Yesterday I went for a hike up Big Mountain with Sarah and Joel. Sarah is my roommate from Kansas, Joel is just some kid who tags along a lot... just kidding. He is originally from Michigan. They are both doing a Physical Therapy clinical here in Whitefish. They both are in a PhD program for PT in St. Louis and have quickly become some great friends and entertaining partners in crime.
We dragged Tia's dog Kita along for the stroll. She loves being outside, and gets cross when she knows you are planning a trip out of the house without her. Besides, she gets into the bread left on the counter pretty often and we have taken a liking to giving her the nickname "Loaf."
When I came to Whitefish in February, I dabbled in some skiing here. One of the chairlifts is just a few paces from the front door of our house. When I rode the chairlift up the Mountain on a clear day, I was struck by how amazing the view is at the summit. You can see all the way to Glacier on the West, over the Flathead Valley and to Flathead Lake, and some days you can even see Blacktail Ski Resort.
Luckily all three of us had the day off yesterday and were itching for a good hike. The trail starts off doubling as an access road and traverse and winds back and forth over the ski trails. Once you get about a mile into the hike, you get to snowy trails that have a steep pitch at about 60 degrees. I guess we should have worn snowshoes!
The view is breathtaking at the top. We checked out the Summit House, sat and had a snack at Chair 1. 
Still no bear sightings. Probably not such a bad thing considering we didn't have the bear spray. We joked that maybe Kita would be the appetizer, but then realized that since she is a speedy dog, she would probably just lead bears straight to us and we would become the tasty Grizzly snack. Still considering hucking a slab of meat off the porch one night to see what comes for it...
Yes, Please.
No, thanks.
