Pairing a photo I took in Montana with a Gary Snyder poem

For All
 
Ah to be alive
on a mid-September morn
fording a stream
barefoot, pants rolled up,
holding boots, pack on,
sunshine, ice in the shallows,
northern rockies.

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes
cold nose dripping
singing inside
creek music, heart music,
smell of sun on gravel.

I pledge allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
With joyful interpenetration for all.

                                    --Gary Snyder

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[What an extraordinary poem--by one of America's greatest living poets! Gary Snyder captures it exactly right. This poem passes the envy test where you say, "I wish I had written that one!" The photo was taken by me on July 14th, 2017, and shows Carolan and Linda crossing the cold, cold Morrison Creek in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana. We were on our 14-mile trek from the Morrison Creek Trailhead to the Schafer Meadows Forest Service Station--a very difficult hike for Linda and me (and maybe a routine one for Carolan, who is in superb shape). The water of Morrison Creek is fast-flowing and perfectly clear. It contains meltwater from snowpacks melting atop the high mountains in the Great Bear Wilderness section of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. I'm guessing the water temperature was in the low 40s. It was painful (my feet and legs ached from the cold), exhilarating, and unforgettable.

Gary Snyder reminds me why I still try to write poetry. Once in a while, you get it perfectly right, as he did here.]

Carolan on Montana's Flathead Divide Trail and in "The Bob"

Montana Conservation Corps crew working on the Flathead Divide Trail

Carolan on the Flathead Divide Trail, not too far from Spotted Bear. That might be Glacier National Park in the distance!

Carolan on the Big River Trail, Bob Marshall Wilderness, near Schafer Meadows. Note the 4th of July bandana!

Montana Conservation Corps--A Dad's Perspective

My daughter Carolan has worked as an MCC (Montana Conservation Corps) crew leader this summer and has lived in the Bob Marshall/Great Bear Wilderness. This past hitch she was near Inspiration Point and Sunburst Lake, rerouting and maintaining trails. I found this out last evening when she called me from the Spotted Bear Ranger Station. During the past ten-day hitch, she and her crew have lived in tents; in fact, they have lived in tents most of the summer. Most of the summer Carolan, Adam, and their crew (Lemmy, Evan, Barry, Elisheba, and Mark) have lived and worked near Strawberry Creek, just west of the Continental Divide. At times they camped by Sabido Cabin, and other times near a branch of Strawberry to the north of Sabido. If I understand correctly, Sabido is about 20 miles from Schafer Meadows Ranger Station, which is about 14 miles from the Morrison Creek/Skyland trailhead, where Carolan has parked her car most of the summer. In other words, she and here crew have lived a 2-day walk from what we in the "real world" (Carolan's words) think of as civilization.

As a Dad, I glory in the stories and photos that have come back our way to Northeast Ohio. I love that her food and mail come via mule train. I love the way these seven young people have learned to live and work together. They have done such good work in the Wilderness, a service to the state of Montana, the United States of America, and even Planet Earth itself. Presuming to speak for all these entities, I'll say, "Thank You!"

In the beginning of my daughter's MCC adventure, I worried about grizzly bears, mountain lions, black bears, grey wolves, and all the wild things that can potentially harm a person living in the wilderness. Turns out that they haven't had many encounters with dangerous wild animals, and when they see one they feel lucky, blessed. Carolan and her companions won't forget that rare glimpse of a grizzly browsing along Strawberry Creek. So I have stopped worrying so much about bears and mountain lions (still worry a little, I admit).

I've also worried a bit about their health. Say they broke a leg two days from help; or someone suffered a burst appendix or a thousand other health emergencies, big and little. So far they have escaped major medical problems. But I'm sure they've lived with a lot of minor problems, colds, headaches, sore throats, stomach aches, etc. These guys are tough hombres, who can't run to the medicine cabinet or doctor for every complaint.

Every day I check the weather in Carolan's vicinity, using the Weather Underground website. Of course there usually isn't a weather station right nearby, so I end up researching the weather in Hungry Horse or East Glacier Park or Choteau or someplace like that. I've noticed that fall is approaching in the Montana mountains and that night temperatures are often in the 30's (and these guys are usually in tents!). I guess the next hitch they will be sleeping at Spotted Bear, in cabins. On actual mattresses, for God's sake!

Another thing I do is study maps and handbooks about trails in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. I also use Google to find images near where her crew works. I've even located some videos on Youtube that help me picture their work and living environment (there are several videos of small planes landing at the Schafer Meadows airstrip). I do other things, like check in with the MCC Krew blog, http://mcckrew.blogpost.com/ (which I think is so interesting and wonderful that it should be published as a book), and go to the Glacier National Park website and look at their many webcams. These images are not exactly what Carolan is experiencing, but she is not far away from these places.

My wife and I have discovered two mystery novels set in The Bob, near Schafer Meadows. One story, by Beth Hodder, is called The Ghost of Schafer Meadows; the other, just out, is called Stealing the Wild. Beth and her husband worked for the Forest Service for many years, living at Schafer Meadows and working throughout The Bob and know this landscape intimately. These books have also helped us understand my daughter and her crew's working and living environment. In a strange coincidence, we have discovered that Beth Hodder and I both grew up in Euclid, Ohio, and graduated from high school the same year. The website for her books is: http://www.grizzlyridgepublishing.com/.

So I have vicariously followed the adventures of Carolan and Adam's wilderness crew. And once this summer my wife Linda and I were able to visit the MCC office in Kalispell and then actually meet up with Carolan for a day at Glacier National Park.

All in all it has been great fun, a wonderful trip!

Montana Conservation Corps--Life in the Wilderness

Carolan sent me a disposable camera filled with photos taken during her work for the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) and AmeriCorps. I don't know exactly what I'm looking at in all these photos, but I will make my guesses:

Top: Gooseberry Cabin, on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River (not far from the Continental Divide, Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex);

Second: One of her crew hard at work;

Third: Several crew members working on a "turnpike" (they use that word differently than we do!);

Fourth: The crew at Schafer Meadows--my best guess (Great Bear Wilderness/Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex);

Fifth: Carolan relaxing after work, high in the mountain wilderness.

"Respect the Bob"--Carolan's 2-day 34-mile Commute to Work

At this very minute, my daughter Carolan is hiking 20 miles from Schafer Meadows, in the Great Bear Wilderness, to Strawberry Creek, in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Yesterday she completed part 1 of her long commute to work (her job is maintaining trails for the Montana Conservation Corps, the MCC, and AmeriCorps)--that was a 14-mile trek from the Morrison Creek trailhead to Schafer Meadows.

I hope Carolan is not hiking alone--but she might be. Whatever, she's probably chanting a song to warn bears of her approach: "Hey, Bear! O Bear!"--over and over along the trail. Last week Carolan saw here first Grizzly Bear--in the Strawberry Creek area, not far from the Continental Divide. Luckily the bear heard her coming and went the other way! In this great wilderness, the grizzly bears are not alone; there are black bears, lynx, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, deer, elk, and many other smaller species of mammals and birds. This is their kingdom, one of the few places in the lower 48 states where all the original predators are present. The Bob Marshall Wilderness, and adjacent Glacier National Park, are the great treasures of the United States, North America, and indeed the world.

This evening Carolan will be back with her co-leader, Adam, and her 5-person crew, Carolan is coming laden with "civilized" goodies bought in Kalispell, items the crew members begged for.

Today I read a wonderful blog entry by one of Carolan's crew, Lemmy, that can be viewed at this site: http://mcckrew.blogspot.com/. The entry is dated Friday, July 16, 2010 and is entitled "It's called an 'Immersion Crew'"--by Lemmy Breault. Lemmy captures the feel of the work in the wilderness and the personalities of the crew. The blog entry also has photos of Sabido Cabin near Strawberry Creek and Buffalo Rock, as well as pictures of the crew members.

Carolan has mentioned a common phrase used by workers and visitors to the Bob Marshall Wilderness: "Respect the Bob." Of course I love this phrase because of my own first name. Still, it's worth saying again: Respect the Bob, Love the Bob, Thank God for the Bob!

Daughter to Live in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex

My middle daughter, CC, goes into the great Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex tonight in the next phase of her work with the Montana Conservation Corps and AmeriCorps. Tonight she'll be near the Spotted Bear Forest Service cabin, in the Great Bear Wilderness (part of Flathead National Forest). If there is a wilder place in the contiguous United State, I'd like to know what it is! This area has the largest population of grizzly bears in the lower 48, even more black bears, and many other kinds of large mammals--elk, moose, mountain goats and sheep, wolves, and the like. I think there are even mountain lions in the area.

Very soon, Carolan will move on to the Schafer Meadows Ranger Station, which is a day's walk (a long, hard day's walk!) from a road. But even that's not her final destination. From there, she goes even further into the wild--a 20-mile hike to the Strawberry Creek area, where a segment of the Continental Divide Trail is located. CC will be building and maintaining that trail, along with her fellow crew leader Adam and her crew (3 guys and a girl).

I greatly admire CC and her colleagues--so brave, adventurous. So full of strength, energy, and hope. Hurray for the Montana Conservation Corps! Hurray for AmeriCorps!