Seldon Reum and his friends from Polson, Mont. were the first ones through the west gate of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Game Range on Highway 83. The Game Range opened at 12 p.m. May 15. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Game Warden Bill Koppen estimated nearly 200 vehicles were on the Game Range for the opener. More than a hundred vehicles lined Highway 83 for more than a mile prior to the west gate opening. "It's getting more popular every year," said Koppen.
Seldon Reum was first in line at the west gate of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Game Range after arriving May 5, 10 days before the Game Range opened. He tested out his gear to prepare himself for his mountain bike trip from Ferndale, Mont. to Hachita, N.M. Last year Reum started getting tattoos. He wears his six-month-old daughter's name Pebbles on his forearm, "So I have her everywhere I go." He has an antler on his back with morrell mushrooms and asparagus. One tine of the antler is visible just above his collar. "When you are antler hunting you don't really see the full antler all at once, you only see a tine. It's like an Easter egg hunt, you never know what you are going to pull out."
Seldon Reum was driving through the Swan on Highway 83 and saw a herd of 13 cow elk. He stopped to go for a hike and within 10 minutes he found this 6X6 set 50 yards off the highway. This is his biggest elk set. "It was all about luck," said Reum.
Reum's final tattoo is a white-tailed deer because he likes deer antlers more than elk because of their uniqueness. Included in the tattoo is the state of Montana because he loves his home state and 406 with the Griz paw as the zero.
Seldon Reum sold his eight-year collection of elk, mule and white-tailed deer antlers for nearly $4,000. He is using the money to fund his mountain bike ride on the Great Divide Trail. He is leaving in June and anticipates the ride will take him four months.
SEELEY LAKE – Seldon Reum of Polson, Mont. has been the first in line at the Blackfoot Clearwater Game Range Highway 83 west entrance near mile marker three for four of his six years. This year the nearly $4,000 he earned by selling his eight-year stash of brown elk, mule and white-tailed antlers will fund his adventure on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail (GDT) from Ferndale, Mont. to Hachita, N.M.
Reum loves everything outdoors. Since he has lived in Polson for the past 30 years, he has figured out how to love every season from whitewater rafting, fishing, hunting, ice fishing, harvesting mushrooms, asparagus and huckleberries and antler hunting. He started antler hunting after graduating high school.
"Antler hunting is a whole different ball game," said Reum. "I'd rather to go find their antlers than shoot them. If I do hunt it is just for the meat."
The first couple of times Reum tried antler hunting he was not successful. After finding his first sheds, a10X7 non-typical whitetail antler set in the Swan Range around Lion Creek, he switched his passion from hunting to antler hunting.
"It is one of the nicest sheds I've found that I still have to this day," said Reum. "Ever since, I've been hooked for life. Still to this day none of my buddies have found anything like that."
Reum estimates that he easily will hike 30-40 miles in a day when he is antler hunting. He said antler hunting in the snow is his favorite.
"It is like unwrapping a present. You see a horn sticking out of the snow, you know it is a horn but you don't know what you are going to pull out. You could pull out a little three-point or a six-point."
Even though he has been an avid outdoorsman his whole life, it wasn't until he started antler hunting that he realized that the south aspects melt first, it is where the green grass first comes up and it is where they shed their antlers.
"I didn't really even know my way north or south until I started antler hunting. Then I started to realize the hills, how they are shaped and the way they melt," said Reum.
His friend Dale took a survey course on the Blackfoot Clearwater Game Range and heard about the grand opening of antler hunting, May 15. For the past six years, Reum has been with a group of up to 10 of his friends from Polson for the antler opener.
The first year Reum was fourth in line. He said he watched the first vehicle pick up a 6X6 set off the side of the road.
"I was like, I can't let this happen again," said Reum who started camping at the gate seven days before the opener. This year he was 10 days early.
His first year he found a dead 160-170 class white-tailed deer that hooked him on antler hunting the Game Range. He also found a dead mountain lion from which he took the skull and claws.
"Finding the mountain lion was really scary at one in the morning [since the gates used to open at 12 a.m. May 15]," said Reum.
Every year Reum has been first in line he has found a horn right off the road. Even though he was second in line last year, he said he was on a four-wheeler and was able to pass the person in the front and beat him to an antler just off the road.
Reum said that once the gates are opened at 12 p.m., it takes about an hour after reaching the top [of the Game Range] for everything to be covered. People hunt on foot, from their vehicles and on horseback.
Reum said the best year one of his friends from Polson found six elk antlers and everyone else in the group found two or three each.
"On a good year we are pulling out 15-20 antlers between the 10 of us," said Reum.
Reum enjoys the camaraderie and said there are people that he just sees once a year camping out.
"We are buddies in line until it starts and then we are competition for a couple hours and then we are back to being buddies again," said Reum. "It's kind of nice to see those guys year after year."
This year Reum "broke down" and sold all of his sheds that he had found over the past eight years. He kept his largest elk set that he estimated was a 350 class bull and the 10X7 white-tailed set. He estimated he had more than 150 pounds of elk, hundreds of deer antlers and made nearly $4,000.
He will use the money to fund his trip on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail. He hopes to leave early June, as soon as the snow level recedes and before it gets too hot.
Last year he hiked across the Mission Mountains from Hellroaring to the Swan Valley with his friend Zack. They met two bicyclists who were doing the Great Divide Trail. Between that encounter and inspiration from the movie "Wild" where Reese Witherspoon hikes 1,000 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. Reum set his goal on the Great Divide Trail.
"I'm just doing it for me," said Reum. "I have a six-month old girl and I don't want to miss out on her life so I want to do this before she gets too old."
While he won't be doing the entire 2,745 miles of trail, he estimates his route from Ferndale to Hachita will take him four months. He used his antler money to outfit his bike with the top of the line, lightweight gear for the trip. He used his 10-day campout before this year's antler opener to test out his gear and see what else he needs to bring with him.
Reum is riding solo and will be entirely self-supported. He is carrying 61 pounds of gear on his 19-pound bicycle and a 35-pound pack on his back. The new term coined for this adventure is bike packing.
"No one else could take that kind of time off work and spend that kind of money," said Reum. "Honestly I don't have that kind of money. If I didn't sell my horns I wouldn't be going."
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