A River Runs Through It: Reuniting for bird watching on Lake Ennis (Montana)

“The world is full of bastards, the number increasing rapidly the further one gets from Missoula, Montana.” — Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

Two years ago, we found ourselves at Flathead Lake in Montana for a reunion of Melissa‘s family some of whom she’d never met and others of whom she hadn’t seen for decades. We all pledged at that time that this group would reunite periodically, perhaps every two years and perhaps in Montana, where most of them live. So this year we chose a property along the banks of Lake Ennis.

After a little less than a week exploring Missoula, where we spent our days wandering the campus of the University and the streets of downtown, eating delicious meals (Sumac middle eastern and Rice Thai food becoming instant faves), hiking the “L” trail and enjoying a concert in nearby Bonner we set off for the lake. Our party ran in ages from three to mid 60s and we were all excited to further solidify relationships formed and rejoined after so long an absence.

Our Airbnb was eclectic, with structures built at different times over the years forming an oddly laid out house with electrical wiring not updated since most of our childhoods. This meant for an OSHA-prohibited rabbit warren of extension cords, lying along floors and under carpets, but still not providing much light in this interestingly laid out and oddly dark house. It was perfect.

We spent our mornings and evenings watching deer graze our yard and adjacent fields, observing two great horned owls, an eagle or two, several sandhill cranes and osprey, a pelican and many thrushes and hawks hunting and diving for breakfast and supper. We spent our days challenging one another to high stakes cornhole matches, swimming in the nearby lake, floating on the raft and cruising along the shallow shores on stand-up paddles. Our only offsite activity was a float down the Madison River (on a blessedly cooler and more overcast afternoon) and a cruise through the nearby town of Ennis.

Lake Ennis (or Ennis Lake) was “formed in 1905 when the Montana Power Company built the Madison Dam (also called the Ennis Dam) on the Madison River at the head of Bear Trap Canyon”. As such, the Madison River does, indeed, run through it. It is approximately 4,500 acres large and was originally called Meadow Lake because of the meadows and farmland it submerged in its making. The original structures that made up our Airbnb had to be relocated to their new home to prevent being submerged with the meadow (at least partially accounting for its current somewhat hodgepodge layout).

On our final night our planned s’mores were rained out, but no one seemed to mind much as we sat on the lake-facing porch, where we’d spent the vast majority of our time, under blankets, singing Eagles, Bonnie Raitt and CSNY songs and listening to the sweet drops of much-needed rain fall around us.

Norman McLean isn’t entirely right about his census of bastards outside of Missoula, Montana but every time we return, we leave a little bit of our hearts here with our family and get even more excited for the next reunion.

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