july 2006
On this trip to Clark Fork we met a man named Scott and from the instant we met him we knew he would be the man to build our home. Best of all, he's a horse person too. But what sold me was such a simple thing. Not how great a builder he is. Or what kind of person he is. Or what a well-respected person in the community he is. Or what a gentleman he is when he took off his cowboy hat as he entered the humble cabin we built. It is his respect for life ~ so innocent as we walked near our creek, going thru a heavy forest thicket, Scott's face lit up, and the softness showed through the brawn as he said in his low and carried voice, "hey guys, look at this … three baby robins," and about chest high in a tree were three small beaks held up waiting for mom to bring a meal. I asked Scott to make sure the birds don't come to any harm as work was done on our land. A smile and a nod was all I needed. We promptly planted stakes in the 4 corners which will be our home, with a private exclusive view of Scotchman's Peak.
That night as we returned from an evening hike, a baby Moose welcomed us at our cabin. The same baby Moose who visited us last year, Guardian, who now has blunt baby horns and is black as the night. He stays and circles our cabin for about an hour eating tall grass as the sun sets. As far as we can see, for hundreds of thousands of acres, as we look out at the mountainous evening sky from our cabin, we see not one light, but the stars. The Elks come out. A herd beneath our cabin. Elusive Lucy with her baby. Clark Fork is calling us home.
Our last night we have dinner with our close friends Jim and Michelle, sipping wine and eating on their back porch. Jim laughs uncontrollably as gordie tells him the story of when we went fishing at 4:30 in the morning and a mosquito bit me on the lip and it swelled up like angolina jolie. We play with their horses and watch as the herds roam on their 100+ acre ranch. The sun sets. Michelle gives me a sweater as the night gets cool. We start to hear the sounds of the wild. Friends so dear and animals so close, all so wild in the dark night.
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Expedition I | Expedition II | Expedition III | Expedition IV | Expedition V
Expedition IV VIDEO CLIPS: baby moose visits our cabin | fishing at antelope lake
[video clips are playable on QuickTime > GET free version of QuickTime]
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touching the dream with our baby ... |
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We consider ourselves pioneers in this new frontier. We are touching the dream on Scott's shoulders. As Scott said to a friend of his who asked where our property was? ~
On the edge of nowhere and five miles more. |
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