Many years ago when I lived in Montana some friends and I were driving the countryside around Billings looking for birds. It’s still a hobby of mine, and I’ve never gotten very good at it, which keeps it interesting. My friend Jim was a self-trained expert, and a good guy to have along anyway. He was full of surprises. We crossed a small bridge, and down beneath were pigeons (since renamed “rock doves” and then again “rock pigeons” by experts who must earn royalties on new bird books). They were hunkered down, and Jim said it could only be for one reason. Look up, he said. Sure enough, soaring overhead was a red tail hawk.
Power is like that , but not openly visible like that hawk. It is seen in the behavior of those around it. I am new to this game, only awakened since 2015 or so, before that time stumbling through a mystifying swamp of inexplicable events and behaviors. Most befuddling were the behaviors of public people, openly lying yet never fearing exposure. The lies were understood by all around them to be an essential part of having a public life. Where once I thought there must be some threat of violence that kept them in line, as with our pigeons above, I later assumed that they are simply actors and probably oath-bound to keep secrets, not afraid and often enough not even lacking in moral character. The red tail hawk is not evil, just part of nature.
The Beartooth Mountains are part of a large wilderness complex formed in 1978, formerly known as a “primitive area,” since known as the “Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness*,” or “AB.” It sits north and northeast of Yellowstone National Park, and for most of my life has been my preferred destination over the Park. It offers solitude, miles of trails, and often enough, a private lake for backpackers. (There are 944 lakes in the complex. Many have fish in them, not my concern, but an added attraction.)
For reference, the AB is the circled area in the Montana map to the left. From the image above you can grasp the enormity of the area, and the number of lakes. From a hiking standpoint, the Beartooth Mountains are an “uplift” forming a high ice plateau. This creates many drainages and basins in which lakes naturally form. While forested, it is not heavily so. Hikers only rarely get lost, as the landscape usually shows the way out – just follow a drainage. But trails are abundant. However, leaving a trial is not in any way dangerous, as the landscape usually offers a good sense of where you are.
