To the Yaak & back

Yaak Falls

"In the far northwest corner of Montana, there is a scattered settlement of fewer than 150 families living in the woods of the Yaak Valley, often without electricity or plumbing. Their private parcels of land make up only 2 to 3 percent of what is otherwise a vast national forest: 500,000 acres of federal land where large-scale logging has occupied the area for generations."(from an online resource)

The Yaak is a remote area about 45 minutes from the training center, that previously was only accessible via the mountain pass. It now has a state highway linking it to "civilization", so that the Yaakers can get into town in winter, if necessary. Before the highway, the families were snowed in during the winter and could only get into town with ski-dos or snowmobile type equipment. The people prefer to live off the land, far away from all people and rules of the people, ie. government. One famous Yaak dweller was the Uni-bomber.

There is a one room schoolhouse with seven students, a one room log cabin church, a saloon, a one pump gas station and a mercantile. The "post office" is called the Federal Building. It is a little tiny log cabin(perhaps 8x8) with a shelf on the back wall, filled with personal mailboxes. It has a hitching post outside for horses.

Friday afternoon, Sandra, Maggie(our cook) and I went to the Yaak, with our own personal tourguide, one of my 8th grade students, Patrick. His family used to live in the Yaak and now live at the base of the Yaak, technically in Troy. He was a fabulous tour guide, giving us lots of information about all of the trees and the differing elevations where they grow, showing us some lovely waterfalls, the little church where he goes(complete with outhouses) and answering all of our questions. We had a little excitement after driving 4 and 3/4 miles up a one lane switchback mountain to look at a panoramic view. We were almost to the top when the road turned from being clear to being covered in snow and ice. We started fishtailing, even though we were in 4-wheel drive and going very slow, so I made the decision to stop. The only problem was that it was a one lane road going up a steep mountain with very tight curves(remember, we were almost 5 miles up). So, I started backing down, sliding a bit and crunching over a small tree in the process. I drove backwards for about 100 feet and around the first curve before finding a place we thought I could possibly turn around. My fabulous navigators got out and guided me through a little off-roading on the side of the mountain and we got ourselves turned around. Thankfully, everyone stayed calm and we really had no problems. =-) There's not really much to do in the Yaak, but it's a neat place to see after hearing so many people talk about it. And how many 14 yr. old boys would volunteer to spend their day(five hours) with their teacher and two grandmas? Patrick was a gem and we really enjoyed our trip to the Yaak.

Patrick inside the "Federal Building"

Maggie, Sandra & Patrick looking at the map
of the Yaak, outside of the Federal Building