Two Moccasin Telegraph columns in one day!! I know, I usually limp along trying to come up with enough worthwhile material for one a month, but when it comes it comes, and you’re the beneficiary (I hope).

Fall is right around the corner, you know, in spite of the record heat and fire danger we’ve had lately (and I guess we’re not over the fire danger, yet). Here in the Gallatin Valley, that little cold front that passed through last evening didn’t produce any precipitation, and thankfully no lightning either, but it cleared the smoke haze out in a most effective fashion. In fact, with the temps just barely creeping into the eighties (and highs in the 70’s forecast throughout most of next week), there’s almost a hint of fall in the air!

There’s just something about the light in early fall. Everything looks just crisp and sharp, with vivid colors. It was that way today! In addition to the usual half dozen gorgeous mountain ranges we have views of; we can just see the south end of the Big Belts (east of Helena and Townsend). Those are the better part of 70 miles away, but today they looked just right there, as if viewed through the finest optics money could buy. So, condolences to those who are still smoked in, and hey, if you can’t take breathing smoke anymore get in the car and head for Bozeman! It’s a pretty fun town even disregarding the view….

But, what I started out to write this about; with fall comes hunting season, and upland bird season opens in just over a week. And to digress even further right off the bat, I got a couple of bird inquiries during my recent Blaster worm woes, that I hadn’t got to answering, and in the software re-install I lost three months worth of e-mails (a minor tragedy in my line of work, although I must be getting resigned to it, cause I’m not as pissed as I was the first time, when I lost six months worth!). So if you guys happen to read this; sorry. I wasn’t trying to ignore you…. In fact, I generally have a 24-hour response rule, unless there’s mitigating circumstances, like I’m off on an adventure completely devoid of technology.

To get back on track, though, I recently sent for and have mostly received (all but Region 6) the Block Management information for Montana. That’s a program that coordinates access for sportsmen to private land in the state. I am a confirmed cynic when it comes to government programs, but Block Management is a shining example of a terrific success. And no, it’s not perfect, but hey, last year it provided over 350,000 user days of free public access to more than 9 million acres of land, via nearly 1200 different landowners! Just soak that in for a moment!! Nine MILLION acres….. That is nothing short of phenomenal. I bet there’s entire states, not to mention countries, that aren’t that big!

I hear people griping all the time that there’s just nowhere to hunt anymore. The damn outfitters have it all leased up, you know, and unless you’re willing to write a big check, you might as well just bag it, and resign yourself to weekends of Bud Light and television.

Balderdash! To quote my pal Bill Gates; "that’s the stupidest thing I ever heard!"

OK. Before I get a bunch of hate mail from former friends and newly alienated enemies alike, I should qualify that statement. Yeah, if a place you formerly had access to suddenly is outfitted; well, yeah, that sort of sucks. But what are you gonna do about it? I tell you one thing you can do. Join the Montana Wildlife Federation. Some folks there would like to see landowners who profit from wildlife (which incidentally, is legally established to be public property in Montana) be forced to allow an equal number of non-paying public sportsmen access. Personally, I think that plan is seriously flawed, and treads too heavily on private property rights.

We live in a capitalist society, and while that can be downright ugly, nobody’s come up with a better system yet! So if a landowner can profit from providing habitat for wildlife, well, more power to them, IMO. Three dollar wheat sure isn’t paying the freight anymore…. But, unless you have just the right kind of place, that wildlife is liable to come and go as they see fit, and Montana is conspicuously short of the sort of high-fence operations you see in, say, Texas, and let’s hope it stays that way in perpetuity. I suspect it will.

So, let’s say you’ve got a farm or ranch that’s pretty good wildlife habitat, but you’ve not just overrun with record book bull elk or trophy-class deer. But it’s still not just too shabby, and you’ve got really pretty decent bird hunting, and FWP will pay you a modest amount to allow folks access. You’re not going to get rich at it, but it’ll more than cover the interest on your operating loan. And besides, you’ve generally allowed a few people on anyway, and with FWP behind you to provide some backbone for dealing with the inevitable miscreants, well hey, it’s sounding pretty good, eh?

It’s a win-win deal! How often do those come along?

So, back on the sportsmen point of view; if you don’t utilize Block Management in your hunting plans, you are missing the boat, my friend. Even right here in southwest MT, where people commonly holler that there’s just no decent bird hunting to be had, there are 88 farms and ranches enrolled in the program, covering over 700,000 acres! Those pretty much cover the spectrum of landforms, disregarding high alpine type stuff, and that’s primarily public land anyway. There’s a fair bit of river bottom stuff, mixed grain/forage places, plenty of high grass/timber stuff (especially around Dillon & points south and west), and generally, I’d have to say it’s an incredible abundance of opportunity!

I’ll be the first to admit or caution that not all Block Management places are that great. Some are downright lousy, although FWP does screen them to some extent. Not all public land is good hunting, either, so you’re going to have to do some research. And hey, here at Cowboy Heaven Consulting we’ve already done a lifetime of that, and some of it’s condensed in our hunting articles. I’ve hunted one Block Management ranch in southeast Montana twice, and have yet to even see a deer! But, a game warden I know shot a 180 B & C buck there, and I got the buck of a lifetime, a 205 B & C monster not too far away, on public land, so I know there’s potential.

Generally, though, if it’s trophy-caliber animals you’re after, the odds of finding them on Block Management isn’t just great. But if you’re after birds, or just want to put some venison in the freezer, or just spend some time wandering about under the Big Sky (which is what it’s really all about, right?), then pick up the phone.

You have to order the information booklets from each region separately, and here’s the numbers;

Region 1, Kalispell - 406-752-5501

Region 2, Missoula - 406-542-5500

Region 3, Bozeman - 406-994-4042

Region 4, Great Falls - 406-454-5840

Region 5, Billings - 406-247-2940

Region 6, Glasgow - 406-228-3700

Region 7, Miles City – 406-232-0900

 

A lot of the state is burning up. Temperatures have been way above normal for the last month, with no precipitation to speak of. Just about every day for a month now the highs have been in the 90’s and often over 100. A buddy from Tucson who visited even thought it was hot! Some of the rivers have been closed to fishing, or at least have fairly restrictive regulations in place, and the start of hunting season might be delayed if land management agencies enact closures due to fire danger, and asthmatics are advised to stay indoors due to smoke concentration, the wheat harvest isn’t quite what folks thought it would be earlier, and yeah; a lot of folks’ humors are a tad brittle.

But there’s no sense dwelling on the negatives, now, is there?

We’re not. Right before the smoke got bad, we embarked on a long-anticipated pack trip through the Spanish Peaks. We made a tour of eight or nine lakes, and I gotta tell you; it was the best fishing we’ve gotten into in just years! Not much shy of 300 fish landed, in, oh, about maybe six hours total of fishing by four people. Well, actually my son Cody and his bud Aaron, rabid fishermen personified, caught the bulk of ‘em (80-90 each). The other teenager along, Chris, and I did OK, though. And besides, I was flyfishing, while they were using those nasty spinning rods ;-), and plus I served as chief wrangler and cook, which suits me just fine.

It was really a heck of a trip. Confounded elk kept us up half the first night. I wasn’t keen on the idea of sleeping in the same tent with three thrashing teenagers, & so had my own domicile along. Turns out the boys and I had remarkable similar accounts of the experience. I had the horses tied up on a nightline maybe 60 yards away. Got woke around midnight by a grunt/squeal from the direction of the horses. Laid there thinking "what the heck?". Chris had a mare along, in addition to mine, and there’d been some gender tension in addition to the usual pecking order issues being sorted out, but still, none of us had heard a horse make that sort of vocalization before. And besides, it sounded like elk. And it kept on & on, and seemed to be moving. Turned out the boys had gotten up, and could faintly see the occasional tan forms moving around out in the meadow. I finally got up. It was out of hand, I tell ya. This doggone elk was squealing and grunting every minute or so, until I finally yelled at him to keep it down. Even then, he hurled a few final insults our way.

The next morning we started out hiking, and promptly ran into a bear! Black bear, and none too big. It still gets your attention, though. And there were mountain goats, and more elk, but we’d come to fish (well, and explore), and so we did. Started out by hiking up over a divide to remote, trail-less, and very seldom-visited Chiquita and Marcheta Lakes. After fishing there a while, it was back up over a saddle into the adjacent basin containing Jerome Rock Lakes. Just gorgeous, and fishy as all get out, it was. Those lakes are a veritable embarrassment of riches. Within about a two-mile radius you have Big Brother, Little Brother, Little Sister, Chiquita, Marcheta, three Jerome Rock Lakes, and a Falls Creek Lake or two. That’s not to say that hitting them all in a day or two doesn’t border on strenuous, and they don’t all have just stellar fishing, but those that don’t make up for it with stunning scenery. And not least, the temperatures are vastly more tolerable once you get up around eight or nine thousand feet elevation.

So that was big fun. Way more fun than the computer woes that awaited upon my return. We had the displeasure of joining a few hundred thousand others whose computers got infected by the Blaster worm. That one is particularly insidious, since you don’t have to open any e-mail attachments or do anything except have a Windows operating system that you haven’t been faithful about downloading and installing the myriad security patches that Microsoft seems to release on a near-daily basis. If you’re connected to the net, and the worm finds you, you’ll get infected. Two of our computers did, and it put a heck of a dent in my productivity! Actually, on my wife’s computer it wasn’t a big deal. Downloaded the removal tool, installed the patch, updated the anti-virus software and was good to go again. This misery box that is my main work computer, though…. I fought it for most of two days! I won’t bore you with the blow-by-blow account, other than to note that after removing the virus and spending over eight hours downloading updates (which I’m told is not unusual. One acquaintance spent fourteen hours over four days!), I discovered that I’d become re-infected with another variant of the same bug!! At that point I was a frog’s hair away from taking a shotgun to this accursed machine and buying myself a Mac. We were due to leave town, and I was out of time and patience so dropped it off with a local exorcist. Upon our return, I had a freshly cleansed and re-installed operating system, stripped of all the superfluous resource draining software accoutrements that Dells come pre-loaded with. Another day re-installing programs and restoring files, and I was back in action.

A whole lot of businesses and government agencies great and small experienced similar downtime. And let’s see, Bill Gates has become the richest man on the planet by foisting this vulnerable and buggy software on us all!? Too bad there isn’t some way to invoice him directly for all the lost time!

So, I hope you’ll forgive me that little rant, but as I noted earlier humors have been brittle. I trust this too, shall pass. Temperatures for the next week are forecast to drop back closer to seasonal norms, and at least here in the Gallatin Valley the smoke has cleared, for the time being anyway. One of these days a snowstorm will put out the fires in less fortunate areas, the Big Sky will clear, streamflows will rebound, and humors will return. In the meanwhile, maybe you ought to think about visiting a mountain lake…..