The Bob 2011

I created a photo book of my trip to the Bob Marshall Wilderness; see it here:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Chrzzzzmzzzzz 2OIO

A healthy portion Gouldings attended a holiday meal of food at John's Pizza in NYC followed by beers and a lost winter hat. Here we are, grinning in the N'york gloam, fed and festive!
THE DIRTY HALF-DOZEN
And, a nod to my fellow grad students who've been beside me in the trenches this first semester back in school -- living and breathing the sweaty stench of chalk dust, caffeine, and a marginal propensity to equate marginal propensities. S'n'D (X) 4EVA. A big one down, a few more to go Gentlemen.
From left: Me, Jake, Bryan, Roger, Paul, and Luke. Location: "The Bullpen" -- our office in the dusty attic of Linfield hall.

First snow!

The Bridger Range & Mt. Baldy; looking north-northeast from campus.

The last day of Summer - Mt. Blackmore (elev. 10,154')

I took advantage of the nice weather (still!) and wanted to get on top of something -- so I hiked Mt. Blackmore, at the head of Hyalite Canyon.

It may very well be the last hike in shorts I get for a while. On the descent, we were greeted with some good-luck snowflakes as the clouds blocked in the endless sky.

Is hiking a mountain a good use of my time? I've got two pending problem sets, a flurry of econometrix, and a Masters thesis to create. But I think all is well when my legs are pumping up the castle walls in God's sandbox. It seems to make me smarter. Or rather, attract some much-needed lucidity to the various efforts I doggie paddle through during the week -- tongue distended, gasping for air, smiling but needing to breathe too.

• Starting elevation: 6,720' (gain of 3,434')
• Distance: 10 miles roundtrip
  

Hunters Feed and Wild Game Cook-off - Ennis, MT

Friday afternoons have a special place in my heart. A full, well-worked week of classes and prudent vegetarianism blossom into the promise of a weekend of incremental excess. For, under the Bozeman gloam and persistent penumbra of the Bridgers, I grotesquely transform...into a wild carnivore, needing wild meats to supplicate and regenerate the taught fibers of my lumbering and steely cloak of armor.

So, it was with quite serendipity that the hunters of Western Montana were cleaning out their freezers of wild game for a cook-off about an hour west of Bozeman. The main street in Ennis is a classic wild west town, not too different from some of the mining towns around Truckee, CA, and maintaining the rickety facades of a bygone era. It still had a soda pop bar, albeit closed down for the festival.

From TravelMT.com, its description:

Hunters Feed and Wild Game Cook Off is a very popular event for locals, neighbors and visiting hunters. Started as a way to clean out the freezer of last years game before hunting season. Merchants on Main Street cook up exotic wild game dishes and serve their culinary delights in front of their shops.

Lining the main street were the warm smiles of proud and earnest cooks of wild meats. They offered in small plastic containers the fruits of their labors in the field and kitchen, all for delicious vote. There were two categories: Chili and Non-chili. And, here, I will list some of the excellent contenders:

• Elk Burger Won-Tons
• "Pesto" Bear Sausage Pizza
• Antelope Bolonese
• Vigilante Stew (secret recipe)
  
• Outstanding Antelope Enchiladas
• Elk Carne Asada
  
• Antelope Cream Chease Jalapeno Popper
  

Along for the glorious culinary jaunt were Luke, Matt, Roger & Patricia. We washed the meats down with a birch beer and shopped for shotguns at the local sports shop. I made sure we departed before I bought a shotgun. Something about being full of savage adrenaline and supple, prairie-fed tissue draws you to the cold steel and promise of a bloody trophy...

We took the long way home, around Ennis Lake along a dirt road. Evening on the Madison River:
A herd of white-tailed deer:

Purple Mtns Majesty

Sunset, from Bridger Range ("M" trail), October 15, 2010.

Bozeman first impressions

The town I now call home: