Greetings from Montana

[grizzled]

Just joined the forum-great place.

I've been at backpacking for some time, starting when I was 12 years old (69 now). Interesting, but my parents or any other adults for that matter, never accompanied a couple of my friends and I on any of those early adventures, most of which started out of my parents back door. Definitely a case of on-the-job training. I was very privileged to have grown up on a ranch adjacent to a lot of untrammeled Forest Service property in the Bridger Range north of Bozeman that provided easy access. During high school, my best friend (now deceased) and I were out every weekend all summer long and managed to explore most of the Gallatin and Madison Ranges along with the Tobacco Root Mountains.

As I think back over all those early trips I must say the gear/chow has improved by orders of magnitude. Some of those adventures bear an uncomfortable resemblance to Pat McManus' story "The Big Trip".

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Welcome to the forum grizzled, great to have you on board! Sounds like a great place to grow up. Having that type / ease of access is definitely an amazing thing.

[CraigKap]

Welcome. I loved Montana when I went there ages ago. I only went to a dude ranch in Utica and stopped in Helena to switch planes. Wish I could have seen Glacier County.