Missoula and Its “Mobs” Can it get too crowded in paradise? In Montana, the answer is “not yet.” by Paul Gerald ou might say that a river of folks runs through Missoula, Montana. A lot of the flow has come since Robert Redford laid his fly-fishing movie on the town. That’s the one that makes people in Missoula shake their heads and mumble about “what it was like before.” Listen for a while to the old-timers, which might mean somebody who’s been there for 15 years, and you’d think A River Runs Through It was the dambreak in Missoula’s people-flood. A few hours on a wild Montana river, flat or whitewater, has the same effect as a week of chilling out anywhere else. For the rest of us, even as it “fills” with people, Montana remains an amazing place to be. We go there because we can catch fish in mountain streams, sit by lakes and watch sunsets, or ride horses out across the flatlands. So far, in our eyes, there’s still enough room for people to go out there and more or less stay away from each other. What makes the pickup drivers squirm is the arrival of art galleries, fancy restaurants, and luxurious places to stay. These things no more repel us than do those fish-filled rivers. Plain and simple, it is always a good time to go to Montana. Winter is ski time, spring is the green explosion and wildflowers, summer is long days that don’t seem long enough, and fall is when it’s still nice, with colors in the leaves, and most people have gone home. In Montana you can be entertained on every budget from backcountry campsite to private cabin by the lake. Now there’s even a private mansion you can rent that’s in the middle of a lake. A trip to Montana ends up as a collage of memories, most of them of beautiful country and laid-back afternoons. And the other folks out there, be they fellow travelers, recent transplants, or genuine old-timers, are at least half the fun. Fly to Missoula, which typically costs just under $400, and immediately get onto a river. Drift along with the rippling current under 80-degree cloudless skies, looking for birds and maybe trying to get a trout. A few hours on a wild Montana river, flat or whitewater, has the same effect as a week of chilling out anywhere else. Not many things, after all, make 50-year-olds giggle and scream. Ask your river guide where he or she is from and what they did before becoming a “river rat.” Getting stories out of these people is as tough as getting promises from a politician. Two minutes after you ask, a guy’s telling you about one of the times he got charged by a grizzly while he was a ranger up in Glacier Park, or a woman is describing her eight-day float down the Grand Canyon, shooting rapids the size of houses. As a change of pace, along the Bitterroot River you can stop and blast things with shotguns – just in case you brought some frustration with you. You might be familiar with skeet shooting, but out west they’re into “sporting clays.” Skeet don’t, as one difference, roll along the ground and then hop 10 feet into the air while you’re trying to shoot them. There are 11 different stations at Bitterroot Sporting Clays, where the targets are “presented” flying sideways and over your head and away from you. A round of 100 targets at all the stations is $30 and at least that many hoots and hollers. After the river ride, hike up to the “M” on the hillside above the University of Montana, dig the view of five valleys, then go get yourself a pint of, yes, Moose Drool beer. There’s always that undercurrent of either satire or outright nose-thumbing in Montana, like a bar in town that sells shirts and caps with its motto, “Liquor in the front, poker in the rear.” But, of course, within a few blocks of that bar is a passel of art galleries where one night each month people chat in front of modern art while holding cups of wine and punch. Almost 200 years ago Lewis and Clark floated the Bitterroot, trying to find a way west through the mountains. The only non-river portion of their trip was along the Lolo Trail through the Bitterroot Mountains. Now you can mountain-bike some of that trail with a company called Lewis and Clark Trail Adventures. They run river trips, as does about every third person you meet in Missoula, but they also bike 75 miles of the Lolo Trail (camping at actual Lewis and Clark campsites) and canoe the upper Missouri, one of the last few places that still looks like it did in 1805. That company, by the way, is run by a guy who calls himself a Lewis and Clark buff – he drove the whole trail when he moved to Montana – and is now running for the state legislature. Just another story come to town. The whole history of Missoula is about people coming through, from Lewis and Clark and the natives they encountered up to today’s tourists and transplants. One of the more interesting recent arrivals is Jim Caron, whose VW bus broke down there about 30 years ago. Jim is an actor and had always wanted to play the lead in Fiddler on the Roof, and it just happens that a Missoula theatre was casting it when he got stranded there. One thing led to another, and for the last 25 years Jim has run the Missoula Children’s Theater. What’s so interesting about this, other than their annual schedule of performances and their new multimillion-dollar theatre being built, is that they run two-person crews all over the country, in trucks loaded with sets and props and costumes, and every week they set up shop someplace and put on a whole show with an entirely local cast of 50 or 60 kids. Every week they do this, 22 teams putting on 700 shows each year in 48 states and a handful of foreign counties. All because Jim Caron’s bus broke down. There are stories like that all over Montana. All you have to do is go out there and meet the folks who are living them. But the real reason you should go out there is the place itself. Five rivers flow within a few miles of Missoula, and three big-time mountain ranges frame it. One large wilderness area starts right on the edge of town. You can just about pick a road at random, head up it, and find yourself all alone by a stream among the pines. Montana is one of America’s jewels, and there’s still plenty of room for everybody to enjoy it. No amount of filmmaking will change that. A Missoula Primer When to go: Summer is the best for weather, unless you want to ski at one of two local hills. April brings a Wildlife Film Festival with more than 70 films. The fall, as with many tourist-heavy spots, is the best time to go, but bear in mind the first snow can fall in September. Dream place to stay: If you’re a group of at least eight, or you’re planning a meeting, go nuts and rent the Center at Salmon Lake. It’s an 11-bedroom/11-bath mansion on an island in the middle of a mountain-ringed lake. Sure, it’s about $300 per person per night, but that includes the entire house, all your meals cooked by a gourmet chef, a pool table, boats, a bonfire every night, and all your activity-planning taken care of. Different place to stay: In a fire-service watchtower. Fire-spotting is handled by planes and satellites now, so the Forest Service rents the towers out. One might assume the views would be pleasant. Ways to see the country: There are more river trips and horseback excursions out of Missoula than anybody can keep up with. Good experiences were had with Montana River Guides and 10,000 Waves. Another thing to consider is a scenic train ride. Montana Rockies Rail Tours has everything from one-day runs with dinner to six-day runs that include Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks.