Missoula Notebook

Now that I’m the father of what a popular local bumper sticker calls a “Native Montanan,” I’m under even more pressure to learn some basic Montana skills, if only so that I don’t embarrass the poor guy in front of his friends later on.

I’m doing all right so far. Two years into my Montana residency, I’ve already achieved journeyman status at standing next to my grill with a can of Pabst in my hand, floating down the Blackfoot on an inner tube, and reacting to every new City Council resolution by exclaiming “this is Big Brother government at its worst!” But those skills will only carry me so far. To approach true Montananness, what I really need to do is get better at killing things in the woods.

WASHINGTON TO THE RESCUE?

Unnoticed by many, two members of Congress from Washington have decided it’s about time to do something to resolve the seemingly endless debate over the future of our last roadless lands.

Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Jay Inslee, both Democrats, have re-introduced the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act (S.1738, H.R. 3563) to codify the Clinton-era Roadless Rule that has been on a legal roller coaster for the past nine years.

GUEST COMMENTARY

President Obama isn’t the first American President to win the Nobel Peace Prize.  The first President, as well as the first American, to receive that coveted honor was a one-time member of the Montana Stock Grower’s Association. Theodore Roosevelt was also the first and only future President to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Roosevelt was awarded the peace prize for successfully mediating the end to the bloody Russo–Japanese War. He received the Medal of Honor for leading his Rough Rider’s in their hell-for-leather assault on San Juan Hill.

In my opinion Theodore Roosevelt (he disliked the moniker “Teddy”) was the most remarkable American who ever lived.  His portrait has been on my office wall for three decades. I have over 60 volumes by him or about him.

SASKATCHEWAN FISHING LODGES

After visiting about a dozen fishing lodges in northern Saskatchewan, we’re starting to notice a lot of similarities, especially the fishing and environs, but we had no problem seeing how Foster Lake Lodge stands apart from the rest.

The lodge is located on Middle Foster Lake, which is just another amazingly pristine wilderness lake loaded with lake trout and northern pike, but the only lodge on this sprawling shield lake is like no other fishing camp or resort in the province.

LET'S GET OVER THE BIG PISTOL SYNDROME

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.

NOT FOR THE LIMP-WRISTED AMONG US

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.

Where the Wild Things Are

-– John Muir

“Hey. Hey. HEY!” A voice below the trail shook me from my thoughts. “Come here, come down here. I want to show you something.”

An old man was in the creek basin below, propped on crutches, waving at me. My hiking companion, Louie, a gregarious Labrador retriever, had already bounded down the slope to the creek and was exchanging greetings with the man’s black, gray-muzzled dog. 

Deciding that an elderly man on crutches poses little security risk, I followed Louie down the ravine.

At first glance the man looked short, but it was the stoop that made him diminutive, and he was dressed in olive: olive-green hat, shirt and slacks. His eyes were vibrant blue, bright like those of an obsessive mendicant or a young child. I’d met this man before, I realized.

“You want to see a 1,000-year-old tree?” he asked.

“Is it petrified?” I said.

“No, it’s still alive just like it has been for centuries.”

Victory Comes to a Head

Raise a glass, Missoula: The Kettle House Brewing Co. won third place this weekend at one of the world’s biggest beer contests, the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo. The bronze in the annual event went to Kettle House’s Cold Smoke Scotch Style Ale in the Scottish Style Ale category.

The GABF this year smashed all previous records by drawing more than 46,000 beer-lovers and attracting 3,038 entries from around the country and the globe, making it the world’s largest commercial beer competition, according to the Brewers Association, the group that puts on the event. More than 450 breweries entered the contest, in which trained tasters chose winners from among 40 or so beers in each of dozens of categories. 

Missoula Notebook

I was curious about the potential effects of Sen. Tester’s act on businesses like Sun Mountain, so—after touring the sawmill—I interviewed Tony Colter, the company’s plant manager and vice president. He told me that Sun Mountain’s mill and logging operations combined could potentially employ up to 300 people, but times have been tough lately. Today, only 120 people work in the mill and finger-joint plant, and about 50 people work in logging. Sun Mountain hopes Tester’s bill could help turn things around.

MORE PRESENTATIONS PLANNED

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.”