EcoRover

It's been a wet, cold spring in Butte America, especially when compared with the shifting baseline (source of cartoon pasted below) of the past 10 to 20 years. It's funny how, even in ...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2014/05/springtime-on-montanas-high-desert.html

It's been a great winter. We had some early snow in September and October that set a good base. Though the new snow cover was thin until some big dumps from mid-February to late-March, snow holds...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2014/04/cross-country-skiing-winter-2013-2014.html

Now that winter is about over, I ponder the question that friends from warmer climes often ask, "How do you survive the Montana winter?" They aren't talking about physical survival, of course (at...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2014/04/montana-winter-survival-eat-drink-and.html

I generally hunt close to home. In part, this is because there is very good hunting in the Butte/Big Hole River watershed area; it's also because every minute spent driving is one less minute...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2014/02/montana-hunting-mule-deer-pronghorn.html

Heraclitus observed "You cannot step in the same river twice," and that's generally true of all experience with nature. Before hunting season began, lots of elk were showing up at my old Indian-p...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2014/02/bow-hunting-for-elk-in-southwest-montana.html

Well, after a long blog-vacation, I'm back. As a superficial reason for my absence, I've been busy--Department Head duties at My Little College can be all-consuming, if you let them. But that's n...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2014/02/new-orleans-brought-me-back.html

It's been a busy summer here in my corner of Montana. I took a little vacation from blogging, but it wasn't because I had no material! Backpacking, family activities, camping with friends, trout ...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/09/rocky-mountain-time-summer-2013.html

Historically, you could not get into the high country before July, and even then you expected to posthole your way through knee-deep drifts. The low snowpack and warm weather this year (thanks to...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/07/first-backpack-trip-of-year-honesty-in.html

Prairies aflame with flowers, trout looking up for dry flies, shorts and sandals: it all adds up to SUMMER! We're on that ideal cusp where it still rains every few days to keep the hills green, a...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/07/summer-comes-to-butte-montana.html

As EcoRover readers probably hear too often, Butte, Montana is ground zero for America's largest Superfund site, with natural resource damages stemming from a century of copper mining and smelt...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/06/urban-botany-natural-vegetation.html

Spring trout fishing in southwest Montana involves choices, all in Butte's backyard: The intimacy of a small stream loaded with Eastern brook trout and the occasional large, spawning rainbow? A m...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/06/spring-trout-fishing.html

Spring comes, hills green up, elk return to calving grounds, and trout feed: it's time for a night out on the prairie of the Big Hole River valley. The view from my campsite is striking: At ...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-night-on-prairie-big-hole-river.html

Our weather along the Continental Divide in southwest Montana has warmed but it's still very dry. On a recent family hike, dark clouds filled the sky and lightning flashed along the mountain ridg...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/05/spring-wildflowers-and-trout-montana.html

You would never know it's spring according to the thermometer, with daytime highs in the low 30s deg F and nights in the teens or even single digits. Still, the land tells us a different story. T...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/04/high-and-dry-and-cold-butte-montana.html

Spring is coming to Butte America, my home in the northern Rockies. Weather has been colder than average, we seem to be paying for the very mild winter. Still, it's warm enough to hike on the sno...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/03/springtime-in-rockies-snowshoe-rabbit.html

Cross country skiing down a steep, ungroomed runof Buzzy Trail at The Moulton last week, I made the turn at the bottom, took in a deep breath, and looked up at the azure blue Big Sky. I love to s...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-spring-hike-in-montanas-high-desert.html

No, I'm not talking about March college basketball. I'm talking time the march of time. It's fair to say that if I can't find time to write a blog post every week or two, I am too busy with the a...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/03/montana-march-madness.html

Winter has settled over the landscape of southwest Montana. We've had a few small snowstorms move through, but none has dropped more than a few inches of powder. A cold front last week with very ...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/01/moulton-montana-backcountry-biathlon.html

I like the time from Thanksgiving to New Years: it's basically one long party. Not that I'm a big partier--I can't even make it to midnight on New Year's Eve. But it is fun to get together over w...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2013/01/happy-holidays-from-southwest-montana.html

Most years, we have snow on the ground by Thanksgiving--enough to ski at either of the excellent cross country skiing areas near Butte, Montana in southwest Montana. The Deep Creek pass area (ak...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2012/12/winter-and-cross-country-skiing-begins.html

Arguably, Thanksgiving is the major holiday in America. It combines all the things Americans so dearly love: family, feasting, football, and (sadly, perhaps) shopping. It also gives us a moment t...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2012/12/thanksgiving-road-trip.html

Unseasonably warm weather prevailed through November, so it did not seem like the general hunting season. Still, both the pronghorn antelope and mule deer hunting were good. PRONGHORN ANTELOPE ...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2012/12/hunting-where-deer-and-antelope-play.html

I lost a dear friend a few years ago: it was a Case XX "Stockman" pocketknife that my grandfather carried in the years before he died in 1979. There was nothing remarkable about the knife: dark ...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2012/10/blades-practical-tools-for-outdoors.html

------ warning: dead animal photos ahead ---------  HUNTING ELK WITH A LONGBOW Whatever I do, I pursue it with "Knowledge and Thoroughness," as the motto of my Alma Mater Rensselaer Polytec...

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2012/10/elks-in-freezer-lets-go-hiking-and.html

Hope some of you local readers can attend. This is the first in a three part series. - Pat aka EcoRover

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/2012/09/coming-home-to-china-slideshow-lecture.html