Root Rot and founder among syrup and spuds

When two foresters sit in the front seat and two horse lovers sit in the back, dual conversations can work just fine. In the front seat, terms like "blister rust," "bark beetle," or "root rot" will likely get some use as the car rolls down the highway with mountains and trees on either side. And, when you do the loop from Sandpoint-Bonners Ferry--Troy--Bull River--Hope and back to Sandpoint, "Cushings disease," "founder" or "moon blindness" may be part of the lingo.

Intersperse all that with high water along the Kootenai River, a bear sighting along the Ross Creek Cedars road and a pregnant cow elk feeding in a meadow at the base of the spectacular Cabinet mountains and you've got a pretty good trip for a couple of visitors from Vermont.

I've known Hallie McEvoy via the Internet for several years. We first connected when I was doing a story for the Appaloosa Journal about equine writing careers. Among her careers as cop, lumber broker and ski resort public relations lady, Hallie's been writing about and judging horse events on the East Coast for several years. So, she made a perfect interview for my story.

Since then, we've kept in touch. Over the years, we learned that our husbands were both foresters. Thom McEvoy has taught forestry at the University of Vermont for nearly three decades. He came West this past week to speak at the same conference that my husband Bill was attending, so Hallie came with him.

Bill met the McEvoys last Friday, and we all met here at the Love house yesterday. It was amazing how no time for warming up was necessary. A steady stream of conversation has flowed ever since---except during sleep time, that is. Thom and Hallie were genuinely amazed at the old-growth forest where those Ross Creek Cedars south of Bull Lake in Montana span up to ten feet across. Nothing like that in Vermont, they agreed.

Along our brief hike through the enchanting forest with its crystal clear babbling brook, we came across a couple of young college graduates doing a research study for the Montana Fish and Game, Brandy and Hillary from Red Lodge and Whitefish, respectively. They were having a great time taking close-up shots of mushrooms and wild flowers growing in and around the cedars.

Again, the subjects of horses and nature dominated the conversation which welcomed two more perfect strangers. Hillary's dad had exercised horses at Churchill Downs during his youth, so, of course, Hallie, who owns a few Thoroughbred race horses (even one racing today), jumped into that conversation. Hillary's dad is also a high-ranking roper on the senior circuit when he spends time in Arizona.

After leaving the Ross Creek cedars, Hallie placed a quiet bet with me that root rot or bark beetles might get mentioned again up front within the next fifteen minutes as we headed back toward Idaho. But, the guys must've sensed the bet in the back and failed to bring up the terms again. After all, when you're looking into a sunset and silhouetted mountains along the Clark Fork River and observing the grand expanse of Lake Pend Oreille for the first time ever, it's hard to think of forest diseases or equine maladies.

Dinner at the Dock of the Bay----even after hours----topped off a great day of meeting, visiting and comparing notes of striking similarity between the maple syrup folks and the Idaho spuds.