Fall 2009

Recently I challenged myself to explore bike rides that could start from my front door. There are two benefits to this. The first is that I get to spend more time riding and less time driving. The second is that after a…

Mishap on the Madison. It all took place within seconds. Entering a bend in a fast chute of water, the current grabbed the canoe, slammed it into the bank, and started pulling us down. Water poured over the gunnels as the…

No one seems to have ever tallied the deaths of mountaineers in Montana over the course of the state’s history. A safe bet, however, is that far fewer climbers have died on mountains in the Treasure State than on Mount…

Fanning out across the field, a dog in front of each of us, we move slowly, deliberately, through the hayfield’s saffron stubble. It’s late morning in the lower Madison Valley; the sky is clear and bright, with a cool,…

Rock Climbs of Southwest Montana vs. Bozeman Rock Climbs. For the last 14 years, the premiere climbing guidebook for Bozeman climbers has been Rock Climbing Montana—a compendium of 70 routes with topo maps that are roughly…

Congrats, Bozeman parents, your kids are gonna be like you after all. Backpacker magazine just ranked Bozeman number 18 on its list of the best 25 towns in which to raise an outdoor kid. Can you blame them? We’ve got…

Teenagers get a bad rap—double if they're teenage girls. Just ask around. Their music is bad. They thrive on gossip. They have no sense of the world outside of their iPods and Facebook profiles.But if that were really true…

One of the great boondoggle opportunities from working in the outdoor industry is going to trade shows filled with shiny new toys and lots of free beer. This summer, some 18,000 people converged on the floor of Salt Lake…

Any southwest Montanan would agree that the Madison River is one of the best local playgrounds around, which is really saying something in our neck of the woods. But there’s a possibility we could see some changes on…

For the fisherman, fall is a transition from some of the best dry-fly fishing of the year to some of the best streamer fishing of the year. Typically we think of big, gaudy, nasty streamers for the fall, and make no mistake…

The vision started four years ago. “We were originally working with the city of Livingston to develop community gardens close to the cemetery, so we got very involved and formed a nonprofit to help fund it,” says Linda Mahr…

I take a great deal of pride, as you should too this season, in using the whole animal and all its unique cuts. Any knucklehead can cut a few steaks and roasts, then grind the rest, throw out the bones, and be done with it…

Landscaping with fish and rivers in mind. Every yard in Montana is part of a local watershed that ends up in our world-class trout waters, which means that with population growth comes more sources of water pollution and…

We knew it would happen. Put out a call for dog photos in this town, expect a cavalcade of images celebrating Bozeman’s most beloved beast. And that’s exactly what we got: dozens of photos and stories honoring those canine…

Having a little place out in the woods—even if it's just four walls and a roof—can be one of life’s great pleasures. It's a place to rest, think, hide, hunt, and have fun. But it's about to get mighty cold out there, and…

During hunting season in the backwoods of Montana, it’s not all that rare to run into a chick with a gun, or a bow for that matter. Plenty of female hunters stock the freezer, sometimes during years when their husbands come…

Martial arts training develops key areas of athletic fitness: strength, speed, agility, flexibility, and stamina. This is especially true of modern Taekwondo, with its noted emphasis on kicking. But did you know that…

This fall, the Downtown Bozeman Partnership is preparing to give the city commission a draft of a plan to enhance the downtown area. The 44-page document, called the Downtown Improvement Plan, proposes a variety of…

Hunting turkeys in southwest Montana. As the American Thanksgiving celebration becomes less like a Norman Rockwell painting and more like a Chevy Chase movie, we here in Big Sky country have the unique opportunity to…

Navigating a hunter's lexicon. Accidentally walking into an outdoor shop during hunting season is like accidentally wandering into the Miami public bus terminal: everyone’s speaking a different language, and there’s a…

Two summers ago, if anyone recalls, presented recreationists around the Bozone with an unprecedented dilemma: gas prices soaring to $4.00. This meant many things to many people. To me and some of my fishing friends, high…

Barring judicial intervention, on September 15 the State of Montana is set to begin its first-ever hunt of gray wolves as a species in need of management, hunted in a fair-chase manner much like big-game species. Their…

It’s a miracle that Bozeman locals Simon Clemens, Eric Kuntzelman, and Trevor Olson are alive. No, they didn’t get swine flu. It’s just that the Montana-raised trio have been flirting with danger since before they were old…

Acknowledging the sacred of bonfires. Embers trail spiraling molten streamers, lingering in the space between firelight and darkness. Below, flames snap the cadence of autumn: sharp and clean and warm. Coals shimmer and…

This past summer, the Gallatin County Park Commission and the Gallatin County Planning Board completed the next step in the county’s comprehensive park and trail planning process. With the assistance of Chris Seifert from…

Halloween is that wonderful day of the year when it's okay to dress up like a jackass and then bang on strangers' doors like cops on a meth bust. We like to do that on weekends over at the senior center, but because…

Purists call it disc golf. Folfers call disc golfers “Californians.” And disc golfers who overhear Frisbee golfers call it “folf” call them “posers.” Whatever it’s called, now players, purists, and posers alike can fling a…

Two of Bozeman photographer Daniel J. Cox's images have made the cover of National Geographic in the past eight years, a success most photographers can only dream of. The images in his 2005 National Geographic feature on…

Every day, one stalwart citizen does the right thing while another acts like a blithering bonehead. Here's a recap of admirable acts and embarrassing blunders for the the past season. Champs:The Gallatin Valley Land Trust…

I took the Mystery Ranch Snapdragon on a full-day trail hike; on a long, steep approach to an alpine climb; and on an all-day, off-trail scouting trip deep in the wilderness. The Snapdragon did what Mystery Ranch packs are…

I started out your average dirtbag climber, only able to afford a set of stoppers. They were a little awkward, and more work than I’d like, but they got the job done. Then I bought my first cam. It opened up a brand new…

My friends called it the funniest noise I’ve ever made. It was a strange, girlish, primal scream, as I was 10 feet above my last bolt, frantically trying to clip the next one above my head. Pumped out of my mind, I reached…

Yet another picture-book worth picking up is A Pictorial Souvenir of Yellowstone (Riverbend Publishing, $15) by Nelson Erickson. Yellowstone books are a dime a dozen, no doubt; but what makes this one different is a…

Nathan Jorgenson’s The Mulligan (Flat Rock Publishing, $17) is a novel that will resonate with all those who came to Montana to live the good life, not waste precious heartbeats in the pursuit of money and material…

Haunted Montana (Riverbend Publishing, $13) is a ghost hunter’s guide to haunted places throughout our state. Author Karen Stevens combines her skills as a research librarian and her extensive paranormal knowledge to create…

A more modern—and to many, just as wicked—crime familiar to outdoors folk across Montana is the ongoing attempt to despoil the state’s rivers by industrial and commercial interests. Saving Homewaters: The Story of Montana's…

Regional history is even more vividly showcased in two recent installments of the Images of America series (Arcadia Publishing, $20-$22 depending on the title). Both the West Yellowstone and Bozeman iterations, by Paul Shea…