Fall 2005

We’ve all seen the pictures, in a dentist’s office or outdoor shop or in the living room of a friend’s house. A sleek whitetail buck bounds over a wooden fence in an effortless five-foot-high leap. A lone wolf stands amid a…

My invitation for the pack trip arrives months in advance. It’s a backcountry birthday celebration for one of my kin. There’s talk of a long ride into no-man’s land, of grizzly bears and sidearms—warnings meant, I can only…

My dog, Riley. Always loving. Always ready to be loved. Except when it came to ducks. Even then I was never quite sure about the nature, intent, or depth of his passion. I trusted him completely, though, and whenever we…

You awake before the sun, eager and excited to float the crystalline waters of the Five Rivers region in Southwest Montana. You imagine the trout slipping, hiding, and spinning beneath the foam of the Big Hole, the…

Following the paddlestrokes of Lewis and Clark. "In the beginning of this record I tried to explore the nature of journeys, how they are things in themselves, each one an individual and no two alike. I speculated with a…

A Yellowstone grizzly encounter. Every year, in September or October, my friend Chuck and I paddle the 20 miles down to the Southeast Arm of Yellowstone Lake. It is our autumn pilgrimage to a place like no other on Earth.…

A brief history of Montana's film industry.  Indelibly bound with the spirit of independence and fortitude that permeates the idea of the West is a notion of single-minded, almost blind acceptance of certain dogmata. After…

Do not ask for whom they moo or why they stand and chew and chew. They've got their plans. Their heads are clear. Their future moves from mouth to rear, somewhat like ours, like ours I mean, who see no more than what we've…

Learn about migratory birds at this year's Raptor Fest. If you've seen the film Winged Migration, you may already be familiar with the humbling feeling that comes with really noticing the remarkable endurance of migratory…

A crowd gathers near Soda Butte in Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar Valley. Four coyote pups playing outside their den have caused one of Yellowstone’s characteristic traffic jams. Observing these animals in a natural…

Want more peace of mind in the backcountry? Try pledging some of that spare change to this year’s Powder Blast on November 4th. The sixth annual event includes a chili and beer feed with live bluegrass music, held at the…

I have a young bird dog who is learning to point. Since he is a German shorthair, this would seem like trouble: the fact that he is having to learn through experience how to do that which by bloodright is already within him…

With the summer season coming to an end, autumn will soon impart its beauty in the environs of southwest Montana. In the midst of this amazing seasonal transition is the annual Tour de Hyalite, a combination trail running…

Every devout ice climber knows that autumn brings more than just golden aspens and pumpkin-carving. After the first frost hits you can pick “them” out, poking around drainage and falls around Hyalite, beaming like children…

One typical Saturday morning I found myself in the hills south of Livingston, unfolding my paraglider wing and setting off for an adventure in the warm autumn air. Daily Lake sparkled below as I sorted out the lines…

Handicapped hunters attend the Beaver Creek Rendezvous. When physically-challenged hunters in Montana want a fair shot at some game, all they have to do is call LA. Don’t dial southern California: Leonard “LA” Livingston…

WANTED: POTATO HARVESTERS FOR FALL SEASON. That’s what the classified job posting says. What I interpret is “curious person to play John Steinbeck character for awhile.” I immediately accept my idealized job description.I…

Prepping properly for the slopes.Try to remember when it happened. Almost without warning, your days as an avid outdoor bum came to an abrupt and decisive end. Graduation, marriage, a career, the desire to own a car you…

 "The selfish spirit of commerce…knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain." — Thomas JeffersonThere’s a disturbing trend going on in the battle over Bozeman’s future. A growing number of the…

Wes Schenk's working art. If you’re the type who judges a book by its cover, and therefore a shop by its exterior, you might miss out on one of the greatest living stories of the Old West. The blandly named Schenk’s Shoe…

The Icedogs won’t be the only local team at the Valley Ice Garden this season, as the Blackhawks try and wing their way into the hearts of the Bozeman area’s diehard hockey fans.Like the ‘dogs, the Blackhawks will be…

Whether you live in the Gallatin Valley or are just visiting, chances are you’ll take a self-guided excursion into the wilderness sometime soon. Regardless of the season, the outdoor opportunities around here seem limited…

On October 14-16, the third annual conference of the Northern Rockies Bioneers brings education and entertainment together in an innovative effort to help preserve the planet and the communities of humans that occupy it.…

There’s a lot of marketing directed toward food for sports participants, and as a consumer it’s often difficult to distinguish between reality and hype. Is Gatorade necessary? Is water better? Is a Power Bar better than a…

A bird's-eye view.On the river it is still dark, but above the canyon rim the starlings catch the dawn. At first they are three separate flocks, but as I watch they merge into two, then one. Like a formation of fighter jets…

You were here first.I can see why in the way the rivers don't rob you of what the streams gave.The dim rosettes on your sides live behind your spotsin another timeas if Lewis and Clark were still planning to meet nearwater…

Gittin' Western: The resulting chaos when the forces of nature and the laws of physics collide where you are standing. Duane Wiltse, upon returning to Michigan from a Wyoming hunting trip, tells his wife he has bought a…

If you've ever been in the dating world, then you know that some people are just attracted to jerks. MSU graduate Jon Axline and UM graduate Jodie Foley sure are. They're out with their second Jerks in Montana History book…

Few books say so much with so few words as Unforgettable Days Afield: Montana Hunting. This quaint coffee-table book illustrates the natural beauty surrounding both bird and big game hunting by capturing the essence of…

Just Before Dark, a collection of essays by renowned American writer Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall, Revenge) is a provocatively rendered compilation of the author’s thoughts on everything from Zen to neuroses to ice…

So you shot an elk, ate the backstraps, and made most of it into sausage and jerky. Now what to do with the odds and ends? Sure, you could make them into chili, but didn’t you do that last year? It’s time to expand your…

The perfect cast, the cutthroat rises to the hand-tied fly, and the battle royal ensues. Such is the drama of fish versus fisher, playing out on countless mountain streams in Big Sky Country through the long, lazy summer…

Going light. Every elk hunter treasures the hunting camp: the roomy wall tent, toasty woodstove, and scenic horseback ride in. But experienced hunters know that trophy elk wander far from the odors, noise, people, and…