Travels With Nadia

Alice Josephine Keys White moved a half-dozen times in her childhood, but left the family homestead for good when she boarded a wagon in the Oklahoma panhandle in 1890. She caught a train in New Mexico, thinking her destination was her sister’s house in Sumner, Wash. She did make it there, but that was just the first stop in a life propelled by “Why nots?” rather than reined in by “What ifs?”

That spirit guided me as I picked a route less traveled by the cycling tourists. Against popular wisdom, I rode southeast to northwest, as her route took her. That pointed me into the prevailing breeze as I picked my way across the Rockies, Wasatch, Sawtooth and Cascade ranges. It drenched me in sun and parched my skin as I crossed the big flats—prairie in Oklahoma, lava beds in Idaho and huge agricultural valleys of San Luis in Colorado and Yakima in Washington.

I don’t know that much about Josie except that she was a woman who did things, she didn’t just talk about doing them. Her obituary remembered her as a crack shot with a .22, a mountain climber and a dead-on bowler, of all things. The few photographs I have of her tie her to action – a bowling team, a tennis team, on a rock in a raging river my grandfather at her lap, at a mountain camp armed with shovel and rifle.

She would not have talked about getting to know her great grandmother. She would have gone and sought her out. So it was that I felt the hot hiss of air when I plucked the first goathead thorn out of my tire in northern New Mexico; that on a day with temperatures in the high 90s I ran my hand across ice in a cave in Idaho; that I tasted the ocean in the wind as I turned to face the Columbia River.

The power of place is so often celebrated. On this ride with Josie, I am as interested in the space in between.  What connects here to there? What’s between leaving and arriving?  I think a lot about the genetic material that binds one generation to the next. What made Josie move so often? How does her sense of adventure at the start of the 20th century play out in me at the start of the 21st?

Happenings Around Missoula

In a celebration with roots that extend to the 19th century, the Arlee Powwow shifted into its Old Style Day Thursday night. 

But the Fourth of July Powwow’s path to its 112th iteration had a notorious rocky start. Robert Bigart, who edited “Over a Century of Moving to the Drum: Salish Indian Celebrations on the Flathead Indian Reservation,” writes in a program introduction, “In the 1890’s…traditional Indian dances were illegal under Bureau of Indian Affairs rules and the Indian police and Flathead Indian Agent Peter Ronan used the threat of U.S. Army intervention to break up the dance.”

It survived Agent Ronan, masked then as a Fourth of July celebration.

EARTH TO FOREST SERVICE: YOUR PLAN CAN'T WORK

The Forest Service (FS) still clings to the fallacy of ATVers and hikers/bikers peacefully and safely sharing the same trail. And that it can write a travel plan that pleases everybody when in reality it’s almost guaranteed to please nobody.

Case in point. The Superior Ranger District of the Lolo National Forest has just released a long-awaited “scoping notice” for a 30-mile rail trail in western Montana, running from Taft to St. Regis along the abandoned Milwaukee Road railbed. This proposed trail, tentatively named the Route of the Olympian after a historic train, could extend the extremely popular Route of the Hiawatha bicycle trail, which runs 17 miles on the same railbed, over 4 trestles and through 9 tunnels, from Taft, Montana to Pearson, Idaho. What a great idea. We could have a spectacular, 47-mile rail trail that would attract cyclists from all over the world, promote healthful outdoor activities and booster local travel-related businesses.

ONLY TWO STATES NOT INTERESTED

There’s no such thing as “too big to fail” at the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA).

Formed back on America’s Bicentennial in 1976, the Missoula-based nonprofit has long ago become the nation’s leader in providing advice, maps and detailed route information for long-distance cyclists, including the development of an extensive system of signature bicycle routes for both self-contained riders and those who like a hot shower and soft bed every night.

Now, energized by its past success and undaunted by dwindling government budgets or the sheer massiveness of its new project, ACA has started, in partnership with state transportation agencies, planning and coordinating the U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS). 

WE NEED YOUR HELP WITH BURLINGTON NORTHERN SANTA FE

Dear Mr. Buffett:

I read with interest and glee about your recent acquisition of the majority ownership in Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). Congratulations on buying a great company--investment wise, I should clarify, because BNSF is a not-so-great company on the public relations front.

Now that you own the railroad, you can change that bad image with one phone call and instantly make your new acquisition--and yourself, of course--a corporate saint out here in Montana.

PRATICAL TIPS FOR MAKING A GOOD CHOICE

So, you’ve finally decided to take that fishing trip of a lifetime--to Alaska, Canada, Patagonia, the Caribbean or another exotic location. Now, be sure you choose the right lodge.

The cost is always key, of course, but hardly the only concern. Regardless of your passion--bonefish, tarpon, muskie, salmon, monster rainbows or pike, whatever--you don’t want your long-awaited (and deserved, right?) vacation to turn into a stressful and costly disappointment.

If you’re a do-it-yourself type of guy, this column isn’t for you, but if you decide to stay at a fishing lodge and have a guided adventure, finding the right outfitter and avoiding problems along the way can be challenging. I’m hardly an expert, but I’ve stayed at a dozen or more lodges through the years.  Along the way, I’ve picked up a few tips that might be helpful.

MICROBREW MONTANA

For craft beer lovers, Bozeman was rocking Friday night, October 23, when about 900 people crowded into exhibition buildings at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds for the first-ever Octoberfest sponsored by the Montana Brewer’s Association (MBA).

All seventeen brewery members of the organization were on hand featuring their favorite brews, 54 choices in all, and since I was among the 900, I can testify to the fact that the crowd loved every minute--and every ounce--of it.

SASKATCHEWAN FISHING LODGES

UPDATED NOVEMBER 2, 2010: I am so sad to report that a July forest fire burnt Foster Lake Lodge to the ground. There are no immediate plans to re-built it.--Bill Schneider

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.

BEAVER CREEK BREWERY ROCKS

Have you ever tried to convince yourself that you had a bad idea; that wouldn’t turn out as planned; might even be dangerous; and definitely wouldn’t be fun.

That’s how Gene Colling and I were feeling as we inched into Wibaux, Montana. We were on our way to Minnesota for some muskie hunting, and I’d convinced Gene we should take the opportunity to see the only microbrewery I hadn’t visited while doing my Microbrew Montana Series last year.

He agreed, somewhat reluctantly, and I had to admit, the first impression wasn’t great. Wibaux, population 481, like thousands of small prairie towns, looks a little rough around the edges as it tries to find a way to survive.

But those concerns vanished as soon as we walked through the door of the Beaver Creek Brewery.

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.