Land Legacy: Access to Fish Creek, a Recreational Paradise, Preserved For All
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September 08, 2010 10:58 AM
One of Alvin Meeks' most memorable adventures in western Montana's Fish Creek country ended with him headed home empty-handed after one of his annual autumn elk hunts. The longtime resident of the area was archery hunting in a westside tributary of Fish Creek adjacent to the vast, two-state Great Burn roadless area. It was 1980 or 1981it's been so long he can't be sure of the exact year.
I was up Thompson Creek way back up in the lodgepoles. I was bugling, he recalls.
Pretty soon, two hair-tingling bugles echoed back to him across the crisp air. I thought, well, one of them has to be a hunter. But I didn't see anybody else in there, he said during a recent interview at the Big Pine Campground in lower Fish Creek.
Meeks' doubts immediately vanished when two bullsboth very real and now very closecharged in. Crouching low, he watched as the two monarchs scanned for this intruder in their woods.
Though mostly a meat hunter, Meeks quickly eyeballed the larger of the two bulls.
One of them was a great big one. I was hoping he'd come closer, he recalled. But he stayed back and the other one came in. He came in, kind of rushed and turned sideways.
