Spring 2012

Features

  • Sweet Spring Fever

    Stretching winter's legs, finally.By mid-March, most Bozeman residents have had just about enough of cold weather. The days are getting longer, and it’s finally time to head outdoors for a little sunshine. Sadly, our…
  • To the Rescue

    Swiftwater training in southwest Montana. Arriving at Thumper Rapid on the upper Gallatin, our team spots an unconscious kayaker stranded on a rock in the middle of the whitewater. He’s in a section of river surrounded by…
  • Chasing the Golden Beast

    It seems pretty strange that in a beautiful state like Montana—replete with pristine lakes, rivers, and streams chock full of beautiful brown, rainbow, and cutthroat trout—groups of fly-fishing bums would be excitedly…

Departments

  • Killer Glutes

    With ski season on the horizon, it’s time to get those ski/snowboard/nordic legs ready—try these exercises to improve your cardio strength, stamina, agility, and balance before the snow flies. High Intensity Interval…
  • Howling Good Times

    Looking to get in on the wolf-watching action around Yellowstone Park? Here are some resources to get you started. Yellowstone Safari CompanyOffers private, customized, wolf-viewing safaris from one to five days with…
  • Border Country

    What happens when you find yourself needing a change of pace, a different outdoor backdrop, or just need to run into some new faces? Satisfy your hunger for variety by heading south, to the border towns of West Yellowstone…
  • Three Dog Night

    Chasing canines with the Yellowstone Forever Institute. There are wolves in the compound. As I step onto my cabin porch during my first night at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch, one of the volunteers tells me he saw one. While I’…
  • Our Infinite Variety

    My friend threw an elbow into my ribs. “Shut up,” he said through clenched teeth. The usual chatter of the crag had ceased and half a dozen people froze to stare upward, jaws hanging limp and eyes unblinking. “He’s climbing…
  • Let's Get Digital

    You wanted it, you got it—a few issues ago, we caved to readers’ clamoring and began publishing a digital edition. Here are the articles that got the most attention at digital.outsidebozeman.com last issue: Top Dogs. We…
  • Letters - Spring 2012

    One of the O/B editorial department’s favorite activities is calling bullshit—on wannabe posers, ridiculous trends, shameless marketing spin, and any other assaults on reason and our collective common sense. Which is…
  • Please, Leave a Trace

    We’ve all seen them. Like a herd of placid bovines at the feed pile, their Subys line up at the trailhead lot, so caked with dust and mud that you can barely read the Sierra Club, WWF, and “Live Simple So Others Can Simply…
  • Local Longbeards

    Wild turkeys, not unlike the namesake whiskey, can bring an otherwise sane person to the heights of elation, the depths of depression, or the brink of madness. Fortunately for sportsmen (and their significant others),…
  • Gopher-Shooting, Anyone?

    A treasured Montana pastime. Sure, any joker can lay down a pile of bucks to harvest a giant bull on the Flyin’ D, and there are more than enough “grip and grin” shows on cable outdoor channels. However, in Montana, one of…
  • Royalty in the Batholith

    Climbing the King & Queen. From the interstate, the King and Queen stick out like a wart in the wooded hillside of the Boulder Batholith. With little precipitation and drive-up access, this multiseason crag boasts great…
  • K9 9K

    And they call it puppy love… On May 19, team up with Bozeman Canine Classic for the K9 9K, a dog party, mixed-species footrace, and alliterative palindrome all in one. Participate in a 5.5-mile run or a 1-mile fun run/walk…
  • Perfect Provisions

    Nutrition is rapidly gaining popular interest, and food companies are under pressure to increase the quality of their ingredients. The pet-food industry alone has annual sales over one billion dollars, and, like human food…
  • Snakes on a Plain

    As the world begins to sprout and bloom, the days and nights are better for strolling—but watch your step, for rattlesnakes and other wriggly reptiles are emerging from their lairs to sun themselves into activity once again…
  • Seeing Stars

    Night owls, rejoice! The Southwest Montana Astronomical Society (SMAS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to amateur astronomy and the study of the universe, holds meetings each month at the Museum of the Rockies. Meetings…
  • Pluggin' Cheerios

    The Cheerio Plugger is a cool carp pattern that is similar, but with a few tweaks and an addition or two, to Jay Zimmerman’s Backstabber. I like this pattern better than Jay’s and it’s great for taking carp in every water…
  • Fish First

    The hardest part of shooting fishing photos: I would rather be fishing. So if I’m putting my rod down to take pictures, I like to concentrate and take really good ones. Here are some hints to help you make the most of your…
  • Ice Out

    It was the kind of winter that keeps you indoors. A sullen one, with low clouds in the sky, clouds that threaten snow, but do not produce. The mountains were cloaked, buried in fluffy grayness; but down on the valley there…
  • Outdoor Equilibrium

    Finding balance in outdoor adventure. Like many before me, I arrived in Bozeman full of proverbial piss and vinegar: a rabid recreationalist, indiscriminately attacking every outdoor adventure possible. My drive far…
  • Fish On

    Springtime is back, which means one thing: the fisherman (or fisherwoman) in your life will be coming home with a creel full of fresh fish. Here’s a simple and delicious way to prepare your next meal. Whole Trout Poached…
  • A Peek Inside

    Raindrops slither down the window as you stare outside, searching the sky for a break in the clouds. No such luck—it’s grey as whale skin. The thermometer reads a frigid 40 degrees; you can only imagine how much colder it…
  • Shoulder to Lean on

    As we make the transition from snow to spring runoff, it’s time to get those shoulders in check. The shoulder is the most unstable joint in the body and prone to a variety of injuries, especially if you participate in…
  • Water on the Brain

    You’ve run shuttle and you’re sliding into your boat at the put-in. The water level is about what you expected and you can see the entry to the first rapid, remembering that you need to start left and then cut right after…
  • MOSS Watershed Festival

    If you need help fostering a love of the outdoors instead of a fascination with computers, bring the young’uns out to the Bozeman Fish Technology Center for the Watershed Festival. Hosted by Montana Outdoor Science School (…
  • Natural Connection

    Learning and growing in nature.Many of us have memories of playing outside as children—my brother and I, for example, loved the old oak tree near our house. Its large limbs bent down to the ground; we’d scoot through the…
  • The Last Roundup

    Catch the tail end of a bona fide Western tradition and head to Three Forks between May 3 and 6—that should put you smack in the middle of some serious cowboy camaraderie and adrenaline, as riders trail horses thundering…
  • My Addiction

    Come spring I am starved for a fix. I tremble like an addict fumbling with my head kit: blood knots, surgeon’s loops, clinch knots, longing to get bent, baked, jacked up, amped to find the perfect jolt of energy from a…
  • Water World

    There are photographers who are born to take pictures of the natural world. Discovering their passion at a young age, they spend hours outside experimenting with their parents’ cameras, idolizing outdoor-photography icons…
  • Roll Over, Beethoven

    Lingo for Bozemanite-dogs. Few communities are more dog-friendly than Bozeman. Everywhere you look, it seems there’s a dog waiting for the next hike, bike, ski, or float—and that’s a good thing. But with all this dog…
  • Sweet Grass Staycation

    Flanked by the Absaroka-Beartooths and the Crazy Mountains, the town of Big Timber sits at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Boulder rivers, serving as a great starting point for a multi-day adventure. It’s a quiet,…
  • Steering by the Sky

    Let’s say you’ve been kidnapped—God knows why. You’re tossed into a trunk, driven an interminable time, and dropped off in the middle of nowhere with only a jacket, a bottle of water, and two sticks of gum. Night is falling…
  • Harrison Bird Habitat

    Harrison Lake, aka Willow Creek Reservoir, just east of Harrison in the Madison Valley, is now formally an Important Bird Area (IBA)—the 40th IBA in Montana. The Harrison area has a diversity of species, including transient…
  • Winged Migration

    It’s not really spring until the birds return.According to the Montana Audubon Society, the official Montana bird list contains 427 species, ranging from birds of prey such as the golden eagle, to shorebirds and waterfowl,…
  • Montana Multisport

    A Three Forks threesome. When Saturday dawns warm and bright and outdoor ambitions rise within you like spring snowmelt, it’s time for a Montana multisport: two or more outdoor activities spliced into a single day of fun…

Gear Reviews

  • Review: Ibex Shak Full Zip

    With a clean cut and versatile layering options, the Ibex Shak Full Zip is a 24/7 kind of jacket. Form-fitting but with classic lines, the Shak kept me comfortable in the office during the week and cozy as a mid-layer on…
  • Review: TitanStraps

    Every once in a while, you’ll see a cool product and say to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” So it is with TitanStraps, the burly, multipurpose straps engineered right here in Bozeman by outdoor photographer Cameron…
  • Review: One Rod and 4250 Reel

    Made with Konnetic technology (whatever that is), the Sage One rod with 4250 large arbor reel and RIO Gold fly line is a sleek and even stylish rod. I used the 590-4, which is a four-piece, nine-foot, 5-weight rod. Matched…

Book Reviews

  • Top Shelf Books

    Dozens of books make it across the O/B editorial desk every season—here’s the cream of the crop. These spring selections are guaranteed to get you in the outdoor mood, regardless of how crappy the weather may be. It can be…

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