Summer 2001

I wake, shove down my sleeping bag, and pull on my shirt and shorts. Unzipping the tent, I crawl to the door and peer out. It's damp and still following the night's drizzle. I pull on a fleece jacket and snug on my boots.…

Sure, you could drive north to Martinsdale or Canyon Ferry Lake, east to Harrison Reservoir, or south to Ennis or Hebgen Lakes and probably find wind. A wind phone service will even tell you how hard it’s blowing at some of…

Slowing down to smell the roses.The caddis come out of nowhere, streaming up the bank in thick, buff-colored waves. One moment, it's calm, nary a bug in sight; the next, a burst of fluttering wings. As the wind drives them…

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life." —Teddy RooseveltFew people enjoy summer more than Montanans. After a long, hard winter, when cabin fever rages and our bodies are…

In a historical sketch written in the 1890s, Danish immigrant Peter Koch described what he had observed earlier during his tramps about the Gallatin Valley in the 1870s. However, he said, most of the physical evidence of…

Dissecting the Carhartt craze. In 1889, Hamilton Carhartt started making pants. They were no ordinary pants, though. Designed to "endure the rigors of a hard day’s work," they were constructed with the heaviest, most…

If you've never seen the northern lights – and almost 95% of Earth's population hasn't – this year may be your best chance. Massive surges of solar activity are blasting Earth with more magnetic energy than it's felt in 20…

I still remember the valley the way I first saw it as a kid. It had been a long heavy winter when finally, spring arrived, tentative and coy. Then the large, open fields near our house exploded with wildflower blues and…

My mom descended from the Vikings. If you had seen her crossing the finish line of the 1998 Bridger Ridge Run you would not doubt this fact. After racing the 20 rugged miles of relentless hills and shoe-shredding scree, her…

Hot, bluish-black smoke billowed from the end of the buzzing sawblade and swirled about me, permeating my clothes and hair. Chunks of disemboweled wood sprayed out in all directions, sticking to the sweat on my arms and…

If you’re looking to ride some different trails this summer, check out Big Sky. It has more accessible downhill runs and singletrack than anywhere in the region. While most of the terrain is for advanced riders, there are…

Ok, you’ve made the big investment and bought a boat. Then you had to buy paddles, maybe a sprayskirt or a frame, then a helmet and a PFD. Your wallet’s thin enough to shave with, but you still need outerwear. Something…

A boat’s a boat, right? That’s what we thought. Then we took Yellowstone Drifter's new 16-foot Guide Boat out for a day on the lower Madison. Wide, roomy, and extremely stable, the Guide Boat drew just four inches of water…

Behind the stockyards trout are taking nymphs, so you ditch the evening news and hit the stream. On the first cast you get a rainbow, a piggish wallowing blimp of a fish. It’s headed for the biker bar downstream and into…

In the deep green world of its backcountry, a hiker with a small pair of binoculars and an alert nature will get to know, up close and personal, many of the birds of Yellowstone Park. Along the streams fringed with willow…

It’s 10:00 a.m. on a bright summer day near Yellowstone National Park, and a young golden grizzly bear scampers across the hillside. He tumbles down the bank, landing sideways and ready for his sister to pounce. It’s…

Shoot the moon. That’s what Bozeman writer David Quammen attempts in his 700-page environmental epic, Song of the Dodo. It’s big, but in that space he manages to travel to the most remote spots on earth, chronicle wild…