Only five days left. Amidst the turmoil of final preparations – checking and re-checking gear, packing, food-shopping – I’m engaging in a little psychological battle with myself regarding the object of all this activity: a 19 day, 16 person, DIY rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. For those of us who […]
Recreation
Posted inGoat
Search and … inform
In this world of extreme sports, 100-mile ultramarathons and ever-decreasing record times, a 21-mile trail run probably doesn’t seem like all that big a deal anymore. And indeed, you’d never guess, reading about a recently-broken record, that there’s anything unusually taxing about what’s known in running and hiking circles as the “rim to rim,” where […]
Posted inWotr
Talking vegetarianism to a hunter
In the end, all I could tell the guy was, “I agree with you. I just don’t eat animals.” During our flight from Portland to Denver, two major differences between us had come up: He was a hunter, and I was a vegetarian. I listened from the window seat, two days removed from a backpacking […]
Posted inArticles
Protection versus promotion at Brown’s Canyon
Editor’s note: This is a final column submitted to High Country News by Ed Quillen, who died Sunday, June 3. He was 62 years old. Can you protect an area by publicizing it and attracting more visitors? That question first hit me a few years ago when I encountered a guidebook that featured Colorado’s waterfalls. […]
Posted inWotr
Anglers can be advocates for endangered fish
The prism of clear river water can distort and magnify the size of a fish, an effect amplified by adrenaline and nostalgia. Still, I remember one fish big enough to shake my whole view of the world. I was of that tender age when one believes one’s father to be capable of anything — except […]
Posted inWotr
Ted Nugent doesn’t speak for me
I’m a hunter, and I know that hunters need a spokesperson. We need someone with a lifetime of experience who speaks with authority about preserving public lands and the wild animals living there that we love to hunt. We need someone whose personal magnetism generates interest simply by speaking on the subject of hunting. I […]
Posted inRange
Debate over what makes a road rages on in Utah
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House This spring, to fulfill a friend’s birthday wish, we traveled from Colorado into Utah, dropped south off of I-70 near Green River on Utah Highway 24, and drove about 30 miles before leaving the pavement. Our destination was the West Rim trailhead in the Horseshoe Canyon Unit of Canyonlands National Park. […]
Posted inMay 14, 2012: The sediment dumps of L.A.
Matters of life and death: A review of Contents May Have Shifted
Contents May Have ShiftedPam Houston320 pages, hardcover: $25.95.W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Pam Houston writes somewhat like a modern-day Jane Austen, although rather than merely dance at the ball, Elizabeth Bennet gets to go backpacking with Mr. Darcy in the San Juans (or perhaps take a trip to Tunisia or Bhutan). Beginning with her […]
Posted inRange
How now, Browns Canyon
U.S. Senator Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat, got two differing views about Browns Canyon when he met with constituents and hiked in the area during the congressional Easter recess. The meetings were in Chaffee County in central Colorado. The Arkansas River flows through Browns Canyon, which sits between Salida and Buena Vista. It may well […]
Posted inApril 30, 2012: A Mexican rancher struggles to shift from cattle to conservation
Dispatches from the other border: A review of A Good Man
A Good ManGuy Vanderhaeghe448 pages, hardcover: $24.95.Grove/Atlantic, 2012. The U.S.-Canadian border has always been overshadowed by its more rambunctious southern equivalent. Still, for a brief period in the late 1800s, the 49th parallel was more than the often-overlooked international boundary it is today: It was the dividing line between two nations deep in the process […]
Posted inRange
Earth Day — Gone Fishin’
Earth Day was once again full of stark warnings about global doom and scolds over my level of recycling and my carbon footprint. So I went fishing. In particular, I took my 8-year-old to an old gravel pit that has been landscaped into a pond and stocked with rainbow trout straight from the hatchery. One […]
Posted inGoat
Hunters ask for protection from enviros
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives plans to consider the “Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012,” a package of bills intended to benefit hunters and anglers. The bill seeks to open additional federal land for hunting, allows polar bear trophies to be imported from Canada, and removes the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate lead […]
Posted inApril 16, 2012: The Other Bakken Boom
Tales from the Edge: A review of Extremophilia
Extremophilia, River Rats, Timber Tramps, Biker Trash, and Realtors: New and Selected WritingsFred Haefele145 pages, softcover: $16.95.Bangtail Press, 2011. If you’re not familiar with the term extremophilia, don’t worry. As Missoula, Mont., author Fred Haefele explains: “It’s a genuine neologism. A freshly minted word. It refers to someone with an intemperate love of extremophiles, those […]
Posted inApril 16, 2012: The Other Bakken Boom
Big game tag auctions raise big bucks for Western states
In the West, big game hunting can be big business. In January, a New York man shelled out $300,000 at auction for a tag to hunt Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in Montana this fall — almost equaling the 1994 bid record of $310,000 for a bighorn tag. All Western states have similar auction programs for […]
Posted inWotr
The lure of skiing in avalanche country
After dancing out on the edge of winter some years ago, I returned to solid ground with a good story. Unfortunately, others haven’t been as lucky. My adventure occurred in thebackcountry beyond Colorado’s Beaver Creek ski area. A buddy and I took the lifts in late afternoon, then crossed throughthe backcountry gates to create our own adventure in the Holy Cross Wilderness. I think […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2012: Water Warrior
A scrappy community ski hill hangs on in Colorado
In the one-room warming hut at the base of the Lake City Ski Hill, Betty Lou Blodgett serves hot cocoa to kids in no need of a sugar high. She mans the hut alone, maintaining a loose sense of order while selling lift tickets and doling out rental gear. A big barrel woodstove blazes while […]
Posted inRange
Rethinking recreation in grizzly country
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House In far north-central Glacier National Park (GNP), on the U.S.-Canadian border, is a spot called Goat Haunt. It’s a remote area on the U.S. side, accessed by most people via a ferry across Upper Waterton Lake from Canada. Several years ago I was walking from there toward the […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2012: Water Warrior
Generosity of voice and heart: A review of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest TrailCheryl Strayed336 pages, hardcover: $25.95. Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. A well-worn hiking boot dominates the cover of Cheryl Strayed’s new memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail. It’s a striking symbol of tenacity and a visual reminder of how travelers braving the […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2012: Water Warrior
Scars of an unfinished ski area
South of Missoula, Mont., there’s an intriguing albeit unnatural landscape feature. Nine years ago, Tom Maclay cut 30 ski runs through his 2,900-acre family ranch, pursuing his vision of a ski resort on Lolo Peak. His proposed Bitterroot Resort resembled other popular ski ventures — an all-season, upscale residential village augmented by shopping, restaurants, a […]
Posted inGoat
Slippery science: avalanche prediction still tricky
We’ve got one month left of prime avalanche season, and in the U.S. there have been 25 fatalities. Here is a vote for no more. Around the West this winter we’ve had relatively light, late snowfall and fluctuating temperatures; and recent fatalities have led to talk of of this year being especially bad for avalanches. […]