Numa Lookout, eating pheasants, and wildfire

By Micah Drew, Jordan Hansen and Keila Szpaller

“Montanans’ choice is between me and two candidates hand-picked by the 1% who want to maintain control of government to acquire more power and money.” — Alani Bankhead, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Montana, in the face of mounting pressure to drop out of the race.

Many moons ago on my grandma’s farm in rural western Iowa, my dad got a pheasant.

I don’t quite remember why we were out near Storm Lake that time, probably just to see my mom’s mom, but I remember this day. I had to have been around 10 years old, following the three and a half hour drive on rural highways, looking at cornfields out the window and the occasional windmill in the distance.

But hidden in between those fields were a few streams and low-lying areas, remnants of the midwest’s once vast and beautiful natural prairies. Pheasants sure like those spots. And my grandma’s property had some tall grass and a few other places with some cover, along with a little bit of water wetland.

It wasn’t a bad spot to find a pheasant, and my dad had brought his gun, specifically for that. Dad’s always really liked getting out to bird hunt, and I certainly remember some mornings in a blind waiting for a turkey to walk past.

He didn’t always have a lot of luck (or the time, with three busy kids, to make that luck) so it was fairly rare he’d get a chance to take a shot. But that afternoon he did, and he brought back a great pheasant that my grandma immediately cooked up.

Certainly not enough for a full meal, but more than enough for everyone to get a taste. It’s a gamey, greasy meat that melts on the tongue if cooked properly.

In the wild, pheasants can be smart little guys, hiding from hunters and dogs alike, only to suddenly burst out of the brush, alarmed by sound or dog, giving a hunter little time to aim and depress a trigger before they’re once again out of sight.

All that’s to say — special thing to get one properly.

This story came to mind this week as I was writing about Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wanting to release 50,000 pen-raised pheasants annually for people to shoot.

From everything I’ve gathered from interviews and a look at the state’s own documents, calling these birds wild would be generous. More often than not, they die within days of being released, and often not by hunters; it’s the easiest buffet of their life for a variety of predators.

This story was one of those that I felt was really important, even if it was a little bit of an odd pitch to my editors off the top — I remarked to a group of friends last week as I was in the reporting process that I was happy to be given the OK to write a story about pheasants.

That got a pretty good laugh, but looking in nooks and crannies of the state is oftentimes a place where you can find some real interesting stuff.

~ Jordan Hansen

I woke up on Thursday morning to see a blood red sun rising over the Swan Range … but I couldn’t see the actual mountains.

It appears that smoke season has firmly arrived in western Montana this week, but as a state we have done pretty well in terms of wildfires (knock on everything wooden nearby!).

The smoke looks to be coming in from all around us though — from southern Idaho, central Washington and all over Canada.

Here’s hoping some storms and changing weather patterns clear out our skies soon, and the places that are burning receive rain and favorable conditions!

~ Micah Drew

POLEBRIDGE — Glacier National Park beckoned, and away we went, this time to Polebridge.

One of my adventure besties is trying to hike to every single lookout in Glacier, so last week, we slogged up to the Numa Lookout.

To be honest, I don’t know if it’s worth the effort, at least compared to some of the other hikes in the park, where the journey is just as beautiful as the destination.

But here’s a little bit about it if you need help deciding whether to put it on your list. (And if you’ve done this one and have a different opinion, do tell. [email protected].)

The ranger at the Polebridge station asked if we had enough water for that hike, and we appreciated that question because it’s a hot hike.

Before we took off, I sprayed on sun screen and bug poison. Then, I think I sweated it all off in the first 30 minutes of the trek.

The hike is monotonous and the trail is messy, but the view from the top is glorious.

My friend’s tracker counted 3,767 feet of elevation gain total, and my legs were still sore two days after the hike. The hike is 5.7 miles one way.

At the end, I jumped into Bowman Lake to cool off, and on our way out of the park, we saw a fox. We spied on the fox for just a minute, I think while it spied on something else we couldn’t see.

This part of the park didn’t feel as busy as other places, and it was relaxing to be up there.

One tip I have is about trail mix. I like cashews and peanut butter M&Ms best, so I “made” trail mix out of just those ingredients. Inspired. Just take the faves.

Although I have mixed feelings about this hike, I recommend the trail mix without reservation.

~ Keila Szpaller

I decided it might be important to read a book about war given our state of affairs, especially between the U.S. and Iran.

An old copy of “Hiroshima” was on my bookshelf, so I brought it with me last weekend to Polebridge and started it by our campfire.

John Hersey writes simply and beautifully about a horrific thing, and the way he tells the story makes the reader understand the repercussions of our political decisions on real people.

In this case, he introduces us to six survivors of the bomb and their journeys in the aftermath.

“They still wonder why they lived when so many others died,” Hersey writes. “… And now each knows that in the act of survival he lived a dozen lives and saw more death than he ever thought he would see.”

The National World War II Museum in New Orleans has a post about the work, originally produced as a story in The New Yorker:

“Hersey’s graphic and gut-wrenching descriptions of the misery he encountered in Hiroshima offered what officials could not: the human cost of the bomb,” it reads. “He wanted the story of the victims he interviewed to speak for themselves, and to reconstruct in dramatic yet relatable detail their experiences.”

The story was published in 1946, and the museum said this about its impact:

“With its raw descriptions of the terror and destruction faced by the residents of Hiroshima, Hersey’s article broke records for The New Yorker and became the first human account of the attack for most Americans.”

~ Keila Szpaller

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