We spent part of Spring Break at fabulous Lake Frances, near Valier. Alas, swimsuited coeds were in exceedingly scant supply, as north central Montana has just never caught on with the Spring Break crowd. Somehow, I doubt it ever will. Probably just as well…. Although, I actually ran on the beach, and fished, although both were short-lived and solo endeavors due to a bitter drift of wind off the Rocky Mountain Front a short way to the west. Spring is busily muscling winter out of the way, and as with any other season along the Front, wind is an important part of the weather equation. Change often comes abruptly to that country, and this year ice-out is no exception. At the Lake Frances Ice-Fishing derby a few short weeks back, the ice thickness ranged from 2.5 to 3.5 feet. Temperatures have been creeping up into the fifties and occasionally sixties for the last ten days or so, and the ice had gotten rotten. In the stunningly short time period of about a day and a half, just prior to our arrival, the ice just up and vanished, though (in large part, there were some remnants in the channel leading to the dam). The wind, again….
That country figures heavily in Ivan Doig’s books, particularly English Creek, and what is in my considered opinion the best book I’ve read yet; Dancing at the Rascal Fair. Those books follow a couple generations of Scottish immigrants turned sheep ranchers along the Front, very identifiably located on the forks of Dupuyer Creek, although many of the local names are changed except for the Two Medicine and a few other noteworthies. The present-day town of Dupuyer is known as Gros Ventre in the books, and passing through there on Saturday I was struck that perhaps with the exception of pavement, and a few more people, the overall vibe was likely not that changed from the days of the Medicine Lodge and Wingo’s “nieces”. If an epic tale of American immigration, not to mention astoundingly well-woven tapestry of human heartbreak and fortitude are of interest; Rascal Fair is a must-read.
Of course, we hadn’t gone to Valier just for the nightlife (although had no complaints on that front), but to move a mother-in-law, who interestingly enough once met Ivan Doig, at the Panther Café there! If she later turned up in his books, I’ve yet to identify her but am going to keep a closer eye out upon re-reads. Which I do about every year or two, and never fail to discover yet more seemingly inconsequent details that tie together into a masterpiece. Those books capture the feel of the Two Medicine country, which I’m glad to report remains largely unspoiled, and definitely not tamed. That area along the Front has escaped the oil & gas development that has fragmented much of the same transition on the Canadian side of the Medicine Line (Hah! New relevance for that old term with the cheaper Canadian pharmaceuticals!). At a recent symposium in Choteau on the potential re-opening of the Front to gas development, Canadian biologists and sportsmen bemoaned what they’d lost, and urged we look north and learn.

The expanse of land and sky visible from any decent vantage point along the Front boggles the imagination, and the view west from Valier across Lake Frances at dawn on Friday revealed mountains stretching from nearly Helena to the Canadian border, with just the tippy-top of Chief Mountain at the northern edge of visibility. Another of Doig’s book titles always runs through my mind at times like that; This House of Sky. That one is, among other things, a biography of his youth, placed in the southern foothills of the Big Belts in the White Sulphur Springs vicinity. I suppose I’ve been on the Ivan Doig tour here lately, as I flew over some of that area Sunday morning, on an outing in my neighbor’s two-seater. Besides a lot of remote and rugged country, we saw a plethora of elk, and on the return passed not far from the cabin where Doig’s mother died, leaving him an orphan as a young child. That area is generally known as the Sixteen country, and Ivan’s dad Charlie ranched in the Basin. “Only Scotchmen and coyotes could survive in the Basin, and pretty quick the coyotes starved out!”
Of course, that was in the twenties and thirties, and times were tough. These days, not just coyotes but the full spectrum of wildlife is flourishing in the Basin, and the descendants of those hardy settlers are still ranching there. Not only that, if you'd like to spend some time there yourself they offer working ranch vacations, cattle drives, good fishing and hunting, nice cabins, and western hospitality unchanged from Charlie’s day. I can’t quite decide if it’s the Old West or New West, but am certain it’s the Real West. If that sounds like fun, drop us a line.
If you’re on the northern portion of the Rascal Fair tour yourself, or otherwise have reason to be in the area south and east of Glacier Park, you’ll find that it’s still sparsely populated, and unique accommodations are not what I would consider in surplus. Besides your basic motels ranging in quality from fine to frightening, there’s a handful of cabin rentals and a few B & B’s. So it would behoove you to have something lined up in advance, and that’s something we do quite a bit of. One place we absolutely recommend is the Stone School Inn at Valier. Doug and Debbie Bowman have done an absolutely outstanding job converting a long-abandoned three-story stone schoolhouse into a great place to stay. Their five guest rooms are easily on a par with any I’ve seen, decorated with a lot of local memorabilia, and furnished with some fabulous antiques (many of which are for sale….). With a city block at the edge of town to itself, a landing strip nearby, and an uninterrupted view across Lake Frances to the Front, and ideally situated roughly halfway between Glacier Park and likely points of interest to the south, when in Valier it is not to be missed! Plus of course the Lighthouse restaurant has good food and drink, and the crowd at Froggies is friendly as can be, especially when they discover you’re moving their old friend Nancy (my mother-in-law). And who knows, people have even run into Ivan Doig at the Panther….

We’d been waiting for a nice, sunny day, which have been in extremely limited supply lately. The more typical March situation is varying shades of grey, and few things make for less inspiring photos than cloudy skies. For most of the day Thursday, we had brilliant blue skies, although, with the exception of the bison, most of the wildlife we saw was a distance from the road, and if you want to see an impressive collection of high-end optics, stop at any group of vehicles pulled over in say, the Lamar valley (a noted wolf viewing locale), and you’ll see more five thousand dollar lenses than you can shake a Point & Shoot at! And after perusing my photos, I’m thinking that I need to rent one of those for Yellowstone excursions myself.

The wolves in particular were reluctant to pose. They’d apparently made a kill during the night or very early morning, were sated, and were sacked out like frat boys after an all-you-can-eat buffet. They were perhaps 600 yards from the road, and indistinguishable from dark logs lying in the snow until they picked up their heads or otherwise moved. Interestingly, a coyote appeared from the other side of the highway, and made a beeline for the wolf kill. Wolves, as you may know, have made life a little tougher for coyotes in the Park, and to my understanding will kill them given the chance. I’m sure the coyote couldn’t see the wolves, although he certainly had to be aware of their presence in the area. No matter, he was following his nose to dinner, and we fully expected to see a canine confrontation. Alas, the wolves couldn’t appear to care less. One did get up and casually stroll up the ravine. The coyote had crossed over a small ridge and was out of our view at the moment, and the next we saw him he had apparently reconsidered the dining arrangements, and was trotting away, although hardly in a panic. Prey species and predators alike clearly pick up on signals that we humans are oblivious to, and more’s the pity….

Speaking of wolves, two packs in the Madison Valley recently met their demise. That’s kind of an interesting situation…. As many of you know, the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone has resulted in a firestorm of controversy, and I recently saw a quote from a Gardiner outfitter predicting total extinction of the Northern Yellowstone elk herd within the preposterously short time span of two years (or was it five years? An ecological blink of the eye, in any case). There is no doubt that wolves are having a major impact on that herd, and recent surveys showed calf production at something like 11 calves per 100 cows, which obviously is inadequate to sustain the population. Elk are bearing the brunt of predation, as bison are a much tougher customer. I certainly don’t want to see those elk go the way of the dodo bird either, but somehow I’m just not that concerned about it coming to pass. Anyone with the slightest understanding of forage conditions can see that the range around Gardiner is just pounded. Any private rancher who overgrazed their pastures to that degree would be out of business hasta pronto, and quite frankly, some of those elk need to go away. So do a significant number of bison, although the current bison control measures are reprehensible and deeply wrong on multiple levels, but we’re talking wolves and elk at the moment, so….

While in my opinion it would have been preferable to skip the whole wolf reintroduction scenario, as wolves were doing just fine reintroducing themselves (for free!), at this stage that’s a moot point. They’re back, and they’re here to stay. The stickier issue is how to manage wolves outside the Park. Montana and Idaho have drafted wolf management plans that meet the Federal criteria for turning management over to the states. Wyoming, though, is insisting that wolves outside the Park be treated as vermin, to be shot on sight. While some applaud the Cowboy State for giving the Feds the middle-finger salute, it doesn’t get us any closer to having wolves removed from the Endangered Species List. Wyoming legislators professed dismay that their plan was dismissed out of hand (surprise, surprise…), and then adjourned their legislature without coming up with any alternatives. Nice work, guys…. So, state-based wolf management is in limbo, which brings us back to the situation with the packs in the Madison Valley. Two packs have been frequenting the Madison Range and venturing down into the valley at times. The Sentinel pack used to range primarily on the Yellowstone side of the Gallatin Range (they’re named after a prominent peak along that divide). Eventually they drifted across the Gallatin and took up residence primarily in the Taylor Fork drainage. From there it’s just an afternoon jog for a wolf over into the Madison, and sure enough…. On a recent trip to the Madison, I believe I set a personal one-day record for wildlife sightings, with elk, deer, and antelope in untold thousands. Of course, a prey base like that is not going to pass unnoticed by predators, so it was entirely predictable that wolves would like the neighborhood also. Besides the Sentinel Pack of about a half dozen wolves, another four or five were hanging toward the north end of the valley, from Cowboy Heaven south to around Jack Creek. In a short span about ten days ago, both packs killed cattle, and the decision was made to eliminate them. I find that kind of interesting, and wonder about the phone calls between State and Federal agencies that precipitated the decision. It looks to me like Montana has a bit more behind-the-scenes influence than is officially recognized.

The man charged with this task is the government trapper for Madison and Jefferson counties, who incidentally sidelines as an outfitter in the Absaroka-Beartooth, and if you want to go elk hunting with a superb woodsman and hunter, he has openings…. He enticed the northern pack into a bait station, no slouch accomplishment, and took them out. The Sentinel Pack required some serious helicopter time. One wolf in that pack was radio collared, and as luck would have it a local shot that wolf. Quite illegally, you understand…. Obviously, that made locating the others problematic. I always have to laugh when I hear redneck barstool blustering about how the good ‘ol boys are going to shoot, shovel, and shut up, and take care of these dad-blasted wolves. Hah! When an eminently qualified predator control specialist is having trouble locating them, with helicopters and literally anything else he wants at his disposal, Joe Bubba isn’t ever going to even see one. Especially not from the barstool….

With no small effort, the government trapper was successful. The radio-collared wolf survived being shot, although is badly wounded. It and another wolf were spared, although survival of the radio-collared one is in question. So, I suspect we might not be hearing wolves howl at night, while lying in our sleeping bags in hunting camp next fall, as has been the case the last couple of years. Still, their return is inevitable. With that prey base available, they will come. And you know what…. I don’t really mind. Oh, their numbers need to be controlled, and if Wyoming gets off their high horse and comes up with an acceptable management plan, we’ll be further along with that process. But if you’ve read Aldo Leupold, he talks about the "Matrix" of wildlife. No, that’s not some supernatural would-be thriller movie, but deals with how the entire spectrum of wildlife (not to mention their habitat) is interrelated, and the absence of any component has a ripple effect on the others. I know when I see grizzly and wolf tracks in my Madison stomping grounds, that I am in a fully functioning ecosystem, and I like it. I like it a lot….