tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39787708385696152542024-03-14T00:02:25.375-07:00New Grass GrowingLife is different now and there's more of it. New Grass Growing picks up where River and Ranch leaves off. Cale and Dana, Lane and Sophie and the rest of the Idaho bunch are back with more discovery of new lives living under a big Idaho sky.JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-37413748275815722242024-01-15T09:04:00.000-08:002024-01-15T09:09:03.775-08:00Guess I'm in No RushFirst there was River and Ranch.</br>
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Then New Grass Growing.</br>
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Turns out, I was just getting warmed up, because now there is a whole universe of books wrapped around Cale and Lane and Dana and Sophie and Sabé and Cassidy ...and Elvis and Pike and Carolyn and Jane and Rhett and Red Bird and the Monk and on and on it goes.</br>
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I feel like the Marvel dudes creating teh Marvel world, except the characters are mine for my own simple reading pleasure.</br>
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Stay tuned......</br>
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Jeff (aka the author)JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-22737206677556016852020-10-26T07:04:00.003-07:002020-10-26T07:04:34.234-07:00How a Tale Unwinds<p>River and Ranch started out so simple. Merely a tale of two Special Ops guys back from overseas missions that stumble into more of the same in a domestic setting.</p>
<p>And then.....</p>
<p>I continued enjoying serendipity. This led me to Nancy Hatch duPree. It led me to Buddhism. It led me to a Deseret newspaper article about a hidden meadow untouched by modern uses. And so much more.</p>
<p>All of which led to a larger story for the R and R world, backstories fleshed out and enlarged for other characters, and the gradual replacement of simple kinetic violence one would expect from Spec Ops guys with a more cerebral, religious, and historically aware pair of (still lethal) Spec Ops guys that see more than just dustups with the bad guys as they search for life's hidden meaning and acknowledge that there is likely far more they do not know, have never heard of, and will never understand.</p>
<p>gotta love long run-on sentences jacked up with dependent clauses, right?</p>
<p>For some reason, I wanted River and Ranch to end on a cliff hanger. Instead, what I now have is a series of books going backward and forward in time from the R and R setting, showing a much larger world with connections from the past explaining events and people in the present. Watching this spring forth from my keyboard is SO MUCH better than watching TV!</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-26811880962925271332016-02-24T08:13:00.000-08:002016-02-24T08:13:15.664-08:00Idaho Roadblock? Guard Cow? Future hamburger?<div><p><img style="float:left; border-right:5px; border-bottom:5px; width:40%;" src="http://www.riverandranch.com/images/Lemhi-Pass-Guard-Cow.jpg" alt="future hamburger blocking the road to Lemhi Pass" title="Do you have any Grey Poupon?" />New Grass Growing picks up where River and Ranch leaves off. It continues the story of Cale and Dana and their daughters. Lane is right there along with Myra, who is hard to describe but well worth the effort. Family, friends, and maybe even some New West intrigue of all sorts. </p></div>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0Lemhi Pass, Idaho 83468, USA44.9740931 -113.445048319.452058599999997 -154.7536423 70.4961276 -72.1364543tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-72179519381803515532015-04-30T09:07:00.001-07:002015-04-30T09:28:04.533-07:00Z is for Zanzibar<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar" target="_blank">Zanzibar</a> is a word that almost did not come to me. I was aimlessly meandering through the aisles of my brain trying to freely associate with anything meaningful that started with a "Z". I was having no luck. Then a tune from Jimmy Buffett somehow made its presence known in my head. "Zanzibar" is in the lyrics of the song and there you have it, the provenance of my final word in this 26 day challenge.</p>
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<img style="width:480px;" src="http://www.stylehiclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/WhereIsZanzibar-copy.jpg" /><br /> Before I go any further, the image is taken from the <a href="http://www.stylehiclub.com/" target="_blank">stylehiclub.com website</a>. This is a fascinating site. It looks like a young couple and their kid are documenting their travels on this site. It's really quite well done. Check it out for yourself, it's worth a few minutes.<br />
It looks to me like this little island archipelago may have been one of those places where ancient middle east (aka Persia) met up with ancient Africa (aka Swahili coastal towns). In more modern times, Zanzibar was a possession of Portugal for almost two hundred years. As usual, Wikipedia does a bangup job collecting facts and describing the myriad aspects of Zanzibar, both past and present. It's exotic, in my mind fitting in somewhere in the fringes with Jimmy Buffett's song playing in the background. I'm sure reality is different.
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<p>This ends a 26 day A-Z challenge. One of the more interesting word challenges I've ever done.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-57067320244133310442015-04-29T07:24:00.000-07:002015-04-30T08:06:25.606-07:00Y is for Yellow Pine Bar<p>I remember Yellow Pine Bar as my favorite camp on the whole Main Salmon, although some of the other big white sand beach sites come very close. What I remember as upper Yellow Pine Bar does not show up in the guide book I have. But we sure aimed for that site alot. There was a hike up to a high point where you could look down on Big Mallard which was the every first thing you ran the next morning. It was always in the deep shade from the adjacent mountain shadow. The water was dark and almost steaming sometimes.</p>
<p>That camp was (and likely still is) fabulous, assuming it's still there after 25+/- years of floods and runoff and who know what else.</p>
<p>It turns out that the history of the Bar up above the campsite is extensive as well. A school, gardens, homesteads, and an airstrip all exist on the Bar up above the river. As usual, Conley and Carrey do a bang up job describing it in their book, River of No return. I cannot improve upon it and therefore will not repeat it. The work they did with river history in their books stands alone.</p>
<p>So next time you come around the corner after running Split Rock, pull in at upper Yellow Pine Bar, if it's still there. Enjoy the camp. It's wonderful, at least in my memory. Hike up to the overlook for a look at Big Mallard and enjoy the view.</p>
<p>When you see them in the dark of the night dancing under the full moon, honor those ghosts of the people that came before you. While it was and is beautiful, I'm sure it was hard living on Yellow Pine Bar.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-16507821313388999202015-04-28T08:32:00.000-07:002015-04-28T08:32:39.419-07:00X is for Xenolith<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenolith" target="_blank">Xenolith</a> is a big fancy word for something fairly simple. Basically a xenolith is a piece of wall rock that falls into the soup of molten rock moving past it. Think of lava moving up through its mountain. The xenolith has a high melting temperature, so it remains a solid and a separate mass (think ice in a glass of water) in the surrounding molten rock. As everything cools that foreign rock piece is "frozen" in place where it fell in the newly solid, formerly molten rock mass.</p>
<p>This is not specific to rare earth geology. It does however, satisfy the requirements for being an "X" word on this the 24th day of the A to Z blog challenge.</p>
<p>The Idaho batholith is in the midst of the terrain where both River and Ranch and New Grass Growing take place. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_Batholith" target="_blank">Idaho batholith</a> is a large granitic intrusion in central Idaho, where just the right scenario exists for the creation of xenoliths.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-63895123868701345322015-04-27T08:33:00.000-07:002015-04-27T08:33:24.619-07:00W is for wilderness<p>Wilderness. A big space full of wild lands. If it is large enough, some would say an "intact ecosystem". The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is just that place. I'm not sure where the boundaries are and there is also the matter of adjacent wild areas like the Gospel Hump Wilderness Area. It's big. Not a whole lot of level, lots of land on a slant. There's probably still a few valleys that have never seen a human. In the lower 48 there's no other place like it. It's the largest roadless area in the lower 48 states and we have an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Church" target="_blank">Idaho Senator named Frank Church</a> to thank for it.</p>
<p>Wikipedia (see link above for complete entry) says, "..In 1964, Church was the floor sponsor of the national Wilderness Act. In 1968, he sponsored the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and gained passage of a ten-year moratorium on federal plans to transfer water from the Pacific Northwest to California. Working with other members of Congress from northwestern states, Church helped establish the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area along the Oregon-Idaho border, which protected the gorge from dam building. He was also the primary proponent in the establishment of the Sawtooth Wilderness and National Recreation Area in central Idaho in 1972.<br />
Church also was instrumental in the creation of Idaho's River of No Return Wilderness in 1980, his final year in the Senate. This wilderness comprised the old Idaho Primitive Area, the Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area, plus additional lands. At 2.36 million acres (9,550 km²), over 3,600 square miles (9,300 km2), it is the largest wilderness area in the nation outside of Alaska. It was renamed the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in 1984, shortly after the diagnosis of his pancreatic cancer. Idaho Senator Jim McClure introduced the measure in the Senate in late February,[21] and President Reagan signed the act on March 14,[22] less than four weeks before Frank Church's death on April 7.</p>
<p>From small roots as an Idaho kid, he grew to do great things. The wilderness, named after him, is a testament to doing the right thing at the right time. As a guide in Idaho during the summers of 1989 and 1990, I benefited from his efforts. Those of you that like roadless wild places are still benefiting. Thank you for wilderness Frank Church.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-53190596272143241182015-04-25T08:26:00.000-07:002015-04-25T08:26:13.296-07:00V is for Vinegar<p>Mile 299.9. One of the biggest drops on the river. Vinegar. The name is applied to the drop at this point on the Main Salmon, as well as the creek that enters the river close by. I was always so focused on the drop, I never even looked for the creek, but it's there. Somewhere.</p>
<p>This is near the end of the line for a Main Salmon river trip, but if you like size, then the river has saved the best for last, as many think this drop is the biggest on the whole trip. Or at least that is what I thought when I was guiding on the Main. Seeing the horizon line and the occasional spray being thrown up where I could see it, always helped me focus. Alot.</p>
<p>It's the end of the trip. The guests know it and are already starting to put their game faces back on. Flights, connections, the mountain of email waiting for them. Although I have to interject here that email did not exist when I was guiding on the Main. Funny how things add up and become a staple of life in just a few short years. Say 25 or so of them. For me, assuming Vinegar passed without incident. Vinegar meant that it would soon be time to aim fo the landing at Wind River and look forward somehow to the sweat of packing up after the end of a trip and heading back to the top end to do it all over again.</p>
<p>I do miss those days. I hope those guides that have taken my place know how lucky they are to sweat under the sun at the Wind River takeout.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-35249482984806377912015-04-24T10:57:00.001-07:002015-04-24T10:57:30.208-07:00U is for the Umatilla Thrilla<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoni_Schimmel" target="_blank">Shoni Schimmel</a>, currently playing professional basketball in the WNBA, was known as the "Umatilla Thrilla" in her early days in eastern Oregon. She went on to do great things with a round ball at Louisville.</p>
<p>New Grass Growing follows River and Ranch. NGG wanders through a new life in Salmon for Cale and new found daughter, Sabé (sorry if that's a spoiler), as well as Lane and Dana and Cassidy and several more characters. Several of those new characters are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Shoshone" target="_blank">Lemhi Shoshone or northern Shoshone</a>. <i>Agaidika</i>. Fish eaters. Some say it is Salmon eaters.</p>
<p>Anyway, NGG imagines life after retirement from Special Operations for Cale and Lane. They become teachers at Salmon High School, as well as the new high school girls basketball coaches. This addition to the fictional world of Cale and Lane remains in the top three as far as my own personal fascination, learning curve, and surprise. It turns out that Indian girls do not get much attention in the world of fiction, nor does rezball, or life on the reservation for that matter. In fact <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-makes-historic-trip-indian-country" target="_blank">Barack Obama's visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in North Dakota</a> was a historical event mainly for its rarity. Pres. Obama was just the fourth US President to visit a reservation.</p>
<p>I digress.</p>
<p>Shoni Schimmel is the inspiration for Rhett, one of the new characters in NGG and one of the natives on the SHS girls basketball team. Shoni Schimmel is just plain inspiration for Rhett. Peroid. My research found Ms. Schimmel first. She played at Louisville, as did her younger sister, and took Louisville to the NCAA women's Final Four. Curiosity led me further into the small world of Indian women that have gone on to play big time buckets off the reservation. I found two others. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryneldi_Becenti" target="_blank">Ryneldi Becenti</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Tahnee+Robinson" target="_blank">Tahnee Robinson</a>. Becenti is now retired, while <a href="http://basketball.eurobasket.com/team/Poland/Basket_ROW_Rybnik/11401?Women=1" target="_blank">Robinson is currently playing overseas</a>.</p>
<p>Turns out there are <a href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/09/eight-native-basketball-players-you-need-know-better-149785" target="_blank">more Native Americans</a> that made or are making a name for themselves in hoops.</p>
<p>April 2015 finds me still working on this second book, New Grass Growing. Rezball is a fascinating discovery, one that I am working in to several spots in this book. Women's basketball is a great thing. My own daughters have played it, so there is lots of smiles and frustrations in my track record attributable to girls hoops. But I never expected to find such an interesting topic in my wanderings around fictional Idaho. Fiction that is based on compelling reality.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-84692969562674499562015-04-23T08:44:00.001-07:002015-04-23T08:44:58.350-07:00T is for telemark skiing<p>In the winter the water is too hard to row. It gets all hard and really cold. Some of it even freezes.</p>
<p>Out in Salmon where Cale is now living, not too far away is Lost Trail Ski Area. It's a wonderful place. Mostly local. When I was there back in the early 90s there were no local hotels. So it was a "drive to" ski spot and therefore mostly local. Missoula, although an hour+ away still qualifies as local I believe, although Missoula has its own fab local resort, Snowbowl.</p>
<p>Telemark skiing is my brand of skiing. The skis are single camber with metal edges, exactly like downhill skis. The boots can be leather or plastic and are the typical stiff heavy ski boots. The bindings are often just heavy duty xc binding. Three holes in the front, although more often, especially in modern equipment, there is a toe hold and a strap that goes around the heel as well. The heel remains free though as the defining aspect of telemark skiing is a knee bend that is a critical part of the telemark turn. That, of course, can only happen with a free heel.</p>
<p>It's a tremendous workout and requires great balance and attention to technique, unlike downhill skiing which is merely standing up on flat boards and pointing downhill (I'm kidding I'm kidding). In the tucked away places of the Bitterroot Valley, where you'll find Lost Trail Ski Area, you will also find an amazing space with the occasional place tucked away in it well worth discovering, like Snowbowl or Lost Trail. If you see somebody kneeling and turn their way down the hill, it might be me, but it is certainly someone out telemarking.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-84496194153487484522015-04-22T08:49:00.001-07:002015-04-22T08:49:26.439-07:00S is for Skwala<p>One of the more bizarre words I've stumbled across makes it to the top of the pile for today's word. Skwala. It's a bug. More specifically it's a stonefly. Interestingly, it hatches in February, so desperate (enthusiastic?) fly fishermen (and women) can get a fix for their mid-winter jones.</p>
<p>Here's a few words on the <a href="http://www.makeitmissoula.com/2013/03/the-elusive-skwala-hatch/" target="_blank">Bitterroot Skwala</a> fishery as told by a local. People do strange things. Fly fishing in February. Who wudda' thunk it? Good thing the Bitterroot is in the banana belt.....</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-8408161848837230232015-04-21T17:59:00.003-07:002015-04-21T17:59:41.098-07:00R is for Rabbit Creek<p>There are several fabulous white sand beaches on the Main Salmon, at least in my memory. Rabbit Creek might be the biggest pile of sand that I remember. Rhett Creek is high on the list, Fawn Creek is nice and there are many others as well. In fact, to my memory, a good 30% of the great spots to camp on the Main Salmon are white sand beaches.</p>
<p>But the biggest longest pile was Rabbit Creek. Coming up on it, you would first float by the Creek itself. Springtime runoff and flash floods caused by cloudbursts upstream in its basin had blown out the mouth of Rabbit Creek. There was a large debris fan at the mouth of the creek where it lost the velocity of being entrained in the narrow creek canyon and quickly settled out into the much larger space of the river canyon. The water of the creek was almost lost in this debris fan. You would float by that fan and then tucked in behind it, the white sand beach would begin. The debris fan was big enough to push the current over to one side. The water would then "fall" in behind the debris fan and creating an eddy which was where all the suspended sand in the river water would settle out.</p>
<p>This was an amazing beach in the reality time of when I was a guide out there. It's part of the river trips that Cale and his float trips experience in River and Ranch. Someday I hope to take another trip down that beautiful river and see if it is still there.....</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-60260574341236361212015-04-20T03:50:00.000-07:002015-04-20T03:50:02.439-07:00Q is for quell<p>For a few months in 1877 and 1,170 miles throughout Idaho, Oregon and Montana, the United States Army pursued and fought several bands of Nez Perce as they fought a brilliant move across much of Idaho. The object of the US Army's campaign was to quell one of the last Indian uprisings in the still young United States. The route of this 1877 Nez Perce rebellion, went through Middle Fork country and crossed some of the same paths that Lewis and Clark had used 70+ years earlier. The Nez Perce came through Lemhi Pass and asked Sacajawea's tribe for help. It was not given and the Nez Perce moved on through the Lemhi Valley and into history, following several battles and ending just short of the Canadian border, where Chief Joseph is said to have made his speech ending in "..from where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.."</p>
<p>A sad tale and many would say shameful, viewed through the prism of today's sensibilities. For me, it is yet one more example of cultures not understanding each other. The differences are phenomenal. One content to survive, the other culture aggressive and hard charging, believing in manifest destiny and having no respect for those already occupying the land in question.</p>
<p>Clearly the USA's current notion of democracy building started early, right here on this continent, with our ancestors clearly expecting everyone to obey the 1800's version of "..my way or the highway..". Lots of wrong in what was done to Native America. No do-overs either. Nothing to be proud of, yet most would say that the end justifies the means. I guess that depends on who you ask.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-65265347425319344782015-04-18T15:51:00.000-07:002015-04-18T15:51:10.509-07:00P is for Pahsimeroi<p>It's a river and a valley. There's a fish hatchery. May is a tiny little place with a post office. I hope to get there someday. Alderspring Ranch is in the Pahsimeroi Valley somewhere near May I think. It is one of the Idaho ranches I thought about while conjuring up Cayuse Creek and the sidebar-T, that appears in River and Ranch and New Grass Growing. There is a roadless area and I believe there are (or were) wolves in the area. Hope I can get there someday. I drove by it many times, back when I was younger and maybe a bit dumber and never even knew or thought about the Pahsimeroi. ah well. Links below are to sources worth a scan or a read. Rather than copy them and add little value, linking to them, so their own words can be read seems better.<br />
<a href="http://www.lifeontherange.org/range-stories/pahsimeroi.htm" target="_blank">a video from the Pahsimeroi</a><br />
<a href="http://rogerplothow.blogspot.com/2009/08/pahsimeroi-central-idahos-other.html" target="_blank">notes from a newspaper editor</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/idaho/placesweprotect/pahsimeroi-river.xml" target="_blank">Alderspring Ranch</a>
</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-52523685164211935702015-04-17T19:36:00.002-07:002015-04-17T19:36:28.393-07:00O is for Oregon and a bit of the Owyhee <p>In real life, Oregon is where I started. As a mere lad of barely 21 I departed Duluth, MN. after my fourth year of college and drove in a little red Ford Fiesta, ALL the way to the edge of the continent to start guiding on the Rogue, Deschutes and a host of other Oregon whitewater rivers. I made it through that summer with many opportunities for personal growth and came back a wiser, more mature young man. Or at least a changed young man with many solo road miles and several months of living like a responsible adult (for the most part) in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Eugene, along with all those nights on those wonderful Oregon rivers.</p>
<p>Before I ramble too far away, the Owyhee is a river in a canyon cutting through a high desert plateau. A place way over on the southeast side of the state. I think. I never went there, but it is wilder and more remote than the rivers I ran along the coast. I was in the wet, the Owyhee is in a desert canyon surrounded by big dry empty.</p>
<p>It's all good. I remember a weekend off, driving out to the coast and encountering sand dunes. Big sand dunes and a wild unkempt coast that smelled a bit odd. For a midwest boy, cold humid salt air was a distinct change. I remember the twist and turns of driving through the mountains from Springfield - Eugene to Sisters and on to Bend.</p>
<p>Youth is a bit wasted on the young. At the time, I was living the dream and just doing it. I didn't realize it as anything special. Now half a lifetime later (or more) I still look back on that summer. What a set of memories. What an experience. It has informed parts of me as life continued, back to the midwest, marriage, kids, house, and job. There's a space in my head where I go to live those memories again and again. I'm glad I made my escape even if it was only for ten years before the midwest reeled me back in. It really was living the dream, only at the time I didn't know it.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-89430149174925099062015-04-16T03:37:00.000-07:002015-04-17T07:18:32.600-07:00N is for Native American<p>New Grass Growing picks up where River and Ranch left off and it also adds in a few more characters. The new characters are Native Americans. Indians. Northern Shoshone to be specific. Living off the reservation, which in the central Idaho area is supposed to be Fort Hall.</p>
<p>A thread in my writing is using foreign language within the dialogue between characters. Cale, Lane, and Isaac are all the recipients of advanced language work as part of their careers in Special Operations. They know Mandarin, Pashto, and Dari. Along the way they have picked up Spanish and French and some Russian. So now they are all in Salmon. As fate would have it and as my research discovered, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshoni_language" target="_blank">the Shoshoni language</a>, although classified as endangered, is still quite active.</p>
<p>In New Grass Growing, some threads end and others open. NGG follows the main characters as they start into their next chapters. The new characters bring along a Native POV, they bring along a teen age girl focus and complement Sabé and Cassidy. And maybe a few more things just to keep it all interesting.</p>
<p>I find languages fascinating. I find what the Shoshone tribe is doing to preserve their language and keep it live to be fascinating as well. I'm working it into my fiction, because I think it is one more example where truth is every bit as interesting as fiction.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-68090506994922705192015-04-15T19:37:00.001-07:002015-04-15T19:37:38.527-07:00M is for Montana<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana" target="_blank">Montana</a> is all that and then some, as my kids say on occasion. Having gone to school there and lived there for a few years, there's a few parts I remember that aren't seen in most descriptions.</p>
<p>The first memory is of the people. Montana natives hunt. That is their excuse for getting outside. Many of them, a decent majority grew up in rural settings (not all), so they were outside as part of work and daily life. They never went camping or skiing or hiking. They did some, if not all of that in the course of their "work life". Students, on the other hand, were of course all over the outdoor rec opps. This made for an interesting clash. The School of Forestry attracted some Montana natives and as you might expect their goals were more resource extraction than conservation. The Forestry School also attracted a fair amount of tree huggers, especially from New Jersey for some reason. They, were more passionate about resource conservation than extraction. This double humped camel of student interests made things interesting at times. I was on campus at the height of the spotted owl controversy. Lots of passionate discussions.</p>
<p>The Rattlesnake Wilderness Area was adjacent to the Missoula City Limits. Back then and likely still now, it was the only wilderness area in the USA with bus service to the main trailhead. Rattlesnake Creek poured down into the Clark Fork, wild and unkempt. There was city park up and down both sides of it. Running paths all over. One of my favorite places.</p>
<p>There were bighorn sheep on Mount Sentinel as well as mountain lions. Every once in awhile you could hike to the M and spot bighorns off in the distance. Every once in awhile, there would be a picture in the city paper of a mountain lion on a patio eating the cat food out of a bowl someone had left outside. What a thrill that must have been, open the drapes as the sun comes up and there's a mountain lion three feet away......</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-28149698069954883072015-04-14T08:13:00.000-07:002015-04-14T08:13:14.968-07:00L is for Lolo and Lost Trail<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolo_Pass_%28Idaho%E2%80%93Montana%29" target="_blank">Lolo Pass</a> and
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Trail_Pass" target="_blank">Lost Trail Pass</a> are two
more of the many places and spaces in the fictional world inhabited by Cale and Lane and Dana as River and Ranch morphs into New Grass Growing.
</p>
<p>They are real world spots as well. The Lewis and Clark expedition is the easy spot to start. They first climbed Lemhi Pass and looked down into Idaho. They then followed the Lemhi river/valley to its confluence with the Salmon. From there they went downstream on the Salmon, a bit excited thinking they had found a northwest passage. Disappointed in that, they ultimately climbed the Idaho side of Lost Trail Pass and looked north into Montana's Bitterroot Valley. Ultimately, they moved north down the valley to what is now known as Lolo and again turned west ascending to Lolo Pass and then down the Lochsa and onto history.</p>
<p>I can only imagine what this expedition faced on a daily basis. The wild tangles they encountered, the blowdowns and understory, must have been immense. At times they likely were able to stay on trails somewhat established by the natives and/or animals, but still relative to the highways of today, traveling the area back in 1805 was not for the faint of heart, not for those wanting lots of daily mileage.</p>
<p>This part of the world remains my favorite part of flyover country to this day, well worth visiting and moving through by any means available.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-85920226428187093092015-04-13T03:50:00.001-07:002015-04-13T03:50:11.085-07:00K is for Kamiah and Kooskia (and Lowell too)<p>Little towns. Lost and getting loster as the saying goes. All three towns in today's entry are in remotest Idaho, way down the hill from Lolo Pass on Highway 12, on the banks of the Lochsa and Middle Fork of the Clearwater Rivers. The drive down Highway 12, which is part of the ?Lewis and Clark route is a treat, if you like mountain roads hidden away in the midst of flyover country.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kooskia,_Idaho" target="_blank">Kooskia</a> is one of them. With history as each of them likely have. Kooskia is a Nez Perce word and the town itself is within the Nez Perce Reservation or it was at one time, before white settlers violated their own agreement with the Nez Perce and settled on reservation lands. Mention is made of the Internment Camp, which was about 30 miles upstream from Kooskia.</p>
<p>Kamiah is another town, downstream from Kooskia, that is heavy with New Perce history. The name means rope net and has to do with the ropes and nets that the Nez Perce made for Salmon fishing. Likely more significant, the Appaloosa is claimed in New Perce history to have been bred in this area by the Nez Perce.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell,_Idaho" target="_blank">Lowell</a> is the third tiny burg made mention of in today's entry. Population 30, it is just barely there any more. It occupies the wide spot between the confluence of the Lochsa and the Selway. You access it across a bridge from Highway 12. The Selway and Lochsa merge to form the Middle Fork of the Clearwater.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-28257534101285567192015-04-11T15:09:00.000-07:002015-04-11T15:09:17.614-07:00J is for Japanese Internment Camp<p>The existence of a WWII era Japanese Internment Camp near Kooskia, Idaho was one of the big surprises unearthed in researching River and Ranch. This is reality not fiction. While little remains to mark the camp's footprint near Canyon Creek's entry into the Lochsa River, there remains an historical record of this camp, the men that were detained and the work they did on a stretch of Highway 12 leading up to Lolo Pass.</p>
<p>The University of Idaho has done work both on the site as well as in written archives putting together a story of this unfortunate piece of U.S. history. This camp near Kooskia and the men that worked there, were somewhat unique amongst all of the internment camps. They were aware of their rights according to the 1929 Geneva Convention. They organized themselves a bit and file a grievance and surprisingly the INS responded.</p><p>From most accounts the camp warden, Merrill Scott was a just man, maybe even a bit on the kind side. He acknowledged their grievances and fixed them. The result was a group of men, mostly non-citizen residents of the U.S. who were mostly happy to work. Records show that some of the men had even volunteered to come to this camp, because unlike Minidoka and other internment camps, there was work to be done here, building Highway 12 up the length of the Lochsa. The men were paid about 50 dollars each month and had something to do besides while away the hours in a confined setting.</p>
<p><a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Kooskia%20%28detention%20facility%29/" target="_blank">The Densho Encyclopedia</a> has the most complete record of this internment camp that I found while researching this bit of WWII-era Lochsa history.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-48198107822738574882015-04-10T18:49:00.002-07:002015-04-10T18:49:42.639-07:00I is for INEL (or INL as some write)<p>INL is a Federal Research Facility in eastern Idaho. It is where Dana has worked throughout her career as a borehole geophysicist. Funky I know. Why that? 'cause I like geophysics that's why.</p>
<p>Initially I thought INEL was part of the whole WWII group of facilities. You know Hanford, Fermi, White Sands and all those other places whose existence is denied. Like Area 51. Kidding. Or at least I think I am. Hopefully black helos won't be landing in my front yard tonight.....</p>
<p>Anyway, it is part of the fictional story of Dana Turner one of the MCs in River and Ranch and New Grass Growing. It does exist, in reality, in eastern Idaho.</p>
<p>You can <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_National_Laboratory" target="_blank">read up on INL</a> (its current name) in yet one more well done Wikipedi article.</p>
JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-73303083208979896912015-04-09T08:43:00.002-07:002015-04-09T08:43:47.230-07:00H is for hot springs<p>In the Idaho-based world of New Grass Growing (and River and Ranch) there are hot springs. They exist in the real Idaho as well. One of the pleasant outcomes of living in a geologically active setting is hot water. Generally this is because geologic activity tends to generate heat. Plate subduction, terrane accretion, plate moving over hot spot, granitic pluton cooling, you know, all the usual suspects.</p>
<p>Water, usually in the form of melted snow, works its way downward through mostly local fractures in overlying material. Heat increases with depth, so the deeper the water goes in proximity to the heat source (e.g. a granitic intrusion like the Idaho batholith) the hotter it gets. Literature fails to provide a consistent explanation for the introduction of water to the system for heating and then a separate exit of the now hot water from the system. Happily for whatever reasons of nature's plumbing, hot springs work. </p>
<p>In the world of River and Ranch and New Grass Growing, you'll find Lolo Hot Springs (most developed), Jerry Johnson's (on the far side of the Lochsa may now have a locked gate), Weir Creek (hardest to get to), Sharkey Hot Springs (out near Cayuse Creek), and the hot springs at the base of Lost Trail Pass. Down the river(s) you encounter Barth, Sheepeater, Sunflower, Hospital Bar and others that at the moment I am forgetting.</p>
<p>They are natural, others don't always leave them clean, and they may have naturally occurring sulphur-centric microbes giving them a distinct odor. So, use at your own risk and please leave them cleaner than you found them. They are really neat places.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-50980424395910885862015-04-08T18:55:00.000-07:002015-04-09T03:41:22.967-07:00G is for Grass<p>Grass. In a miracle of biology it goes from something growing underfoot to a nice ten ounce steak or maybe a hamburger, if that is what your kid likes (mine does). Part of my writing in New Grass Growing and in River and Ranch is an effort to work in the day to day lives of fourth generation ranchers intent on keeping their Idaho ranch up and going in the face of long standing competitive forces that make life difficult for the shrinking number of family ranches one can still find "out west".</p>
<p>Grazing cattle obviously requires grass, but it also requires range land management and water. It requires some attention to rotating pastures so as to not overgraze. Vigilance concerning invasive species like cheatgrass, knapweed, and salt cedar is a daily habit.</p>
<p>Along with a thriving school training barrel racers and cutting horses, the family behind Dana - her mother and father and brother as well as an aunt and uncle are all part of a family effort to keep Cayuse Creek up and going in the face of modern pressures conspiring against one of the icons of the classic West - the cattle ranch.</p>
<p>The green mountain meadows are a backdrop for excitement and romance and maybe even some drama, but they are also part of a working ranch producing beef for sidebar-T, the family ranch that has been part of Dana's family for four generations.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-67768243749224477872015-04-08T09:05:00.002-07:002015-04-08T09:05:31.881-07:00F is for first person - an active dynamic on the ground narration style<p>Through the narrator's eyes for some reason appeals to me. So that's the way I've been taking New Grass Growing. River and Ranch is also in first person. I like the notion of seeing the country through the eyes of Cale and Dana. Do I need a method (e.g. third person) that lets me write stuff that is beyond what my first person character narrator can see? There are a few places where my characters are all engaged in something and I want to point out other characters. In those rare cases I do jump to third person to call some attention to those additional characters. It's awkward, but I feel strongly for the scene in which I have placed those minor characters as they watch events unfold around the main characters. Other than those rare cases focused on minor characters in one scene, all my writing is in first person.</p>
<p>When I was a kid, we would sit around our tiny little TV and watch <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068149/" target="_blank">The Walton's</a>. I remember the voice of Earl Hamner talking at some point usually the end I think and I remember Johnboy (sp?) writing in his diary as the TV looks through the window from the dark night and then it zooms back out, the music plays and that's the end of the episode. I think the story is told from Johnboy's point of view.</p>
<p>Maybe that is the root cause of my writing in first person. Or maybe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Crais">Robert Crais</a> is the source of my preference. Elvis Cole is one of my favorite characters ever. Part of my affection for this character comes, I think, from the <a href="http://www.robertcrais.com/bio.htm">author's writing style</a>.</p>
<p>Books are great. Reading is great. Writing is pretty fine too. For me, a first person POV is turning out peachy. I hope you like it as well!</p>
JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978770838569615254.post-56343061999165863862015-04-06T06:25:00.002-07:002015-04-06T06:25:41.543-07:00E is for Elkhorn<p>This is a long sequence, one of the longer rapids that I remember on the Main. Consulting the old guide books was a necessity though, as I could not remember where it was on the river. Mile 263 for those inquiring minds, according to Carrey and Conley. I remember a few snips of actually sitting the bench seat and pulling the oars. I also remember something crawling under my pfd and stinging me as I was rowing this rapid. Trivially speaking, I'm allergic to wasps but not bees. Of course, it is significant to me as I am the one that swells up and stays swelled up for way longer than I expect. Venom from tiny bodies provide an awesome lesson about power in small things.</p>
<p>Elkhorn has a big swooping curve in it as I recall. Maybe it's different now. It was one more noteworthy event occurring once on every trip I took down that wonderful river. The same and yet different every single time I ran it.</p>JJ Bachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01405329335972111104noreply@blogger.com0