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Wilderness Experienced

The desert is a lot like beer

By Jack Smith “The desert is a lot like beer; it’s an acquired taste.” That’s what a friend of mine told me some years ago. I think he may have been onto something. However, these northern cold desert areas of Wyoming are neither a smooth lager nor an easy-drinking American pilsner. Rather, I seem to…

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Postcard to the Superstition Wilderness

By Jeri Lewis Edwards How could you have known we wouldbecome utterly, inexplicably lostwithout that misplaced map? And that razor cut trail cloaked in dust,talus, edged felsite, gneissic-banded rubble.We witnessed those tumbled stones—they weren’t cairns from your past,no markers to guide us. We couldn’t help but notice your narrow gameswaths, up boulder jutted cliffs—too exposed.We…

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The valley they call fire

By Frank Keim Thinking back…deepinto the heart of these arctic mountainsknown today as the Brooks Range,I rememberthe long windy solitude of the valley,where gray river cobbles collidewith a braided maze of ancient caribou trails,and pink fireweed blossoms brushthe wide antlers of a bull moosebrowsing nonchalantlybelowme,as I clamber up to the tip of the tailof the…

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Big Tom and other Wilderness cougars over the years

By Jim Peek I’ve seen quite a few cougars over the years, but the biggest one was in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in Idaho.  My way to cool off from the spring semester at the University of Idaho was to borrow Maurice Hornocker’s two pack mules, saddle my horse, and have the agriculture school’s stock truckers…

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Franz

Rx Wilderness: One visit at least annually

By Shane Vlcek

I spent most of my adulthood in the western states of Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Experiencing the backcountry was always something I looked forward to. But finding the opportunity and time to explore those sacred Wilderness places where true freedom is no longer in front of the next step or beyond the next ridgeline had always been a chance experience rather than a lifestyle.

 

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Franz

A Walk in the Winds

by Harriet Greene

My daughter and I drove south towards the turnoff, then seventeen miles on gravel to the trailhead. A pack trip was leaving and the wrangler, spitting a wad of tobacco, told us about “one of the best campsites” where we were headed. The trail climbed through a grove of aspens, stayed high on a sage-covered slope above Upper New Fork Lake, and we crossed into the Bridger Wilderness at 3.4 miles. Ah-h-h!

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Brett

Bear Grass, Ursa Major, and Going Home

By Brett Haverstick I was off work and at the trailhead by 6:00 p.m. I estimated that I had about three-and-a-half hours of daylight to hike the eight miles to Bass Lake on the Montana side of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. I wasn’t in the best backpacking shape, but I figured I could still knock out…

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Protecting wilderness shows humility, respect

By Phil Knight What good is designated wilderness? Are the Lee Metcalf or the Absaroka Beartooth “wasted lands” because people can’t just go do whatever they want there? I am currently (temporarily) disabled from a fall and cannot walk unassisted. There will be no wilderness trips for me this summer. I’ve already enjoyed a lifetime’s…

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