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Can it get too crowded in paradise? In Montana, the answer is
“not yet.”
>by Paul Gerald
You might say that a river of folks runs through Missoula, Montana.
A lot of the flow has come since Robert Redford laid his fly-fishing
movie on the town. That's the one that makes people in Missoula
shake their heads and mumble about “what it was like before.”
Listen for a while to the old-timers, which might mean somebody
who's been there for 15 years, and you'd think A River Runs Through
It was the dambreak in Missoula's people-flood.'
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| A few hours on a wild Montana river, flat or whitewater, has the
same effect as a week of chilling out anywhere else.' |
For the rest of us, even as it “fills” with people, Montana remains
an amazing place to be. We go there because we can catch fish
in mountain streams, sit by lakes and watch sunsets, or ride horses
out across the flatlands. So far, in our eyes, there's still enough
room for people to go out there and more or less stay away from
each other.'
What makes the pickup drivers squirm is the arrival of art galleries,
fancy restaurants, and luxurious places to stay. These things
no more repel us than do those fish-filled rivers.'
Plain and simple, it is always a good time to go to Montana. Winter
is ski time, spring is the green explosion and wildflowers, summer
is long days that don't seem long enough, and fall is when it's
still nice, with colors in the leaves, and most people have gone
home.'
In Montana you can be entertained on every budget from backcountry
campsite to private cabin by the lake. Now there's even a private
mansion you can rent that's in the middle of a lake. A trip to
Montana ends up as a collage of memories, most of them of beautiful
country and laid-back afternoons. And the other folks out there,
be they fellow travelers, recent transplants, or genuine old-timers,
are at least half the fun.'
Fly to Missoula, which typically costs just under $400, and immediately
get onto a river. Drift along with the rippling current under
80-degree cloudless skies, looking for birds and maybe trying
to get a trout. A few hours on a wild Montana river, flat or whitewater,
has the same effect as a week of chilling out anywhere else. Not
many things, after all, make 50-year-olds giggle and scream.'
Ask your river guide where he or she is from and what they did
before becoming a “river rat.” Getting stories out of these people
is as tough as getting promises from a politician. Two minutes
after you ask, a guy's telling you about one of the times he got
charged by a grizzly while he was a ranger up in Glacier Park,
or a woman is describing her eight-day float down the Grand Canyon,
shooting rapids the size of houses.'
As a change of pace, along the Bitterroot River you can stop and
blast things with shotguns – just in case you brought some frustration
with you. You might be familiar with skeet shooting, but out west
they're into “sporting clays.” Skeet don't, as one difference,
roll along the ground and then hop 10 feet into the air while
you're trying to shoot them. There are 11 different stations at
Bitterroot Sporting Clays, where the targets are “presented” flying
sideways and over your head and away from you. A round of 100
targets at all the stations is $30 and at least that many hoots
and hollers.'
After the river ride, hike up to the “M” on the hillside above
the University of Montana, dig the view of five valleys, then
go get yourself a pint of, yes, Moose Drool beer. There's always
that undercurrent of either satire or outright nose-thumbing in
Montana, like a bar in town that sells shirts and caps with its
motto, “Liquor in the front, poker in the rear.” But, of course,
within a few blocks of that bar is a passel of art galleries where
one night each month people chat in front of modern art while
holding cups of wine and punch.'
Almost 200 years ago Lewis and Clark floated the Bitterroot, trying
to find a way west through the mountains. The only non-river portion
of their trip was along the Lolo Trail through the Bitterroot
Mountains. Now you can mountain-bike some of that trail with a
company called Lewis and Clark Trail Adventures. They run river
trips, as does about every third person you meet in Missoula,
but they also bike 75 miles of the Lolo Trail (camping at actual
Lewis and Clark campsites) and canoe the upper Missouri, one of
the last few places that still looks like it did in 1805.'
That company, by the way, is run by a guy who calls himself a
Lewis and Clark buff – he drove the whole trail when he moved
to Montana – and is now running for the state legislature. Just
another story come to town.'
The whole history of Missoula is about people coming through,
from Lewis and Clark and the natives they encountered up to today's
tourists and transplants. One of the more interesting recent arrivals
is Jim Caron, whose VW bus broke down there about 30 years ago.
Jim is an actor and had always wanted to play the lead in Fiddler
on the Roof, and it just happens that a Missoula theatre was casting
it when he got stranded there. One thing led to another, and for
the last 25 years Jim has run the Missoula Children's Theater.'
What's so interesting about this, other than their annual schedule
of performances and their new multimillion-dollar theatre being
built, is that they run two-person crews all over the country,
in trucks loaded with sets and props and costumes, and every week
they set up shop someplace and put on a whole show with an entirely
local cast of 50 or 60 kids. Every week they do this, 22 teams
putting on 700 shows each year in 48 states and a handful of foreign
counties. All because Jim Caron's bus broke down.'
There are stories like that all over Montana. All you have to
do is go out there and meet the folks who are living them. But
the real reason you should go out there is the place itself. Five
rivers flow within a few miles of Missoula, and three big-time
mountain ranges frame it. One large wilderness area starts right
on the edge of town. You can just about pick a road at random,
head up it, and find yourself all alone by a stream among the
pines.'
Montana is one of America's jewels, and there's still plenty of
room for everybody to enjoy it. No amount of filmmaking will change
that.
A Missoula Primer'
When to go: Summer is the best for weather, unless you want to
ski at one of two local hills. April brings a Wildlife Film Festival
with more than 70 films. The fall, as with many tourist-heavy
spots, is the best time to go, but bear in mind the first snow
can fall in September.'
Dream place to stay: If you're a group of at least eight, or you're
planning a meeting, go nuts and rent the Center at Salmon Lake.
It's an 11-bedroom/11-bath mansion on an island in the middle
of a mountain-ringed lake. Sure, it's about $300 per person per
night, but that includes the entire house, all your meals cooked
by a gourmet chef, a pool table, boats, a bonfire every night,
and all your activity-planning taken care of.'
Different place to stay: In a fire-service watchtower. Fire-spotting
is handled by planes and satellites now, so the Forest Service
rents the towers out. One might assume the views would be pleasant.'
Ways to see the country: There are more river trips and horseback
excursions out of Missoula than anybody can keep up with. Good
experiences were had with Montana River Guides and 10,000 Waves.
Another thing to consider is a scenic train ride. Montana Rockies
Rail Tours has everything from one-day runs with dinner to six-day
runs that include Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks
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