Adventure Journal Feature

Having been on a bazillion photo shoots, I can assure you that the behind the scenes usually isn’t all that interesting. But when it comes to adventure shoots they almost always take place in cool, beautiful locations.

Such is the case with this mission with Matt Hunter and all-star photog Sterling Lorence: As they leave Green River, Utah, to scout, the land unfolds with harsh drama and dusty opportunity.

Adventure Journal Feature

Black Canyon of the Gunnison climbers, you’ve been warned: Pack water. Yeah, you’re supposedly right above water (the Gunnison River!), but before too long it might just be a muddy wash. Hikers in Canyonlands, don’t trust that map — it’s going to be sand for you as well. Even Glen Canyon (i.e., home of ever-shrinking Lake Powell) and the Grand Canyon are due to dry up faster than you can spit into a Mojave wind, according to two grim reports recently released.

The first is a climate study by the Bureau of Reclamation (a.k.a., the biggest water resource manager in the U.S.). While the report covers the hydrology of all the of major rivers of the West, the most stressed zone now and in the future will be the upper and lower Colorado River basins, which encompass the spine of the Rockies from western Wyoming through western Colorado, eastern Utah, and nearly the entirety of Arizona. That’s a lot of territory, and within it, you’ll find many of the places hikers, climbers, mountain bikers, cavers, paddlers and fisher people cherish. And it’s all going to get much, much drier, thanks to climate change.

Trail Running

Devon Crosby-Helms and Krissy Moehl (pictured) are putting you and pretty much everyone else to shame. The ultra-endurance studs ran together earlier this month with a goal of settting the fastest time for a woman going from rim to rim and back to rim of the Grand Canyon, tracing the classic route that starts on the South Rim, goes down the South Kaibab Trail, crosses the Colorado River, ascends the North Rim on the North Kaibab Trail, and then turns back around.

They covered 41.8 miles and 10,710 feet of both down and up. The record was 9:25, set by Emily Baer in 2003. The men’s record, 6:56:59, was set by Dave Mackey in 2007.

The new record for women: 9:12:29!

Even if you’re a fairly avid runner, Crosby-Helms and Moehl do this kind of stuff with metronome-like frequency.

Mouthful of Feathers Feature

Green arrives more suddenly than brown, I have decided.

A month ago, I was in southwestern Missouri buying fast-walking horses that will keep up with my bird dogs this fall. One day it rained, the kind of rain that pounds the land like an old showerhead in a fleabag motel stings your skin after a long day afield.

The next morning, it was spring. Green. The horses ate at the young grass as if they were starving. And green was on the land. We loaded our new horses into the trailer and headed out, watching the green fade from the land as we chased longitude westward, into the flat platter that is western Kansas and southeastern Colorado. The diesel outran the green, but still it came, as steadily and as consistently as a truly-talented young bird dog figures it out in his second year.

And so the green is here and yet I think about when it will leave. It will be more subtle, more of a fade than a swell of color, more of a wither than a burst. It will wane slowly in this country starting in late summer, when hoppers ratchet from baked fields.

Mouthful of Feathers Essay

I feel cheap. I feel like I owe him a lot more. I feel like I’m trying to explain sex to my son, and I just copped out and bought him a blow-up doll instead.

But it is March and the snow continues to fall and another season is so goddam far away that I have no choice but to focus on more immediate distractions and put the thought of it out of my head. I imagine that his approach is not much different.

Snow Blog Column

Snowbowl officials claim that they wish to increase skiing and snowboarding opportunities for beginner and intermediate level skiers; however, as I’ve noted above, the Lolo National Forest Management Plan explicitly states there is no need to increase local ski-area capacity to meet demand. Regardless of which party is correct, the expansion would occur on our national forest lands.

The proposed 40-year Special Use Permit would allow Montana Snowbowl to construct permanent structures on our national forest lands, for their own economic benefit. At present, the ski resort pays an annual average of only $24,000 to the Lolo National Forest for the present use and administration of 1,138 acres of public lands [4-60].

It is claimed by Snowbowl representatives that the expansion will lead to increased economic incentives for the entire Missoula community. This is a fallacy. By Snowbowl’s own admission, the majority of visitors arrive from local communities. The EIS states that the resort’s expansion would result in a “transfer of income, not a creation of income”.

Mouthful of FEathers Essay

I always thought of it simply as a hat.

In the days of my youth ‘cap’ meant a ball cap, preferably with Texas A&M embroidered on the front.

‘Hat’ meant Stetson.

If worn stained, it meant shelter from the sun on hot days and protection from the sleet and rain of winter.

Clean, with sharp corners on the brim was for dances, dominoes and Shiner beers on Saturday nights.

New West Series

The previous evening ended with a reception for the Congressional Sportsman’s Caucus, of which Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) is currently chairman. It is a fun affair, where conversations come easily and common interests seem to abound. After a day spent crisscrossing from one office to another, back and forth across the Capitol lawn, lobbying on behalf of responsible energy development, it is a welcome change of pace.

There is a rumor that the senator will make an appearance, but with Congress as hectic as it is at the moment, we know this isn’t necessarily a given.

Before the pot stickers and shrimp have fully disappeared, a man built like a cross between an NFL linebacker and a pile of bricks enters with a small entourage, and I recognize his face, of course. 

New West Series

I empty my pockets of everything, take my jacket and belt off, slide everything through a metal detector, walk through a larger one myself, and I’m in. Standing in the rotunda of one of the Senate office buildings, I’m now on my way to the first meeting of the morning with a representative from the state of Idaho, tagging along with a few other Idaho residents to present the case for responsible energy development.

Other teams from Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development representing Colorado, Montana, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona are simultaneously doing the same thing.

The building is humming with purposeful activity. We crowd into an office and wait our turn. The Congressman’s schedule is overbooked and we will be meeting with one of his staff instead, which becomes a familiar theme throughout our time here. It quickly becomes apparent that these young staff members are the real key to getting anything done here. Every member of Congress is dependent on a cadre of generally young, smart, up-and-coming aides to handle the myriad of responsibilities and commitments that one person alone could never accomplish.

New West Op-Ed and Series

When do you decide, despite how easy it may be to feel that your voice is insignificant, that it’s time to leap across the chasm that can sometimes seem to separate individuals from the decision-making process? When is it time to remind yourself, and others, that our elected representatives are public servants who work for us, and that it’s time to go talk to them?

Over the next few days, I’ll be traveling to Washington, D.C., with a group of dedicated hunters and anglers, including the individuals described above, and members of Sportsmen For Responsible Energy Development, to find out.