Sunday morning in Montana

Good morning, folks.
I spent some time yesterday checking all the blogs and forums about I-161. Still a lot of mean-spirited rhetoric floating around out there. But, it seems that many Montana are also able to look at I-161 for what it is: an effort to cripple the outfitting industry at the expense of small business, tourism, and our state economy.

As I have stated before, I don't disagree with Kurt Kephart on the access issue. It is a problem in some areas, and I don't have a simple solution. But it's private land, and kicking outfitters to the curb won't solve the issue.

On another topic, the Mule Draggers play tonight at 7:00 at the Glacier Ice Rink. We dropped one last week, so we need to get back into our winning ways.
See you all at the rink!

The NRA has our back...

Good morning, all. I just got in to check the morning email, and had a great note from our President at MOGA, Russ Kipp. He sent this posting from the National Rifle Association.
http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?id=5349

It looks like we aren't the only ones to recognize that I-161 is bad for Montana, bad for hunters, bad for wildlife... get the picture?

Went to the Maulers game last night with my daughter Paige. I left early to take her to her first high school dance. How many of you out there remember when she was just a little tyke? Now she is all grown up! Anyway, she survived, but the Maulers didn't- they got whooped last night by Helena.

I'm off for now. It's a beautiful morning, and I have great ice out there so I'm going to go for a skate, then start in on the days chores.
Happy trails. And, I'll try the photos again! Somehow I screwed that up yesterday.

Big Hearts and my thoughts...

Hey folks-

I haven't written yet because I've been looking through a VAST array of on-line forums about I-161. Wow, are opinions all over the board. If you have any questions about I-161, just ask me through this blog or give me a call.

We (the outfitting industry) have not faced this significant a challenge in a long time. Let's keep this thing off the ballot.

On a positive note, MOGA launched it's new web site for our Big Hearts Under the Big Sky program. This is a great program where we provide hunts, fishing trips, vacations, whatever to children with life threatening diseases, breast cancer patients, disabled veterans... you get the picture. Go to the web site at http://www.bigheartsmt.org/ and check it out. There are some great stories and photos. You can get involved if you want, or just watch the web site for good stories.

I don't have a lot on the agenda today. Got to go down and continue to doctor horses.

Some new ideas are on the bubble for Lake Upsata- Looks like I'm going to start doing walk-in rides here at the ranch again. If you know of anyone that wants a job doing day-rides, let me know. Also, I put a lot of new pictures on the web site- on the Hunting and Pack Trips pages. Also, check out the new on-line store. You can now order your own Mule Draggers sweat shirt. How cool is that!!

Just thought I would throw a photo of Nick on there. Or should I have put his dog? I think we liked his dog better...

Trouble brewin' out there...

Good morning. I just want to take a few minutes to talk about a public initiative that's gathering signatures right now. It's I-161, written by Kurt Kephart from Billings. It calls for the removal of the outfitter sponsored guaranteed license. This is the license that we use to book our hunting clients; this license ensures that when we take a deposit, when the client books a flight and schedules time off from work, when we schedule our crews and submit our itinerary to the Forest Service and pay the appropriate use fees ... this license guarantees that our client can come to Montana and hunt.
Let's be crystal clear right now- the hunting client does not have to buy one of these licenses. He or she can choose to put in for the draw, but there's no guarantee that they will get a license, so the vast majority of outfitted clients in Montana choose to buy the Outfitter Sponsored B-10 combination, as it's known by. This year the guaranteed B-10 is $1250, and the draw combo is $643.
Montana FWP uses the vast majority of the money from the guaranteed B-10 to fund our state Block Management program, providing access onto private land for the state's public hunters.
Kephart believes that eliminating the guaranteed license will "break the tie between the outfitter and the FWP" and somehow create public access onto private land that was once leased by an outfitter. That's kind of a stretch, don't you think?
Anyway, I want to hear from you people. I'm available to write about this, talk about this, whatever you want. I strongly encourage you to pay attention to this iniative. It is bad for outfitting, bad for Montana, and honestly, it's really bad for Julie and I. It could cause irreparable damage to our business.
Do we really want an initiative that's bad for small business and tourism in Montana?

Good morning! I'm ashamed to say I have TOTALLY dropped the ball on the blog. It's hard to keep a discussion going when I don't update it! It's been a busy fall. After our hunts ended, I went to the Scapegoat Wilderness to guide for Brett Todd and K Lazy 3 Outfitters, then back to our country to help my friends at the Rich Ranch. It was a fun fall, and we had a great time. Now, it's the winter. The dark hole... this is the time where we can't wait for spring! I have a lot of things to talk about- next season, horse clinics, wolves, I-161, hunting- all of which I can touch on in the next few days.

For now, I'll leave you with a quick photo of my favorite winter passion, the Mule Pond. This is our hockey rink behind the shop. Come on over if you want to skate.

Until we meet again,

Happy Trails.

Greg