Just got back from whitefish after having some beers with friends doing tdr.
A beautiful evening after several days of rain had me riding up to a couple of miles above upper whitefish lake where i met an old ski buddy and rode back toward town, passed about 20 riders heading southbound, most looking pretty good. Saw an awesome double rainbow we chased from the olney cutoff road almost to whitefish lake.
The forecast here for the next 2 days sucks:

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Missoula MT
312 PM MDT Mon Jun 16 2014

...A SIGNIFICANT SPRING SNOW STORM WILL AFFECT LOCATIONS ABOVE
6000 FEET ALONG THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY
MORNING...

.DISCUSSION...A cold, dynamic upper level low pressure system
will bring heavy snow and rain to the Northern Rockies over the
next two days resulting in a variety of impacts. Here`s a synopsis
of what to expect.

Despite a slight decrease in showers this evening, an approaching
upper level low pressure system will bring a return of widespread
precipitation to the area. The first focus for potential impacts
will be above 6000 feet over southern Lemhi County and parts of
southwest Montana where the development of some intense showers
are expected by Tuesday morning. Advancing cold air aloft will be
drawn nearer to the surface under these showers with accumulating
snow fall affecting locations like Gilmore Summit, Georgetown Lake
and MacDonald Pass Tuesday morning. But this is only the beginning of
what could be an even more significant precipitation event.

Farther to the north, along the Continental Divide and especially
in Glacier National Park, a focused region of vigorous
precipitation will develop tonight and persist through at least
Wednesday morning. Models are showing some very impressive total
precipitation amounts with upwards of 4 inches possible over the
higher terrain of Glacier NP. This certainly has some valid
potential considering that the upper low is tapping into an
abundance of low/mid level moisture across the Midwest/upper
Midwestern states, evident by very high surface dew points being
observed. Ultimately the intensity of this precipitation will
result in the snow level lowering to around 6000 feet with 2 to 6
inches expected between 6000 and 7000 feet and upwards of 20
inches possible above 7000 feet.

jefe cruised by my house at about 6:40 tonight
looked and sounded good considering no sleep and the snow.

Mine on its shakedown cruise, an extended bitterroot 300
ti fargo,niner fork,xx1
carousel designs bar and seat bag, revelate frame bag

yikes sorry about the size and rotation

heading home from whitefish this am , saw Mike Huth headed toward town, seemed in good spirits, took his pic at my mailbox

took an evening ride up toward red meadow pass, road is in great shape all the way up to and past upper whitefish lake. Partial snow cover starts about 1/2 mile above upper whitefish lake, i turned around at some blowdown about 1-1/2 miles above the lake (just before what is called swift creek rd on google maps) it looked as if continuous snow cover started about at that road.  Stahl peak snowtel shows about 50% above normal which seems about right.
 The swan/mission snowtels are well above normal as well so richmond peak should be fun.

how are you planning to carry your bike over larkye la? I assume you are planning on teahouse trekking manaslu to keep bulk down?

casey,
do you need folks to looks at some parts of the canadian section- i could go in the wigwam/galton section pretty easily

wow - great vid
i love that part of the world
i need to go there

Stahl peak snowtel- at head of wigwam drainage and probably 10 miles from the connector only shows 3.2 inches of precip from start of event till last night so things might be ok on the connector and bridge

if i get time i might go check

forecasts for the upper flathead are crests near flood stage but not currently above

went out for a ride tonight and ran into Ed Fogarty and Hal Russell. Seems as if they are having a good time- looking for some pasta. And a bike shop- unfortunately they were a bit late for the ones in this town. Absolutely perfect evening after some afternoon showers cut the heat a bit.

Thanks Mike
I'll mess with that and see what size looks best

sfuller- there is a resize option but when i go smaller it says that it unable to complete the operation- i think there is another way to resize for web, just don't have time to monkey w/it

thanks

sorry about the size of those pics, having trouble exporting smaller ones from lightroom

MT Road ,I thought Ovando was pretty darn nice when i rode through. i have stayed at holland lake and coopers lake and both were really nice.

a few pics from before whitefish:
Ezra Mullen,Peter Haile, and Bryan Heselbach

Craig passed my driveway at 4:20 pm today,Mr Hall at 5:00 pm
Craig said he was feeling "ok", Mike said he was having problems w/the dust- it rained yesterday so the dust should not have been too bad What a difference  a year makes, last year they came by early afternoon sunday in a drizzle in the high 30's, this year mostly sunny and 75.

Mental Miles,
with regard to snow pack normally you would see a decrease in snowpack from here on out in NW montana. However that is highly variable with temps. Unlike much of the nw and the rockies our wettest months are may and june with snow common at higher elevations. This year was odd with a large variation between low elevations having below normal snow fall and higher elevations seeing slightly below normal precip through the met winter which has now trended toward above normal. This winters snow's tended to be moister and warmer than average and given that most of the grave creek to whitefish section is popular snowmobile country i would expected a more compacted, slower to melt pack on the roads. If you look at historical data you will see that the upper snowtels (circa 6k feet) change little during a week in in mid june. However the 4500-6k pack normally is changing quickly (dependent on weather). It would not be unusual for you to face  50-100% more snow coverage (linear) by going 1 week earlier- the graph on the following snow pillow (only one in the region north of the border) will show how rapidly things change in june.
Long term forecasts do seem to indicate warmer and drier than normal

Enjoy

They might close a few regions but the whole state is doubtful- The northwest corner (and BC/AB) has been totally different from father south. We just finished our wettest month on record and yesterday had a low in the 30's and a high in the 60's. Too, the areas father south that have been drier often get more of the monsoon so that may help them out.

dave M- sounded like he was having fun

team blue at 6:15
seemed to be in great spirits- and they were rollin