Going to the Dogs

Harlo - AKA Muffin

In the world of ice breakers, "Are you a dog or cat person?" ranks right up there in with "Pop or Soda?" in getting a quick glimpse into the personality or background of a new friend or acquaintance. Me, I've always been a cat person. Not really for any reason pertaining to their specific attributes and differences, but because that's just what our whole family was. Again though, that didn't even pertain to the animal types themselves, but we lived in a city, had no yard and were very busy people. I think deep down my younger brother and I really did always want a dog, but were always thwarted(quickly!) by that standard parental threat of being responsible for taking care of said dog.

Me & my hiking buddy, Buckeye

Well folks, the times they are a-changin. In the past 7 years of living in Steamboat Springs and Gardiner - on many days one could easily draw the not-so-far fetched conclusion that there may be more dogs in residence than humans - I have begun to change my ways. No need for my little Harlo muffin to worry, I still love her dearly, but one of these days she may just have to share her space with a canine companion.

Tater - AKA Sausage Dog

I have many, many friends who have dogs and have blessed me with their acquaintance....and some have even *gasp* entrusted me with their care for extended periods of time. At first I just did what I was told - food, water, potty outings, walks or runs in the yard, and maybe a little snuggle in the evening for those allowed on the furniture. Nowadays though, they are earning their place in my heart as man's best friend.

Why the sudden change? Maybe I'm growing up a little bit, heaven forbid. The idea of taking care of something more complicated and time consuming than a cat is not nearly the dreadful weight that it once was. The idea of a companion that is loyal even when it doesn't want something (hint, hint Harlo - you should be nice even when you don't want me to pet you!) is a nice thought, especially when living alone(which I don't know, but I'm sure I will at some point in time....). I just may be responsible enough to keep something alive and thriving these days. Well, at least in the fauna department - me and flora may never have a good relationship.....

Fuzzy phone pics! Yep, there are 4 of them in there somewhere :)

Of course while the idea that I could have a pet because I've grown and matured is a nice one, I still prefer the REAL perks.....Dinner dates with no cooking or dishes involved. No need to rinse dishes when there are any. A nice extra blanket on a cold day. Far less expensive bribes and apologies. No talking back when you just need to vent, and no need to add the disclaimer of "please don't repeat this". No need to make plans to go hiking, just open the car door and you have a hiking buddy.

I think I like Option #2. I do live in Neverland, after all......

Music in the Mountains

One thing that I always miss by living in such a small and out of the way place is live music. Sure, Bozeman has some and Billings has some, Missoula has a good bit etc etc, but those are 90 minutes on the short side and 5 hours on the long...each way.

However, what we lack in quantity we can definitely make up for at least a bit in quality of venues. Enter, Grand Targhee.

Grand Targhee is a small ski resort on the western slope of the Grand Tetons - little know but with ridiculous snow and scenery(over 800 inches this year, if I'm not mistaken....). In the summer they host concerts and music festivals such as Targhee Fest and the Targhee Bluegrass Festival. This year they also upped the line-up to a 3-day Widespread Panic show over July 4th weekend, which of course was a must-wander for me and a small group of 10-12 friends and the tent-mahal(hold your hat, I promise I'll explain...)

Any music weekend at Targhee is not complete without the camping, located anywhere from 100-500 yards from the music venue. In the past I have only midly experienced this, as I hadn't ever been able to do a full weekend down there before. Well, I learned this year, and learned big! The camping areas are basically large meadows and tree filled areas where you cruise in, get your little plastic bracelet that no one will ever check again and then make the mad, bumpy dash towards the best dry spot near shade you can find, all while the dazed and confused Targhee parking staff wave their arms around and try to at least keep lanes visible through the meadows(no offense to them, they did a great job....I just think it was a much bigger job than they expected and knew what to do with when it hit!). Once landed, you secure your area as best you can by circling the vehicles, staking out tents and picking the most tactical location for the all-wonderful shade tent. This was an especially important detail this year, as remember that earlier mention of 800 inches of snow this winter? Well, a good deal of it is still there, and where there is shade, there will be snow and mud because that great shade that keeps the sun off us also keeps it off the ground.....Behold, the tent-mahal(see? you didn't need to worry after all).

The tent-mahal(thank you Rebecca for the pic and amazing name, by the way), also referred to as the tunnel of love, was the great collaboration that came about with the realization that between the 10 of us camping together we had 4 shade tents that could all match up to each others sides relatively well. After 3.5 days of 80+ degrees in a meadow, I may never go festival camping without at least 4 of these wonderful creations ever again.

While camping is of course an integral part of the Targhee weekend, the music is still phenomenal and in an exceptional place. Most festivals are a collection of bands throughout the day, with folks wandering back and forth between camp and venue, seeing who they want to see and then hitting nap etc. With a show like this though, it's every night at 6pm like a normal concert, which lends to the fun mass exodus from camp, line to get in the gate, and then a huge, crazy and enthusiastic crowd to dance around with for the next 4 hours. This was no exception, and so exhilerating. In fine fashion, the entire weekend opened with thousands of people dancing and singing as they fittingling opened with "Aint Life Grand" and the fun continued all the way up to the 3rd to last song of Sunday night where we may have all gone a little insane singing about the "Surprise Valley". Yeah, they played another song and a good encore that night as well, but my rousing finish was with that one.

Now, one more day of this terrible three-day work week before it's the weekend again....now to rouse some energy to do anything.

More Weekend Wanderings!




Jefferson River Valley from the trail to the cavern entrance

I'm being bad and throwing out more wanderings instead of being more creative, but it was such a fun wandering this weekend that I can't resist!



The adventures this weekend took me and my friends Laney, Lisa and Chase to Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, near Three Forks, MT. In the many years, off and on, that I have lived in this area, it is one of those places that I say "Oh, I really want to go there sometime" every time I drive by the exit sign for it on I-90, but then promptly forget it exists until the next time I drive by the sign. Well, not anymore!

While located near an area passed through by Lewis and Clark, they did not actually discover the caverns, or have any idea they were there...Montana just really loves naming things after them. They were actually discovered by two hunters in the late 1800s who noticed a bare area on the hillside during a February hunt. Upon further exploration(aka, dropping rocks in the hole and not hearing them hit bottom) they decided to come back later when it might be a little safer than mid-February in Montana. It took 6 years, but one of them did return and begin to explore in 1898. Sometime later, a successful prospector took over and began offering tours, utilizing a man-made entrance since the original discovery hole was more overhead to the cavern and descended into a rather large pit within the cavern. To give his tours, he created a walkway throughout with 2000 wooden steps and a 90 foot spiral staircase that often swayed as much as 2 feet from side to side.  

Lisa, me and Laney at the cavern entrance

Eventually the railroad discovered that they actually owned the rights to the land and claimed it, only to turn it over to the federal government in 1908. It was designated a National Monument and then locked up so people could not get in. The prospector, Dan Morrison, deciding that he didn't want to play by those rules, cut the lock, replaced it with his own, and continued his tours. Morrison and the federal government play this back and forth game until Morrison's death in 1932.

Around that point, the newly formed(1929) Montana State Parks system came into play, as they were then 3 years old but still did not have any park sites. With the help of the Civilian Conservation Corp, the rickety spiral staircase and wooden steps(wood in a moist cave does not exactly equal a good pairing) were removed and replaced by asphalt, some areas widened for better access, such as the entrance, and a new section of the cavern was discovered and opened to the public. After the discovery of this new section, an exit tunnel was also created so that visitors no longer had to retrace their steps back to the top of the cavern to get out.





Stalactites on the cavern wall


There are several areas to the cave, both large and small, and you actually spiral down throughout the cavern as you decend with each of the large rooms 100-200 feet below each other. They have intriguing names such as the Cathedral room(named for it's shape), the Sample room(named because of the large quantities of "samples" that Dan Morrison encouraged his guests to break off and take home with them to show their friends) and the Poison room(named for the eerie, venomous colors).

Crystal Pool(it's back there, I promise!)



One mile above sea level



Another neat concept we learned about was the way the cave can change your perception. In the Poison room, our guide pointed out a tall, narrow feature that appeared to be about 20-25 feet away and maybe 2 feet tall, which was actually 62 feet away from us and 6 feet tall....I am still baffled that the little white "stick" she pointed out was actually almost a full foot taller than me! The other was the idea, so kindly labeled for us on the stairs, of being at the one mile above sea level point while underground. That's a fun way to mess with one's mind a little bit!



One of the great illusionary examples

  

Poison Room - 6 foot tall feature is the small white line in the upper left



Weekend Wanderings

A few weeks ago I discovered an iPhone app called Trover that kind of reminds me a "photo" Twitter. You sign in, post photos of your "discoveries"(anything cool or interesting that you'd like to share) and it posts in a running feed. You map and name the location, as well as provide a brief description of why the discovery is "cool", for each photo, which allows other users to see where you took the photo and what it is. This also allows you to seach Discoveries by what is nearby - either nearby to you, or to another discovery you found interesting. This little app has led me to a new goal of the summer(since I have failed miserably at many of my 2011 goals and challenges so far, lol!). Enter, the Weekend Wanderings of Summer 2011.

I have lived in this area off and on since 2002, and thought that I knew it pretty well and had done a good many things. Definitely not the case, as Trover has taught me in the past few weeks! So far, I have discovered enough new places to see and things to do that, combined with my other already set plans this summer, may definitely be enough to leave not a free weekend to be found!

These first photos are the beginnng of the Weekend Wanderings, though not to new places....



Grand Tetons behind (still frozen) Jackson Lake - Grand Teton National Park May 2011

The bottom of Colter Pass as a storm rolls in - Chief Joseph Highway, Wyoming - May 2011



Buffalo Bill's Historic Irma Hotel - Cody, Wyoming - May 2011



Pioneer School near the Wyoming-Montana border on Hwy 120 - This was a new discovery that I just saw a small sign for on the side of the highway! May 2011

The first of the new explorations, less than 2 hours from my house along a very scenic drive!
Natural Bridge Falls - Gallatin National Forest, Montana - June 2011

The weekend wandering to Natural Bridge falls also included the fun of a borrowed pup(a friend was out of town so pupsitting was also involved!) as wel as a fabulous dinner at the Grand Hotel in Big Timber, MT - was expecting to grab so bar grub on the way home and ended up with an AMAZING meal!!

Next weekend, Lewis and Clark Caverns :)

Oi.

Seasonal life strikes again :( As I said in my last post, things have been a little crazy, though not blog appropriate subjects(I'm sorry!)

These times are never fun, but they are usually survived via the support and companionship of friends and significant others. Unless, of course, you live and work in a place where almost all of your friends are seasonal employees. Seasonal means anywhere from 1-8 weeks of built in vacation between each season. Paid. Well, somewhat(thank you State of WY fun-employment fund!). While it can have it's negative moments(occasional boredom, lack of funds) it is typically a great benefit to seasonal jobs. And one that I do miss...a lot sometimes! But what I miss more is my friends.

Of my best friends(well, local best friends...the #1 is I. CO), one is in the valley, one is in Bozeman, and one is in Oregon. While the valley isn't honestly far away...I'm talking basically the 50 mile stretch North of Gardiner, it's still an 80 mile round trip to see my dear Laney. Lisa, in Bozeman and just home from a winter in AZ, is a 150 mile round trip. With today's gas prices(a whole other animal to be discussed....) it's a tough deal compared to having them within a mile of home.

So what does a girl with he blues do when blues? Go to the Blue Goose and have a shot, of course :) I think tonight may call for a good old Saturday night filled with irresponsibility and mini-Irish car bombs...bottoms up!

Sent from my iPhone while driving, applying make up, changing the radio and drinking a cup of coffee...have a great day!

For 'Tis Life - Shiny Happy Photos

As happens in life, just by nature of it being the unpredictable, uncontrollable, baffling roller coaster that it is, I've been feeling a little funky lately. For the entirely self serving purpose of having to look at them and hopefully brighten my world for a fleeting moment, it's about time to impart some happy-thought inspiring photos out to the rest of the world....

March 2011 - Funny, I know. But my car's back door hasn't opened in over a year, and I fixed it myself the other day....quite a happy moment!

May 2007 - My best friend's dog, Arthur, making himself comfy in the back of my car during his very first Yellowstone visit. Other than a brief stop to try and lick some sticky gunk off the Gardiner bridge, he was very well behaved for a puppy on a road trip!

Winter 2010/11 - Photo courtesy of Beth Pratt - Mama Bison and a late-born baby(aka lil red dog...we don't usually see lil guys this red when the snow is around!)

September 2002 - Iris and Colonnade Falls in the Bechler region of the Yellowstone backcountry. My first backpacking trip, almost 10 years ago.

December 2010 - My best friend in world, Jayne Rockford Pond, with her husband Alex and their one year old daughter Reesa. Family ski day in Steamboat Springs! I miss that girl an awful lot....

July 2010 - One of my nearest and dearest, Laney, fishing on Yellowstone Lake on her wedding day

May 2007 - Me on the widow's walk of the Old Faithful Inn...one of my favorite places in the world

May 2004 - My mom and me at an overlook for the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. Mom's first trip to Yellowstone, back when I was 21 years old.

November 2008 - My little brother and me(yes, I'm happier than I look....Dad has such great timing for catching terrible faces with the camera!). This was my brother's first visit to Colorado, and the first time I'd seen him in almost 5 years. 

November 2010 - The epic snowstorm that hit Gardiner, MT. This is only a happy picture because it looks pretty, and I got to drive away and leave on vacation about 2 hours later.

November 2010 - Balanced Rock in Arches National Park. Not only is this just cool to look at, but Arches is also one of my favorite National Parks. I also get warm fuzzies because Edward Abbey's trailer house was near here during the time he wrote of in Desert Solitaire, one of my all time favorite books

November 2010 - The wonderful man I love, playing in slot canyons in Arches National Park

October 2008 - My Dad and me on the Fish Creek Falls bridge, Steamboat Springs, Colorado

May 2007 - Arthur and me at the South Entrance to Yellowstone. I have a thing for signs when I visit places, and this is by far my favorite and most photographed....I have no idea why :o)

Summer 2010 - Me, Laney and Tyrene, another of my nearest and dearest. I have known Ty almost my entire duration of time in Yellowstone, and she is a wonderful, kindred, native Oregonian, Portlandian and Oregon Ducks football fan to have around. Plus, she's the reason I even know Laney. I love these girls!

A Girl, a Boy, a Windy Day and No Fish!

Just to the bottom right of this is one of my favorite little fishing pockets...just have to get there!

Most of last week and this weekend, we were graced with sunny skies and temps in the 40s-low 50s(or cursed, considering it's just a tease before the next big, inevitable, snowstorm) and yesterday was the most exciting of all: first day of fishing for 2011. I must add the disclaimer, though, that first day doesn't mean the season started yesterday because you can fish in Montana year-round. I'm just enough of a wimp that I don't go stick my hands in rivers of mountain run off in the winter...my hands get cold enough as is, why on earth would I want to make it worse?

So, after a good sleep-in(daylight savings is wonderful...guilt free sleeping into the late morning because "honey, it's really only 10am...". Gotta love it.) and a bit too much lounging, we decided to head out fishing since it was such a beautiful day. Beautiful does not, however, mean dry. Or clean. Or not windy.

This is Vegas(I'm not one for naming cars, but my friend Sarah is....my car is Vegas because inside is where whatever we say can stay there!). She took us fishing yesterday.

Vegas got to play in the mud....

Section of the Old Yellowstone Trail, looking North

Terrible picture, I know(dirty-rotten-no good-good for nothing Blackberry....) but I imagine you get the idea. Lots and lots of mud. Yellowstone is still closed for fishing until Memorial Day weekend, so our adventure took us up a long, windy and sometimes treacherous road called Old Yellowstone Trail, which runs between Gardiner and Paradise Valley for about 20 or so miles, following the old stagecoach route into Gardiner. It's one of my favorite places to go fishing because of it's relative solitude(you can still see/hear the highway most of the time, but your across the river so it has a semblance of peace and quiet) and it's convenient access to home. Not the mention the incredibly fun puddles and mud bogs you can drive a 4WD through this time of year.

It also has a lot of very interesting history to be seen all along the route. There are several areas where you can distinctly see where the stage road went a slightly different course than the current road, a very fun area of hoodoos to explore, and even old "signs" from the stage days(they used flat rocks and paint to make the original roadside "billboards").

Part of the old "Yankee Jim" Stagecoach Toll Road....no, you don't have to drive on this anymore!

That said, it is also a pretty crummy place to be when it's muddy AND windy. Which it was. Which it OFTEN is. Because we may have a shortage of some things around here...fast internet, movie theaters, summer. But wind is definitely not one of them. I started out the day a bit behind, as I forgot to check my leader on my fly rod until we were there, and discovered way too late that I had about 8 inches of it left. Oops! Bryan on the other hand, was plenty stocked up with everything....including the knot after knot that ended up in his leader from the wind deciding it did not want to listen to wear he was telling it to send his line.


All in all, we caught about 4 sticks, a few snowbanks, slide down the muddy canyon hillside and fell in the river(well, that was just me....but it makes me feel much better to say we!), saw a group of bighorn sheep, including a beautifully full curled ram, and caught zero fish. Guess I have some catching up to do next weekend. Happy Spring in Montana!

The "Where to Live Dilemma"

Unfortunately I'm not talking about the fun and exciting "where to go?!" sort of dilemma. Rather, the one we face around is more like "Ok I'm here. Now where do I sleep?".

Having an economy based primarily(if not almost entirely....) on tourism, Gardiner has fallen into the same rut as other like places of seeing our housing options dwindle at an alarming rate. Just like everywhere else this has occurred, the 2 common culprits are increased demand and demand's(sometimes) evil counterpart, increase in price since the supply hasn't kept up. While of course there are always more intricacies involved in these matters than we see up front, I see a few big culprits. A few different categories, but similar result nonetheless:

1. There are fewer and fewer "old timers" - retired and/or elderly residents who have either lived here their entire lives, or at least a significant chunk of it. This population has decreased(2000 census notes 7.4% of our population as over 65, compared to the national average of over 12%) by their passing, moving in with their children or other family members, moving to assisted living, etc. When they do so, their homes and property often go to their children, who very often do not live here, nor do they want to. So, they decide to sell or rent.  If they opt to rent, they will inevitably learn about and consider the large sum of money to be had by not renting for a measly $500-$1000 a month when they can get that in a week from tourists. End Result: Vacation Rental
2.  If their option is to sell and their house is pretty much anything worth living in, it will more than likely be priced out of reach of many, many local residents(our median household income data was about $31,000 compared to the national average of just under $42,000 in 1999). End Result: Vacation/2nd Home
3. It's a small town, and as with many small towns, kids finish school and get the heck outta dodge. See #1. End Result: Parents house eventually becomes Vacation Rental or Vacation/2nd Home.

Granted, there are many more factors that come into play, but much of it is means to the same end. Areas like this are based on tourism because there is something that draws people here(proven by the fact that most of us are not from here!). With overall populations increasing**, that often means more people coming, which means a larger need for places for them to stay. No argument from me there(I wouldn't have a job without them!). But, the job doesn't do me much good if I don't have anywhere to live. Ironically, a good portion of my reason for moving back here was I was just plain sick and tired of needing 2 jobs just to get by in Steamboat Springs. **Note: Everywhere but here that is...my vacation rental takeover argument is firmly based in the fact that the residential population of our census block actually decreased from 1990-2000, with little change projected for 2010(per U.S. Census Bureau)

This growth phenomenon in towns like this can have some great benefits. An out of town investor has purchased 3 run-down local bars/restaurants in the last 2 years and done some wonderful things to renovate  and rejuvenate them. The out of town children of another property owner partnered with their dad to build a wonderful roof top patio bar that is great new place to hang out in the sun with a cold drink and amazing view. Another out of town couple tore out a long-vacant gas station and put in a little BBQ joint(with wonderful hash brown casserole at breakfast, I'm told!). These are great improvements, but they come with a price - the investor who purchased and renovated the 3 bars/restaurants also just purchased his 3rd house in the area, just before the sellers were about to rent it to a local family(with a clause to honor their lease if the house should sell). I have also seen friends need to leave their jobs because their landlords chose not the renew their lease to turn their property into a weekly rental. I have seen friends purchase mobile homes and trailers(often all one can afford to start off with), only to have the land they pay lot rent for sold off and built on. Most recently, an 8-unit apartment building was sold,and plans made known immediately via 30-day eviction notices that the building will be torn down. This last event leaves 8 individuals and families all looking for somewhere to live at the same time, a time which conveniently lines up with the spring influx of summer seasonal works also looking for a place to live. I by no means intend for this to be a slam to these investors/purchasers, as it's a great area to invest in and it's not for me to judge what people do with their resources(because I might do exactly the same thing if I had them!). It is, however, always sad to see another of the already limited residential properties go by the wayside, adding another tic to the growing number of vacation properties.

This is the point where I should not break the big rule of "No Bitch with No Fix"(or at least suggestion of fix!), but this one truly puts me at a loss....we are too small for a legitimate affordable housing program, we are too dependent upon the tourist industry to not provide for their demand, and the cost to purchase is quickly out-pacing income. Oh magic 8-ball, what do thee say?

A Small Old Building Full of People Eating Chili

"To all chili contestants you have a little over one week to come up with a chili recipe that
will beat mine! Lots of luck!! Then when it’s all over you’ll know not to mess with the best".—MAX

"To all you Chili Contest Contestants, there will be a second place prize. The prize will be the privilege of having the taste of my 1st place Chili! If you think I have an ego...YOUR RIGHT! Just try taking this award away from me. Bring it on!!!" - MAX

"For all you wanna be cooks I will not give up my best Chili Title to no one! I would like
to personally challenge– Kelly McAdams, Coby Dawson, Phil Currie, Donald Knight, Maria
Beers, Wade Laubach, Bob Evanoff and anyone else who is up for the CHALLENGE" - MAX

As you can probably tell, MAX is the defending champion of the annual Gardiner Chili Cook-Off. These are just a sampling of the recent notices he's posted in the closest thing we have to a newspaper, the weekly Gardiner Newsletter (which we all look forward to and snatch up every Wednesday morning, even though it usually says pretty close to the same thing each week...). And yes, he does make some pretty darn good chili.

Well, after all the much talked about hype (yes, we actually talk about this...just today in the office, Renae and I actually discussed Max's challenges....), tomorrow is the big day. Round about 5:30pm, the festivities will begin at the Gardiner Community Center. The CC is the historic Eagles Hall, and is the only real option for community gatherings(besides the school gym!) when the weather is still finicky and being outside would be a guarantee of snow, rain, slush, mud, or all of the above. While having a good bit of historic charm and very conveniently located on Main Street, it does lack a few important things: space, modern ventilation, air circulation, and well, space. This can make things quite interesting when you line the walls with countless varieties of chili, a bar full of beer, and some bluegrass trying to make it's way from the stage to the dancefloor(oh, another. It doesn't just lack good acoustics, I'm pretty sure it lacks them altogether!).

Now don't get me wrong, I love our Community Center. I have yogied there, danced there, sang there, learned there, eating a countless variety of food there, and consumed entirely too much alcohol there. It's a great place. I just don't plan on spending too much time there once the chili, beer, music and Montana mountain men mincing words gets up a little momentum.

I'll let you know if I make it out unscathed

Gunga-Ga-Lunga!!

Photo Courtesy of Scott Hanley

Enter, the Snow Lodge Winter Olympics(aka Yellowstone Olympics, Rainier Olympics, Beer Games, etc).

Living at Old Faithful in the winter is an experience, to say the very least. There is one hotel open, the Old Faithful Snow Lodge(SLodge), operated by 125-150 employees who are basically snowed in for the winter because all of the interior park roads are closed to wheeled vehicles(aka cars) from December-April. So, you park your car 50 miles north in Mammoth Hot Springs, hop on a snowcoach and head in for the winter. Kind of like The Shining, just a bit more fun. In short, the perfect recipe for cabin fever run amok.

Sometime in the history of Snow Lodge(opened for the winter in the early 70s) someone came up with the idea of breaking everyone out of the funk with the Snow Lodge Olympics. The games, once "sponsored" by Rainier beer, are 10 days of ridiculous contests and antics, ending with the closing ceremonies on Yellowstone's birthday, March 1(Today! Happy Birthday Yellowstone!). It starts with the Opening Ceremonies....a hilarious parade complete with the Yellowstone Birkebeiners(Birkenbeiner History), funky music, and the baby Bombardier(a miniature version of a classic snowcoach used in Yellowstone) carrying the queen, usually clad in an outfit completely unsuitable for the weather(example...Virgia's coconut bra of 2004!). This used to take place in front of the hotel, but unfortunately the idea of discretion in antics and public drinking led management and the National Park Service to move the ceremonies to the dorm parking lot, located in a Government area 1/2 mile from the hotel(and well out of guest sight...). There are various games each day, culminating in the Closing Ceremonies and Medal Presentation....did I mention that the medals for the winners of each game are Rainier beer cans, full ones, painted Gold, Silver and Bronze?

The Olympics at a glance. Click on an activity to see a description and pictures, courtesy of Scott Hanley - a wonderful past SLodge employee, co-worker and friend who made this amazing website full of memories!


Opening Ceremonies
Rainier Cup
100-yard Dash
Beverage Ball
Buffalo Chip Toss
Chair Pull
Dart Biathlon
Disc Golf
Drag Race
Fern Appreciation
Football
Kick'n'Glide Classic
Luge
No-Talent Show
Obstacle Course
Pub Games
Pub-Pizza-Pub
Pub-Ol'Pubtender-Pub
Ski Jump
Slalom / Giant Slalom
Snow Pole Toss
Snowshoe Long Jump
Snowshoe Race
Snowshoe/Ski Race
Tandumb Ski
Three-Legged Race
Tug-O-War
Piñata!

View full site at: Yellowstone Winter Olympics

My Snow Lodge days are a thing of the past, let slip away by the need to grow up and have a big kid job(pish posh, I say!), but that doesn't stop my annual trek to one of my favorite events of the season, the No-Talent show. It's about 4 hours and 50 miles each way on a very bumpy old coach called the Prinoth, that always ends up causing a sore neck after the round trip, but worth every second to enjoy the night. While the skits and characters change every season, there are few things you can have every bit of faith in occurring...there will be men in dresses, something on someone will get shaved, sarcasm will run wild, against both the concessionaire(our employer) and the National Park Service, often with the subject of the commentary in the audience. Regardless of the specifics, it's always a good time. This year had a different kind of highlight as well. A longtime park employee, area resident and well-known local photographer, Jeff Henry, was recently diagnosed with bone cancer, and friends have planned a benefit for him this coming Friday in West Yellowstone, MT. In honor of this, the SLodge crew put together a great auction, raising over $3000 in just under 3 hours(complete with auctioning off the opportunity to shave the head and beard of our friend Patty, a man who has not seen his chin in about 10 years!). A personification of the family that becomes SLodge every season. I love you guys!

And now that I think about it, it's been quite some time since I donned anything from the costume box for the Olympics....guess it's time to start planning for next year.

Who has more fun than we do?? NOBODY!!

PS - I have no idea why Gunga Ga Lunga is the motto of the SLodge Olympics...maybe the answer to my question of when the Olympics started is sometime around the time "Caddyshack" met the world??

Today's Dilemma - Trash!

I just got a new garbage can!

Ok, I completely understand why that probably doesn't elicit thoughts of excitement and wonder, but bear with me for a moment...you may find the subject to be more interesting than you might think.

Many people remember, or have heard stories of, the days when throngs of visitors gathered each night for the bear feeding "shows" held in Yellowstone National Park. Trash dumps were well known to both bears and guests, and people often fed bears hand to mouth. Unfortunately, bears are wild creatures, and this practice ultimately led to increased frequency and severity of bear attacks as the animals became habituated to human food and being fed. Thankfully, these "shows" were discontinued in the 1970s and visitors are now taught the familiar(well, to us at least!) mantra that "A fed bear is a dead bear".

Part of living in area dominated by wilderness, no matter how large or small the developed area within it, is learning how to co-habitat with area wildlife. In communities such as mine, that happen to have a very large wildlife preserve right next door, both the abundance and variety of said wildlife also increases. And where there are hungry animals, people and a quickly shrinking window of time before the long, cold winter, there are conflicts. Enter, the Trash Dilemma.

In addition to the feat of co-habitation and general management, Gardiner also has a few other uphill battles in fighting the Trash Dilemma. First, we are a rural community, with many facilities and services located a significant distance away. Second, we are small. Combine this with the distance and investment in time required to reach many services, this often makes the DIY attitude a necessity. One required DYI is just about anything involving trash disposal. Trash pick up, both commercial and residential, is only available if you personally contract with a private company to pick up your trash, and even finding this can be difficult because there aren't many willing to do it. Many of those that are willing are located 50-75 miles away in Livingston or Bozeman, making them a completely inefficient option for businesses like restaurants. This means that most of us have the "Trash Pass". This little pass (which I honestly have no idea how I get or why I need it...no one has EVER asked to see it) which entitles the resident or business to take their trash to the local dump....a big rectangle of chain link fence lined with green boxes, and one lone guy sitting in a folding chair who gives you a funny look if you slow down too much and look like you may not know to go to the box with the big red X on it. Maybe then he might check your pass, but if you look like you know what you're doing, he just waves and smiles.

No, the actual act of taking one's trash to the dump is not a big deal. If so, I'd suggest a persona laziness check. The problems with the dump lie with, first, that the bears like it, and black bears and grizzlies alike are perfectly capable of doing some damage to a chain link fence. Enough damage, in fact, that they had to temporarily electrify it this fall because they were not able to fully repair the remnants of a visit by a local grizzly bear.

Gardiner Dump's Fall Visitor

Talks are constant about the options to actually bear-proof the dump, and for the sake of other bears out there, I sincerely hope they figure out a workable solution, and soon.
Second big dump problem is that even the most efficient person, business or family can't typically get to the dump for each individual trash bag they fill. Keeping stuff in the mud room is just darn stinky and gross, and your plain old run-of-the-mill green garbage can just won't cut it. End result of using green garbage can? Leah driving up to the house at 11pm after a very long 2-job day and finding a very happy black bear sitting next to the back door, completely surrounded by contents of the green garbage can and happily nibbling away. Goodbye to good night's sleep that night since it was almost an hour before he wandered away and I could get to my door! He, and others, made many visits around the area this fall:

Mom and Cubs....meet Chickens and Horse!


Here's where the new garbage can comes in - we have a great organization here in town(led by one very motivated and passionate woman, Ilona Popper) called Bear Awareness Gardiner. The main goal of her organization is to provide, free of charge, bear-resistant garbage cans called "Unbearable Bins" to local residents. The funding for these is provided solely through donations and fundraising, and they are definitely getting out there! Coming up, they are also launching a campaign to assist local restaurants to install commercial bear-resistance recepticals. Go Bear Awareness Gardiner!

Due to the efforts of organizations such as Bear Awareness Gardiner, the Bear Creek Council, Yellowstone Country Guardians and diligence of local residents and businesses, fewer and fewer bears have or will be killed because they learned to eat trash. With effort, maybe we will be able to downgrade the Trash from a dilemma to just annoying one of these days.

The Two Minute Warning on Another Yellowstone Season

One of the things that comes with living in not just a small town, but a small town that is a gateway community to a National Park is learning to accept the concept of seasonal relationships. As another season in Yellowstone winds down, and Gardiner settles into a nice little mud season before the summer traffic arrives, thoughts go to this dynamic and how we all choose to deal with it.

With a year-round population of about 850(as of 2000 census, and including outer-laying areas), a large portion of those you interact with are seasonal staff from both the park and local business who pump up their hours and staff during the busy summer season. A significant portion of these jobs, however, disappear along with the throngs of summer visitors, so as a quickly as these people showed up they are gone again. This was a very tough thing for me my first summer working in Yellowstone...I left Old Faithful with a friend(love you Brent Simon!), bound for our common home state of Oregon, and were both a sobbing mess at the thought of leaving our new-found "family". As the years went by though, this seemed easier each time. Sometimes I attribute this to already having a group of close, established friends so I just didn't meet as many new people; other times I seem to know, deep down, that I probably didn't go out of my way to make new friends, in the name of saving the inevitable, heart wrenching goodbye that comes about more often than not. Surely a bit of each of these is true to a point but, regardless of which, it makes me a bit sad to think of both the countless good-byes and the missed opportunities at wonderful friendships that I may have passed by.

This winter marks my 10th season of working in Yellowstone(not to confuse "season" with "year"...I have worked in the park for about 5 1/2 years) and the passing into the world of double-digit seasons is somewhat bittersweet. Seasonal folks are making plans for their "break", a concept that us with regular day jobs and houses to take care of find a foreign one, at best. "Fun-employment" is a thing of the past; notebook pages filled with addresses of new friends are replaced with trips to the post office to retrieve the electric bill; the countdown begins to the summer days when the grocery store will stay open past 7pm(!) and we all anxiously await the sunshine. But with the sunshine comes the influx of raft guides, housekeepers, servers and of course, the visitors. But, best of all, the seasonal friends will return with pictures and tales of fun adventures....and us regular, full time town folks will start dreaming up ways to get two weeks of vacation at one time :o)

Today's Dilemma - Yellowstone Bison

Bison Dilemma

by Leslie James Quinn on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 7:22pm

OK, I'll line up and let everyone take pot-shots at me. Are the bison that are rounded up and shoved around and sent to slaughterhouses treated in the most humane manner possible? No. But what is the solution?

If we allow the bison to roam completely freely, they will not all return to Yellowstone each summer. They will populate Paradise Valley, then move downstream on the Yellowstone River and Missouri River, and ultimately repopulate the Great Plains. And as alluring as that sounds, there are rather a lot of people dependent upon the wheat that we grow there. This is not a workable solution.

If we provide feed for the bison that have been captured, they will survive. And they and more will require feed in subsequent winters, and it will finally be thousands being fed there, no end in sight, and no longer any semblance of wild bison roaming in Yellowstone (animals are not wild if they are dependent upon humans for food).

A compromise, setting aside a certain area of land north, is a stopgap. Give it a few years and bison will be leaving it and moving down valley. I see no workable solution here.

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Photo by Beth Pratt - Director of Environmental Affairs for Xanterra Parks & Resorts in Yellowstone National Park

The bison of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are just the most recent subjects in the ever-evolving cycle of controversy that is bound to occur in a place like Yellowstone National Park - searching for the fine line between protection of the area and it's resources, and the protection of the economy and industry of the surrounding area.

Each of these debates to arise, from wolf reintroduction to brucellosis to bear management, has seemingly endless points of view. There are those who argue that the animals were here first and thus should be given free reign. There are those who argue that damage to the economy from loss of crops and livestock outweighs the who was here first argument. There are those just love the animals and want to help them without knowing the facts. There are those who just don't love the animals, and want them gone without knowing the facts. Somewhere in the middle there are always those of us who find ourselves in a quandary of understanding both sides and being at a loss in forming an opinion either way. Regardless of where you fall, it is a very real issue at hand when it comes to protecting the resources of our National Parks, and one well worth looking into a little deeper than most us already have.

Recent Articles and Updates

Buffalo Field Campaign



Yellowstone Insider - Bison Slaughter Debated in Court


Billings Gazette - Fort Peck Tribe Builds a Fence In Hopes of Getting Yellowstone Bison


Billings Gazette - Agency Representatives Outline Brucellosis Risks

Associated Press via MSNBC - Montana Governor Blocks Bison Slaughter


I can't, of course, attest to 100% accuracy of facts in listed articles, so read up, whet your interest, and check your facts before mounting an argument!