Back in my teenage years my best friend and I used to hike into Tranquil basin each summer. The fly fishing was always great and rarely did we ever see another soul in this remote area. Well it’s been about 40 years since those days, so when Cody was asking about a possible location to hike to and fish, I suggested we give Tranquil a try. Having never been there he was up for the excursion. 

Most hikers visit Tranquil Basin via Edna creek trail off of Big River trail. This trail accesses the massive ridge line that sits above the Tranquil lakes but has poor access down to the lakes themselves. We elected to hike up the ravine that drains the two lakes down into Bear Creek. 

There is no Forest Service trail up this ravine just a rarely used hiking trail that is pretty much just used by goats, and the goats shy away from it because it’s to steep. Just kidding, it’s not quite that bad, but it sure seemed extreme compared to my childhood memories. 40 years and 50 lbs tend to change a persons perspective. 

This is the scene as you finally get to the easterly lake

The trail is somewhat difficult to follow, but if you have reasonable route finding skills you won’t have any trouble hiking into these lakes. It is about 2200 ft of elevation gain in a couple of miles, so it is very vertical. 

The trail navigates to the more easterly lake. We fished this for just a short period of time and only had one bite. To access the larger west lake we just bushwhacked our way across a ridge and down to the lake. This lake was reported to have been last stocked in 2010 by state game and fish so we were hopefull of some nice sized cutthroat.

The fishing was pretty slow, not near filling our expectations. Still just getting to be there and fish these beautiful lakes is worth the trip. 

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June has brought us some stormy wet weather up on the mtn. Continued rain has made backcountry excursions a little difficult. We have had a few trips up the north fork into the McGinnis drainage and a couple up the middle fork of the flathead to spruce park, long creek, and granite creek.

The middle fork trails seem to have faired a little better with the wind storm that hit the region the end of May. Our local trails on Teakettle mtn were hit hard with large numbers of uprooted trees making access difficult. The areas we ride up the North Fork have been fairly open with one exception being the trail up to Standard Peak. This trail is at a fairly high elevation and when we tried to access it there were numerous large trees blocking passage.

When you live on a mtn getting continued wet weather my be a little annoying for getting projects done, but it is very welcome for shortening the fire season. We know it is still going to get hot and dry at some point in the future, but right now the mountainside is fresh, green, and lush.

Our horses have been enjoying the extra growth in the pastures. They look nice and healthy with slick pretty coats. It is so enjoyable to see horses in mtn pasture. Just horses being horses living the good life.

Dawson, our new addition to the herd.‘

Usually my blog posts are to inform friends and family of what is happening here on the mtn., but it seems that some of the backcountry posts are being viewed by quite a few folks with trail riding interests. So this post is geared for the beginner backcountry trail riders.

I recently read an article by a very respected trail rider that discussed riding in bear country. The article stated that bear encounters are very rare on backcountry excursions and most riders will worry needlessly. My own experience is that bear encounters are common and it is imperative that backcountry users are prepared. I have never had a bad bear encounter, but I have had the type of encounter that if the bear had wanted to be aggressive I would have been in a severely compromised position. On solo trips without a partner to be conversing with, there are times when I may be traveling down the trail a little to quietly. Numerous times I’ve had a grizzly on the trail in front of me, one trip had an enormous griz about 100 yds above my position on the trail, and on another I had a large black show up on a very precarious spot on the trail. Point is these incidents can and do happen and the prudent trail rider needs to be aware and prepared. Being prepared involves desensitizing your mount, but also mentally preparing yourself to deal with the possibility of an encounter and how you will react.

My own views differ from many of the experts. I do not consider the bear the top of the food chain. I always carry a firearm when in the backcountry. Bears have claws and teeth and will outweigh you in a fight, so you need something to even the odds. What you decide to use for your personnel protection is up to you but IMO your protection choice needs to be sufficient to give you the confidence to succeed. Your choices for protection are either bearspray, a firearm, or both. 

If you do your research you will undoubtedly discover the overwhelming majority of studies will show bear spray being the preferred and more successful bear deterrent. The use of bear spray provides a non leathal way of deterring the bear, and you and the bear have a fair chance of both walking away from the encounter. The problem with most of these studies is that a high percentage of successful bear spray encounters are with what one might call a curious or nuisance bear. This kind of bear is much easier to ward off than the bear that is angry, vicious and directly attacking. When you find a study that focuses on just incidents with the vicious, aggressive kind of bear the results are much less successful when using bear spray. It is with this kind of bear encounter that a firearm has a better history of success in saving your life.

I believe there is merit in carrying and using bearspray if you have the nuisance type of encounter. If this is commonly done it should greatly help modify bear behavior to avoid human encounters. The grizzly (although extremely repopulated) is still federally protected. If you have a encounter and use lethal methods on one of these bears you will no doubt be scrutinized by authorities, media and your peers.  I personally am more comfortable with safety aspects of carrying a firearm for bear protection, but I also understand the backlash and legal battle you may have if you ever have to fire your weapon at a grizzly.

In regard to stock response to bear encounters, I have not had any mishaps or blow ups from stock “knock on wood”. I’ve come around a corner in the trail and had a grizzly 20 feet in front of my horse only to have the horse stop and the griz bolt into the brush. In a brushy area of a trail I’ve had a young black climb a tree right next to my horse, close enough that I could have reached out and touched it.  No major blowups from these or many other encounters. I don’t know if this is just luck or the amount of desensitizing our horses are subjected to. I’ve always debated whether to dismount or not when faced with a bear encounter.  I think you have to make a judgement call on each and every incident. So far I have only dismounted one time during a bear encounter. In that instance Connie was with and I did not want the bear to seperate us and cause our horses to bolt opposite directions.

When you choose to trail ride in Montanas backcountry you choose to accept the risks that are associated with that endeavor. Many of these trails have very dangerous sections where you are hanging onto 8 inches of goat trail with a hundred feet or more drop off below. Sometimes you have dangerous water crossings or just treacherous blow down. A stock user must be prepared for all the events that come his/her way. Preparation of our minds to know that we can deal with situations is the most important part of having a good safe adventure. The bears are out there so be ready!

Sow griz with 2 cubs (out of sight). The only pic I have of a griz encounter while on horseback. This was on our access road leading to AVR. The horse I was on that day was not happy to be there.

After a very mild but prolonged winter, we are finally seeing spring weather up on Teakettle Mtn. Snow is melting and water is running everywhere. Spring fever is as prevalent here as the corona virus in New York. It is hard to imagine those poor folks living in the city during a home quarantine order.  When you live in a rural area you have the luxury of a very normal type of life during these social distancing times. Getting to be out enjoying the beauty of nature is one of the spoils of living on a mtn.

We’ve put the snowshoes and skis away and have been working with the horses daily. The snow is to deep for any backcountry riding, but we can ride our neighborhood roads to give the boys some exercise.

The horses are also enjoying the warm spring days. They are usually found stretched out basking in the sunshine. They don’t seem all that anxious to get back to work. 

One of the downsides of spring weather is the MUD. These guys seem to enjoy rolling in the crappiest place they can find usually immediately following being groomed.

Spring is also the best time to get the slash piles that we’ve been building though the year burnt up. Relaxing with a cup of coffee watching the fire and smelling the pine is extremely enjoyable.

When Connie and I first purchased property up on a mountain side our friends questioned how we would get along with each other being so isolated. We knew we would be fine though. We have always had very common interests. When we were young, having children and creating a family was extremely important to us. When we were growing our farm business Connie was tolerant if not understanding of the time I spent away from home. She ran the household and raised our kids, I worked on the farm. A little old fashioned yes, but it worked for us. Not to say Connie didn’t help with fieldwork in those early years, cuz she spent many days helping with combining or other fieldwork. 

Common interests and goals have been the biggest asset to our marriage. When a couple is working together to achieve a common goal life together is so much easier. We definately are not the same type of people though. Connie was always more sensitive and nurturing, where I was more pragmatic and practical.

Family has alway been important to both of us. We raised three awsome kids that are grown and raising families of their own. We were so fortunate to be able to raise our family in the small farm community of Churchs Ferry, ND. This was the kind of Mayberry type atmosphere that reeks of wholesome and goodness. This community where we carved out our lives and livelihood,  will always hold a special place in our hearts.

So it was somewhat surprising that when we discussed the possibility of purchasing property in Montana for when we retired, we were both on board with the idea. We were both born and raised in Cut Bank, a small town on the east side of the Rockies, and have always had a love for the mountains, but giving up our farm life was exceptionally difficult. To start a new adventure living on a mountain and raising horses was definitely a huge life change. We are still farming and working through the transition with our son who is taking over, but our home is now on Teakettle mtn.

Now we spend as much time as possible in Montana’s backcountry. I had been leasing horses for summer pack trips and fall hunts for years, but until 2011 Connie had never been on a horse packing trip. She fell in love with the experience and seldom passes on an invitation to go.

Truly blessed when you get to share life with your high school sweetheart, life long love, and your best friend.

I’ve always enjoyed backcountry skiing, but venturing into the woods off trail can be challenging on regular x-country gear. This year I invested in AT gear. This is the type of gear that many of the extreme skiers use to skin up mountain summits in order to have that perfect powder run. Now this is in no way one of my ambitions, but the new lightweight gear available is perfect for backcountry exploring. The wide bottom shorter skis make traversing through mtn trails much easier, and the fish scale bottoms allow for climbing most grades without the use of skins. Skins can still be utilized for those steeper accents.

It was such a beautiful day to be skiing in the backcountry!

Another route up to Tranquil Basin is directly up the drainage from the lake.  In my youth a good friend and I would make a yearly backpack trip up to Tranquil using this route. Unfortunately it’s been 40 years since those days and my recollection of the route was pretty faint. 

Still this was a great backcountry excursion. The area had received about 1′ of new snow a couple days earlier.

If your more partial to skiing groomed trails or trips around the local golf course, then this type of gear may not be best suited for you. But if you like getting off the beaten path and experiencing the backcountry, check this AT (alpine touring) gear out. It will definitely be worth the investment.

In every community there are those people that are considered the pillars. You know the kind of people I’m talking about, they are active in community organizations, they are always willing to donate time and labor for community events, the type of people that others will look to for help when there are difficult jobs or maybe severe weather events, they are the people that will postpone their own duties to go assist a neighbor. In our little community of Churchs Ferry we had a handful of those folks and my Uncle Arden was one.

Arden was a family farmer that got started on his uncle Petes farm when he was in high school back in the 40’s. He was one of those old school farmers that didn’t believe in taking short cuts or the easy way. If the job was difficult, then you were probably doing it right. Always seen in his bib overalls, he epitomized the farmer of that era.

In addition to grain farming Arden raised feeder cattle and had a small cow/calf operation. The feeder cattle were always his favorite. He routinely grew them to big oversized steers in excess of 2000 lbs. The buyers of these heavy weights would discount the price per lbs, but he didn’t care. He just enjoyed raising big steers.

He also enjoyed nice machinery to operate his farm. In a time when everyone was very conservative with expenses, Arden would still be upgrading and purchasing newer modern equipment. As a hard working bachelor he was prosperous and could afford it.

Growing up, I visited Arden usually a couple times a year with my parents, and in the fall of 1981 went to work for him full time. I was getting married at the time and he welcomed us into his world with open arms. I was super excited for the opportunity he was offering. “Work for me for a period of time and when I retire you can take over”. Well, I worked for Arden and after a few years he allowed me to purchase and run cows with his herd, both the cow/calf and feeder cattle operations. I was then able to rent a couple quarters of land and operate this with just renting some of his equipment. In 1994 I ceased full time employment with Arden and we operated our own acres separately, but always working side by side together. I had acquired machinery of my own and we shared expenses. Arden retired from the grain side of farming in 2001 at the age of 72, but he kept raising his prized feeder cattle until the flood waters of Devils Lake forced him to quit at the age of 81.

Arden operating combine at 80 yrs old

Arden was a bachelor until the age of 58. Sylvia , a neighbor who had been previously widowed, and he got together and were married in 1987. They were perfectly suited for each other. She doted on him and vice versa. This union changed Arden’s priorities in life and he finally started to enjoy some relaxation time. These two frequently traveled visiting friends and family or just getaway vacations. Those of us that knew Arden were thrilled that he had found someone to enjoy the rest of his days with. Then in 2013 Sylvia was tragically taken away from him. She had complications from a heart surgery that ended up taking her life. He was devistated. Sylvia had meant the world to him and they shared 26 years together. At 84 years of age losing someone you depend on for so much was very difficult.

Wedding Day

With the help of Arden’s nieces, he was able to remain at home and function fairly well for quite a few years until failing health required him to become a nursing home resident in 2019 at the age of 90. He adapted well to nursing home life and the activities that were made available to him. Sadly he left us on February10, 2020 at the age of 91.Ardens 91st birthday party

I will be forever grateful to this man. He taught me so much and was very patient with my learning curve when I started farming. I learned from him to persevere through the many unpleasant sides of the farm business. He gave me the opportunity to build a profitable farm business that my son will expand upon. From our beginning we meshed well and seldom had disagreements. I so enjoyed his coffee visits with reminiscing of past times and will greatly miss that fellowship. I had the fortune of being with him at the time of his passing and hope that somewhere in his sleep he knew I was there.

Now he has gone to be with God and his beloved Sylvia. I do hope there is a feed lot full of steers in heaven.

One of the views when I’m out in our pasture feeding horses is this ridge in the Apgar range. I’ve always wanted to ride up to the top on horseback but so far have never ventured up there. We had a sunny day today so I took off late in the morning with the intent of skiing up there.

To access this ridge you have to leave from the horse corrals over in West Glacier which is about a 5 mile ski trip to the base of the ridge, using the old Flathead ranger station trail.  I chose an alternate route, leaving from the Blankenship bridge and fording the middle fork.

Crossing the Middle Fork of the Flathead wasn’t to big an issue.  Current in this location is pretty weak and the water depth was about hip deep. I wore my packable waders. Once on the other side there is an old trail that you can take to climb the river bank.

Once on top of the river bank you can follow the ranger station trail back to the base of the mtn ridge.  Taking this route gets you to the base of the ridge in about 2 miles.

This trail is always scenic

Reaching the base of the ridge, snow conditions were still icy. The forecast was for partial sunshine and warm, but cloud cover was preventing the snow from softening making conditions a little hazardous. 

Snow levels on the south side of this ridge were a little sparse leaving a lot of exposed rock and brush. For a somewhat novice backcountry downhill skier this was a little concerning. I climbed without skins about 1/3 of the way up the mtn, thinking if I can climb with just the fishscales it shouldn’t be to steep for my decent among the rocks.

Although I did get high enough for some great views, I decided to punt on continuing the climb. I’ll wait for another day when we have better snow conditions. It was great to successfully cross the middle fork and take this route shortening the trail miles considerably.

Skiing in Glacier Park is always fantastic. There will be another day!

We’ve had very little snow up on the mountain at Apgar View Ranch. This makes for poor ski conditions, but it’s been great for extending our season with the horses. Today when I was planning to catch a horse and take off, I decided to skip the regular guys that I ride and grab our old guy. Freckles (aka Whitey) is a horse that we purchased years ago following an accident that I had resulting in a busted knee. The folks that we purchase our stock from brought him up for Connie. She needed a horse that could help boost her confidence and Freckles was a gem. 

Freckles has been the go to guy when it came to visitors wanting to go for a ride. He was also the horse that all of our grandkids were riding. Yet when I crawled up on him he could still crank it up and give you some fun. 

Freckles was also the horse that I learned to pack with. His younger years were spent roping, so when I was working with ropes dragging around him and tying loads, nothing seemed to bother him. He was a great teacher.

Freckles has always been special to my granddaughter Sophia. Over the Christmas holiday the kids spent a couple of days out on the horses and Sophia’s pick is always Freckles. While out riding she asked “grandpa do you think I could buy Freckles?” Well, I would love to have said yes, but I knew that was not gonna fly with mom and dad. So my answer was “Sophia it would probably be better if I kept him and you just come and ride”. Sophia wasn’t really satisfied with that answer and persisted with her question of would I sell her Freckles. Her mom asked her why and her answer was priceless. “Mom you always tell me to save my money for what I really want, and I really really want Freckles!”

This is the kind of horse that is super special and doesn’t come along often. He turned 20 this year and although I don’t work him to hard anymore he is still tremendously fun to hit the trail with.

So we saddled up today and took off for a little ride up the mountain. He was his usual frisky self when we headed out. Just two old guys out for some fun!