The Beautiful O/Z

There's a little more to starting a new career at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation than most people know.  Sure, I'll no longer work a 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift for the first time since working an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. construction job in my early 20s, but I actually give up two current jobs.  Everyone knows about my broadcast journalism career at KPAX-TV.  However, I also spent the major part of the last eight summers working as a ranch hand at the Lolo Trail Ranch, or as it most people call it the O/Z.

The O/Z is an absolutely beautiful place.  The approximately 4,000 acre, four-mile long cattle ranch sits beneath snow-capped Lolo Peak and includes a long stretch of Lolo Creek, my favorite stretch to fly fish.   (Below is a video I shot on the O/Z during the fall of 2008 as brilliant autumn colors exploded to life.)

I have seen so many different forms of wildlife during my time on the O/Z.  I was once just 15 yards from a cow moose eating green gunk on the bottom of a pond.  I just sat there in my six-wheeler thinking "Hmmm, what would I do if it charged me?"  I was thinking I could out maneuver it for at least a little bit.  Fortunately, it was too busy eating to bother with me, although it did take a gander my way every time it came up with a new mouthful of goodies.

I was also up in the hills above the grazing pasture below one day when an entire herd of elk passed right in front of me a mere ten yards away.  I didn't dare flinch as several of them stopped right in front of me with kind of a perplexed "What in the heck are you?" look on their faces.  I also saw whitetail deer, mule deer, wolf, fox, wild turkey, black bear, golden eagles, bald eagles, all sorts of ground and tree squirrels, and song birds of every kind.  One day, I was driving to the brush burn pile when I saw something large along the dirt road.  I pulled up right next to an osprey.  I rolled down my window and started talking to it.  (Unfortunately, it didn't respond.)  It didn't move at all.  I was actually tempted to lean out my window and try to touch it.  One look at its talons changed that.  After about 45 seconds, it took off and flew away.

Why did I work there you may wonder?  Well, a friend of mine who worked there asked me years ago if I knew any teenager who could help her out.  I asked around without success.  Then she said "Would you want to work here?"  "Sure!"  So that led to a schedule of working at the O/Z two mornings a week from April right up to opening day of hunting season in late October. 

My main responsibility was lawn maintenance.  Translation:  a whole lot of mowing and a whole lot of weed eating.  A typical day of pushing mowing lasted from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  (Yeah, a great way to stay in shape and get a great tan too.)  And then it took the folks on the riding mowers two full days to do the rest.  But my responsibilities covered much more than that.  I also dug ditches, stained all of the houses and outbuildings, fed the fish in the ponds, hauled furniture, replaced storm windows, worked in the raised garden bed, pruned shrubbery, cut up and hauled tree limbs, used the chain saw to cut wood, and even helped herd the cows now and then.  (By the way, you can eat O/Z beef, when available, at Lolo Creek Steakhouse.)

Oh beautiful O/Z, how I'll miss you.  Good thing I can still fish there anytime I'd like.