Good By and Good Riddance...Hooray!!!!

Riding into the sunset of what turned out a not so hot year, always the eternal optimist I look forward to a big turn around in 2010...good luck, eh?

Oh well, the past year did at least start off with a bang, as we spent the entire month of January bird bumming around the Arizona outback in search of quails and such. Staying the month was not only a big surprise to both Gale and me an even bigger surprise was how easy life with two dogs and a small trailer turned out. I can't recall a single significant crisis the entire time.

From there however things took a distinct downturn culminating I guess with the very real slap in the face the day my Medicare card arrived in the mail...like holy shit, you really are getting old...In between we endured getting screwed big time by outfitter buddy...OK I won't go there only because I don't want to lower myself to his lowlife friggin' level...2009 was without question our worst fishing season, if not ever, certainly in recent memory...not only did we not get out that often it seemed every time something happened to dust the deal...cows trashing our favorite little crick...everywhere we went others beat us to it...favorite campsites already taken...but the topper was the fishing for the most part bordered on grim...the only really good day I recall was the day Gale landed a really big cutt up at No Name Lake...you guessed it, Johnny on the Spot was none other than a guy from Idaho...why not...the bird season started out slow then picked up to more or less tolerable, then we endured a grim week west of Havre but later enjoyed a really fine week up Malta way...then winter hit and hunting around home mostly hit rock bottom, of late we hardly buy a bird just for the dogs to point...

On another track our photo/writing careers pretty much tanked, lots of rejected queries, very few photo sold, Great Places isn't selling worth crap, news the other day I'll only be writing 8 Sagebrush News columns instead of 12 and then yesterday I found out a feature piece scheduled for Nov/Dec09 has been bumped at least to May/June 2010. I'm afraid to ask same editor what might happen to the conservation feature submitted recently...and then there was the royal screwing we got from our doctor buddy...OK, enough, by now I'm sure you get it and understand quite clearly why I headlined this rant thusly...Happy New Year...we can only hope...right? Right.

More from Great Places Montana

It seems Montanans as a whole are more likely to rave about our mountain-man cum cowboy roots than talk about the ravages that the cut-and-run mining industry wreaked upon the landscape and left behind for future generations, as happens way too often.

It seems too we are most proud of our incredible wildlife heritage; everything from grizzly bears and bison to tundra swans and relic sage grouse.

It seems also we are quite proud of our wild lands, natural lands, such as found in our two National Parks--Glacier and Yellowstone--and our 21 National Wildlife Refuges,attendant Waterfowl Production Areas and our many state parks and wildlife management areas.

And rightly so.

Given that a large majority of our residents spend far more time outdoors than in; that something like one in four hunt and even a larger percentage fish, to say nothing of the thousands who hike, bird watch,climb mountains, mountain bike, camp, canoe, picnic and otherwise just like to kick back under our high, wide and handsome big sky.

Between the covers of Great Places Montana you won't find it all but I guarantee the wealth of information we've gathered here will more than get you started.

Happy Trails.

A River Runs Through It

In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in Western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.

Thus begins the book that would become a blockbuster movie that would forever change the sport of fly fishing...Good or bad remains of course open for debate and a discourse I for one have a strong opinion--but since no one will listen anyway and not withstanding anything I say will not change things one iota, I will leave it go and just say that the book is among my all time favorites and if...if you haven't yet, trust me you are as they say missin' it big time. Besides a great story line the book is filled with wonderful passages:

Poets talk about spots of time but it is really the fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment. No can tell what a spot of time is until suddenly the whole world is a fish and the fish is gone. I shall remember that son of a bitch forever.

Eventually all things merge into one and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.

See what I mean.

Great Places Montana

We published Great Places (Wilderness Adventures Press) last spring. Subtitled A Recreational Guide to Montana's Public Lands and Historical Places for Birding, Hiking, Photography, Fishing, Hunting and Camping, our intention was/is to inform readers of the many and varied recreational opportunities to be found the length and breadth of Big Sky Country. For whatever reasons the publisher chose to emphasize Birding and to a lesser extent hiking, camping and photography, while de-emphazing hunting and fishing. So be it but...since the book came out we have made it point to re-visit many of the spots depicted in the book with emphasis on hunting, upland bird hunting especially, and fishing...

Since we already knew pretty much what to expect--that is many of the Great Places are also great hunting and fishing spots--there is not much news for us. But since some of you might not know what to expect, as this blog evolves I'll do my best to fill you on the high points.