Spring 2003

It all started in the Crazy Mountains northeast of Bozeman in the spring of 1999. It was here that Pro kayaker Ben Selznick and MSU film school graduate Arden Oksanen first teamed up as athlete and cinematographer. Oksanen…

A weekend at the Potosi Alpine Yurt. It was a curious moment on the steep hillside. After miles of rhythmic skinning in the early light of dawn, the trail turned upward. At almost the same moment that the sun broke over…

From my blocking position atop a rock outcropping, I scan the broad, sage-covered slope below. There's movement to my left. Sliding along like phantoms, a small group of horses has veered out of a narrow gully and wheeled…

Don't fight the elements.Fishing in Yellowstone wind, I've discovered how to remove a hook from my ear. I put a loop of line through the bend in the hook and jerk it out backward. While I was at a doctor's learning this the…

For sweet spring corn.Spring is one of my favorite times to ski. The days are warmer and longer, and if you hit it right, backcountry "corn" can seem like 2,000-foot groomers, without the cost or the crowds. However, to…

We are not building this country of ours for a day. It is to last through the ages. —Teddy RooseveltAs spring arrives in Montana, a possible invasion of Iraq looms on the not-so-distant horizon. Opinions vary greatly about…

Tired of the same old food when out camping? Sick of the typical smashed buns with semifrozen charred hot dogs? Just because you're outside doesn't mean your meals have to remind you of your sophomore year of college. There…

With the Nuclear Neapolitan. For me, fishing began 27 years ago, at the age of five when my family and I would thread fat nightcrawlers onto bait hooks and fish for anything that swam. Several years later I picked up a fly…

The green season's astronomical observations. Ah, spring! The time of year when robins return and gophers peep their heads out of their winter burrows with their little brains turned to thoughts of romance. But while the…

When spring returns to Montana, so does the elegant and graceful sandhill crane. Flying in from their Texas/New Mexico winter feeding grounds, flocks of cranes announce their vernal arrival with wild, trumpeting cries.…

It's spring again, the season of renewal and anticipation. In a good year, you've had your fill of snow and cold by now. There's only so much you can stand of the climbing wall and the swim center. Summer's coming, and you'…

Corn Fest comes to Cooke City. Every year in April, the sleepy town of Cooke City comes alive as backcountry aficionados swarm the town for a raucous good time known as Sweet Corn Festival. Put on each year by the Cooke…

Ideal timing, or antisocial behavior?Yellowstone Park is an enigma to the everyday citizen of Bozeman. The natural wonders it contains are unsurpassed. The wildlife, the scenery, and all the steam and bubbling mud combine…

Looking cute is important at all times and outdoor recreation is no exception! Lack of amenities while, say, spending four days camping out and rock climbing, need not prevent you from achieving optimum cuteness. The mere…

I've stripped down to a t-shirt, sitting in full sunlight on a warm May afternoon. My friends, ten-year-old Kaeli and her mom, Linda, and I have been grazing on trail mix, sandwiches, pasta salads, and other assorted snacks…

Based in Missoula, Brodin Nets has been constructing high-quality, classic landing nets since 1978, and they’ve just released a new line of products for the 2003 fishing season. The company used to manufacture their nets in…

Wenonah Canoe—Winona, MN Rogue, Rendezvouswenonah.com Kayak, schmayak! That’s been my mantra since the spring of 2000, when a friend and I ran the North Fork of the Shoshone in solo white-water canoes. The river was raging…

Sick of seeing grocery bags wrapped around tree limbs as you’re casting for trout? How about those empty Budweiser cans bobbing alongside your boat? If you prefer our local streams waste-free, then join the Gallatin Valley…

Remember seventh grade? Puberty, pimples, braces, the drama of discovering the opposite sex? The truth is, most of us were emotionally scarred by some traumatic middle-school event. But, maybe if we’d had teachers like…

Countless books have been written about Lewis and Clark’s adventures searching for the Pacific Ocean: trekking across hostile Indian lands, befriending Sacajawea, and fording treacherous rivers. Fewer books have been…