MT 55 summer 2015

Summer 2015

wild hikes for all abilities grandparents watch out for predators

running how to run smart

chores simplify with lists

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Summer 2015

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table of contents wild hikes 24 dearborn river 26 ptarmigan tunnel 28 froze-to-death plateau

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summer reads

34 medicare services

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flathead lake

38 diabetes

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missoula 150

40 golden years

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senior running

42 bee hive of butte

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protect your grandkids

44 simplify with lists

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montana55.com

the magazine for montanans in their prime

publisher mark heintzelman editor sherry devlin sales coordinator jacque walawander sales assistant holly kuehlwein

graphic designers krista ness bob jacobson

Montana 55 is a special publication of Lee Enterprises and the Missoulian. Copyright 2015.

For advertising information contact Jacque Walawander 406-523-5271, 800-366-7193, ext. 271, or email jacque.walawander@lee.net www.montana55.com

Summer 2015

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summer reads

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BARBARA THEROUX for Montana 55

Summer is a time for reading, or perhaps this is the year that you decide to build a Little Free Library.

Several such libraries, places to exchange books, are appearing across Montana.

Read more about the movement in this new book:

“The Little Free Library Book: Take a Book. Return a Book.” by Margret Aldrich

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In 2009, Todd Bol built the first Little Free Library as a memorial to his mom. Five years later, this simple idea to promote literacy and encourage community has become a movement. Little Free Libraries – freestanding front-yard book exchanges – now number 20,000 in 70 countries.

The book tells the history of these charming libraries, gathers quirky and poignant firsthand stories from owners, provides a resource guide for how to best use your Little Free Library and delights readers with color images of the most creative and inspired Little Free Libraries around.

For more information about Little Free Libraries – including locations – visit littlefreelibrary.org.

montana55.com For those of you wanting a book for the deck, airplane or backpack, here is a selection of paperback fiction:

“Painted Horses” by Malcolm Brooks

Catherine Lemay is a young archaeologist who’s come to Montana with a huge task before her – a canyon “as deep as the devil’s own appetites.”

Working ahead of a major dam project, she has one summer to prove nothing of historical value will be lost in the flood. From the moment she arrives, nothing is what she expects.

John H. is a former mustanger with an intuitive genius for breaking horses.

A veteran of the U.S. Army’s last mounted cavalry campaign, he lives a fugitive life, driven by pursuit of one last wild thing. John inspires Catherine to see beauty in the stark landscape, and her heart opens to more than just the vanished past. “Painted Horses” reminds us that love and ambition, tradition and progress, often make strange bedfellows.

“The High Divide: A Novel” by Lin Enger

In 1886, Gretta Pope wakes up one morning to discover that her husband is gone. Ulysses Pope has left his family behind on the far edge of Minnesota’s western prairie, with only a brief note and no explanation for why he left or where he’s heading. It doesn’t take long for Gretta’s young sons, Eli and Danny, to set off after him, leaving Gretta no choice but to search out the boys and their father and bring them all home.

As Ulysses, a former cavalryman who served under Custer, travels to the country between the Yellowstone and the Missouri rivers, the reader learns of his pursuit for forgiveness. This is a coming of age story, an adventure, an exploration of trust in marriage and one man’s quest for redemption.

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“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel

One snowy night, Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack on stage during a production of “King Lear.” Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzoturned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur’s chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread.

Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them.

Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony.

Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten’s arm is a line from Star Trek: “Because survival is insufficient.”

“The Steady Running of the Hour” by Justin Go

In 1924, the English mountaineer Ashley Walsingham dies attempting to summit Mount Everest, leaving his fortune to his long-lost lover, Imogen Soames-Andersson – whom he has not seen in seven years. Ashley’s attorneys search in vain for Imogen, but the estate remains unclaimed.

Nearly 80 years later, new information leads the same law firm to Tristan Campbell, a young American who could be the estate’s rightful heir. If Tristan can prove he is Imogen’s descendant, the inheritance will be his. But with only weeks before Ashley’s trust expires, Tristan must hurry to find the evidence he needs.

From London World War I archives to the battlefields in France to the fjords of Iceland, Tristan races to piece together the story behind the unclaimed riches: a reckless love affair pursued only days before Ashley’s deployment to the Western Front of the Great War; a desperate trench battle fought by soldiers whose hope is survival rather than victory; an expedition to the uncharted heights of the world’s tallest mountain.

Following a trail of evidence that stretches to the far edge of Europe, Tristan becomes consumed by Ashley and Imogen’s story. But as he draws close to the truth, Tristan realizes he may be seeking something more than an unclaimed fortune.

“The Last Kind Words Saloon” by Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry chronicles the closing of the American frontier through two of its most immortal figures, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Opening in the settlement of Long Grass, Texas – not quite in Kansas, and nearly New Mexico – Wyatt is whiling away his time in between bottles, and the dentist-turned-gunslinger Doc, more adept at poker than extracting teeth. Now hailed as heroes for their days of subduing drunks in Abilene and Dodge – more often with a mean look than a pistol – Wyatt and Doc are living out the last days of a way of life that is passing into history, two men never more aware of the growing distance between their lives and their legends.

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montana55.com

“The Wild Inside: A Novel of Suspense”

by Christine Carbo (available June 16)

It was a clear night in Glacier National Park. Fourteen-year-old Ted Systead and his father were camping beneath the rugged peaks and starlit skies when something unimaginable happened: a grizzly bear attacked Ted’s father and dragged him to his death.

Now, 20 years later, as a special agent for the Department of the Interior, Ted gets called back to investigate a crime that mirrors the horror of that night. Except this time, the victim was tied to a tree before the mauling. Ted teams up with one of the park officers – a man named Monty, whose pleasant exterior masks an all-too-vivid knowledge of the hazardous terrain surrounding them. As the case progresses with no clear answers, more than human life is at stake – including that of the majestic creature responsible for the attack.

For a family read-aloud try:

“Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures”

by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by K.G. Campbell

It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book “Terrible Things Can Happen to You!” is just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight and misspelled poetry.

This laugh-out-loud story is filled with eccentric, endearing characters and is interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page black-and-white illustrations.

Finally, in preparation for the new book by Harper Lee (“Go Set a Watchman,” on sale July 14) why not plan to read or re-read:

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

One of the best-loved stories of all time, “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis of an enormously popular motion picture, and is considered one of the best novels of the 20th century.

A remarkable tale of coming-of-age in the South that is poisoned by prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father – a crusading local lawyer – risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

Barbara Theroux manages Fact and Fiction bookstore in downtown Missoula and writes for Montana 55.

Summer 2015

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flathead lake on my mind

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Steve Smith for Montana 55

Somebody recently asked me if I think the publication of acclaimed author Jon Krakauer’s book “Missoula” dealing with cops, courts, jocks, rape and rapists would diminish interest in my newly published and less controversial book, “Flathead Lake on My Mind.”

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I replied that I don’t think so. People who wish to buy apples will buy apples; those wishing to buy oranges will buy oranges. The books are vastly different and there are plenty of customers for both.

Krakauer wrote about violence and vile violations of young women and their rights – serious and somber stuff about passions, brute force, sex and self-control run amuck. As Tina Turner once asked in a song, what’s love got to do with it?

If and when people finish my book, I trust they’ll know they have read a love story – a love

montana55.com story about a magnificent Montana lake that I equate with heaven, itself. There’s an obvious clue as to what my book is about in the first line of the first chapter: “I love Big Blue.” The second line of the first chapter offers another clue: “Few ifs, ands or buts about that: “I love Flathead Lake.”

My longtime friend Wayne Schile, who published this hard-back book filled with words and photographs, doesn’t fondly refer to Flathead Lake as Big Blue, as I do. Still, his love for the big beautiful lake of our lives is every bit as fervent as mine. Wayne dreamed for years about producing a Flathead Lake book; it was my good fortune that he recruited me to provide some words. Then, the two of us set out to find some other writers to provide even more words.

Lee Enterprises, whose Missoulian newspaper employed me as a reporter, feature writer, columnist and desk editor for twenty-some years, along with Montana Magazine, joined forces with the rest of us and lent significant help to the project. The result of everybody’s efforts may be “The Book” about Flathead Lake, according to reviewer Doug Mitchell in comments for Montana Magazine. Mitchell called “Flathead Lake on My Mind” a “perfect companion for a summertime visitor to this truly special place.”

Mitchell wrote that books with titles such as “Flathead Lake on My Mind” can be “boring,” crammed as they are with facts and dates and statistics” and amounting to little more than travelogues. The Flathead Lake book, he went on, is “more of a personal memoir” and, as such, is anything but boring. I was relieved to read his opinion, because the sixty-plus years I’ve spent round the lake have been anything but boring.

I set out to portray, in some fashion, the incredible beauty and fascinating allure of Big Blue; one way to do that, it seemed, was to

link the lake with various notable events – some of them tragic – that I remember – events as well as the memorable people involved in them. People! They are the crux of the matter, the key ingredient when it comes to banishing boredom from a book.

That in mind, I wrote about a charismatic, upand-coming musician, Terry Robinson, who was an original member of the popular Mission Mountain wood Band. Terry was forty when he and nine other people died in a horrific airplane crash on the south outskirts of the Flathead Lake town of Lakeside. The crash was in July 1987 and here is an excerpt from my book: “As he approached the chaotic crash site minutes later, Bruce Young (Terry’s closest friend)

Summer 2015

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I was determined to make a living in this valley, where I could hunt and fish like my father taught me, where the air was clean and fresh, where I was surrounded by beauty, and where the people were good.

– Les Averill, founder of Flathead Lake Lodge

saw what he described as a ‘surrealistic scene’ that looked like a bomb had been dropped. Flathead County sheriff’s officers had begun to arrive; they would be followed by ambulances and volunteer firefighters. Bruce had a video camera in his Jeep and, at the request of authorities, began filming the ghastly scene for investigators.

He was in shock, given the ten badly charred bodies and personal effects strewn about. Also, he knew Terry was dead, as well as other people he thought of as friends …

I wrote about a man named Dan Knight and his wife, Patty, who, with friends, were setting out from Flathead’s Yellow Bay to fish one day when all on board saw something in the water that they would never forget. Knight told former Missoulian outdoor writer and columnist Daryl Gadbow about it: “I’m not exaggerating. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. That was the biggest fresh-water fish I’ve ever seen. It was twenty-five to thirty feet long. Its fin as about two feet out of the water and it was cutting the water like a shark. Everybody was screaming and yelling, ‘What the hell is that?’ And I said, ‘That’s a sturgeon! That’s the Flathead Lake Monster!’”

I wrote about Big Fork on Flathead’s northeast shore: “Nowadays, Big Fork is spelled as one word – Bigfork. The late Nathaniel Blumberg, a longtime dean of the University of Montana School of Journalism, contended that the U.S. Postal Service, at some point and for some dumb bureaucratic reason, changed Big Fork to Bigfork. He disliked the one-word spelling and steadfastly stuck with the two-word spelling.... Now that Nathaniel is gone ... I’ve taken up his cause: Big Fork trumps Bigfork! After all, if you’re going to go with Bigfork, why not Bigsandy, Montana, or Bigtimber, Montana, or Bigbelt Mountains or Bigsky Country?”

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About Flathead cherries: “No summertime visit to Flathead Lake is complete without buying ... a bag of cherries at a grocery store, roadside stand or supermarket .... After you get your cherries and wash them in cold water, try eating just one. It can’t be done unless you have indomitable will power. One cherry leads to two to four to eight to sixteen to thirty-two to sixty-four to a right good belly ache to noticeable regularity of one’s digestive system. Indeed, Flathead cherries are a moving experience in more ways than one.”

About a multi-million-dollar mansion situated on a small island off the lake’s west shore: “The … Shelter Island layout ... is splendidly splendid and, I imagine, is owned by the Sheik of Arabi, the Queen of England, the Vatican, Warren Buffet or perhaps a conglomerate of all four.”

About the late Les Averill, founder of the Flathead Lake Lodge: “Averill said that nowhere in his travels ... around the world had he seen such beauty. ‘I had never seen an area with as much to offer as the Flathead. I was determined to make a living in this valley, where I could hunt and fish like my father taught me, where the air was clean and fresh, where I was surrounded by beauty, and where the people were good.’ ” From a chapter titled “What Flathead Lake Means to Me,” quoting a letter from Jan Irwin, who lives on Finley Point with her husband, Steve: “Often (a) Psalm comes to mind when I look to the east and gaze at the moon coming up over the Mission Mountains – its light spilling westward across Skidoo Bay and right into our dining room window. How very blessed we are to live here.”

A final note: Professor Emeritous David Alt, retired from the University of Montana geology faculty, graciously contributed his magazine article about the geologic history of Flathead Lake to “Flathead Lake on My Mind.” Sadly, he died on April 26 in Missoula.

Condolences to his family.

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Summer 2015

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missoula 150

where they lived

Photo by Kurt Wilson

Much like the days when Charles Beckwith walked across the street from his home in the 100 block of East Front Street to work at the Missoula Mercantile, a downtown commuter walks by a water fountain near the same spot that now celebrates the city that Beckwith helped build and the river that runs through it.

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KIM BRIGGEMAN Montana 55

They’re gone now, most of them – the downtown homes of the men and women who built Missoula around them.

There’s a tire store on the corner of Orange Street and West Pine, where Judge Frank Woody, Missoula’s first mayor, lived with his wife Sarah.

The city home with a cupola on top in which John and Olive Rankin raised the nation’s first congresswoman and a U.S. attorney? It’s paved over by an overflow motel parking lot and a quick lube shop, just north of the Madison Street Bridge.

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montana55.com

The one thing I think is important to note is that Missoula as a town grew north of the river first, and East Pine Street became the most fashionable street. ­– Philip Maechling, former Missoula historic preservation officer

For decades an immense, mysterious telephone/ telecommunications building has occupied half of the first block of East Main Street. Somewhere inside is the ghost print of the home where Missoula cofounder Christopher P. Higgins lived with wife Julia until he suffered an untimely death in 1889.

Higgins’ partner and city co-founder, Francis Worden, died two years earlier, but his modest farmhouse still stands on East Pine Street. Built in 1874, it is the city’s oldest residence.

The house-turned-rambling apartment on East Front that Dan Heyfron, sheriff and entrepreneur, built in 1882 also exists all these years later, though its days are probably numbered.

Stories of the home lives of Missoula’s scions in the 1880s are frustratingly hard to come by. The Higginses and Wordens, Hammonds, Woodys and Beckwiths and Greenoughs were forging legacies in their chosen frontier town by the river, as it emerged as an economic force in Montana.

But with a few exceptions, they left little in the way of their personal pasts behind.

Missoula is marking its 150th birthday in 2015.

Copies of the 1890 city directory, Missoula’s first, can be found in the archives of the Missoula Public Library and the University of Montana’s Mansfield Library. They take us back 125 of those years – and give us at least a glimpse of what the city fathers had in mind, sometimes at cross purposes with each other.

“The one thing I think is important to note is that Missoula as a town grew north of the river first, and East Pine Street became the most fashionable street,” said Philip Maechling, former historic preservation officer for Missoula. “The town didn’t actually grow south of the river until it was platted in 1888 or ‘89, so the first buildings weren’t actually built on the south side of the river yet except for Judge (Hiram) Knowles’. He built this big house where the (Loyola) Ram Center is today.”

Despite the limited downtown area, the homes of the prominent families on our 1890 list were notably scattered. They walked to and from work and play and lived intimate lives on East Front and West Spruce, East Pine, Madison and Vine streets.

Let’s begin a virtual walking tour of Missoula’s “houses that were” on Main Street strolling east:

146 E. Main St. Christopher & Julia Higgins Northwest corner of Main and Pattee streets. Now unmarked offices of Centurylink (formerly Qwest, U.S. West and, for years, the traffic department for Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph).

The Higgins family, Missoula scions since 1860, owned most of the block east of Higgins Avenue and by the late 1880s “Captain” Higgins wanted to build a bank on the corner worthy of his status in the community. He got it done, but didn’t live to see it.

Stories vary, but Higgins died on Oct. 14, 1889, at age 59 after a fall either at the construction site or on his way home for lunch.

Higgins’ impact on the development of Missoula can’t be overstated. Among many other things, he is believed to have been the first fire chief. According to “Missoula: The Way It Was” by Lenora Koelbel and Stan Cohen, he and Worden organized Missoula’s first water plant on top of Waterworks Hill in 1880.

Julia Higgins played an important role as well.

She was the daughter of Capt. Richard Grant and was living at the family’s Grant Creek Ranch that John and Olive Rankin later owned when she married Higgins in 1863. They had nine children, several of whom became prominent in Missoula affairs after their dad died.

Summer 2015

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A cake stand with a bouquet inside rests on a picnic table on the lawn of the Missoula County Library near where the Hammond and later the McLeod families lived at 324 E. Front St. Photo by Kurt Wilson

324 E. Front St. A.B. and Florence Hammond Now the parking lot of the Missoula Public Library, 301 E. Main.

According to Missoula historian Dale Johnson, the Hammonds shared the unpretentious Front Street home with the family of his partner and former boss at the Missoula Mercantile Co., Richard Eddy, until Eddy moved to California sometime in the 1880s.

When Hammond himself moved to California in the 1890s to expand his enterprises, 324 E. Front St. became the home of his man in charge of the Merc, Herbert McLeod. While he was here, Hammond surrounded himself with relatives and acquaintances from his native New Brunswick. It was a short, three-block walk to his “power corner” at Front and Higgins. The Missoula Mercantile and Florence Hotel on the north side, and First National Bank and the Hammond Block on the south were all part of the kingdom of a man jealous detractors dubbed “the Missoula Octopus.”

Andrew married Florence Abbott in 1879.

Hammond’s biographer, Greg Gordon, wrote in his 2014 book “When Money Grew On Trees” that the Eddy/ Hammond house became the scene of many Missoula social gatherings. Gordon quoted a local newspaper that said on the occasion of the couple’s first anniversary, “A

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party of friends gathered at the house of A.B. Hammond ... and chased the hours with flying feet.”

“A.B. and Florence soon became Missoula’s preeminent couple,” Gordon wrote.

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503 E. Front St. Daniel and Josephine Heyfron Now a recently abandoned sprawling apartment complex that was built around the original 1882 home.

The Heyfrons built the home and their family occupied it for more than 50 years. Dan Heyfron was elected Missoula County sheriff for two terms in the 1880s. According to bio information on the Missoula Cemetery website, he owned a quarry south of Missoula that provided much of the rock work that built many of the university’s and downtown Missoula’s commercial buildings.

Heyfron was also the driving force to build the Big Ditch from Bandmann Flats to south Missoula.

134 Madison St. John and Olive Rankin Now a Jiffy Lube and parking lot on the southeast corner of Madison Street and East Broadway.

The first bathtub in Missoula was installed at the Rankin home. The nation’s first female congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin, grew up on this corner and at the family ranch up Grant Creek. Her brother, Wellington, famously led the Prohibition raids in Missoula and other cities as Montana attorney general in 1921, and later became a U.S. attorney.

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A worn wicker garden chair slowly fades back into the earth at a home on Vine Street near where the Greenough Mansion once stood.

Photo by Kurt Wilson

631 Vine St. Thomas and Tennie Greenough Now under the westbound on-ramp and lane of Interstate 90 over Rattlesnake Creek.

The famous Greenough Mansion and Greenough Park were still a dream in 1890. According to the nomination for the Lower Rattlesnake Historic District, the Greenoughs built a modest frame house at 631 Vine when they arrived in town in 1882. Thomas made his fortune mining and providing ties to the Northern Pacific Railroad and cords of wood to Butte.

The mansion in 1897 and the donation of 28 acres of land on either side of Rattlesnake Creek in 1902 greatly influenced development in the lower Rattlesnake.

When I-90 came through town in 1965, the Greenough Mansion had to go. It was eventually moved in pieces to Ben Hogan Drive in the South Hills. It served as a restaurant until it burned down in 1992 and was replaced by Shadows Keep Restaurant (now The Keep Restaurant).

The Folk Gothic style farmhouse stood by itself in northeast Missoula when it was built in 1874. The Wordens raised their seven children here and planted maple trees from Frank’s native Vermont in the yard and along the country road into town.

Worden and Higgins set up shop at Hell Gate east of town in 1860, then established Missoula Mills in 1864 and 1865. The town was to be named Wordensville until Frank Worden protested.

The Wordens’ historic residence wasn’t in great shape in 1994 when their grandson Bill Worden and his wife Tomme Lu bought it, fixed it up and used it in part for office space for Tomme Lu’s and son Austin’s real estate firm. It has gone through a couple of ownerships since.

328 E. Pine St. Francis and Lucretia Worden Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Worden residence is still in use as an apartment house.

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Photo by Kurt Wilson

The Worden home at 328 E. Pine St. still stands, albeit divided into several apartments.

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Frank and Sarah Woody settled in Missoula at 328 W. Pine St., now the location of a tire shop.

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328 W. Pine St. Frank and Sarah Woody Now, roughly, the Tire Rama lot, across Orange Street from St. Francis Xavier Church.

Frank Woody was the first of Missoula’s founding fathers to stake a tent here (in 1856) and the last to die (1916). He was clerk for Worden and Higgins at Hellgate; married Sarah “Lizzie” Countryman, a teacher and one of the few women in Missoula, in 1871; became Missoula’s first licensed attorney in 1877, and its first mayor in 1883. Woody was a leader in the campaign to land a university in town in the early 1890s and became “Judge Woody” at the District Court level in 1892.

Sarah and Frank had nine children over a 28year span, four of whom survived to adulthood.

Allan Mathews, who has researched Frank Woody’s story and portrays him at the Missoula Cemetery at its annual Stories and Stones program, said he’s seen a picture of the Woody house.

“It was not dissimilar to the Dixon mansion (now the Knights of Columbus Hall on East Front),” Mathews said. “It looks like it’s got the big columns in front. It’s quite fancy.”

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Summer 2015

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senior running

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Photo by Tom Bauer

DILLON KAto for Montana 55

At this year’s Boston Marathon, his 10th, Missoulian Tom Halverson said he was surprised to run into a fellow Montanan who had also come across the country for the race, Governor Steve Bullock.

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“It was during the legislative session. If a guy like him has time to train for a marathon, anyone does,� he said.

Boston is one of the three or four marathons Halverson runs every year, including never missing a Missoula Marathon. He said the nice part about being a runner is that

montana55.com he can always make time for it.

“The benefits are endless, and you can squeeze it into a busy schedule,” he said.

If anything, the Missoula real estate appraiser said he’s been running more the older he gets.

“It’s the fountain of youth. It just makes you feel so much better,” Halverson said.

The 54-year-old said he’s been running for more than 30 years, starting in the 1980s as a way to stay in shape for skiing during the off season.

“I started out just completely not knowing anything.

I was running in a pair of boots,” he said.

After racing in 10-kilometer races, Halverson did his first Governor’s Cup marathon with some in the early 1990s.

“I could hardly stand up I was so sore the next day,” he said.

Now, Halverson said he’s out on the road almost every day, with runs anywhere from six to 20 miles.

The popularity of the Missoula Marathon and the running community in town has made it easier and easier for him to lace up his shoes and get out there, even though for most of his life, he has run with Type I diabetes, which he was diagnosed with when he was 38.

“It’s a constant battle. I have my insulin pump on

and the biggest thing about running with Type I is you don’t want to get low,” Halverson said. “Honestly, though, the thing that will keep me from running is a sore hamstring.”

John Fiore, 53, is an ultra-long-distance runner and the owner of Sapphire Physical Therapy

in Missoula. He said while running isn’t for everyone, it’s a great activity for people who are in their 50s and 60s. The important part, especially for people taking up running later in life, is to do it in a way that is safe and leads to long-term health benefits.

“Running, because it’s cardiovascular, is very good for weight loss and your whole cardiovascular system.

It can also improve you skin by improving circulation, and helps your joints, like knee and ankle joints, that need motion,” Fiore said.

Running also generates endorphins, leading to overall mental health and wellbeing improvements.

With Missoula being such a runner’s town, Fiore said, running is also a great social activity.

The biggest mistake new runners make is trying to do too much at once, the physical therapist said, signing up for a long distance race right away instead

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of understanding it takes time to work up to that point.

“Running is hard enough on your body that you need strength in the core and hips. If you’re not willing to put in that time for cross training and strength training you run the risk of injury,” Fiore said.

In addition to getting overall health cleared with a physician, Fiore said finding a physical therapist who knows about running will help a new runner develop better form and keep from injuring themselves.

“If somebody has the patience and has the dedication and trains step by step, a half marathon is a totally reasonable goal, even in just a year,” Fiore said.

At Sapphire, Fiore and his team can do video analysis of a runner’s form, seeing how they land on their feet, how their arms swing, or if their hips are staying straight while they move.

“We’ll show them things to work on, then they can come back and we’ll film them and we can show them side by side the improvement,” he said.

If somebody has the patience and has the dedication and trains step by step, a half marathon is a totally reasonable goal, even in just a year.

– John Fiore, sapphire Physical therapy owner

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One of the other health benefits of running is that because it is an impact activity, it can help to retain bone density, said Tony Banovich, the executive director of Run Wild Missoula, the organization that puts on the Missoula Marathon every July. He is also the cross country and track coach at Plains High School.

“A good weight bearing exercise, with some amount of impact retains if not improves bone density, which is especially useful for women,” Banovich said.

The mission of Run Wild Missoula is to provide running opportunities for people of all ages and abilities, and Banovich said the part about ages has been particularly apt. In the 2014 half marathon, he said 328 women age 55 and older ran, including 28 women that were 70 years or older.

“It is an event you can do for life,” Banovich said.

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Summer 2015

23

dearborn river

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easy day hike

Photo by Tom Bauer

ROB CHANEY Montana 55

CRAIG – The Dearborn River offers your paddling Goldilocks a classic three-bears set of options.

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The upper third coming out of the Scapegoat Wilderness is Baby Bear, with a little stonewalled water park just outside the wilderness boundary popular with summer swimmers and a dramatic canyon near Bean Lake along its 16-mile reach where kayakers play.

The middle third is the more sedate Momma Bear, with 10 miles of rolling hills, little shade but curiously good fishing, according to local guides.

Papa Bear dominates the last reach, where 19 miles of twisting canyon curves get packed into 12 miles between the Highway 287 fishing access site and the confluence with the Missouri River.

By August, only 70 cubic feet of water per second flow into the Big Mo’ at the U.S. Geological Survey gauging station near Craig. Prime floating time is just after spring runoff when the flow is between 300 and 600 cfs. That usually occurs between early June and early July. Even then, it takes a fast paddler about seven hours to make the run, while a raft can need half a day.

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dearborn river

To Augusta Bean Lake

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Even though nine of 10 Dearborn floaters use the lower reach, the river’s geography ensures you’ll rarely see another boat. The water cuts through volcanic tuff of the Adel Mountains with dozens of fishhook and horseshoe bends that restrict the view. That also means few places to pull out or camp, making a Dearborn trip generally a one-day adventure.

Since Meriwether Lewis noted the Dearborn’s “handsome, bold and clear stream” in 1805, the river

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Location: Trailhead to Devil’s Glen cascade is about 22 miles west of Augusta.

Access to lower Dearborn River is about 20 miles north of Wolf Creek on Highway 287.

Distance/duration: Devil’s Glen cascade lies about 3 miles up from Dearborn River trailhead. Lower river only accessible by boat, with lower 19-mile reach most popular Difficulty: Easy day hike to Devil’s Glen.

Lower river requires boating experience with class-II rapids and at least seven hours paddling endurance.

has played several roles in Montana history.

Hollywood cowboy (and Montana native) Gary Cooper had a ranch on the lower reach. Other ranchers had a court battle over their definition of trespassing that helped the Montana Supreme Court clarify the state’s expansive stream access law. While yet to receive a federal Wild and Scenic River designation, the Dearborn would get protection in the proposed Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act.

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2351 Solomon Ave. Billings, MT 59102 406-652-4886 www.westparksenior.com www.GenerationsHealthNetwork.com Summer 2015

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ptarmigan tunnel

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SHERRY DEVLIN Montana 55

moderate hike

Photo by Justin Grigg

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK – Legend has it, park rangers opened the doors of the Ptarmigan Tunnel one spring to be greeted by a hungry – read, grumpy – grizzly bear. Seems the bruin had denned in the tunnel, not realizing there would be no escape once winter’s snows blocked all retreat.

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The story came courtesy of a retired, longtime ranger who once led a gullible pack of politicians, reporters, land managers, business owners and conservation leaders up 2,480 feet to the Ptarmigan Tunnel and across the rocky scree to Elizabeth Lake, in the heart of Glacier National Park.

We were believers, although we may have been woozy from the altitude and exertion.

The Iceberg-Ptarmigan trailhead is just north of Swiftcurrent Motor Inn, in the everserene Many Glacier area. For 2.5 miles, the trek is an easy one around the southern slopes of Altyn Peak and across Ptarmigan Creek at its stair-step falls.

Mount Wilbur commands the scene on your left; the Ptarmigan Wall is before you. At the

Upper Waterton Lake

R iver

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Elizabeth Lake

Old Sun Glacier Natoas Natdas Peak Mount Merritt

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ptarmigan tunnel

Location: Glacier National Park.

Distance/duration: A 10-mile roundtrip day hike from Swiftcurrent Motor Inn to Ptarmigan Tunnel; or 9.8 miles to the Elizabeth Lake campground for an overnight stay.

Difficulty: Moderately strenuous. junction just beyond the falls, the Ptarmigan Tunnel trail is to the right – or north.

For the next 1.5 miles, the trail ascends through a forest to the foot of Ptarmigan Lake. Then comes the steepest mile of the day, that last push to the tunnel up the side of the Ptarmigan Wall. But oh, what a vista lies ahead.

The Ptarmigan Tunnel was blasted through the 7,200-foot divide in 1931. It’s an eerie piece of civilization in the wilderness, but a fortuitous one for hikers enjoying the relatively easy access to Elizabeth Lake and the Belly River country. Walk through the tunnel to the north for your lunch stop. The view is unmatched: the sheer wall, the lake below, Natoas Peak rising above the water.

About a half-mile north of the tunnel is another spectacular vantage: Mount Merritt, Old Sun Glacier, Helen Lake, Ipasha Peak, the heart and soul of Glacier Park’s backcountry. The 4.8 miles downhill to the campground cross glacial scree, gnarly whitebark pine stands and mixed forest.

The campground is surely one of the loveliest sleepover spots in the park. The lake is crystalline. The fish are abundant. There’s another grizzly bear story to be told around the campfire. And the loons wake you with the dawn.

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froze-to-death plateau

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strenuous hike

Photo by Tom Bauer

MARTIN KIDSTON Montana 55

ABSAROKEE – It’s a long way up to Froze-To-Death Plateau, like 26 switchbacks rising 3,000 feet in roughly two miles. But as the saying goes, there’s only one way up, and that’s to take it one step at a time, elevation be damned.

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Often described as the roof of Montana, the plateau is a place of legend, death and frustration.

It’s also a place of serenity, beauty and wild wonder. While it’s not for the novice hiker, mounting the plateau is worth the effort for those in condition – and prepared for unpredictable and potentially dangerous weather.

The plateau sits atop the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, and it’s a world unto itself. It’s ripe with flowers at the right time of year, pristine snowfields, glacial ponds and endless views of Montana.

To get there, most hikers start at West Rosebud Lake where Trail 19 picks up. After an easy

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froze-to-death plateau

Location: About 25 miles south of Absarokee in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness on the Custer National Forest.

Distance/duration: From the trailhead to the top of Tempest Mountain and back requires a 22-mile trip best accomplished over two days, given the elevation gain and difficult terrain.

Difficulty: Moderate to strenuous, with potentially dangerous weather and limited water supplies once on the plateau.

KEN BARNEDT/Missoulian

At nearly every turn, this wilderness area offers good fishing, good camping and good hiking. For a brazen few, it also offers unparalleled opportunities to bag Montana’s highest peaks.

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four-mile hike to Mystic Lake, the trail diverges and it’s easily missed. To the left, hikers will find Trail 17, which climbs several thousand feet over two miles to the base of the plateau.

Once on the plateau, getting from point to point takes time and there’s no clearly defined trail guiding the way. It’s a boulder field brushing the sky, requiring hikers to hop from one rock to the next while following a network of cairns across five rugged miles.

From the plateau, hikers have a number of options.

One includes an easy scramble up Tempest Mountain.

It marks the plateau’s high point and lends a full view of Granite Peak – Montana’s highest point at 12,799 feet – which sits just across the ravine.

Granite, a mountain shaped something like a razor blade, appears so close and yet, even from the plateau, it stands so far away. It’s also more than a scramble to the top. It requires climbing skills to navigate a few tricky pitches with extreme exposure to the valley bottoms.

But bagging Granite Peak isn’t essential for a highalpine experience or gaining views of Montana that few ever see. The plateau and Tempest Mountain are good enough for many, offering views of the 943,000acre Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness spreading beyond.

Within the wilderness, hikers can explore more than 20 peaks thrusting above 12,000 feet. The expansive country boasts 950 alpine lakes and nearly 200 miles of maintained trails.

Summer 2015

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protect grandkids

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BART KLIKA for Montana 55

I remember feeling helpless, but, man, I had been there before.

Watching a 20-something father trying to convince his screaming and kicking daughter that it was time to leave the park reminded me of the countless times I have been faced with a similar dilemma.

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As the number of adversities in childhood increased, so, too, did the risk for health problems in adulthood, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke. ­– Adverse childhood experience study, cdc

As a bystander, I wanted to help, but how? Should I go talk to the dad? Should I ignore the situation altogether – after all, shouldn’t I mind my own darn business? In the end, I smiled at the father and said, “I have been there before.”

If you are like me, you continually find yourself in situations in which you feel a desire to support a parent but just don’t know how. Maybe you have children or grandchildren of your own, maybe you teach a Sunday school class, maybe you volunteer in a classroom.

Regardless, we have all be in situations where we wanted to help but just didn’t know how. Parenting, under the best of circumstances, is challenging. We all need support in this journey we call parenting.

After all, the stressors facing children and families today are real and carry lasting consequences. Mental health problems, substance use, intimate partner violence, divorce and child abuse exact a toll on the

biological systems of the body, and can alter brain development and functioning. The prolonged activation of the body’s stress response system due to stress and adversity in childhood is now being linked to some of the leading physical health morbidities in the United States.

The “Adverse Childhood Experiences Study” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined the relationship between adversities in childhood and health functioning in adulthood in more than 17,000 patients through Kaiser Permanente, an HMO in San Diego. Surprising to some, the researchers found that as the number of adversities in childhood increased, so, too, did the risk for health problems in adulthood, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke to name a few. The good news? Major childhood adversities are preventable when communities mobilize to create safe and nurturing environments for all children.

Summer 2015

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One of the most socially taboo,

secret and debilitating adversities that a child can endure is sexual abuse. When talking about sexual abuse, I am talking about any sexual activity between an adult and a minor.

For years, the national response to the prevention of child sexual abuse has been to teach children skills to “just say no” to inappropriate or unwanted sexual contact with others. These “run-and-tell” strategies necessarily arm children with the skills and language needed to protect themselves from harm and to identify trusted adults with whom they can disclose past sexual violations. Unfortunately, these strategies send the message to children that it is their own responsibility to protect themselves from perpetrators of sexual violence. The prevention of child sexual abuse is an adult responsibility – we all have a role to play in the prevention of child sexual abuse.

Now, you might be thinking, “It is one thing to smile at a dad on the playground, but it is a whole different ballgame to think about preventing or responding to a suspected case of child sexual abuse.” Fortunately, there are simple, easy ways that you can become a partner in prevention to ensure that all children experience safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments.

• Learn the facts.

•

•

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When we learn the facts, we are able to debunk myths and better protect our children. For example, most cases (upward of 90 percent) of child sexual abuse occur with someone that the family knows and trusts.

Minimize opportunity. To prevent child sexual abuse, we need to identify and alter the setting where children are placed at highest risk. Minimize (not necessarily eliminate) situations where adults and children are one on one.

Strive to have all adult-child interactions be observable and interruptible.

Talk about it. Sexual abuse thrives in an environment of secrecy. Talking with children about their bodies helps them understand that their bodies are special and private. We must teach children the correct anatomical

montana55.com

•

•

language for their body parts and facilitate open conversations about body boundaries.

Recognize the signs. The signs and symptoms of child sexual abuse are not always physical. Some children may experience a loss of appetite, become sad and withdrawn, or may try to avoid people or situations where the abuse was occurring. While these signs do not mean that sexual abuse is occurring for a child, they become an opportunity to have a conversation with a child about what is going on in his or her life.

React responsibly. If a child discloses that he or she experienced sexual abuse, remain calm.

Tell that child that you believe them and that you will do whatever you can to make sure that no more abuse will occur. Report any suspected child sexual abuse to the child abuse hotline: 1-866-820-5437.

The tips above are drawn from a child sexual abuse curriculum called “Darkness to Light: Stewards of Children.” This two-hour, evidence-informed curriculum teaches individuals, agencies and communities the steps necessary to safeguard our children from child sexual abuse. If you are interested in more information about “Darkness to Light,” visit d2l.org. For information on how to host a training for your agency, organization, business, congregation or any other setting, contact the Missoula Child Sexual Abuse Prevention team at missoulaCSAPT@gmail.com.

The prevention of child sexual abuse requires a coordinated community effort whereby adults take responsibility for the protection of our children. Child sexual abuse is preventable and we all have a role to play. Become a partner in prevention.

Dr. Bart Klika is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Montana and can be reached at bart.klika@mso.umt.edu.

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Montana Telecommunications Access Program!

The Montana Telecommunications Access Program (MTAP) provides FREE assistive telephone equipment to those who qualify, making it easier to use the phone to do business or keep in touch with family and friends.

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33

medicare

Q A 34

preventive care services

SUE BAILEY for Montana 55

I have heard that Medicare covers some preventative care services and they might be free. Is this true?

As part of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare has increased the number of preventative services and in many cases has eliminated the previous deductibles and co-insurance associated with the services. The following is a list of preventive services available to Medicare beneficiaries at no cost as long as your physician accepts Medicare assignment. “Welcome to Medicare� Physical exam – Available during your first year with Medicare. It will review your medical and social history related to your health and includes education and counseling about preventative services, including certain screenings, shot and referrals for other care if needed.

montana55.com

Yearly “wellness” exam – This will include review of medical and family history, current doctors and medications, routine measurements such as weight, blood pressure, scheduling the appropriate preventative screenings and a personalized prevention plan.

Cardiovascular screening – Test for cholesterol, lipid and triglyceride levels once every five years.

Mammograms – Women age 40 and older are eligible for screening every year.

Pap tests, pelvic exams and clinical breast exams – Covered every two years, and every year for

those at high risk.

Colorectal cancer screening – Once every year or 10 years, depending on screening type and your risk factors.

Prostate cancer screening – PSA test once every year.

Shots – Flu: once every flu season; Pneumococcal: once in lifetime; Hepatitis B: only those at medium or high risk for Hepatitis B. Bone mass measurement – Once every two years for those at risk for osteoporosis.

Diabetes screening – Up to 2 screening per year for those at risk.

Medical nutrition therapy – two to three hours of one-on-one counseling for individuals with qualifying conditions such as diabetes and renal disease.

Tobacco use cessation counseling – up to eight face-to-face visits in a year with a Medicarerecognized practitioner.

HIV screening – Once every year (every four months if pregnant) for any Medicare beneficiary that request the test.

While these screenings have no cost, there may be some costs to you for the visit required to do the screenings. For more information go to medicare.gov or call 1-800-Medicare and request CMS Publication No. 10110.

Your questions on Medicare and Medicaid answered by the local State Health Insurance Assistance Program an objective, not-for-profit counseling, assistance and advocacy service sponsored by DPHHS of Montana and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Do you have a question about Medicare or Medicaid?

Please send your question to SHIP Program c/o Adult Resource Alliance, 1505 Avenue D, Billings, MT 59102 or helenh@allianceyc.org.

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diabetes

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tour de cure raises research money

CARLA COX for Montana 55

About 9.3 percent of people in the United States have diabetes, and Montana is right there. It’s rare to find an individual who is not touched by someone with diabetes – a relative, co-worker, friend.

The human body likes to keep blood sugar (glucose) levels at a certain level, between 70 and 99 mg/dl. Diabetes occurs when a person’s blood sugar levels are higher than normal.

Two major forms of diabetes are identified. Type 1 diabetes occurs in 1 percent of

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the population by age 70. It is not caused by poor eating habits or being inactive. For some reason, not yet fully identified, people who develop type 1 diabetes have their insulin-producing cells attacked and disabled or destroyed. These individuals require insulin injections through a syringe, pen or continuous pump.

Insulin is required every minute of every day for survival, allowing us to use the body’s sugar for energy. The challenge with type 1 diabetes is its tedious nature, and the fact that an incorrect dose of insulin – whether too much or not enough – can result in serious

Type 2 diabetes is common in families and is often, but not always, connected to lifestyle choices such as inappropriate food choices and limited exercise.

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In Montana, the Tour de Cure bike ride and walk for diabetes will be held Sept. 12 at Missouri Headwaters State Park. consequences. Many people live and thrive with type 1 diabetes, but it requires constant attention for good control. It’s like having a second job or twice as much homework to do.

Type 2 diabetes is more common, and 90 percent to 95 percent of people with diabetes have this form. This disease is common in families and is often, but not always, connected to lifestyle choices such as inappropriate food choices – too much food or not enough quality food – and limited exercise.

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People with type 2 diabetes often are able to control their blood sugar levels by eating healthfully and being physically active every day. However, they may require oral and injectable medications. Working with a diabetes educator and a provider can be very helpful in dealing with this chronic disease. Normalizing blood sugar, regardless of the way it is done, can help to prevent longterm complications such as damage to the nerves, eyes, heart, lungs, muscles, skin and kidneys. Every organ of the body can be affected by high blood sugar.

montana55.com Diagnosis of diabetes is done through a blood test. If a person’s blood sugar is over 126 mg/dl fasting, diabetes is diagnosed.

Another test that measures average blood sugar over three months is an A1C (glycosylated hemoglobin). If that number is 6.5 percent or higher, the diagnosis is also made. If you have any signs or symptoms of diabetes, get checked. Signs include thirst, frequent urination, blurry vision, weight loss and ongoing fatigue.

Risk factors for diabetes include: • Type 1: Family history • Type 2: Family history, excess belly fat, inactive lifestyle To assess your risk for diabetes, go to diabetes.org/are-you-at-risk/diabetesrisk-test.

In honor of those who have diabetes and to help raise money to

support children with diabetes and help them attend Camp Montana, the American Diabetes Association holds bike rides and walks across the U.S. In Montana, the Tour de Cure bike ride and walk for diabetes will be held Sept.

12 at Missouri Headwaters State Park.

The tour is in its seventh year, having raised more than $700,000 for programs, research and camp support. More than 2,500 riders have participated in this great event, and the feedback on the ride has been positive. All people with diabetes receive a Red Rider/Red Strider jersey to acknowledge their day-to-day challenges of managing diabetes. The ride is fully supported with food, bike mechanics and a post-ride/walk barbecue. You can join as an individual, form your own team or join the Red Rider Team.

Sign up for a great day of celebration and activity your whole family can enjoy, as well as support a great cause. Register at diabetes.org/tourdecuremontana.

Hope to see you there!

Carla Cox is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator at the Providence Medical Group Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition Center.

Clark Fork Riverside Retirement Community

• 1 & 2 Bed Apartments • On-site Beauty Salon Overlooking the Clark Fork • No Smoking Facility River • City Bus Route Participant • Lunch & Dinner Offered Daily • Convenient Downtown • Housekeeping & Social Location Within Walking Activities Distance To Shopping, Doctor/ • Coin-Operated Laundry Hospital Facilities, Theaters & Services Churches Over the years you’ve cared for your family and others, doing what needed to be done. Now is the time to make good on the promises you made to yourself years ago - to enjoy an uncomplicated, yet full lifestyle.

301 W. Front St. Missoula, MT 59802 (406) 721-2439 • TTY Relay 1-800-253-4091 Summer 2015

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golden years

live with purpose & passion

Purpose is the reason for your journey.

Passion is the fire that lights the way. – Author unknown

H

LYNN STUMBERG for Montana 55

How do we, as seniors, continue to live with purpose and passion, even in our golden years? In fact, for most of us, are our golden years really golden?

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Obviously, we all face new challenges as we age.

Declining strength, eyesight, bone mass and hearing are just a few of these changes we experience.

As a fitness instructor, I often remind my participants that exercise helps to slow down many of these processes and creates a better quality of life.

Even still, our bodies will grow old; there’s no way around that. So rather than focusing on the negative, why not make a shift in our thinking, and focus on the positive aspects we have available to us at this time in our lives?

In order to enjoy our later years to the fullest,

each of us needs to have a sense of purpose. Purpose is defined as having specific goals we have decided are important and that we want to achieve. These goals determine how we spend our time and resources.

Purpose is the driving force that propels us towards our goals. It not only energizes and motivates us, but helps keep us focused. A famous World War II concentration camp survivor, Victor Frankl, believes those who fared best in the horrific conditions of the concentration camps were those who believed they had a mission or purpose that required their survival.

It was this sense of purpose that kept Victor alive.

Do you have a sense of purpose for your life, one which helps you live with meaning and fulfillment?

Sadly, many of us spend our lives living for retirement and when it comes, we stop living.

A friend of mine who recently retired reminds me on a regular basis that retirement isn’t for sissies.

Whether you believe this or not, you do have a choice as to how you will live these years, and having purpose and passion will make the difference.

To help you discover your life purpose, try the following.

Start with a blank sheet of paper or computer screen. At the top, write My Purpose in Life is…Start writing whatever comes to your mind. When you write something that evokes great emotion, perhaps even tears of joy, you’ve touched on a life purpose that is meaningful and important to you.

Recall times of great satisfaction and happiness in your life. What were you doing? What were the circumstances? What is the underlying theme, if any?

Recall times when you were occupied with an activity and lost track of time. What were you doing? What talents were you using?

You have just discovered and listed lots of things that you are passionate about. These are the things you love to do. The things that make your heart beat faster and energize you. Put simply, passion is the what and purpose is the why. Passion can be selfish, but purpose is not. It’s the desire to make a difference in the lives of others and in the world.

Now that you have your list of passions, take these thoughts, feelings and emotions a step further and determine what matters most to you. You may need to focus on two or three, and determine what the underlying reason is for doing the things that you are passionate about.

This will be your purpose.

Create your own purpose statement, write it down, and read it often. Set goals related to this purpose and begin to live them out on a daily basis.

If you are dedicated to living with purpose, you will not only have a more meaningful life, you will make a difference!

Lynn Stumberg is a Life Coach and Fitness Instructor in Helena.

Assisted Living Brookdale Missoula Valley

Imagine watching your loved one regain an enthusiasm for life with all the service and support they need in a friendly, encouraging environment. Each resident receives a care plan designed to meet their specific needs, so that they can enjoy a dignified lifestyle that is rich, rewarding and enables them to live as independently as possible.

Models open. Now accepting deposits.

Call (406) 542-7009 to learn more or to schedule your personal visit.

Brookdale Missoula Valley

brookdale.com

Assisted Living 3620 American Way | Missoula, MT 59808 BROOKDALE® and ALL THE PLACES LIFE CAN GOTM are trademarks of Brookdale Senior Living Inc., Nashville, TN, USA ® Reg. U.S. Patent and TM Office. 14-24226-2370-1214 SC

Summer 2015

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bee hive of butte

B

ERIN HEITZMANN for Montana 55

Bee Hive Homes of Butte is now up and running with a passion! A passion to provide competent and compassionate care to our elderly population in a safe, comfortable and homelike environment.

Bee Hive Homes is a national franchise of independently owned facilities located throughout the United States. The beauty and success of Bee Hive Homes can be attributed to the fact that each Bee Hive community owner is physically present and involved in working directly with the residents, family members and staff of each facility.

The Bee Hive Homes community offers a safe, secure, setting in a residential environment, which allows for those we care for to ‘age in place’. Most of our residents are able to remain in our care through the end of life! Bee Hive Homes of Butte strives to foster a sense of independence among these residents, while meeting individual resident needs with the utmost respect, dignity and compassion. It is with our greatest honor that we are afforded

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montana55.com the opportunity to offer our services to our ‘greatest generation’ here in Butte.

Bee Hive Homes of Butte is now under the competent direction of Aaron and Janelle Hildreth, local and down-to-earth Montanans with a desire to serve our elderly folks in the Butte community.

Both bring with them an energetic sense of purpose in cultivating an atmosphere of trust, familiarity and companionship among staff and residents alike. They are parents to three beautiful children, and recognize the importance of promoting a sense of “family” among those whom they serve.

Janelle, born and raised in Bozeman, remained active in scholastic sports throughout her elementary and high school years. She was also an active member of the Montana Youth Legislature, as well as Bozeman High School’s student council. Upon graduation, Janelle attended Brigham Young University, eventually graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in nursing. As a Registered Nurse, Janelle offers oversight on general health monitoring for each resident, enhanced by a wealth of experience based on several years of critical care nursing. Through her experience working in

a skilled nursing setting, Janelle has gained a deep compassion for the geriatric community, and is eager to begin her new role as administrative director here at Bee Hive Homes of Butte.

Aaron was born and raised right in Butte and remained involved in community service projects through the Boy Scouts of America program, as well as the school athletics program, throughout his high school years. He went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, gaining handson experience following college through a variety of sales, marketing and management opportunities. He most recently served as Operations Manager in the oil fields of Dickinson, N.D, supervising more than twenty employees, and handling the local, day-to-day business operations. He is more than capable to begin this new adventure he’s embarked on, serving the aging and elderly in the place he calls home.

Please be encouaged to stop by for a visit so we can say our hello’s in person! We welcome all guests and visitors to our Bee Hive Homes, and look forward to the exciting and enjoyable years of care to come in Butte!

Erin Heitzmann is the administrator at Missoula Bee Hive Homes.

Join Our Family in Butte!

"I've lived in other facilities. After moving to Bee Hive I wouldn't live anywhere else. Everyone is so caring!" -Adrian Herbert Bee Hive Homes Aaron and Janelle Hildreth, operators of Bee Hive Homes in Butte, are local down-to-earth Montanans who have a love and passion for helping the elderly citizens in the Butte community. They want all of their residents to enjoy Bee Hive Homes’ family environment.

Our assisted living services include private bedrooms, 24-hour staffing, dietician approved home cooked meals, individual and group activities, daily house keeping services, and much more.

Call us at 406-599-0499 or Visit our website at www.beehivehomes.com for more info.

Summer 2015

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simplify with lists

A

JOY EARLS Montana 55

More than a decade ago, I met my siblings for a rendezvous.

Since our parents are gone, we make an effort to reconnect regularly.

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You can’t forget it’s the first day of spring, summer or fall. So it makes it easy to know there is already a list of some proactive things to get done around the house.

Las Vegas was the agreed upon destination because of its easy access and low cost. I was exhausted by day one with little sleep and lots of talk, as we all caught up with each other. At home in Missoula, I love my Sleepytime Tea at the end of a long day, but didn’t even attempt to find it in Sin City.

As I was unpacking late that first night, I reached into one of the pockets of my suitcase and there were two sandwich bags. One contained some ground coffee and the other two teabags of my favorite Sleepytime Tea. My sister was in the room and I remember saying, “Someone is taking care of me!” and she replied, “I wish someone was doing that for me!” It was a complete accident as I am sure I didn’t unpack thoroughly from my last trip, which was who knows when.

Now, whenever I return from a trip I replenish that bag with tea and put it right back into the suitcase.

That way, it is there for the next trip. I enjoy it every time and feel like someone is really taking care of me, even if it is me.

I am finding the great part of growing older is that I have recurring themes in my life, like

spring cleaning, traveling, skiing and camping. After a while, I have learned from what I forgot to do in the past. The trips, the chores and the hobbies have become easier, more relaxing. I find that I now have more fun and adventure, even if it may involve chores.

Mark and I were married for many years before our boys joined our team. We always looked forward to camping, skiing, hiking and road trip adventures. The four of us made it even more fun, but it took a bit more energy and planning to make trips happen. Trying to take off after work on a Friday afternoon with a little one in diapers was not going to stop us.

When we camped, I made up a list of what we needed each time. One time I put the list in the top

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of the cook kit and revised it for the next trip. Over the years, that same list became tattered and revised. Diapers were replaced with playing cards and fishing lures. I use the same list today with a few more changes, since it’s just the two of us more often.

Diapers are still off the list for a while longer, I hope.

Now if I want to run up and ski, a tattered list is handy. I think I know it by heart, but it’s fun to quiz myself. I also like to see what is added, like the Advil, and what is deleted, like the candy bars.

Chores are just the same.

Someone shared his secret with me a while ago. On the first day of each season, he has a list of reminders. You can’t forget it’s the first day of spring, summer or fall.

So it makes it easy to know there is already a list of some proactive things to get done around the house. Our list includes checking batteries in the smoke detectors, flashlights and other essentials.

Furnaces need filters cleaned, as well as septic system filters and coffee pots.

I recently learned that it is important to turn off and on water valves under sinks, toilets and wherever they are installed. My neighbor Michelle recently told me of a big mess she had that could have been prevented if she knew that tip. Apparently, if the

valves aren’t used over time they become difficult to close when needed.

In her case, the sink valve was in an area of the home they didn’t use much and a slow leak gave way to a full-blown flood, which ruined the floor. The valves were hopelessly stuck. This is how I learned to turn water valves on and off seasonally. By writing this now, I am reminding myself to do it and I just added it to my list.

The seasons are a reminder that being proactive makes life easier and more enjoyable. If trees didn’t prepare in the fall, spring would not be the same. If you don’t have tattered lists lying around the house, like I do, start right now.

Grab four pieces of paper and label them spring, summer, fall and winter. Write “change the batteries” and “rotate the water valves” on each page and then put them aside. You’ll feel a little better already.

Then hide a little treat in your suitcase and I guarantee whoever you are traveling with next will be jealous when you pull it out. Just let them know that someone is looking out for you.

Joy Earls is a broker/owner of Joy Earls Real Estate. She can be reached at 531-9811 or joyearls@ joyearls.com.

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811 2nd Ave. S www.mtgemsinc.com

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Each day to the fullest.

The secret to happiness as we age is to stay as mentally, physically and socially engaged as possible. To feel a sense of purpose. And to be surrounded by those who truly care. Helping residents live each day to the fullest is our mission at Highgate. We offer a host of activities, nutritious and delicious meals, and full care for all in a lovely, homelike setting. If you or your loved one needs either a little or a lot of extra help with daily living, call today and schedule a tour of our Assisted Living or Memory Care community. You’ll see why a move to Highgate is one of the best moves you can make.

Highgate at Great Falls 3000 11th Avenue South Call: 406-454-0991 Highgate at Bozeman 2219 West Oak Street Call: 406-587-5100 48

Highgate at Billings 3980 Parkhill Drive Call: 406-651-4833

HighgateSeniorLiving.com