River Therapy

From the Bozeman Chronicle; February 26, 2007

BELGRADE -- Bill Bartlett dressed himself on Friday as if he was going skiing. Long underwear and ski pants on the bottom. Lots of layers on the top.

But he didn't hit the slopes. He got in the water. He was celebrating an anniversary.

Friday's brief canoe trip on the Gallatin River marked 120 consecutive months that included at least one excursion, paddle in hand.

That's 10 years of canoeing in all kinds of weather.

Normally, he picks a better day, somewhere around 45 degrees, with some sunshine.

But on Friday he braved a cold and sloppy blizzard to check off the decade mark.

Bartlett, a Bozeman defense attorney, keeps his winter trips short, usually paddling upstream in the Gallatin or Madison rivers, partly to keep his paddling muscles in shape and partly just to do it.

He finds solace in the deserted waterways, and told of a time when he was once particularly vexed by two difficult legal cases, but once in the canoe he was able to clear his thoughts and figure out solutions.

Though he prefers the solitude, at the age of 60 he worries about the younger generation becoming too glued to computers and televisions.

"With fewer people establishing a relationship with the natural world, maybe we'll have fewer people to protect it," he said.

Accordingly, he's now working with Boy Scout troops.

"It's a solitary experience for me, but it's time to start sharing it," he said. "For the benefit of the sport and the environment."

While some of his winter trips are short, almost symbolic, Bartlett has paddled some big water: a 22-day trip on Canada's Churchill River, the Desolation Canyon reach of the Green River in Utah and most of the streams and rivers in Montana -- including the Montana portion of the Missouri, upstream.

The big waves in on the Green River trip gave his boat a beating.

"We used all the duct tape we had" to patch up the craft, he recalled.

Bartlett calculates that, since he took up the sport in 1984, he's paddled 10,000 miles, roughly 1,000 of those miles upstream.

All those miles have taken a toll. A swollen tendon bulges from the palm of his left hand and he has to do exercises to keep the muscles in the front of his body in sync with the muscles in his back, the ones that keep his paddle moving.

Now 60, he's thinking about switching to a different type of craft, maybe making a catamaran of two canoe hulls and a platform, maybe even rigging up a sail.

But he's not talking about quitting.

"It's good to get outside and canoeing is my stress reliever," he said. "That's why I go to the river. It's my antidote."

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