The Story of Granite Reef

We look so happy…

It was around noon on June 30, 2017 when we arrived at the Meadows (at least that is what my family has always called it), a rare widening and slowing of the Stillwater River as it tumbles down out of the Beartooth Mountains, the tallest mountain range in Montana. And yes, we were happy in that moment. Or, as happy as we could be after scrambling down 4,000 feet from the Plateau in full, running retreat from the snowstorm we had encountered that morning.

Snow had started falling that morning as we broke camp. It was light and barely dampened our energy as we started to climb over the pass to Wounded Man Lake. As we climbed, the snow fell heavier and soon we were wet and cold, our feet soaked from the tundra. We pushed on, lifted by the thought of our rods singing over the lake that evening. At the top we stopped, looking down at the north side of the mountain covered with several feet of snow. The trail was buried and hidden from us. Without snowshoes, we were forced to retreat.

You can’t see my face very well in the picture (I’m the one on the far right), but if you could you might be able to see a little defeat in my eyes. We weren’t supposed to be here. For the first time in my life, the Mountain had won. But despite being wet and exhausted we were still happy. Look at that scenery behind us. How could we not be?

I’ve been backpacking in the Beartooth-Absorakee Mountains for 30 years. My family has been living in the eastern foothills of the Beartooths in south-central Montana for five generations, starting with my great-grandfather who built one of the first dude ranches in the state. My father and uncle were the last generation to grow up on our land. My father left Montana to join the Army when he was 18 years old.

My own early childhood experiences at the ranch came every few years when we were close enough to make the road trip to visit my grandmother and uncle and spend time in the mountains. My love for mountains was born there and would blossom during my teenage years in Alaska.

As an adult, I started returning every summer to Granite Reef, the name my grandfather had given our place because of the striking granite rock formation that formed the backdrop of our ranch. A couple of years after my first trip back as an adult, I brought my graphic design business partner, Todd Hart, for our first backpacking trip in the Beartooths.

That trip would become the start of an annual partner backpacking trip. For several years, Todd and I would return to the Beartooths every summer, exploring the different trails up into the Plateau and flyfishing the dozens of alpine lakes that only a few humans would visit in a season. Some years others would join us, but Todd and I were the constants.

But as our families began to grow, our trips became less frequent and eventually stopped. I continued going up with my wife and sons, but annual became every few years as our sons grew and other activities took our summer time.

In 2017, I felt the pull of the Plateau again. My oldest son Brendan was 23 and Todd’s son Trevor was a couple of years younger. They both loved the mountains and were eager to join the reunion trip. The group grew to include two of our closest friends, Darcy Brown (whose son was too young for the trip) and Brent McMahan and his son Cason. A month before the trip, Brent had to pull out because of knee issues.

The 2017 trip, despite our failure to cross the Plateau, rekindled our friendships and our shared love of adventure, flyfishing, backpacking, camping and all of the latest gear. As professional creatives, we documented the trip, taking photographs and journaling. As designers and makers, we critiqued our new gear, debating the functionality and aesthetics.

We decided to make the trip a bi-annual event, a promise to return together to climb hard, stalk trout and sip whiskey by the glow of the campfire.

In 2019 we returned. This time it was Darcy, Brendan and I that made the pilgrimage to the Plateau, camping on the shores of Wounded Man Lake. We brought more camera equipment and in between chasing trout around the lake, we took photographs of the mountains around us. At night and on the trail, we talked about our latest gear and how we could make it better.

From these two trips, the idea of Granite Reef was born. An idea that perhaps there was a larger community of people like us, passionate about outdoor adventure, art, design and making things.

Our mission at Granite Reef is simple. To build our community by sharing stories of adventure and places we’ve been. To make art, design products and build things and to share those ideas with our friends. To be a place that celebrated the intersection of beauty of the world around us and the art and design of the things we make to be in it. We hope you become a part of this place and take this journey with us.