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Tip o' the Day

Last week in this "Tips" column, we discussed some of the physical considerations for one to successfully visit the Bob Marshall Wilderness. We did, however, run out of time before we could get to a planners own personal constraints.

Physical considerations included dangerous water crossings, rules for using perilous trails, usual opening dates for the high passes, best viewing times for wildlife and wildflowers, prime fishing time, getting away from other people, finding awe-inspiring scenic grandeur, etc.

Now let's talk about one's own personal constraints:

First and foremost is vacation time. I'm talking about your own vacation, but you might well have to consider your accompanying friends' vacation periods, too.

Or perhaps it's when your children's grandparents might be available to babysit. Or when the company merger is scheduled to go through. Or when the wife graduates from advanced nursing training.

You get the drift, right? Many (or most) people are locked into opportunity parameters over which they have little control. They must visit the Bob Marshall Wilderness during certain periods . . . period! When one is constrained by time, certain personal needs and desires must usually take a subordinate planning position.

An example might be that an early June vacation simply does not allow travel through most of the high passes, nor is it the best time for fishing the main rivers.

Unfortunately, many people cannot--or will not--recognize the realities of their vacation time constraints. As a consequence, their planning suffers, and so does their adventure.

Then there are the dreamers--may God bless them because Roland won't. They're the ones who try to fit a place as grand as the Bob Marshall into their own tiny little square-block mode; like the hectored and hectoring business owner who wants to see "the Bob" and rebuild his flagging health and spirit, but is appalled to learn that he cannot be in twice-daily contact with his office back home!

Roland's Popular Valediction For Revenge Western Adventure Series

FELINE DEPORTMENT

"Can you believe this?" I said to my wife as we slung daypacks to begin our low-level trail hike from Lake McDonald Lodge to Avalanche Campground in Glacier National Park.

"Take it while you can," she said.

"You bet!" It was almost Christmas. Ordinarily this region would be socked in snow so deep the only way folks could venture there would be via skinny skis or snowshoes, usually choosing to travel via the snowed-in Going To The Sun Highway in order to reach our destination.

We paused in our hike at John's lake, long enough for me to wing a flat stone across its surface. "Look at it skip!" I shouted. "And there's some who say I can't skip rocks across a lake surface."

"We'll come back after the ice melts," she said. "Then we'll see."

Perhaps a half-mile past John's Lake I spotted a picturesque elk rub and called it to Jane's attention. She watched as I tramped through brush to a 7-inch-diameter western red cedar that had been peeled for its first eight feet. Shreds of bark hung down in long strings.

As I examined the rub, Jane pointed to a tree forty feet away and said, "What about that one?" I followed her finger, then did a double-take! The tree to which the lady pointed was 16-inches in diameter. And the place she called to my attention had bark hanging in shreds from a spot fifteen feet in the air.

"That wasn't done by any elk or moose," I said.

"What then?"

"A bear or mountain lion. I'd guess lion."

She studied both trees, then asked, "Couldn't the first--the one you call a rub--have been done by the same animal as the one who did this one?"

"No." I returned to the first tree and showed her how its bark shreds were peeled from the bottom up, how they were only attached at the top. "Can't you picture the sweep of his antlers as he worked on the tree?"

Jane nodded. "Sounds right."

"Now look at the other tree. Besides it being too high for any animal to reach from the ground, notice how the bark is stripped from the top down. It's pulled like a housecat scratching a bedpost."

The amazing thing was that two such fine specimens of large animal action was so close to each other. We continued on. But as Jane and I hiked to Avalanche Creek, our sensors were sharpened and we discovered half the western red cedars along that trail had also been used as scratching posts by an oversized tabby. Some, the cat would climb. Some, it seems the animal would stand on hind legs to scratch. Others looked as though it might've sat on the ground while taking a swipe.

No matter, it was an impressive display of either territorial marking or sexual advertising--I'm a little weak on mountain lion habits and communiques. "On the sexual peck," said a biologist friend when I discussed what we'd seen with her. "It's possible she could've been a female cat out trolling for action."

Perhaps some of you readers might have some inside knowledge on the subject?

One thing should be clear to anyone hiking or skiing the McDonald Lodge-to-Avalanche Creek trail: western red cedar is the scratching post of choice for that particular feline.

Or didn't I mention it when I said half the cedars along the trail had been marked by a mountain lion? There are HUNDREDS of western red cedars growing along those eight trail miles!

 

 

Roland Cheek wrote a syndicated outdoors column (Wild Trails and Tall Tales) for 21 years. The column was carried in 17 daily and weekly newspapers in two states. In addition, he scripted and broadcast a daily radio show (Trails to Outdoor Adventure) that aired on 75 stations from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. He's also written upwards of 200 magazine articles and 12 fiction and nonfiction books. For more on Roland, visit:

www.rolandcheek.com

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