Winter Notes from Montana by Rick Bass

I bought and read Winter Notes from Montana, by Rick Bass several years back. With winter coming to the intermountain area, I decide to read it again. I like some of the stuff Bass writes and this read is okay. It's written in a journal format. Bass, a writer, and his girlfriend Elizabeth, an artist, have migrated around looking for the perfect place to settle and pursue their interests. They end up in an area near Yaak, Montana by the Canadian and Idaho border. It is a remote place, hard to get to; a place with no electricity. The perfect place for a hermit or hermits. I guess you can still be a hermit and live in a place with other hermits?

This little book is different. Some of it I don't enjoy, even though I plod along reading every word. I find that I am trying to feel what Rick and Elizabeth are feeling. I search the words for a deep meaning and follow the description of the most menial of activities such as cutting, splitting, and stacking wood. I am searching the words for the same thing they were searching: a meaning in life outside normal social posturings.

The past couple of years I have been questioning my ventures into the woods and my lone adventures up my favorite rivers, streams and creeks. Early in my life, I had the dream of living in a small, remote town. I considered a hermit like life. But I also knew that I liked the company of females and finding a gal that would live that kind of secluded existence would be almost impossible. I was already finding it difficult to find one that would put up with the need I had to wander for a whole day at a time. I did eventually find such a woman and it has been wonderful. She lets me spend a lot of evenings and Saturdays in the places I want to be. She has made me the envy of my male neighbors. They stand in their yards and scratch their heads, or at least tip their heads to me, as I drive off for a summer's evening of dry fly fishing while they navigate a lawnmower.

As I have been reading, this statement by Bass jumped out at me: "I'm suppose to be a hermit, but what a half-assed hermit I'm turning into: running away to the woods in order to discover that I love people, friends."

The reason this statement jumped out at me, is because the timing of reading it. It never really stood out to me years ago when I first read the book. This time, however, it really stood out. I have been "feeling" a need to connect with people this past year in a way that is new to me. So to read that Bass, a person who was seeking a more solitary lifestyle, would discover this need to love people and friends, early in his adventure to get away, is interesting to me.

A co-worker of mine used to tell me that humans are social animals. He tried to explain that we need the interaction in order to remain whole. I tried to take the opposite view and explain why, but never could explain it in a worthy manner. It's hard to explain feelings. I'm going to try.

While I still enjoy a certain amount of solitude, especially when I fly fish, I am finding that having someone along on "some" adventures can actually add to the pleasure and give me someone to analyze the experience with. It can give me someone I can look in the eyes and notice that theirs are as wide open as mine, or that their breathing is quick, or that they just took one big breath too, because of the thrill of the experience or because of the shared vista. Like I said, feelings are hard to explain.

I guess the bottom line to all of this, is that I hope to share more of my wanderings, my hikes, my fly fishing, my other "adventures" with those I love--family and friends. Hopefully, some of them will want to go with me, but if not, I know that I can always go alone, and that means no matter what, I'll be in good company.