My Page: Bill Schneider
LET'S GET OVER THE BIG PISTOL SYNDROME
Hunters, Use Bear Spray, Help Save Your Sport
General big game hunting seasons are opening soon, and legions of stealthy hunters will be silently stalking around grizzly country in pre-dawn darkness, but only after they’ve sprayed themselves with human scent blocker, “buck scent” or stale elk pee. As sure as the seasons will open, some of them will have a close encounter with a grizzly, often resulting in a dead bear.
Much has been written about this subject. Every wildlife expert out there has encouraged hunters to carry bear pepper spray instead of a big handgun for self-defense, but clearly, a lot of hunters ignore this advice, even though it’s all for their own safety and the future of hunting.
[more]NOT FOR THE LIMP-WRISTED AMONG US
Muskie Hunting for Beginners
If you’ve spent your outdoor life with flycasting for trout or chasing elk out here in the New West, you might be asking: What’s a muskie?
Steelheaders might object to this answer, but to me, the muskie could be the ultimate freshwater game fish. It’s sort of like the great white shark of freshwater, a mythical and mysterious apex predator that fascinates us--some of us, at least, those of us with a fishing problem.
Catching a muskie has always been on my life list, and this was the year I decided to do it, but it didn’t quite turn out as I expected.
[more]Q&A FOR DRIVERS
Everything Motorists Want to Know about Road Cyclists
Last week, I vented about the incredibly dangerous rage a few motorists have for road cyclists. (You should check out the comment section.)
This week I’m trying to be more constructive and address some of the reasons I think might cause the anger, things many motorists might not understand about cycling and cyclists. Hopefully, this “motorist Q&A” helps explain why cyclists do the things they do and lessen concerns drivers have, which should make it easier for all of us to courteously and safely share the road.
I could, actually, give the same answer for all of these questions--"it’s the safest way to ride"--but I will try to be more helpful.
[more]MORE PRESENTATIONS PLANNED
Tester Announces Two Open Houses on Jobs and Recreation Act
Montanans anxious to hear directly from Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) concerning his controversial Jobs and Recreation Act, S. 1470, will get another chance this weekend.
The senator’s press office announced today that Tester has scheduled two presentations on his bill, in Dillon and Bozeman, and assured Montanans that “Tester plans to hold additional open houses in other communities in the coming weeks.”
[more]CIVILITY IS A WONDERFUL THING
Road Rage for Cyclists Embarrassing, Dangerous, Un-American
If even one driver who hates cyclists reads this column (and next week’s column), I’ll not only consider it well worth the time I spent writing it, but also a big victory for public safety.
The vast majority of motorists courteously and safely share roadways with cyclists, but a very small minority not only aren’t courteous, but for some unexplainable reason fill up with rage whenever they see cyclists on the road ahead. Anybody who regularly rides bicycles on paved roadways knows about this minority. They not only think cyclists have no right to use public roadways but also show their anger by shouting obscenities and giving out the universal salute and even do all sorts of outright dangerous things like coming up behind cyclists blaring their horns, purposely passing inches from handlebars at high speed, or throwing beer cans and other objects, which become lethal missiles for somebody on a bicycle.
[more]THE WISDOM OF THE ORG TABLE
Montana’s Stealth Park Fee, a Sequel
The other day during my early morning shift downtown at the coffee shop at the ORG (Old Retired Guy) table, we turned our attention to how Montana funds its state parks system. Conversation at the ORG table is normally quite intellectual, by the way, and a lot of politicians could benefit from sitting in on our sessions. They’d sure find out what the ORGs really think about things.
We frequently discuss taxes (surprised?), and on that day I happened to mention I was riding my bicycle down to the clerk and recorder office after my morning IQ-boosting session to renew my vehicle registration.
I brought out my renewal card, and we analyzed it to death. I’ve been paying vehicle registration fees for a long time, and now, finally, thanks to the ORG table, I sort of understand what’s going on. And the ORGs say, this might be a good deal, but we don’t like the way the government does it.
[more]YOU CAN'T KEEP SOMETHING LIKE THIS SECRET
The Other Libby
When you hear the word, Libby, what do you think?
Not good, eh?
The micropolis of far northwestern Montana makes a lot of headlines, but it seems like it’s never good news.
When I bring up the subject down at the coffee shop or taproom, most people start talking about asbestos, the corporate greed of W.R. Grace, and people gradually dying because of it…or about a remote timber town swamped in the wake of the implosion of the wood products industry, closed mills, unemployed loggers…or about red-necked, AR-15-toting, arch-conservatives hiding out in remote cabins, driving around in camo-colored Jeeps, scouring the skies for black helicopters….or an Appalachia-esque community fraught with economic despair that doesn’t welcome outsiders.
[more]WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?
Secrecy Clouds Credibility of Poll on Tester’s Wilderness Bill
Anybody following the build-up to the official announcement of Senator Jon Tester’s (D-MT) wilderness bill, what he calls the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, probably read the stories and commentaries about refusals from Tester’s staff and the coalition of environmental groups and timber industry reps drafting the bill to release any advance details to the press. This refusal fueled a lot of skepticism, to say the least, and cast a negative shadow on what otherwise would’ve been a grand event for Montana--our newly elected senator stepping up to the bar and making an sincere attempt to end Montana’s Wilderness Drought.
Now, they’re doing it again.
[more]COMING SOON AND ON TRACK
The Second Night of the Grizzlies
On August 13, 1967, exactly 42 years ago, as I start to write this column, everything changed for the grizzly and everybody managing the national parks where the bears live. It’s a well-known tragedy--two young women killed and partly consumed by two separate grizzly bears in two separate locations on the same frightful night, all so expertly chronicled by Jack Olson in Night of the Grizzlies, which might be the best selling outdoor book ever.
I was in college at the time, spending my summers working on Glacier’s trail crew. The park usually pulled us off the trails in August to fight forest fires. That’s what I was doing on that night, sitting in a fire camp on Apgar Mountain a few miles away from Trout Lake and Granite Park, the sites of the fatal maulings. All of us on the fire crew were huddled around a campfire listening to bits and pieces of broken transmissions coming over our fire radios, trying to figure out what was going on, but knowing it was bad.
[more]SASKATCHEWAN FISHING LODGES
Twin Falls Lodge, A River Runs Through It
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”
That’s Norman Maclean’s frequently quoted brilliance from his book, A River Runs Through It, and what you can’t help thinking about when staying at Twin Falls Lodge in northern Saskatchewan.
It isn’t Montana’s Blackfoot River Maclean made famous, but the mighty Churchill River, which flows freely through a series of sprawling lakes long-gone glaciers gouged out of the Precambrian Shield. These lakes essentially become wide spots in the river. The Cree name for the river is Missinipe or Great Water, and I couldn’t imagine a better description.
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