’s current efforts to conserve almost 400 acres of sandhill crane habitat in the West Valley. The presentation will go into depth on sandhill cranes, their life history and habitat needs. Attendees will learn about a proposed bird viewing area and education site overlooking a 45-acre pothole wetland in the West Valley and what can be done to help bring the project to fruition.

Flathead Audubon will meet in the United Way Conference Room of the Gateway Community Center in Kalispell at 7 p.m.

The program is free and all are welcome.