Spring Colors in Glacier Country, Montana

A Quick Guide to 5 fun days in and around Glacier Park

2025 Important Updates for Vehicle Entry East Side Glacier Park

I remember doing the radio show in the nineties. The Hi Line Sportsman it was called. I did an anti-environmental commentary for five to ten minutes a couple times a week. Back in those days I was a pissed off permittee of the Unites States Forest Cervix, and pissed off and pissed on I was. Truth be known, I did most of the pissing and in fairness to the whole deal I was, how should I put this, given a whole lot of latitude. But that was then and this is now although I do recall taking lots of shots at the University of Montana or as I not very fondly referred to it as "the school of nuts and raisins." Between the professional apparatus at the U pumping out up and coming bureaucrats into the system and my inability to survive as a servant of that mentally vacuous machine I lost the war. I still get pissed off thinking about that but time does have a way of softening past blows and things change. Like, here I am, in Missoula, Montana, a bunch of years later (doing graduate work) and it ain't as bad as I thought it might be. Granted, I'm not ensconced in the bowels of the school of natural resources every day listening to the drivel of the environmental aristocracy lecturing to their worshiping, brainwashed pupils. Thank God. Truth be known, I do have relapses of PTSD as I work my through the smattering of mare hippies waiting for their sushi and latte in the UC cafeteria. I can smell 'em a mile away. That said, I've mellowed, I can live with 'em, at a distance! I shudder to think they'll be part of that corporate natural resource intelligentsia, that part of which is still so foreign, and yes, repulsive to me. But, I've mellowed, changed. Nevertheless, the following are some thoughts on the whole matter and more. I'm still a huge fan of "Range" magazine, the bible of the American West. There isn't a day that goes by when an issue of some critical nature, whether it be wolves, climate change, private property rights, endangered species, etc. and although I may listen to any number of opinions myself, and even have a few, I ultimately lean back on the words of wisdom of "Range." "Range is an award winning quarterly devoted to the issues that threaten the American West, its people, lifestyles, lands, and wildlife. Range is a leading forum for opposing viewpoints in the search for solutions that will halt the depletion of a national resource- the American cowboy." Range is where I go to when I'm confused, angry, or even bitter. I can't look to books, lectures, and the pontification of professional intellectuals for wisdom. I look to the working men and women on the ground on the front lines. The search for true wisdom comes from the men or women who've battled in the trenches of real life on farms and ranches from coast to coast. Their stories are written on the pages of "Range" magazine every other month. I urge you to google them up and see for yourself. The wolf issue in the American West has died down quite a bit. I can recall the subject first getting broached with me at a meeting some Forest Service officials in the backcountry in the late 1980's. I think they thought I was of a new breed of cat, forward thinking, and probably amenable to the new world order of wolf reintroduction and recovery in the American West. That evening may have been the beginning of my undoing as a new, fresh faced permittee of the corporation. I'd only seen a few wolves up to that point in my entire life and it wasn't the wolf itself that initially ran shivers down my spine, it was the attendant flood of bureaucracy that I knew would follow. The wolf issue has always been as much about the role of an alien societal presence and role of government in our lives as it has been about just the presence of the wolf itself. That conflict still rages, even when it isn't making headlines. That's further reason why you should always go to bed with the "bible" of the American West on your nightstand. And back to the county and town of Missoula, Montana. Prior to my first school year in town I did have some apprehension about the liberal bias and makeup of the community, and certainly the university. My nervousness hasn't been justified by the experience I've had in "Zootown." With only some to be expected exceptions, living in and going to school in Missoula has been a pleasure. I've found the town to be a hardworking, middle class enclave surrounding a university that hasn't lived up to the wacky reputation I gave it. I'm all for good discussion and intelligent discourse on almost any issue and a university atmosphere is the perfect place for that. I've met quite a few students and professionals from every discipline the college has to offer and have yet to have a heated, unreasonable discussion with anyone. Missoula is growing at a reasonable rate, real estate prices seem to be in the norm, and trophy homes and gated communities haven't yet found fertile ground for germination. Yeah, there's always a rub. That lack of uber-wealth in Missoula and the surrounding area is a good thing. Take a look at Gallatin County and the town of Bozeman and you're staring at a phenomenon that is as much a threat to the quality of life in the American West as the advent of wolf generation was twenty years ago. It wasn't too many years ago and a ranch was worth what a ranch was worth. That is, it was worth the price of the buildings, the number of cows, and the amount of land. Oh to be sure, there were other items of value like water rights, hay meadows, road access, and the like. That's changed. Have you taken a look at the value of working ranches now, in 2015? Well, once they're sold, the majority of them won't be working ranches anymore. The working ranch and the families that have operated them for more than two centuries are slowly but surely disappearing, the casualties of the erosion of the family farm and ranch to the mega wealth of American society. I know that's a tough one to get your head wrapped around. Success has always been wrapped up in the American dream, work hard and get rich. I see that but I don't get it. The plain fact of the matter is that large farms and ranches are being bought up, fenced off, and taken out of production, In many cases, the owners become absentee landlords, hire a caretaker, and visit when the weather is good, the trout fishing is at it's peak, and the skiing is at its best. Now how in the hell does that square up with the very wisdom we were looking at when I started this rant? It doesn't. And all I can hope is that you get yourself a copy of Range magazine right now. Then get a subscription, and get a real job.

North to Polar Bears, South to Old Mexico It's about time. A gallon of gas in Montana can be had for a buck 98 now. That's a helluva deal. Diana just got home from her annual winter trip to Aruba and filled up the Mercedes for less than a hundred bucks. That's about half of what we were paying for a tank of gas just this past summer. The price of gas is making everyone feel pretty good. More money to buy beer. When you think about it, a six pack of cheap beer, say Keystone for example, is about twice as expensive as a gallon of gas. That's cool. I always know there was a correlation between beer and gasoline. Makes perfect sense doesn't it? I doubt you're following my train of thought on the subject and you're probably wondering what the hell I'm talking about. Well, I'm not too sure myself but I'll give it a better go. Ready? Alright, so we're getting gasoline at the pump at prices we haven't seen since the last century. And we are feeling pretty good about that. We've got a few extra bucks lying around and the economy is picking up even more steam as we slowly but surely emerge from the recent economic slump. The price of oil has a lot of influence on the overall economic health of not only our economy and well being but as well on the international economic picture. Let's face it, on those levels, oil is the world's drug of choice. We get high when there's lots of it and go into withdrawal when it's scarce. For the time being, however, let's just assume that we're on a good roll that may last a while. Life is good at the pump. Keep on pumping. I know what happens when gas is cheap. Guess. We consume a hell of a lot more of it than we do when it's above three dollars a gallon. I've gone months without filling up my truck and forking over a hundred and fifty bucks at $3.89 s gallon. That's a chunk of change I don't always have handy. Now, hell, I won't think twice about filling up and heading down the highway for business or pleasure. I've got people and places I want to go see now that I can afford to. (And by the way, I was just pulling your drawers about Diana going to Aruba on holiday. She went to East Glacier to get the mail). The problem with that nifty scenario is that when gas is cheap and life is good we do act like a society of junkies. And you know what Neil Young said about that don't 'ya? "Every junkie's like a setting sun, (Needle and the Damage Done, 1970)." I may be acting a bit melodramatic at this point but I can't help but be thinking about Keystone Beer and Keystone Oil. Shouldn't the oil cost more than the beer? If we're tallkin' Michelob Ultra, or better yet, Moose Drool, our local favorite, I'd be drinking oil. There's the rub. We'll be consuming oil like it's a premier beer unless and until the price of oil goes back up to where it should be. I know, you're ready to kick my ass. Why in the hell do I want to see the price of oil to get high and stay high? Well, it's because many years ago I did one of the greatest hunts of my lifetime in the far northeast corner of Alberta, hard up against the Northwest Territories border and not far from Saskatchewan. That trip to the bush of Alberta was one of the highlights of my life. We hunted out of a small cabin on a remote lake, only reachable by float plane. And we were in the bush, as they say. There wasn't much in the way of civilization in front of us, in back, or to the side of us for hundreds of miles. I think Great Slave Lake was somewhere between us and the Arctic Circle. And when I sauntered off for a morning hunt I was pretty darned careful about checking my back track, not wanting to to be spending the winter holed up in a polar bear den. I hunted some of the most beautiful, primitive country I'd ever been in up to that point in my life. And to top that off, I killed a big bull moose that to this day hangs on the wall of our ranch house in Montana. The kicker to that story is that where I hunted that weekend in Alberta more than twenty years ago is where the oil for the Keystone Oil Pipeline is coming from. I'ts coming from the Alberta Tar Sands. I've thought on many occasions what that country might look like now and I don't want to imagine too hard. I'd imagine it doesn't look too much like it did back then. I've heard stories. I've not heard good stories about the exploration and extraction of the tar sands from that once pristine region up north. It breaks my heart. So how in the hell can I think good things about the most likely forthcoming construction of a pipeline from there to the Gulf Coast of Texas, carrying the oily residue of a scorched earth policy of strip mining the very country I walked on when I was young? I can't do it. From this point on in this writing I have a bad feeling that the more I write the more I'll be getting in over my head. The subject matter gets pretty complex from here on out so I'll keep it simple and have it said. Hey, I know we need oil, for our cars, trucks, industry, military, the whole enchilada. I know that. I also know, and so do you, that we need lots of big tracts of unspoiled country with lots of fresh air and water. We don't just want it, we need it (Jagger, Richards, 1975). We're beginning to experience a "going, going, gone kind of mentality that should be suited to a more primitive culture than what I'd like to believe we could be. I only have to think ahead a decade or two and don't like what I fear we might all see on this abused planet of ours. I don't want to pay three or four dollars a gallon for gas any more than you do. I also don't want to see that precious country that I hunted when I was young treated like a whore in old Mexico a century ago. Jobs. Oh yeah, that's the conundrum. They say there's thousands of jobs waiting for you, both in northern Alberta, and along the path the Keystone pipeline will traverse. Maybe and maybe not. I've heard both sides of that coin and for the record, low gas prices have already, right now and as we speak, slowed things down in the oil patch. So hold onto to that thought for a bit and in the meantime, if jobs or the lack thereof, are the thorn in the side of the most ardent supporters of Keystone XL Pipeline, why not get a little forward thinking and encourage an onslaught of research and development in massive wind and solar technology. Instead of "drill baby drill, (S. Palin)" we go to "build baby build, (W. Beck, 2021))." They both employ lots of labor and the money is good. Neither scenario is perfect and not without it's own respective good and poor points. But I'll bet you a case of Moose Drool beer that the environmental impact on this good earth of ours will be substantially improved if we can graduate to a more pragmatic way to move forward. I think the whole deal is a whole lot less complex than any of us want to recognize. I know, in my case, it doesn't take a whole lot of imagining of the landscape in the tar sands country then, when it was primitive, and in it's prime, and now, chewed up, and spit out, to know which way I want to see us go. So I've to to take it back to Neil, "I've seen the needle and damage done, a little part of it in everyone, but every junkie's like the setting sun, (N.Young, Needle and the Damage Done, 1970)." Here's to Keystone Beer, Here's to Keystone Oil, For what it's worth, " Let's drink to the Salt of the Earth, (Jagger, Richards, 1977)"

Originally Posted Monday, November 20, 2017 The very contentious issue of debate regarding the "listing" of the grizzly bear is again coming into focus in the American West. On Wednesday, November 29th, in Missoula, many of this regions grizzly bear bureaucrats will be gathering, once again, to discuss the status of ursus horribilis, most specifically, in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (or NCDE). The biggest piece of that day long discussion will be to debate the merits of delisting the grizzly in Northern Montana and if in fact that is going to occur how will the grizzly be managed moving forward. They'll all be there. You know who I'm talking about! From Wilderness Watch to the Sahara Club, and all of 'em in between, every environ- meddling outfit within five hundred miles. They'll all be there in force, in all their glory, sanctifying the the status of the grizzly, and theirs as well. And of course, grizzly bear managers from the Fed, the state and the tribes will be driving the agenda for the day. I'm looking forward to attending, as a member of the general public and I do hope the public makes it's presence felt. I can already feel the hair on the back of my neck getting stiff! I've lived in grizzly bear country for quite some time, going back to the the early 80's and on up through the present. I am writing this piece, having just come back from feeding in our barn, not expecting to see a bear there but keeping my eyes open regardless. I think it's a bit late in November to find a hungry grizzly poking around near our feed bins but who knows, it's only been a couple weeks since the last grizzly's presence exited the property. I've been run out of there on more than one occasion over the years. There's a foot and a half of snow out there and a whole lot more in the high country so chances are any bear in the area is denned up. Most of my life over the past forty years has been spent at our ranch, directly adjacent to the southern edge of Glacier National Park, just to the north of the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex, and just west of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. There's lots of bears in the area, to say the least. Always has been. Yes, we've noted some fluctuation in population over the years. The decade of the 90's was really something, grizzlies everywhere. One summer we had three different sows with twin cubs on and off the property. We lost a colt to a sow with a cub one Spring night and the following evening had eight different grizzlies doing a dance around the culvert trap, set up to capture the sow that had killed the colt. A buddy of mine and myself counted 55 grizzlies between May and June 1st within ten miles of the ranch one year. It seemed like there were bears everywhere. These past ten years we appear to have lost the big, dense population of bears that we once had but I don't think they'v gone too far! The population of those bears appears to have moved, or migrated if you will, in an easterly direction, over to the prairie country and the Rocky Mountain Front, back to their historic habitat, before the advent of the white man. We saw eight of the big bears there this past summer over the course of two days within a few miles of each other. And I doubt if we saw them all. There was bear sign everywhere. I'm wondering if there will be some sharp folks attending the upcoming meeting in Missoula? Will there be some real outdoor brain power present at that gathering of bear professionals? Will they all have their laptops at their disposal, ready to augment their argument with satellite imagery data uploaded from a solar powered live feed 200 miles distant on Grant Ridge? How many of them will have spent years in the out of doors, in bear country, among bears, accumulating the experience, the knowledge, and the wisdom to know that the whole deal, the whole debate, the grist of the entire issue, is not as complex or as difficult to solve as they would have you believe? There will be several hundred attendees in Missoula on the 29th and several hundred opinions on how to proceed with the debate, "to list or not to list." There's always going to be bears in this country, in the NCDE. It's just a matter of how many we can live with, or perhaps how many can live with us. Of little doubt to me however, is that the number we finally settle on has got to be finite. In other words, there can't be an unlimited degree of population growth among the big bears. There has been growth for decades and the results of that have been an increasing amount of man/bear conflict and a feeling among many folks that the biological and social carrying capacity of the NCDE has been reached. And yes, I do recognize that thought is not likely to be received well among the crowd I expect to be attending! If I were in a position to make an executive decision regarding the future management of the grizzly bear here's what would happen; The grizzly bear would once again become the domain of the state of Montana;. the presence of the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service would be relegated back to the east side of the Mississippi River, never to be present in this state again, ever; the population of the grizzly would be capped at its' present number; legal hunting of the grizzly would be initiated and become a viable management tool in man/bear conflict; For starters, 50 grizzlies, two third males, and one third females, would be legally harvested each year: in the NCDE grizzlies will not be present east of Highway 89 from the Canadian border south to Interstate 90. I've had a richer life having lived with grizzlies and in grizzly country for as long as I have. I also understand that the grizzly is an animal that needs lots of room to live, a whole lot more than you and I need. I'd rather see the grizzly in his world than ours. We don't do well together and one of us always loses when there's conflict. The bear dies or we get hurt and die as well. Neither of us wins. Leave the bear alone in northwest Montana, west of Highway 89. We'll all be happy.

I think back to days gone by, specifically those early, formative years guiding raft and fishing trips on the Snake River through Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. What great country that is, and was, for me. Needing to know a bit of the area's history I learned that Grand Teton National Park had been initially, almost a half century before I arrived on the scene, a National Monument, declared so by the president in 1929 by way of the Antiquities Act of 1906. That act allowed the president to set aside "land to be protected as important historic, cultural, and ecological sites without the approval of congress." There's some fine print added to the original Antiquities Act and some of that has been the subject of modern day interpretation and discussion. Nevertheless, to this day, the president of the United States is allowed to set aside land or water that he deems is needing of protection. In recent history, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama all added numerous monument status to lands and water that were deemed in need of increased protection as National Monuments. Specifically, in 2016, during his last year in the White House, Barack Obama set aside the Bears Ears country in Utah, more than 1.3 million acres of land as a national monument. Then the fun started. During President Trumps first year in office he directed the Secretary of Interior, Ryan Zinke, to review some of the existing monuments with an eye toward reducing the sizes of many of which he felt were not being used in a manner consistent with the original intent of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The 1.3 million acre Bear Ears National Monument along with the 1.6 million acre Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument have taken center stage following the review and may very well be in the process for severe reduction in size in the year ahead. The Bears Ears is projected to go from the 1.3 million acres down to 120,000. That's quite a change! A drastic reduction in acreage is also planned for the Grand Staircase- Escalante as well. Needless to say, in many quarters, and most certainly among every environmental organization known to man, there has been a loud outcry of opposition to the administrations actions. "America's conservation legacy defines us and is the envy of the world. Today is a dark day for that legacy. "Teddy Roosevelt is shaking his fists. Undermining one of our bedrock conservation laws and selling out to industry flies in the face of T.R., who president Trump said he wanted to emulate." Oh boy! And here's where it gets interesting. Ironically, or coincidentally, I'm not sure which, while at the same time taking aim at the two monuments in question, Secretary Zinke proposes that the Badger Two Medicine country of northern Montana become a National Monument, to the tune of 130,000 acres of country that begins six miles from where I'm writing this blog as we speak! Bear Creek Ranch lies just six miles to the west of the northeast border of the, at this time, informally proposed Badger- Two Medicine National Monument. More than a few of you reading this blog, many of you guests of ours, or close friends at Bear Creek Ranch over the years, have ridden on more than one occasion into the heart of the Badger- Two Medicine, with us. You know the country of the Badger- Two Med as well as many others. You've been there. You also know it's some pretty special country, raw, rugged, spectacular, and drop dead beautiful. And you never saw another soul on a ride you did with us. That country is still quiet, very lightly visited, and even more importantly, well taken care of by those of us that do visit. And that's the beginning of the rub, the conflict, the internal turmoil that lies right below the surface of potential monument designation. At first blush, "protecting" the Badger- Two Medicine Country seems like a no- brainer. After all, this nation's conservation legacy lays in no small part on the efficacy of the original Antiquities Act and the intent of that act is to protect our public lands. I get that. BUT. Does the Badger-Two Medicine country need the additional level of protection that National Monument status would provide it, if any? What is so important to recognize at this point in time is that the Badger-Two Medicine country is protected at many levels because it is in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The Badger Two Med has been given increased protection over the years from oil and gas exploration and the use of motorized vehicles. Both of those added levels of regulation were won after lengthy battles on the public and legal stage. The Badger Two-Med country works very well under the "multiple use" directive of the Forest Service. Folks hike, fish, hunt, and ride freely, without federal restriction. There is also a limited amount of livestock grazing also permitted. In my opinion, and I have been a long time and ardent user of the country in question, the existing levels of protection in the area work real well for about everyone. The glaring exception to that last statement is the role the Blackfeet Tribe plays in the present and future of the area. I'll add to that thought in the following paragraphs. At this point I'll cut right to the heart of the matter. The Badger-Two Medicine is everything it is, beautiful, majestic, raw, and rugged because it is not a monument. It has not nor should be added to National Monument status because it will have a bulls eye painted on it both in this country and around the world. A bulls eye of visitation that it doesn't need. The Badger-Two Med is what it is because it has been left alone, unlike our National Parks and Monuments, and monument status will change that irreversibly. If the Blackfeet Tribe desires more use or management authority in the country then I say bring it to the table. Pushing back on National Monument creation anywhere is hard for me to do. My natural instinct is go all in on monuments and provide the kind of protection all our remaining wild places need and deserve. But I am also seeing a change in the character of many of our wild lands as they continue to get more and more visitation and use. This past summer the visitation in Glacier National Park went well beyond the 3 million mark, almost double the use I normally noted not many years ago. Trails are crowded as are park facilities. And the irony to those thoughts is that Glacier National Park is fully visible and directly across Highway 2 from the north boundary of the Badger Two-Medicine. We look north into the park as we ride just to the south of it and we rarely see a soul on our side of the tracks. And those souls rarely see us! I cringe at the thought of National Monument protection in the Badger-Two Med. That country is good just the way it is today. I don't want that to change nor do I suspect that current users of the area would embrace that change either. What I fear is that the enticement of the false narrative of added protection in Monument status will blind many folks to the reality that National Monuments bring, and that is potentially immense additional visitation and use. As I've heard on many occasions in my life when looking at a difficult decision that doesn't need to be made, the wise man sayeth; "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The Badger-Two Medicine Country ain't broke. It is good the way it is. It doesn't need fixing, certainly not to the extent that Monument status would bring. There's a whole lot of stuff in this world I know very little about. But I do know a whole lot about the Badger-Two Medicine Country. I know that monument desig

"The average American child can recognize 1,000 corporate logos but can't identify 10 plants or animals native to his or her own region." Quite frankly, I can't figure out who is responsible for that quote. It may have been my facebook friend Oscar Williams 1V. It have been any man on the street. It darned sure could have been anybody, period. I've been struggling with the entire concept of the world of technology slowly but surely (and not very slowly) taking over the lives of our children, and our own lives, to be sure. More so than ever, it's become more and more obvious that the attachment our younger generation has with technology has begun to wash away the sense and sensibility that it once had. I didn't have to stare bug eyed at the quote beginning this writing to know that the world of cell phones, i-phones, i-pads, laptops, desktops, kindles, etc. has replaced the natural world of spiders, snakes, tadpoles, salamanders, fish, deer, rhinos, and elephants. The world that is inside a classroom, an office, an internet cafe, a library, and even your living room, is not the living, breathing world under the blue sky and sun that started it all but appears to be fading into the past like a sunset on a bad day. My life has changed significantly this past year. I've begun a two year odyssey of learning at a university in Montana. It's been forty years since I graduated from college but it seems like four hundred, particularly in the world of internet technology. I've been operating from behind the eight ball for several months trying to catch up with the new way of doing business. I did buy a computer in 1987 and got half savvy with it but clearly, didn't take my computer education very far. Hell, I was busy fishing, hunting, roping, riding good horses, and thoroughly enjoying everything I could under the sun, literally. Now I'm paying for it. I watch my classmates barely listen to a lecture while typing their notes on computer generated power points on their Apple laptops with their facebook or hotmail app available with a quick click. Following a class, those i-phones are out before they are out of their chairs, their fingers working so smoothly on those ridiculously small keys. They make it look easy. If I used a laptop in class it would be a disaster. My fingers would fumble through those keys. I'd be missing keys and opening new programs, shutting down and starting up, cursing through my clenched jaws, and defeating the whole purpose of being in class. But I'd rather be me than them. To be sure, I'm surrounded by a whole bunch of good people. Smart, savvy students who kick my ass every day in class and on exams and papers. I'm struggling with my lack of electronic savvy. I spent two worrisome weeks not long ago wondering how I could record an interview without a tape recorder for a major mid-term project. The solution was ridiculously easy. Use a cell phone. I did. But I had no clue, until I asked a fellow student and lamely admitted my total ignorance of the whole process. My whole point regarding the schism between my own lack of IT knowledge and the vast breadth of ability the vast majority of the learned populace does have is the length and depth they have had to go to acquire that knowledge they have, and at what cost. The learning our world is doing is in fromt of a set of keys, electronically connected to the cyber world and it's particular and peculiar keyboard. I see it every hour of every day on campus. I do see a Montana Sky, big tall trees, squirrels in them, deer hiding behind them. I see the sun, when it's out, and the stars, when they are. And I can feel the wind blow in my face on long walks, and I can hear the river flowing under the bridges I cross. But I also see students staring intently into their cellphones, unaware of me passing by, heads down. Many of them have earphones plugged in. They are almost totally lost in cyber space. Hell, they don't see me, certainly don't hear me, and wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground if they were gonna' get their ass kicked by a gut shot grizzly bear that came from around the corner. They are fucking oblivious. I was relaying a story to classmates about a particular grizzly bear that I followed one evening in hunting camp many years ago at a distance of just a few yards, as I attempted to blast a full lungful of bear spray at the renegade griz. Most of those listening had expressions of non belief on their faces. I simply wasn't making any sense to most of them. The story wasn't registering. I suspect, however, that if they'd heard the same event on Animal Planet or seen it on Yahoo News it might have rung a few more brain cells. I know we're a highly educated nation. I know my grandson is getting a good education at a top notch public school. He already runs the keyboard on his electronic toys more nimbly than I can only dream of doing. I'm sixty three and he's four. But I want Elias to know a white oak tree when he sees one. I want him to know a gray squirrel when he's on a walk. Or better yet, the difference between a non venomous black snake and a cottonmouth moccasin.. How about the difference between a white tailed deer and an elk he may very well see this coming summer on his visit to our ranch on the edge of Glacier National Park. He won't know how to bait a hook, cast it into Bear Creek, and understand where the trout might be lying on that particular piece of fresh water. Is that a brookie or a cutthroat he just caught? "What do I do now Grandpa? Can we eat it?" I'll help him catch that fish and I'll show him how to clean it and get it ready for the frying pan. But I'll only do that once. Then he's on his own. I'll also try to get Elias to keep his eyes open, not just to be aware of what's around him but also to keep his eyes open to the sun and the sky, to the creek and to the pasture, to the horses and to the herd of elk, to the still air and the gentle summer breezes. He can't that get that stuff back East. He won't get it in a classroom. It won't happen in front of a computer screen, except in virtual reality and that doesn't really count does it? Elias does have a real advantage however, and I am aware of that. His Mom and Dad are pretty keen to the outdoors and they'll bring him a long way in that part of his life But many kids won't have that chance. They'll get smart in school. They may become good lawyers, builders, or teachers. But they won't know the difference between an oak and a maple, or a black from a grizzly bear. Or the beauty of a black night in Montana lit up by the northern lights. I caught my first trout when I was 12 years old on a creek in New Jersey. That was one of the highlights of my life up to that point. I was on my own, had found the stretch of creek I wanted to fish, baited my own hook, and caught my first brookie. I screamed with Joy. That creek was cold and clear and far enough away from the madding crowd that the whole beautiful experience is one I remember to this day. God I hope it isn't too late.

I was with a student this past fall, in a practicum setting, in an office, at the University of Montana. She was a foreign student, a long way from home in Asia, with a rudimentary knowledge of the English language, very soft spoken, and beyond quiet, both in her spoken word and physical presence. I spent an hour each week for two months in a therapeutic setting as we attempted to make sense of her loneliness and isolation in a foreign country and culture. On more than one occasion I saw tears slowly drip down her cheeks, the result of too little communication with the world around her, and an inability to develop new relationships in a strange new world. I happened to be eating lunch one day in the University Center, having grabbed a chair off by itself, or so I thought, and after having a few words with a colleague, turned my head and not three feet from me, alone as well, was the young lady I just described in the words above. I'd been sitting there for at least ten minutes and I hadn't seen her specifically nor had I been aware of anyone even in the vicinity. All that time, and that close proximity, and I hadn't said Hi, nor had she. After a mildly awkward "Hi, how are you?" I went about my business, continued reading, and wondered how I would make my exit without engaging in conversation, an action that is not recommended in the world of therapeutic counseling. The rule of thumb is that counselors don't acknowledge clients in the "outside" world, but do so if addressed first. And regardless, we keep it short and sweet. After ten minutes or so I made my farewell, quietly, and without what would be for me in other circumstances, a hearty and heartfelt farewell. I just left. I just got up and left that poor, lonely, and socially isolated girl, in her chair, with no one else around, and I hadn't said a word to her upon leaving. I was stuck, just plain stuck, caught between a rock and hard place, stuck between the ethics of the therapeutic environment I have pledged an oath to and my own personal creed of human relationship and kindness. But I blew it. I walked out without one word and I left. There was a next session and I made it a point, right at the get go, to explain my lack of courtesy to her, and to give to her my sincerest apology. I should have acknowledged her as I left the lunch room, even if with just a few words. My actions that previous week should have been exactly what I've always felt a kinship to, and that is acknowledging, developing and maintaining relationships with the people around me. I haven't always been successful but the effort is important, even if it's awkward, out of place, and in the end, doesn't work. The plain fact of the matter is that the odds are in one's favor with even less than one's best effort. I've been in the guest ranch business for more than forty years and for the greatest part of that time at Bear Creek Ranch in northern Montana. One could make the case for the importance of developing close relationships in the very specific guest business I'm in. That makes alot of sense. The plain fact of the matter is however, that the development and maintenance of personal relationships is a critical component of almost any association, business, team, or gathering of human beings anywhere. The nature of the interpersonal relationships of people in any form can be the defining quality that separates failure from success and from misery to happiness. I've seen it in the flesh on too many occasions as I'm sure you have as well, and I suspect, if the truth were known, we've all been party to the bad end of relationships that with some thought and effort could have been avoided. That being said, a huge part of the success that I've had at Bear Creek Ranch has been through the growth and maintenance of the relationships that I have been able to nurture over the course of three and a half decades. I couldn't have made it all these years without many very key friendships that have stood the test of time. Some come and sadly, some go, but the ones that remain are like battle hardened old war horses. I am and always will be eternally grateful for those that are. Ya' know, it's pretty hard to operate in this world, under any circumstances, without some sort of a network of family or friends. I've seen that better than ever the past few years and I've begun to see the scars that begin to emerge of the psyche of the human soul when one does attempt to navigate the world of the social animal alone, solo. It rarely works. I'm grateful for even the modest success I've had and rueful that I've left a few in the dust. I guess if one is beyond the middle zone on the graph of human sociability then you're rolling ahead of the curve. So here's to all of you, family and friends, here's to all of us. Let our days ahead be full of joy and spirit, dignity and faith, and to everyone, the best New Year ever!