Big Smoky Sky Country

Smoke plumes from 2 separate fires separated by blue sky over the mountains on the western edge of the Flathead valley.

Forest fires continue plague western Montana. Massive plumes of black smoke climb into the sky as aggressively as the flames that created them devour the forest below. As smoke pollutes the mountain air, simple things such as breathing, become a chore. When ashes began falling like rain, we found it necessary to prematurely end our fun at the lake.

While smoke fills the mountain valleys, fire stories fill the newspapers. My favorite headline so far appeared in the local newspaper on August 31, “Fires prompt evacuations; Testicle Festival still a go” The festival, not a family affair for sure, is as raunchy as Bourbon Street at Mardi Gras or a Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. It centers on the eating of that Montana delicacy known as Rocky Mountain Oysters, a byproduct of the calf-branding season.

Fortunately, we took the kids and grandkids to our favorite fishing spot before the fire conditions closed the forests. The family caught a mess of Cutthroat trout and had a delicious fish fry. The family competition to catch the first, biggest, and most is intense – fish lines have been known to be cut, and pity the poor person who tries to get to my wife’s spot before her - they usually end up swimming back to shore.

It is quite nice to again be able to stand in the water waist deep in the river and see your feet and not have to worry about poisonous snakes and gators. Of course there was that time a few years back when a grizzly waded across the river to feast on her stringer of fish.

A number of graduates from my hometown on the eastern Montana prairie migrated to the mountainous regions of the west. Since most of us no longer have a reason to return to our old stomping grounds, every 5 years we have a reunion here in western Montana for those of us who graduated in the mid-fifties to mid sixties. Where the topic of discussion at past reunions centered on jobs, homes and children, this years main topics were cancer, senior care and retirement issues. That’s none too surprising considering our ages.