CompuServe Messages

Al, >> How early in the year are good collecting sites accessible in Montana? Well, that depends on where you're planning to collect. Here (northeastern Montana… the plains), you can collect as early as March, if the weather is tolerable. Up in the mountains, figure mid june to be safe… even then you might find some pretty darned cold places. 🙂 There are six or seven _excellent_ collecting sites within 50 miles of here, none of which are in anything even remotely resembling mountainous terrain. The primary metric I use is, "will the ground be frozen?" Because if it is, the difficulty goes waaaay up, as I'm sure you realize. June is real safe for all the nearby sites, and not too unreasonable even for some of the higher ones, like Crystal Park. For a good idea where to go, get Lanny's book – he's done a fine job of identifying and detailing access for quite a few sites. Well worth the pesos. Ben