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Big Deal Hunt: Beauty of wilderness makes this hunt truly special
Tim Renken, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Outdoors Reporter
08/10/2002
A wilderness is, and should be, hard to get to, hard to get around in and hard to get out of. A wilderness isn't necessarily the best place to hunt elk, so why go to the trouble, and expense, of hunting there?
Hunting in a beautiful, remote place was what we wanted most in this adventure. This place, the Great Bear Wilderness segment of the Bob Marshall complex in northwestern Montana, was a lucky choice. Here's what the U.S. Forest Service says:
"The United States Congress designated the Great Bear Wilderness Area in 1978 and it now has a total of 286,700 acres. This wilderness, on the western side of the Continental Divide, shares its southern border with Bob Marshall Wilderness, which in turn shares its southern border with the Scapegoat Wilderness. Together, the three form a Wilderness complex of more than 1.5 million acres. Glacier National Park lies just across U.S. 2 north of Great Bear.
"Nowhere in the Lower 48 do great bears, grizzlies, live in denser populations than in this, one of the wildest landscapes on Earth. In addition to great bears, there are wolves, wolverines, deer, elk, moose, black bears, mountain goats and mountain sheep living on these rugged ridge tops, gently sloping alpine meadows and thickly forested river bottoms.
"The upper Middle Fork of the Flathead River rises here and runs wild and scenic through the area for about 50 miles, raging below cliff faces and over boulder-strewn rapids. Some call it Montana's wildest waterway.
"Elevations in Great Bear range from 4,000 feet on the Middle Fork to 8,705 feet on Great Northern Mountain."
In The Wilderness Act, Congress defines a legal wilderness as: "an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable."
A wilderness has no roads. Travel is by foot or horseback, and everything taken in must be taken out.
Jim Williams, a wildlife specialist in the Kalispell office of the Montana Game, Fish and Parks Department, describes the Great Bear as:
"Stunning aesthetically, with spectacular high mountain scenery, large intact rivers, a mix of burned and unburned boreal forest, natural lakes, fens and brooks."
If you've ever driven the Going to the Sun highway across Glacier National Park, you have an idea of what the Great Bear Wilderness is like. That drive simply takes your breath away.
Next: Grizzly bears? Really?
******
This is the 10th in a series that will appear every other Sunday about a once-in-a-lifetime elk hunt my son and I will make, our Big Deal Hunt.
Tim Renken, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Outdoors Reporter
08/10/2002
A wilderness is, and should be, hard to get to, hard to get around in and hard to get out of. A wilderness isn't necessarily the best place to hunt elk, so why go to the trouble, and expense, of hunting there?
Hunting in a beautiful, remote place was what we wanted most in this adventure. This place, the Great Bear Wilderness segment of the Bob Marshall complex in northwestern Montana, was a lucky choice. Here's what the U.S. Forest Service says:
"The United States Congress designated the Great Bear Wilderness Area in 1978 and it now has a total of 286,700 acres. This wilderness, on the western side of the Continental Divide, shares its southern border with Bob Marshall Wilderness, which in turn shares its southern border with the Scapegoat Wilderness. Together, the three form a Wilderness complex of more than 1.5 million acres. Glacier National Park lies just across U.S. 2 north of Great Bear.
"Nowhere in the Lower 48 do great bears, grizzlies, live in denser populations than in this, one of the wildest landscapes on Earth. In addition to great bears, there are wolves, wolverines, deer, elk, moose, black bears, mountain goats and mountain sheep living on these rugged ridge tops, gently sloping alpine meadows and thickly forested river bottoms.
"The upper Middle Fork of the Flathead River rises here and runs wild and scenic through the area for about 50 miles, raging below cliff faces and over boulder-strewn rapids. Some call it Montana's wildest waterway.
"Elevations in Great Bear range from 4,000 feet on the Middle Fork to 8,705 feet on Great Northern Mountain."
In The Wilderness Act, Congress defines a legal wilderness as: "an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable."
A wilderness has no roads. Travel is by foot or horseback, and everything taken in must be taken out.
Jim Williams, a wildlife specialist in the Kalispell office of the Montana Game, Fish and Parks Department, describes the Great Bear as:
"Stunning aesthetically, with spectacular high mountain scenery, large intact rivers, a mix of burned and unburned boreal forest, natural lakes, fens and brooks."
If you've ever driven the Going to the Sun highway across Glacier National Park, you have an idea of what the Great Bear Wilderness is like. That drive simply takes your breath away.
Next: Grizzly bears? Really?
******
This is the 10th in a series that will appear every other Sunday about a once-in-a-lifetime elk hunt my son and I will make, our Big Deal Hunt.
