Living off the grid suits "Grizz" just fine

By CHUCK BANDEL

Valley Press

A while back when he was in town picking up a few things and having a beer at a local watering hole, Grizz was talking to a guy who was complaining about another power outage after a big snowstorm.

“I listened to him,” Grizz said. “And I said, man, that’s too bad. I told him I put a few logs in the stove, popped some corn, put my feet up and watched a John Wayne movie.”

Such is life for Grizz. Power outages be damned, life is good in Grizz’s world.

Grizz has a name but prefers the moniker that fits him so well.

For the past 30 years Grizz has been living off the grid deep in the mountains of Sanders County and loving every minute of it. His easy going and friendly manner are evidence of a man living a peaceful, stress-free life.

“I only have one acre here,” he said of the slice of “Heaven” he calls home. “But I’ve got one million acres to play in, why would I need any more?”

A man who has lived and worked in many parts of the country, Grizz said he knew he wanted to be part of Montana someday. His working life as a truck driver and heavy equipment operator for construction projections had taken him from New York, briefly as a driver, to Alaska where he built roads to gold mines and other things.

Along the way he built roads and pipelines, but the pull to Montana and solitude was there from the start.

“I had a delivery as a driver that made me go into New York City,” he said. “I finally found where I was supposed to unload and after being in that traffic all day I figured I would just stay where I was and sleep in my truck.

“Some lady talking a mile a minute came out and told me I couldn’t stay there. I did anyway and had a bad time getting out of there the next morning.”

He eventually settled in Montana and bought the place he now calls home. Prior to that he owned a cabin in another part of the region, but that one burned to the ground in a fire but he says he may one day move back to that original site which he still owns.

For now, he is as off the grid as a person can get and doing just fine.

“I guess I’ve always been a loner,” Grizz said in his calm, low-tone manner. “I’ve never lived in an actual town and I never will.”

His property and lifestyle are a testament to the off-grid lifestyle that has in recent years become increasingly sought after by those, including many ill-equipped to do so, who seek freedom from neighbors, power bills and other forms of modern world stress.

His preferred name is easy to understand given his reasonable likeness to Grizzly Adams of television fame. When asked why his name has two Zs, he is quick to respond, “that’s just the way I want it and the way it is.”

For electricity, Grizz has a pair of solar panels that collect enough sunlight to more than meet is household power needs. He has a back-up gas-powered generator for emergency use.

“It was just a matter of getting the equipment, including the storage batteries, and I’m not a power customer,” he said. “I get enough from the solar panels to power the lights and a few other things like my television set. It’s just me living here.”

The TV set is not what the overwhelming majority of Americans have in their living rooms. It’s a good flatscreen but its not hooked to any satellite or cable company network.

“There’s been fellas who have been up here trying to get satellite TV,” he said. “But there isn’t a signal up here and I don’t need one anyway. I have a collection of old movies, including a lot of John Wayne movies, that I can watch and that’s all I need.”

Grizz recalled a job assignment that included an extended stay in a motel near the construction site. In the room was a TV and having not watched live TV in a long time, he gave it a try.

“I turned it on and realized that most of what I was able to watch was reruns from many years ago,” he laughed. “There was this show about mountain men and I saw that same thing five years earlier.”

For heat in the cabin, he relies on firewood, which is in abundant supply all around. He makes sure he has large amounts of cut and split wood on hand. For things like heating water and cooking, he has a large propane tank that more than meets his needs.

As for water, Grizz said he draws it from a nearby creek.

The one modern convenience he does have is a cell phone…sort of.

“There’s a couple spots on the way in and out of here where you can stop and see if someone called,” he said. “Not that long ago if you missed a call you never knew and that’s still okay with me.

Otherwise, when I come to town and need to make a call I use it then. The other way to make a call is to walk about a mile or two up the mountain where there’s a spot with a signal.”

“I don’t need a phone very often and I don’t understand these new ones anyway.”

With wild game all around, Grizz said he gets his meat supply “locally” and comes to town “every now and then” when provisions run low. Even then, he said, he is ready to head back to the mountains as soon as his business is taken care of.

For the most part, with all his life necessities taken care of without paying anyone or signing any contracts, Grizz says his life is all about enjoying elbow room and roaming around the mountains having fun.

“The other night I was trying to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night,” he recalled. “It was a full moon and outside everything was lit up. I hopped in my truck and drove around just loving every minute of being where I am.”

One of his favorite things to do is cruise through the woods and along the many mountain trails on his ATV. He still does some excavating work, like helping bulldoze a fire line around a serious wildfire a few years ago that burned large areas of the mountain range on which he now lives.

“This is absolutely beautiful out here. I don’t get many visitors and that’s okay with me,” he said. “I guess I’m not like the rest of the world”.