First The Campbell Apartment, and now Pine Butte.
The 10,000-acre Pine Butte guest ranch in Montana's Rocky Mtn. foothills has been a favorite remote getaway for the Bird Dog family for many years. It's right on the edge of "the Bob" wilderness and south of Glacier. It is is a Grizzly preserve. Famous Ear Mountain is out the window.
My lad even spent a summer doing ranch work there, and got trapped in the outhouse by a bear who presumably did not wish to shit in the woods.
Horseback in the mountains, fossil-hunting on the prairie, hiking, bird watching, fishing in the mountain streams and lakes, rib-sticking home cookin, and steaks and campfires and pine logs sizzling in the cabin fireplaces. Also, gallons of Sun Tea. Whiskey and cigars as the sun sets. God's country. Many other such places, but this was what we liked.
For huddled Easterners, big sky in June is a dramatic revelation of Creation. There is a fine book, too. Ear Mountain figures prominently in it.
I understand why they decided to shut it down to the public. However, trust me, they will keep this special place open for major donors to the Nature Conservancy. I would have loved to take some grandkids there. It is America at its finest and wildest where antelope play, with crazy horses and real cowboys. I love it, but cannot be a Major Donor to The Nature Conservancy. I did not go into Wall St. finance despite several gracious invitations to do so. Had to follow my own path.
Sometimes I wonder whether I am oversensitive to loss. Probably I am, somewhat. I do have lots of pictures of that land with us on horses, somewhere.
