Bad ideas for the North Fork

Chris Peterson, photographer for the Hungry Horse News, doesn’t think much of the recent proposal to allow heli-skiing in the North Fork.

From the Thursday, October 9, 2008 online edition of the Hungry Horse News . . .

It seems like once a week someone comes up with a bad idea for the North Fork of the Flathead.

Our friends in Canada propose coal mines in the headwaters (the latest scuttle is that a company is now doing test drilling for gold in Howell Creek, a main tributary of the river).

Down in our neck of the woods the annual (no, weekly) debate is on whether to pave the road and how rough the road is and blah, blah, blah.

Lemme just say this: Folks down here haven’t even seen a rough road until they’ve driven the roads in the Canadian Flathead. They are rough with a capital “R.” Rough enough to jar the fillings right out of Larry Wilson and Bob Grimaldi’s teeth.

But the latest and truly bad idea for the North Fork comes from the fine folks at Triple-X helicopter, who propose heli-skiing up on Coal and Winona ridges just outside of Glacier National Park.

Read the entire article . . .