May 13, 2021
Public Lands Inspire this Artist
Ed Robinson worked as a professional forester for the Idaho Department of Lands for over 35 years in the Priest Lake and Sandpoint regions. Since retirement, plein air oil painting has become an all-consuming passion for him — a new and intimate way to interact with the local wilderness. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness.
It’s 3:00 am and I am suddenly awake. So, the question is — did something wake me? Or did my memory of very large and fresh piles of grizzly scat disturb my sleep?
I listen, but nothing is moving around out there. After making sure my pepper spray is right where I left it, I burrow deeper into the sleeping bag and try to nod-off again. It’s just another night on the Extreme Plein Air backpack trip sponsored by the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness (plein air is a French term for painting outside in nature).
For over ten years, artists, writers and photographers have taken part in this annual, multi-day adventure. The idea is to interpret this pristine, wild landscape artistically by immersing ourselves in it. As a landscape painter, I never struggle to find something amazing to paint here. Indeed, the challenge is to decide which amazing view to paint. Dynamic compositions lie in every direction. Sometimes we look at each other and shrug in defeat because the backcountry vistas cry to be painted, but have too much complexity to capture in the time we have.
This is my third trip and as usual, it lived up to the term “extreme.” We are camped tonight near the very top of the Ross Creek drainage in the middle of the proposed Scotchman Peaks Wilderness which straddles the Idaho/Montana border west of Sandpoint Idaho. It is steep, rugged, mountainous country which makes our off-trail backcountry travel challenging. The vegetation varies from thick groves of western redcedar in the draw bottoms to alpine fir at the higher elevations. So far, the expedition has included hearing howling wolves the first evening, weathering a wild thunderstorm on an exposed saddle the second night, and finding several piles of the aforementioned grizzly bear signs on the hike today — which will make sleeping for the next several nights more interesting.
It’s 3:15 am now and sleep is still elusive. I can’t help but feel a little exposed. I’m lying on the ground in a sleeping bag, and I am in someone else’s world. Bear awareness is not an abstract concept here. I ran into grizzlies two weeks ago on a hike three miles from where I am laying. And then, there were those piles of steaming, black, hairy scat we’d seen earlier today. The chances of mayhem are low. I have worked and played in the Rockies for over 40 years and don’t have a claw mark on me. Still…, it’s 3:15 am, so I find myself dwelling on unlikely mayhem.
As I lay there, I contemplate if it is worth it — dealing with the whole “bear thing.” I come to paint, and mostly to be in this outrageous, craggy, wild place for a few days. I am always painfully aware that I am just a visitor, especially in the high country where the hospitable season is oh-so-short. It’s a magical world and I savor my time here.
But at 3:15 am I am experiencing just a touch of primal fear. We humans are used to being the biggest, baddest thing around. We always get our way. We dominate. But not here.
And maybe that is exactly the reason to come. Maybe experiencing the humbling feeling that you could, just maybe, be eaten changes a person in some way. It’s the price of admission to this spectacular place. It is part of what makes this place wilderness.
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So many of our country’s parks and public lands written about in these love notes would not exist but for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), including the Manistee National Forest. This important conservation program was permanently funded when Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act last year. You can learn more about the Land and Water Conservation Fund here.
Would you like to write about public lands that you cherish? Please email Mary Jo Brooks at brooksm@nwf.org for guidelines. You’ll get this cool sticker as a thank you.
