Wisdom and Grace: Driving 400,000 miles on Amos and Wildhorse trails

Seventy-two times around the sun ... and 17.2 times around the earth ... just going to town! As most of you know I live just off the Amos Trail which is off the Wildhorse Trail. We travel 13 ½ miles on the Wildhorse Trail, then turn right on the Amos Trail and go 5 ½ miles north. At Road 140 we turn right and go almost two more miles. Then you see our buildings on the north side.

One time, I had a co-worker mock the name "Trail" as being old-fashioned and inappropriate. "Why not use the term 'highway' or 'road' or even 'path'? 'Trail' sounds like something out of the 1800s. I'd be afraid to drive on it."

Although I didn't speak it, I thought to myself, "Well, good for you! If you're too good to travel our wonderful Wildhorse and Amos Trails, then stay home. We don't need you out in our beautiful area known to us as "Out North" and "God's Country".

As I understand it, the Wildhorse Trail was named for the transportation link between Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada and Havre, Montana. How long has it existed? I don't know but probably since the 1880s. My grandparents traveled it north 45 miles in 1913 when they came to join my grandpa's brother Edward and sister Winifred to homestead near Simpson.

The Amos Trail is named for Amos Handing. On his homestead, he had a post office and store. The community and "trail" are named for him.

I've heard of several memories where folks stopped to water their horses at Hamblock's, and of course Connelly's store at Cottonwood. It winds and twists, goes up and down until it reaches the Wildhorse Port in southern Alberta. The moonshiners were very familiar with the Wildhorse Trail. I wonder if Canadians call it the Wildhorse Trail on the other side of the border?

Except for 20 years of living in Wyoming, I've lived on the same place all my life. One day, as I was traveling down my beloved gravel road, I wondered, "Just how many times have I done this? How many times have I covered this very spot in my lifetime?" So ... I began to figure.

The first 10 years of my life, I attended Staton Coulee School but we always went into Havre to attend church on Sundays. I remember at least making one trip in every other week into Havre, in addition to Sundays. That's 10 years times 1.5 times a week times 52 weeks a year equals 780 trips.

Our country school closed in 1962. I joined my sister Myrna and brother Delbert in driving the eight miles to the bus stop and then riding the school bus into town. That's eight years times 6 1/2 trips a week times 52 weeks a year. 2,704 trips.

For four years I attended college in Nebraska but came home every summer so I estimate that as trips to town for church and other reasons. After graduating, I worked at Sixth Avene Christian Church as the Director of Christian Education and Youth. I lived in Havre but made many trips to the farm to visit mom and dad. 1,040 trips to and from Havre and the farm.

Rod and I got married in 1976 and we lived in Green River for ten years and then moved to Glenrock, Wyoming for another 10 years. In 1989, my mother retired and I began managing the farm from Wyoming. In eight years, I averaged nine trips up north a year to check on crops, cows, and mom. Plus, during those times, I made many trips to town. In those 20 years I figure I made about 800 trips up and down the Wildhorse and Amos Trails.

In 1996, I convinced my Mechanical Engineer husband that he would make a good farmer/rancher (and I was right). And so, we moved north, built a five-bedroom house and settled into the community. My mom lived just 100 yards away.

My daughter Lynnette gave me a little plaque that soon became true: "Behind every successful rancher is a wife who works in town."

I started working as a paraprofessional at Devlin School. I loved it! I loved the kids and I loved working with the teachers, building many friendships that would bless me along my life's next journey.

I remember standing on the Devlin playground one day and praying, "Lord, you know I love this job – the kids and the teachers. But if you ever have anything else you want me to do, I'll do it." Well, the next Sunday we went to McDonald's for lunch and on a table in the lobby was a Great Falls Tribune. I picked it up and glanced at the want ads. There I saw "Wanted: Pastoral Care Coordinator @ Northern Montana Hospital in Havre, Montana." I read the qualifications and thought to myself, "I could do that!"

I applied for the job and got it. For next the nearly 20 years I served my Lord and my community with the Hospital, the Care Center and Bear Paw Hospice. It was the hardest and the most rewarding job I could have ever had.

I worked daily and was on call 24/7/365. Whether it was 3 a.m. in the morning or 4 p.m. on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, I got in my vehicle and headed down the Wildhorse and Amos Trails to wherever I was asked to go whether it was to the emergency room or to the home of a dying person.

With those 20 years at the hospital and now for the past six years volunteering at church, camps, the H. Earl Clack Museum, the hospital, etc, I estimate 8,450 trips on the Trails.

Total number of trips is: 13,774. Times 50 miles roundtrip equals 427, 824 miles on the Wildhorse and Amos Trails! It's 24,901 miles around the earth. So, I figure I've made 17+ trips around our planet Earth just on the Wildhorse and Amos Trails. The numbers are all guesses. Could be more, could be less. Please show me grace.

I love the wide-open spaces and as I travel the Trails, I often see something that although I've traveled that area many, many, many times, I often see something I've never noticed before. Amazing!

I cannot end without sharing my concern and the concern I share with my neighbors and all those that travel the Wildhorse Trail, particularly the first ten miles north of Havre. The highway is narrow, the shoulders are non-existent and the ditches are steep death traps.

In recent years we have been promised that those first 10 miles would be reconstructed and made safe. But over, and over, and over that promise has been broken because the State of Montana decides that other highways are more important. We are hoping and praying that 2025 will the year when are prayers will be answered.

Several years ago, I wrote a note to the Montana Department of Transportation when they changed their plan once again to put off fixing the Wildhorse. "Your decision means: Broken Promises, Broken Lives and Broken Hearts."

I consider one of God's greatest blessings in my life to be living where I do today. As I travel down or up the Wildhorse and Amos Trails, I simply say, "Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to live where I do. Thank you for the beauty of your creation. Thank you for my husband, my family and wonderful neighbors. God is good all the time and all the time God is good."

"Jesus answered and said, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.'" John 14:6

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Ila McClenahan is a retired chaplain and activity director living in the Amos community north of Havre. She spends her time volunteering, writing, speaking at various events and trying to be a good grandmother to her oodles of grandchildren.