STRAY 01.1

0 1 .1

S T R

A

Y

design adventure food wilderness

s u m m e r i n

t h e

b l a c k f o o t r i v e r v a l l e y

Editor’s Note What does it really mean to stray? It is a directive to go your own way, to walk your own path. It is a siren’s call to listen to the whispers of the wind and engage all five senses. And, it is a mission to zig when others zag.

Here, in the pine-forested foothills of western Montana, there is no better place to stray. Feel the muffled crunch of pine needles underneath your feet.

Breathe in the scent of the forest just after a rainstorm. Rediscover your connection to nature.

It’s no surprise that shinrin-yoku, also known as forest bathing, has been integral to Japanese and South Korean wellness programs for decades. Time spent in nature, unplugging from the maelstrom of daily life, is indeed therapeutic. Nature’s symphony, a blend of birdsong and the rustling of the trees, is restorative. Watching the sun stream through the forest as a woodland creature crosses your path is soul-stirring. Discovering an unworn path is life-affirming. This is the raison d’être for the green o resort in Montana. A place of serenity, where that same sense of wonder you once felt ascending the ladder to your childhood tree house can be renewed.

Welcome to the green o.

There’s an explanation for why humans find walks in the woods so soothing and natural light so stimulating. It’s the same reason why we delight in spying a bumblebee hard at work pollinating a flower or stumbling upon a deer and her fawn grazing in a meadow. It’s biophilia: a natural urge to seek connections with nature and other forms of life.

Though the average person may not know it by name, biophilia is an innate human quality. How else can you explain our universally cheery reaction to a bouquet of fresh flowers or the widely embraced practice of caring for houseplants? What’s more, biophilia isn’t just a pleasant sensation. It’s physically and mentally therapeutic: Studies have shown that keeping plants in the same room as hospital patients—or even a picture window with a view of greenery—tends to expedite the healing process.

Biophilia F O R T H E L O V E O F N AT U R E

It’s not just pleasant to be immersed in flora and fauna— it’s in our DNA .

Imagine, then, how beneficial it is to immerse yourself in nature at a place like the green o.

From the design of each individual Haus to the acres and acres of surrounding woods, everything about the green o is primed to nurture our biophilic tendencies. The Light Haus’s floor-to-ceiling windows with unobscured views help bridge our bond to nature from the inside, while the Round Haus and Green Haus are designed with areas that have been thoughtfully landscaped for taking in nature from a peaceful, unique setting. The Tree Haus’s perch high above the ground offers stunning 360-degree perspectives: coupled with the green o’s 23,000-foot elevation, the view is wild and green as far as the eye can see.

Out in the field, 37,000 acres of lush wildlife and 100 miles of trails offer opportunities to reconnect with the natural world from an immersive, sensorial experience. Wellness hikes, led by a guide and interwoven with meditative practices, present the opportunity to set an intention for the hike, as well as discussions of the flora and fauna discovered along the way.

At the nearby Resort at Paws Up, numerous activities offer opportunities to get closer to nature. From the basket of a hot air balloon, you can reach out to brush the treetops as you take in the landscape from a bird’s eye view. Paddling a canoe down the Blackfoot River allows you to float through nature’s landscape at your own pace, while flyfishing literally immerses you in the scene, from the sound of rushing water to the glint of sunlight on its surface. This is biophilia at its peak, and it’s spectacular.

A Field Guide to the Birds of Montana A herd of bison. Cutthroat trout. Mustangs. We’re privileged to share this majestic landscape with a wide variety of creatures, but they’re not limited to the meadows and river. You’ll likely hear the distinctive thrumming of a woodpecker, the trilling of an American robin and the otherworldly call of an owl while visiting Montana. You may spot a bright flash of yellow (goldfinch) or a bold blue (mountain bluebird), and depending on the time of year, you may be treated to a sighting of the beautiful calliope hummingbird in summer or the striking bohemian waxwing in winter.

There are 440 species of birds in Montana, but here are four you may see any time of year:

Black-Headed Grosbeak

Red-Tailed Hawk

Bald Eagle

Great Blue Heron

Distinguished by black-and-white speckled wings and an orange breast (more colorful in the males), these songbirds reach about 8 inches in length.

These majestic beauties sit proudly in the trees, patiently waiting to prey on voles and other small mammals.

Bald eagles build huge nests up in large trees during the winter, but you’ll see them soaring high above the ground.

Walk along the Blackfoot River to catch a glimpse of these large birds that can stretch up to 46 inches long.

A Clear Vision

F O R E S T -

Brandon Cunningham and Krystle Swenson are heating things up at the green o.

You don’t need to light a fire under Executive Chef Brandon Cunningham—he already has one going. He is equal parts magician and master chef as he tames the flame with live-fire cooking in the open kitchen at the green o’s restaurant, bar and lounge, the Social Haus. “Live-fire cooking is so much more than just throwing a piece of meat over the flame,” he says. Instead, his sensibility is nuanced; think roasting beets or potatoes over hot coals, or searing fish over a hot log, and you’re getting warmer. He has even taken hot coals and plunged them into cold heavy cream for a smoky ice cream.

T O -

T A B L E

“Glass is kind of amazing. It can be optic; it can transmit artist spotlight data; it can even be used as artificial tear ducts,” explains Lynn Read. It can also be a work of art, especially in Read’s capable hands. The Portland, Oregonbased artist has been blowing glass since 1993 at Vitreluxe, his wind-powered studio.

S T R

D I N I N G

A

Y

Read found his way to glassblowing while studying painting and discovering its constraints. “I wanted to experiment and explore, and glass allows you to do that.” He studied glass at the Penland School of Craft, learned the craft from worldrenowned artists in Murano, Italy and brought glassblowing to audiences all over the world.

“Watching the sun go down in the Mediterranean on a cruise ship while blowing glass—that is one of my favorite memories,” he says.

Highly creative and often irreverent (think Wagyu beef with a fried quail egg for an upmarket riff on the classic steak and eggs breakfast), Cunningham creates edible works of art. His single-minded dedication to “bringing nature onto the plate” extends beyond a reverence for local produce to include found objects, including foraged river rocks and birch twigs.

The nightly eight-course tasting menu rotates every seven days to ensure that guests never eat the same meal twice. “I want this to be an experience you can’t find anywhere else,” he says.

Chef Krystle Swenson has a similar fire in her belly, cutting her teeth at some of the top restaurants in the United States, including California’s Lucia Restaurant & Bar and Chicago’s Blackbird, before earning a James Beard Award nomination while at Crawford and Son and Jolie in Raleigh. Ultimately, the call of the wild of Montana lured her. It is also what informs her art: “Walking around, being immersed in the woods, I draw from that.”

Her desserts pull on familiar flavors, yet there’s nothing traditional about the ingredients.

“Mint chocolate chip ice cream is a classic flavor, but we’ll be using eucalyptus and spruce,” Swenson says. Collaborating with Cunningham to deliver a cohesive experience from savory to sweet, she is building a menu around something for everyone: “There are many people who will say ‘I’m not a sweets person,’ but there will be something for them. We’re using herbaceous and savory flavors—even vegetables.”

“I want the dishes to have a connection to the surroundings,” she explains. A dash of whimsy, a dose of humor, a hint of playfulness and a heaping serving of sense of place go into such dishes as wood sorrel sorbet and candied cap hot chocolate.

Both chefs are committed to creating an exclusive, and memorable, experience.

“It’s nature-inspired, from the aesthetics to the ingredients,” Swenson says.

“The menu truly is a love letter to the surroundings.”

Read enjoys the meditative process: “With glass, there is a broader scope of work. It’s not just one iconic thing. I can make anything out of glass now.” He also gets to play with geometry. “Glass wants to be round, but by using molds you can elevate what the material can do by forcing it into different shapes.”

He typically collaborates with interior designers on residential and hospitality projects, crafting everything from dramatic light fixtures to oneof-a-kind objets d’art, though his tabletop pieces may be found in museum shops, as well as his own studio/online shop. These pieces show off his signature flair and pull from the surroundings.

Case in point? Whiskey glasses (pictured) stamped with a distinctive wood pattern. “They’re a nod to Portland’s nickname, Stumptown,” Read says.

A relatively slow process—it takes three days to make one piece—it’s as rewarding as it is timeconsuming. Read says, “I like what I do. It lets me test the limits.”

Chando says any guests he has along for a ride—at a typically much lower altitude of a few thousand feet—can expect to experience something they’ll want to try again and again.

“It’s not a bucket list item to me because you’re going to have a blast doing it,” he says. “The entire process of ballooning is what hooks people—some love to fly, some love to be on the chase and some love to make good food for the tailgate after.”

Chando was actually born to balloon. He grew up in the city considered the hot air balloon capital of the world—Albuquerque, New Mexico—home to the world’s largest hot air balloon gathering, the International Balloon Fiesta. And he took his first hot air balloon ride at the tender age of 18 months old.

By the time he entered middle school, he was already serving on a crew alongside his dad, Patrick. He knew early that he was destined to be a pilot: “I’ve been around it my entire life. I’m passionate about it because it’s not only a lot of fun, it’s also my peace, my home away from home. Ballooning and flying are pretty much my soul. It’s all I think about. It’s all I want to do.”

Chando earned his private ballooning license in 2016 and commercial license in 2019 and placed eleventh out of 275 balloonists in the 2018 Fiesta. Now in his 20s, Chando says he “fully intends to continue his journey based around hot air ballooning and aviation in general.”

B A L L O O N I N G: ONE PILOT'S JOURNEY dream

W E AT H E R

IMAGINE THIS: You look down at the altimeter and take in a breath. You’ve just reached 13,800 feet in a flight over the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Your mood is soaring. But this is no flight in a Cessna or a helicopter. No, you can actually peer over the side of your vehicle and see down to the miniature trees and rivers below. Welcome to the gondola of Morghan Chando, hot air balloon pilot, and to a sport that he says is unlike any other experience on earth—equally thrilling and at the same time soul-nurturing.

“Winter is the ideal time to fly.

The balloon reacts phenomenally to a burn. In summertime, the balloon moves slower. It’s almost like driving a bus in the summer and a sports car in the winter.”

He became the hot air balloon pilot for The Resort at Paws Up and the green o in August 2020. Flights here depart in the morning for an approximately 1–3 hour flight with 4 or 5 passengers per trip. They take off year-round, depending on weather conditions, according to Chando.

Think about it: Maybe hot air ballooning is just the escape you’ve been looking for—maybe even as a future pilot. Chando says, “The ballooning world is small but it’s all over the world. If I went to England for a vacation, I would contact my pilot friends there and we would go crew or fly with them. We accept everyone with open arms, teach each other and watch each other’s backs. This is a family like no other.”

dream

PA S S E N G E R

“If he were still alive today, I would fly Paul Walker from The Fast and the Furious.

He was down to earth, never let money change him and had a passion to be a good person.”

dream

FLIGHTS

“I definitely want to fly in Italy, Turkey and England, but my all-time favorite is still Albuquerque.

The weather allows 300+ flyable days. On a casual Saturday, you will see 40–50 balloons all over the place.”

With a background in fine art and shipbuilding, Saul Becker brings a unique perspective to his day job: architecture and design.

SAUL BECKER

CONNECTING THE STARS OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

H

Most fine artists work alone. And most architecture firms are run by…well, architects. But after one conversation with Saul Becker, you’ll understand why he doesn’t fit either label—and why his work is better for it.

Becker is one of the three founding partners at Seattle’s Mutuus Studio, whose lofty residential additions are handled with the same precision and care as a pair of bespoke cupboard knobs.

He’s a fine artist with a Masters of Fine Art and a career as a landscape painter, as well as a stint working as a shipwright— not exactly the traditional background for a partner of an architecture firm. As Becker explains, his hands-on history as a maker helps lend Mutuus a unique approach to its projects.

H

“As a designer, it’s just really critical to engage with ideas of landscape and nature, because we’re creating environments for people to be in.”

—Saul Becker

“I think that sensitivity to materials and craft and building is the sort of window through which I see the world, and through which I help our studio focus some of its work,” he says. “I look at design processes as making constellations,” Becker says. “The stars exist; constellations are invented. It’s the connections between the stars that are the creation. In that way, we take ideas and stitch them together to form constellations of ideas.

It’s a bit poetic, and I think it’s really humanizing; our clients tend to really like that. It’s just kind of how my brain is hardwired to think.”

Becker admits he shines best with representation of objects that are a little more discreet, like lighting or hardware—the “jewelry” of the architecture, as he puts it. Typically, architecture firms take on a project to fill a specific need, Becker says, and if they’re lucky, there might be room for an element of play or experimentation. At Mutuus, that’s practically mandatory. “I don’t know that a lot of people give themselves that room—to play, to experiment,” he says. “For me, having a 20-year career

H

as a fine artist, I know that productive work sometimes doesn’t look like productive work, and you have to go on some tangents and do some exploration to find something really interesting.”

One example? Turning spent tent canvas into a series of stunning new accent lights for the private-dining restaurant at the green o.

When tapped to design the Social Haus at the green o, Becker and his partners couldn’t find the perfect accent lighting for the room’s circular banquette seating, so he designed it. Becker interwove discarded canvas from the neighboring Resort at Paws Up’s luxury tents with layers of linen (the same linen he stretches for his paintings), laminated the layers with epoxy, then sanded them down. When the

malleable material was cut for lampshades, their layers looked like ponderosa pine tree bark—the same trees that populate the green o.

“When we put a light inside of those, it’s like the glow of old tents,” Becker says. “It’s almost like when a campfire throws out sparks at night: it’s like these lampshades are little sparks of that old tent glow.

We’re seeing the same tent canvas that families enjoyed and took shelter in during their time at Paws Up, and we’re taking that material and honoring that history, giving it new life and a new environment at the green o.” An artist with an eye for architecture, Becker’s fine attention to detail is what differentiates his designs and sets Mutuus Studio imaginatively apart.

D

J OH E

restless soul N AFTER UP

A

YEAR

DURING

COFOUNDER

LIKE

2020,

AN

INTERVIEW

OF

THE

THE WITH

C E L E B R AT E D

FIRST PUNK LOS

QUESTION LEGEND

ANGELES

TO

JOHN BAND

COME DOE, X,

IS,

“ S O … W H AT D I D Y O U D O D U R I N G T H E P A N D E M I C ? ”

Doe is more than ready with an answer: “I wrote and recorded an album,” he says. Due out in January 2022, the album, Fables of a Foreign Land by the John Doe Folk Trio, was at least partly inspired by Doe’s appearances at The Resort at Paws Up’s Campfire Stars series. “Doing the campfire shows certainly influenced it,” Doe says, “digging into more acoustic music.”

The songs in Fables all take place in preindustrial time, maybe around 1890, after a young man’s parents are killed. The record follows that man’s experiences and includes “no modern references,” Doe says. The songs are built around acoustic guitar, bass and drums, with Doe singing.

As the conversation continues, Doe seems like he’s always kept himself busy over the years. He even shared some anecdotes about his time as a soccer coach for his daughters’ teams.

One wonders if the team parents knew the coach wrote such X classics as “Johny Hit and Run Paulene” and “White Girl” and had production of his first albums handled by rock star Ray Manzarek of the Doors. Or whether they recognized Doe from his acting in Road House, Great Balls of Fire! and Roadside Prophets.

(He also recently starred in a remake of the classic film noir D.O.A., which will be eventually making the rounds at film festivals.)

Doe also had a big pre-pandemic accomplishment. In early 2020, X released its first album in 35 years with all the original members. (X’s 1980 debut, Los Angeles, is considered by many to be one of punk’s all-time bests.) Doe says that even though “bands are like families, and families can be complicated, as you get older, you don’t sweat the

small stuff. It took us a little too long to figure out how to record a record, but I’m glad we did.”

Anyone who’s heard that new album, Alphabetland, is certainly glad they did, too. It harkens back to the sound of the influential band’s first albums, with guitarist Billy Zoom out front in the mix, D.J. Bonebrake pushing the songs on drums and Doe and singer Exene Cervenka effortlessly intertwining on lead vocals. The record also features another Doors connection: guitarist Robby Krieger appears on “All the Time in the World.”

After a tour to support the album was scrapped because the pandemic, Doe found himself “learning a lot about myself and racial justice.” He spent time reading to “increase my empathy and reflection” and hopes other people took advantage of that time as well.

Eventually in Fall 2020, Doe started doing solo outdoor house concerts, sometimes playing up to three shows a day. He found the experience rewarding, and that’s maybe a reason why he’ll be returning for similarly intimate concerts at the green o and Paws Up. He spoke of his last campfire appearances at Paws Up: “This is what folk music used to be. Music was played by people in the same family because they didn’t have a thousand things to entertain themselves by looking at a screen. A lot of young people can be distracted, but in a place where they’re forced to slow down, eventually you can start making eye contact—and getting to somebody.

And that’s very rewarding,” Doe says. “Because they get it.”

Learn to pronounce it.

Then, learn to live it—at least while you’re at the green o.

HOW TO HYGGE AT THE GREEN O

Hygge. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like the nicest word, especially when mispronounced phonetically. But give it time, and it’ll grow on you. Start by saying it a few times out loud, the way it’s meant to sound: who-gah. Say it softly, letting the second syllable fall to a whisper: who-gah. One more time, even quieter: who-gah.

There. Feeling more relaxed? Good. You’re already benefiting from the effects of hygge.

Loosely defined as the Scandinavian art of coziness, hygge isn’t a new idea. It’s been around for a few hundred years, in fact, and it has quite a bit in common with the word hug: both essentially translate to the concepts of embrace, comfort and embracing comfort. As a practice, hygge has gained popularity over the past several years as our lives have become more and more complicated. The more tethered we’ve become to technology, it seems, the greater our need to unplug and hygge it out.

At the green o, hygge is practically a house rule.

From the moment you arrive, it’s clear: the green o is a sanctuary for hygge. Designed to bring the outside in, each Haus reflects its natural landscape, lending a sense of quiet, natural calm to each space. Circular patterns like those in the Round Haus are inviting and comforting, and with a fireplace at the heart of each Haus’s living area, the hearth is the natural focus, drawing visitors together to embrace coziness—and each other’s company.

So how exactly does one hygge?

Start with a fire: indoors or al fresco, or even a cozy campfire. Bundle up. Think chunky knit sweaters, lounge pants, your softest socks.

Grab a favorite blanket and a spot on the couch or snuggle up in an overstuffed armchair. Tuck a few pillows around you for comfort—but first, put the kettle on for some tea: hygge involves all five senses.

Typical hygge food is warm, rich, creamy, and savory—even better if you can eat it without fussing with much silverware. Soups and stews, mulled wine and hot chocolate: anything served in a vessel that you can warm your hands around is a bonus. As for the ambiance, candles are a must, soft lighting is encouraged and natural materials and colors like raw wood and earth tones prevail. With the stage set, your goal is to enjoy yourself and your company. As for your mobile phone? You hygge, it hibernates.

Up close with Round Haus artist Bonnie Norling Wakeman You can take the artist out of nature, but you can never take nature out of the artist.

S T R

A

Y

artist spotlight

Three decades ago, as a young mural artist, Bonnie Norling Wakeman took a trip to Italy that would change her career—and her life. Everywhere she visited, she saw beautiful examples of basso-rilievo or “bas-relief,” a process of plastering over and then sculpting into a solid object, like a wall, to reveal an intricately detailed scene that appears to be raised from its surface.

Wakeman was transfixed. “I came back and thought, I’ve got to come up with something that will be as dynamic as you see in Italy, but yet fits the country here,” she recalls. “And that’s how it started.”

Over time, Wakeman experimented with drywall mud and plaster until she found a consistency that was just right. Like the Italians she sought to emulate, she eventually mastered creating work that would stand the test of time. “I’ve done jobs 10 and 15 years ago that look like they were done yesterday,” she says. She succeeded in the second part of her challenge, too: depicting bucolic scenes representative of American wildlife. As a formally trained illustrator, Wakeman always loved detail work involving flora and fauna. “I’m a world-class tree hugger, so once I found a really good way to do Aspen trees, that took over,” she laughs.

Clients have commissioned wildlife scenes ranging from Cape buffaloes to lions, but she tends to favor animals native to her Colorado home: elk, deer, foxes and bears. When the green o tapped Wakeman to create bas-relief sculptures for the Round Haus accommodations inspired by the surrounding forest, she felt a kinship.

“People who are drawn to my work, we have that in common: ‘Let’s bring nature inside,’” Wakeman says of her collaboration with the green o. “That consciousness—of space and nature, of privacy and beauty and just respect—they really get it about wildlife, about how they’re sharing this land with the birds and the deer and whatever else comes along.”

No TVs. We figured our skies had more than enough stars.

4069 Backcountry Road I Greenough, Montana I 877-251-2841 I thegreeno.com ©2021 The Last Best Beef LLC. All rights reserved.