Winter Solstice at May Creek Cabin

Somehow we lucked out again! What better way to break up a drive from SLC to the Northwest than to hike into a backcountry cabin and spend the night.

Even better to do it on the longest night of the year. Again this year we made plans to do Christmas at Lisa family's remote snowy mountain ranch north of Spokane. I learned many years ago that attempting to drive great distances, during winter, just plain sucks. My preference is to break the drive up with lots of stops, and maybe even take a few days to do it, instead of all at once.
A couple years ago we did almost the exact same trip, only we hiked into the Hogan Cabin on the other side of the highway. Hogan was neat too, but we stayed there because May Creek was all booked up. This time there was an availability at May Creek so we took it.

On the way north we stopped at Sharkey Hotsprings, a BLM site south of Salmon, Idaho. Kudos to the BLM for keeping this place up despite the morons that vandalize it .

Sharkey Hotsprings

It'd been snowing crazy and the parking area showed it. We had to dig out a place to get the car far enough off the road figuring we'd also have to dig to get it out. Sure enough we did, but that's part of the deal I guess.

Digging out a place to put the car

The shit house

It only takes about 5 minutes for the woodstove to heat this little place up nice and cozy. Chili from our backpacking menu, yahtzee, and good whiskey makes for a perfect winter solstice deep in the snowy Montana woods. Later on we went out on the porch to listen for owls that we didn't hear. We decided they were cozy in their dens having cocoa.

Kitchen side

more yahtzee and a cinnamon roll from the bakery in Salmon