And Take Your Camera

Frommer’s, the travel folks, have published a list of Eleven Places To See Before They Disappear. Guess who made the list? That’s right it’s our own Kootenai River. Right up there with the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal. It’s obvious that nobody from Frommers has actually bothered to visit Montana or they would realize that they are about 75 years too late. We stuck Libby Dam on the Kootenai  37  years ago creating a hundred-mile long desert and there are seven dams in Canada. The White Sturgeon hasn’t reproduced since Libby Dam went in. We have filled and drained all the wetlands along the Kooteani in Idaho and we are still busy finding new invasive species to plant in the river and reservoirs. Sorry Frommer old boy. The Kootenai is already gone.

My favorite part of the article is the “Where To Stay” section. They list the Caboose Motel in Libby and the Ranch Motel in Troy as travel destinations. Of course those of us who have actually stayed in either or both of thes fine venues can only say, “WHAAA…?”.  I spent a lot of nights in the Caboose and if you don’t mind all the railroad and highway workers partying until all hours or the occasional gunshot, I guess it’s really not that bad, but the Ranch Motel in Troy makes even the Caboose seem like the Waldorf Astoria. C’mon guys! If you are going to tout these places, the least you can do is send a flunky to Montana to check them out.

So, pack up the family before the tourist season gets in full swing, make reservations at the Caboose and spend some time cruising for 12″ kokanee on Lake Koocanusa before it’s too late. Just make sure you go before spring runoff which will turn the river pretty muddy with sediment from all the clearcuts.