Darby, Montana

We spent the past 7 days in Darby, Montana visiting with my cousin Lacy Orr. Lacy totally has things figured out. He is a 60 year old bachelor and 10 years ago he pretty much said to heck with Georgia, sold off his farm, and moved to the small town of Darby. Lacy lives with his slightly overweight Jack Russell Terrier named Bitsy, a wide assortment of animal heads/hides on the walls and floors, and a plethora of vehicles, toys, tractors, and guns. Lacy is an avid outdoorsman and also raises riding/pack mules and horses. Lacy totally reinforces the Cheggy mentality towards life and pretty much represents what I hope to make of myself one day.

On our second day Lacy took us to a place where he and his buddies hunt in Idaho. Our trek covered 70 miles and took three hours on rough dirt roads to a place called Paradise. Paradise is located in the Sellway Biterroot Wilderness Area, which is part of the Nez Perce National Forest that is right on the line between Montana and Idaho. Calling Paradise the middle of nowhere would totally be and understatement. Lacy hooked us up with one of his good friends Scott, who is a professional hunting outfitter in Idaho and Montana. Scott has a permit as an outfitter that gives him the right to set up hunting camps all over the Sellway Bitterroot Wilderness Area. The major animals hunted in this area are Elk, Mule Deer, Black Bear, Moose, Wolves, Mountain Lions, and Cougars. Paradise is the base camp and from there they pack in all supplies to the various camps via pack mules. The terrain is so rough in this area that the only access to the back country is on very narrow mule paths that wind up the side of mountains and thru thick forests. As Georgia boys we really had no clue how this all worked, but mules are used because they are extremely surefooted animals that can packed down with hundreds of pounds of gear. The pack mules are loaded down with supplies like tents, food, stoves, cots, firewood, hunting gear, hay/feed for the mules to eat, and also bait for certain animals that can be baited and hunted. The pack mules are then led by usually another riding mule that is saddle broken or occasionally a regular horse.

The next day Scott put us on a pack trip with three of his packing guides. Our mission was to pack up 12 mules and take supplies/feed to a smaller base camp called Coopers Flat and then set up another camp for Elk hunting back towards the Montana line called 8 mile. The mission also included packing in bear bait to four separate hunting locations. That day we rode 9 miles, spread all the bear bait along the way, and then helped the guides finish building the camp at Coopers. The next day we rode 8 more miles and built a camp for Elk hunters that would be packed in and then dropped off for 10 day periods to fend for themselves. After building that camp, we rode back to Coopers and then eventually made it back to Paradise. For those of you who don’t know, riding in a saddle for extended periods of time makes your rear end, knees, and back extremely sore. The first day wasn’t too bad, but by the third day we could barely walk! Despite the soreness, it was an amazing trip and we got to see some amazing scenery and experience a true packing trip that makes our hunting in Georgia look like child’s play.

After returning to Darby we got cleaned up and well rested and spent the next day working for Scott in turn for letting us go on the pack trip. We took a truck to Corvallis, Montana and loaded it with 180 bales of alfalfa hay that had to be trucked back into Paradise for the mules to feed on during the winter. To our surprise we also learned that Montana hay is much different than the hay in Georgia. Their hay is extremely dense and weighs about 90 pounds per bale! We got the trailer loaded down 6 bales high and then ventured 4 hours back into Paradise where it was unloaded. We got back into Darby that night and Scott’s girlfriend generously fed us dinner and then Lacy took our tired bodies back home to get some well earned sleep.

We spent the next day helping Lacy work on one of his tractors and then helped T-Bone (one of our pack trip guides and a friend of Lacy) replace the shocks on his truck. That night T-Bone took us out to the local bar to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship fights and shoot some pool. We had a blast hanging out with the locals and it definitely made for some fine people watching! On our final day Lacy took us to see his lodge in Alta, which is about 40 miles SW of Darby.

Darby is most definitely one of the best stops we have made so far on the trip. Montana is a beautiful state and things are so much different than back home in Georgia. The people just operate at a calmer pace and it truly epitomizes small town America. We will definitely be back to Darby and can’t thank Lacy and all of his friends enough for taking us in and letting us experience their lifestyle.

-Cheggy