Trail's pace

A relaxed afternoon on horseback offers chance to reconnect with nature

It was the kind of day that begets declarations to spend more time in life's slow lane, preferably on horseback.

As Cecil and Isabel Noble's string of steady steeds wound their way up the trail in the Salish Mountains, past the brilliant gold of changing larch trees on a flawless fall day, promises were made among the riders.

Let's take a pack trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness next summer.

Let's get up to Glacier Park for some trail riding.

Let's meet back here next Fourth of July, and bring all of our friends.

In the quiet of the afternoon, someone started singing "Happy Trails."

UNFORGETTABLE outings are the hallmark of the Nobles' paint-horse ranch, Artemis Acres, tucked in the woods on an old homestead just five miles from Kalispell.

Visitors from all over the world have sought out the ranch, but so have a lot of Flathead-area residents who simply enjoy riding.

"We want to be available to the locals," Isabel said.

Autumn is less hectic than the summer tourist season and offers some of the best days for riding.

"We never close [the trail rides] until it gets icy," she said. "As long as it's safe to ride, we'll keep going."

A fourth-generation Montanan born and raised in Valley View, west of Polson, Cecil has worked with horses his entire life. His gentle demeanor and patience, with both horses and people, make him a natural trail boss.

He started an outfitter business in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area in 1972 and sold that business two years ago with the idea of semi-retiring.

Cecil had operated a trail-riding business some years ago, too, during the 1960s at the old Fort Kalispell near the Flathead River off Montana 35. In those years he also gave trail rides between Somers and Lakeside, above the fish hatchery.

It was perhaps inevitable when he rekindled the trail rides as a retirement project.

"I raise my own horses, mostly paints," Cecil said. "They have the agility and temperament - you can put a novice on them. We have different horses for different abilities."

He and Isabel, who grew up on the New Jersey shore, got together in 1987 and married in 1991. It was the second marriage for both. She was teaching at a small private Carden school she'd started in Kalispell in 1985.

Isabel began helping Cecil with the pack business in the summers. Eventually, the couple had to decide where to hang their hats, so to speak, "so I got dragged to the wilderness," she said with a smile.

There was probably not much dragging involved. Isabel was immediately smitten with the West when she moved to Montana in 1980. She promised herself she'd never cross the Mississippi River again, but had to break that vow when she accompanied Cecil back east periodically to market the outfitting business at outdoor shows.

Isabel, who had worked as a Pan-Am stewardess and had plenty of experience in the hospitality business, closed her school in 1992 and "went full bore into business with him."

When she saw the area where Cecil's family homesteaded - he was educated in the same two-room schoolhouse as his grandmother and mother - Isabel remembers asking him incredulously: "You grew up thinking the whole planet looked like this?"

Cecil had a dual career, one with horses, one as a building contractor for 30 years. Both professions came in handy when the Nobles found their piece of paradise on Patrick Creek Road in 1991. Suffice it to say the ranch was a fixer-upper.

Part of the ranch had been repossessed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and by talking to neighbors, they learned the apple trees on their property had an infamous use in the early days: the fruit was made into applejack brandy in a still on the property.

They found evidence at an old camp site that suggests the homesteaders did some kind of mining back then, too.

"We've found so many treasures," Isabel said. "Almost every building has been recycled."

Cecil rebuilt the cabin that stood on the property when they bought it, and today it's a cozy lodge with three bedrooms they rent year-round.

An antique plow they found buried in the brush now serves as a decorative anchor for a parking sign.

THE NOBLES lease private timberland, with exclusive trail rights on 800 acres, and have access to thousands of other acres of forestland.

"The real thing we have is scenery. Who would believe you could have a view like this only five miles from Kalispell," Cecil said as the group of trail riders paused at the pinnacle of their trip to admire the view of the Swan Range and a panoramic snapshot of the Flathead Valley.

He uses cooking skills honed through years of outfitting to offer barbecue dinner rides in the summer, where meat is cooked over an open wood campfire. The barbecue pit in the nearby meadow is crafted from horseshoes. They've accommodated groups as large as 150 guests and have hired live bands on occasion.

Cecil keeps track of the wildlife seen during the season's trail rides. Since May, he's seen 20 bears, eight mountain lions, one bobcat, 50 elk "and a zillion deer."

There's a story behind the ranch's name, too. In Greek mythology, Artemis is the symbol of the hunt.

"We were looking for something that incorporated our attitudes toward nature, our awe and respect for nature," Isabel explained.

BILL HERNDON of Bigfork is a regular rider at Artemis Acres and has logged about 10 trail rides there. He says there are three reasons he keeps coming back to the Nobles' operation.

"First of all they're true horse people. They know horses," he said. "Second, they have good horses. They raise them and work with them. And third, they're hands-on. They go with you. I can't remember a time when they didn't go with."

The Nobles never tire of life on the trail.

"We're both totally in love with the outdoors and connecting with nature," Isabel said.

Time and time again, they see people weary of city life or the hectic pace of their lifestyles. On the trail, there's an opportunity to reconnect with nature.

"Being in nature is humbling," she said. "To me it's a spiritual thing. I find a connection to God through nature.

"Man really is part of nature, it's part of our humanity and it's a privilege to offer people an opportunity to reconnect."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com