By Allyson Haddick
This year has been a tough one, no doubt, but a lot of good stuff has come out of it too. I have spent more time outside than ever before. Our family is big on camping, and that was our getaway in the summer, but you can’t camp in the middle of Winter. We had to get out of the house, so we have started going to some of Montana’s fantastic public lands. I for one, had no idea how awesome they are! This turned out to be, not only a place where all of my family ( a total of 8 people) enjoyed themselves, but a sort of relief from the world of COVID -19. We are blessed to live in Montana.
This winter has had some questionable weather, but that actually benefited us, we got to go snowshoeing, and go to Canyon Ferry Lake while the ice was melting. That gave us a variety of things to do. But more than the actual activities were the relief of getting away from all the daily problems that awaited in COVID world. If you have ever been through huge amounts of stress (after this year it is probably you have) then you too might have some growing appreciation for nature and wildlife. There is no alternative for Nature, without it we wouldn’t be the same.
We visited West Yellowstone in the Summer and spent a considerable amount of time fishing in the Madison river. We also visited Freezeout lake in winter to see the snow geese migrating. That was almost a year ago, and now it is almost time to go see them again. We went to the Canyon Ferry Lake Wildlife Management Area, I loved it there, the Cattails were so tall. We played hide-and-seek in them, because they were taller than us! They grew so thick you couldn’t see in front of you. I would rip them off and tickle people with them, we would sword fight with them too. That place was a very good representation for why Montanas public lands are so important.
There were beautiful birds everywhere, and it was fun to listen to the noises they made. It is a place that I have begun to appreciate and enjoy, it is so beautiful, we walked around the edge of the lake until the wind started blowing too hard. Lucas (my 6-year-old brother) and I collected beautiful feathers. We had planned to use some of them as pens and write with real ink, but unfortunately we accidentally dropped some of them in the mud and got our shoes muddy in the attempt to recover them, and ended up with no feathers, and muddy shoes. I honestly think, if the pandemic hadn’t happened, I might never have realized how important these places are.