A walk in the woods

Stormy Good Monod has put in plenty of miles on the trails of Northwest Montana, and she shares what she knows in her recently published guide book, “Day Hikes Around the Flathead.”

The book is actually a fourth edition, the first being a pamphlet that was published in 1999. From there she expanded to a book that was published in 2005, updated in 2006 and then again this year.

The latest edition features 102 hikes, including 17 new ones in the upper Whitefish Range, the Salish Mountains and the Flathead Valley, the Mission Mountains and the Swan Crest and in Glacier National Park.

Monod splits her time between Whitefish and Banff, Alberta, where her husband, Phillip, owns a sporting goods store.

Monod gets back to the Flathead as often as possible, particularly in summer months, to pursue hikes as much as possible.

“I have no intention of leaving the Flathead Valley. It’s just too much a part of me. I’m doing hikes all the time around here,” she said.

But there are limitations. “I revisit all the trails as often as I can, but I can’t do them all every summer,” she said.

The book encapsulates the hikes with general descriptions on the difficulty and nature of the hikes, distances and elevation gains, tips on how to make the hikes more rewarding, detailed topographic maps, and notations on trails that are dog friendly. And there is a forward section on geologic features of the region written by Lex Blood, a 26-year geology and geography instructor at Flathead Valley Community College.

The most famous trails in the region are concentrated in Glacier National Park, but Monod’s book mostly features lesser known routes on national forest lands.

“There are so many great books about Glacier Park, so I don’t need to go over that again,” said Monod.

However, the book does feature a series of hikes in the park that she considers her favorites.

“Comeau Pass is my favorite in the park. It’s like an alpine fairlyland,” she said.

“Day Hikes Around the Flathead” is available at Sportsmen Ski Haus, Rocky Mountain Outfitters, the Bookshelf in Kalispell, Coffee Traders on U.S. 93, Bookworks and the Toggery in Whitefish, the Glacier Natural History Association in Columbia Falls and at all Flathead National Forest offices.