Wildflower walkers: Spencer Mountain in full bloom

Father’s Day morning began with a fart joke.  

“Happy Farters ... I mean Father’s Day” the card my three daughters gave me read. “You’re a gassy ... I mean classy guy.”

The girls — prime potty jokes ages — were cracking up. 

“How do you want to spend your Father’s Day?” they asked. 

Other than smoking ribs that afternoon, I didn’t have anything planned for what turned out to be a nice, but chilly Sunday. 

“Let’s go for a hike,” I suggested, which to my surprise wasn’t met with immediate groans. 

They were game to do what dad wanted, and I wasn’t going to let that rare opportunity pass.  

We filled daypacks with a few juice boxes, and peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and headed for the Spencer Mountain trailhead just west of Whitefish. 

I have been mountain biking these trails for years — back when it was a sort of guerrilla trail building affair, and now as a formally established destination that’s part of the Whitefish Trail system. 

I had never hiked the actual Whitefish Trail section at Spencer, so it seemed like a great chance to finally check it out. 

My oldest took off ahead of the pack while I stayed in the back with the younger two for the approximately 4-mile round-trip walk. 

I’ve learned to embrace the joys of traveling at the speed of preschooler. You notice things you never would have otherwise. 

On this hike, it was the immense diversity of wildflowers blooming in the recently thinned-out state forest. Fields of orange-pink paintbrushes mixed with yellow arnica and purplish bluebells. 

One bright orange flower caught my attention — honeysuckle. I had never stopped to notice how a single leaf encircles the collection of blooms like a tiny tea cup. Fascinating. 

It took us about an hour to get to the rocky cropped summit of Spencer Mountain that overlooks the Farm to Market area toward Tally Lake. Low clouds contrasted the emerald ag fields below. 

“That’s a nice view,” my middle daughter commented. 

It makes me smile when they notice their surroundings and appreciate the place they get to call home. 

While enjoying snacks and the view, I snapped a cellphone photo of another flower I hadn’t seen before. Sprouting out of a crevice in the rock, a stem about 18 inches in length showcased a pillar of white flowers at the top. It looked like a miniature beargrass, without the grass — the greenery at the base had three leaves like a large clover. 

I sent the photo to my friend who is a plant and agriculture ecologist at Montana State University. He texted back a link to the Montana Field Guide (fieldguide.mt.gov) a fantastic resource to identify flowers and other native plants. 

The mystery flower was a littleleaf alumroot. It can be found across much of Montana, with an area of density in the Flathead Valley. It grows in rocky outcrops or open forests, from the valley to the low alpine. 

While the girls had been picking bouquets the entire hike, we left the littleleaf alumroot be. I spied one more growing out of a rock on the shaded north slopes of the mountain as we walked back to the truck. 

Back home an hour later, the girls put their flowers into tiny vases and told mom all about their wildflower adventure. 

It was a Father’s Day hike that warmed my fart ... I mean heart.

    Littleleaf alumroot sprouts from a rock at the top of Spencer Mountain near Whitefish. (Matt Baldwin/Daily Inter Lake)
  

    Hikers at the start of the Whitefish Trail at Spencer Mountain. (Matt Baldwin/Daily Inter Lake)