We left Glacier National Park and headed south to see our good friends Bill Fraser and Donna Patterson-Fraser in Sheridan, MT. Bill and Donna live the quintessential Montana ranch life in the beautiful Ruby valley, surrounded by hay farming, cattle, moose, antelope, sand hill cranes, and arguably the best trout streams in the US. You know, paradise, but with mosquitos. We nestled out trailer next to their barn and were warmly greeted.
Bill and Donna run the non-profit Polar Oceans Research Group out of their house. For decades, they spent a good part of the year in Antarctica doing research on sea birds like penguins and giant petrels. You know, normal jobs. I first met Donna in 2011 on my first trip to Antarctica. She is a top notch ornithologist and tough-as-nails Antarctic researcher. She helped me tremendously my first season. I met Bill in person a few years later, and spent the 2015 and 2020 seasons with him at Palmer Station. He started going to Antarctica in 1974 and has an encyclopedic understanding of the polar system. You’ll be able to catch him in the Frozen Planet 2 documentary series coming out this Fall. I’ve continued to collaborate with both of them on Antarctic projects.
The first evening we treated to a tremendous dinner. Fresh roasted chicken! We heard the story of how they rescued their dog Frisky off the streets of Punta Arenas, Chile. They kept running into the same stray dog on their way through Chile. Apparently Frisky adopted them before they moved her to Montana. I would say it worked out pretty well for Frisky. The next day, we were treated to bear sausage and eggs with fresh chocolate scones. You read that right, Donna killed a bear turned it into sausage and then we ate it with scones. What kind of place is this?! I felt more manly just being in the presence of bear sausage. Later, Eli and I tried our luck on the upper Ruby River. Unfortunately, the fishing was tough because of very high wind conditions. But, we had a great time exploring, and seeing some submarine sized trout taunting us. That evening we were again treated to an amazing dinner. Antelope steaks, with mule deer chili. Seriously, how many game animals can we eat in 48 hours? They probably killed both with their bare hands. It was followed by fresh rhubarb crumble and cookies. All of it was dairy free, so Eli was in heaven.
As we were wined and dined Montana style, the name of our trailer came up. Most trailers you see on the road are called things like Puma, Cougar, Flex, Fuel, Torque. You get the picture. My trailer is called the Imagine. Seriously, what am I imagining? It doesn’t help that my last boat was called the Dolphin Sunset. Bill agreed that I needed to increase my manliness factor. Donna just rolled her eyes. Eli suggested that I hang truck nuts off the trailer bumper to indicate that I am the type of guy that will eat bear and antelope. Korin didn’t like the idea, so that settled it. Someday I hope to return to the Ruby valley with a better trailer name, and maybe to go on a hunt with Donna and Bill. Our kids loved their house, and now affectionally call their house the “meat house”. This part of Montana is truly awesome.
