Swan Valley sisterhood

At 9 a.m. on the dot, a group of nine women made for a dirt road to begin their biweekly morning stroll. It wasn't as cold as it could have been - a cold front was predicted to roll in over the weekend - and minutes before the walking commenced it was around 20 degrees in Condon with a light wind. The ladies were prepared, of course, with coats, hats, gloves and specialized hiking shoes that had enhanced traction.

Some say the Amazing Walking Women of Condon cancel the walk if it's 10 degrees or cooler. Others will walk regardless of the temperature.

They typically go a couple of miles on Monday and Friday mornings, and this particular Friday, Jan. 17, the crew split naturally into three speeds. Conversations were light and friendly, punctuated by the crunching of gravel beneath feet, and since there was one woman who had never walked with the group before, there was a lot of space made for the introductory questions - how long have you lived here? Oh, is that your house up on Antler Ridge? Is it crick or creek?

At the one-mile mark the women touch a particular tree before turning around. They take time to remark on the beauty of winter in the Swan and pause an extra second crossing Glacier Creek Bridge to see the water flowing underneath.

The Amazing Walking Women of Condon include women from different backgrounds, life stages and places. Practically, the group makes walking outdoors safer in an environment like the Swan Valley, where it's not unlikely to encounter a grizzly bear or a mountain lion out on your stroll. On another level, it's an opportunity to serve both physical and social needs, reminding the women that they're not alone in this valley, a place where oftentimes if you didn't know there are houses behind the trees, you'd probably think no one was there.

The Walking Women prioritize giving back to their community and meet to discuss topics of concern or contemplation related to the home they love over coffee after the hour-long walk. They don't always agree on action to take or have the same views, but they're there for each other.

Donna Langston, one of the walkers, said she was so surprised by the variety of backgrounds the women had. It made her feel like she was back in her freshman year of college and meeting a bunch of smart, engaging and interesting people for the first time.

Marcia Tapp, one of the founders of the group, agreed.

"It's a fairly remote area. Beautiful, but remote. All of the women are highly educated, world travelers," Tapp said.

"It's crazy, isn't it?" Langston said.

"It's crazy, who knew?" Tapp replied.

"That's what I thought," Langston said.

"We don't all think the same, but we all think, and we exchange ideas. And we literally would do anything for each other, and it all comes from association," Tapp said. "Years ago we wouldn't have known all these women and our paths would not have crossed, but because of the Walking Women, they do."

Tapp and a former Condon resident, Mary Fitzsimon, started the Walking Women around 2017. "Mary and I love to talk," Tapp said. "We solve all the world's problems, according to the two of us." Word of mouth started working, and more than the two of them started showing up. If there's more than one person, they'll walk, Tapp said. There's no commitment or requirement - if a woman wants to walk, she can just park at the Swan Valley Community Center before 9 a.m. on Mondays and Fridays, and rest assured she will.

(You don't have to be a woman, Tapp said, but it's helpful.)

"We all come together with a common goal of being friends and helping each other out and trying to solve problems, and that's what we do in the middle of nowhere," Tapp said.

Over coffee at the Mission Mountains Mercantile - part two of the Walking Women's morning - Devannie Burke remembered getting rotator cuff surgery in 2022. The Walking Women set up a meal train for her that exceeded all expectations.

"In fact my husband said, 'Any more surgeries, you tell them no more food,'" Burke said.

The way the Walking Women got their name was from a walking woman who had a child and wrote the group a thank you letter after they went overboard with the baby shower gifts. They're absentee grandmas, one of the women said at coffee.

"Dear amazing walking women..." the letter began.

Outside of being there for each other, the Walking Women make a point to be there for their community, too.

Each year they decide to take on a project that would benefit people in the Swan Valley in some way. One year it was buying the teachers at Swan Valley Elementary School gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas. Another it was acknowledging all the "unsung heroes," who do things without asking for recognition year-round, by putting together and delivering holiday gift baskets. This year, they spearheaded the Lighting up the Swan project, which had those interested decorate evergreens off the highway with Christmas lights to, in Tapp's words, remind people that they're not alone when driving through the valley on dark winter nights.

At a few pulled together tables in the Mission Mountains Mercantile, Tapp said their coffee conversations aren't necessarily themed - it's open to whatever anyone wants to share. Last week, the conversation was pegged on a concern of Tapp's.

"The problem is that this part of the valley is for sale and it's for sale to the highest bidder, which is a real problem for this beautiful place," Tapp said.

She listed off the controversy over the attempted sale of Holland Lake Lodge and the extension of the black bear hunting season in the spring. We love hunters, Tapp said, but she doesn't see the sense in extending a spring hunting season that could be detrimental to the bears. The group thought about writing a letter to the governor explaining their displeasure, particularly regarding the less-than-public process surrounding the change.

"It kind of talks about how we work as a group because usually someone brings it up and then...as we talked about it, Christine said, 'Well I'm going to write to the Pathfinder...' and then Terry wrote an email...and said this is a bigger issue...so let's approach it responsibly instead of just shooting off a letter, which was our original idea," Kate Lewis, one of the Walking Women, said.

The women headed off to the rest of their Fridays after an hour or so of coffee conversation, some to a church to help with children's activities. Part of this Friday's conversation - after all the coffees were ordered and placed in front of the women by a barista who seemed to know them well - included a rundown of each woman's history with the group. Below is a brief summarization of the Amazing Walking Women of Condon on Jan. 17:

Susan Cameron has been walking for one day. She and her husband came from Washington a year and a half ago and she used to work for Kiewit construction.

Sherry Donovan has been walking since 2017. She came from eastern Montana and was a registered nurse and physician's assistant.

Kate Lewis has been walking since 2017 and a half. She came from Alaska and worked in hospital administration.

Terry Quinn has been walking since 2018. She came from Oregon and worked in real estate and property management. She and her husband built a house in the Condon area in 2006.

Terry Dougherty has been walking for one and a half years. She came back to Montana from Colorado Springs a year and a half ago, and she worked as a medical biller.

Marcia Tapp has been walking since 2017. She's a retired ninth grade English teacher and she and her husband moved to Condon in 2010, but had property in the area since 1991.

Christine Straube has been walking since 2021. She moved to the area during the pandemic from Hawaii and worked painting aircrafts.

Gayle Osburn started walking in 2018, on and off. She came from Idaho and worked in hazardous materials for the state and as a fishing guide.

Devannie Burke has been walking since 2018. She got recruited by Tapp while on a walk with her husband around Holland Lake. She described herself as an introvert and said it took her a while to get on board. But, she doesn't travel as much as some in the group, so she's a mainstay.

Alis Arrowood has been walking for three years. She bought property in the Condon area in 1996 but owned a winery in California with her husband before moving to Condon full-time. She became a U.S. citizen (the success she's most proud of, she said) four days before the 2024 presidential election and holds dual-citizenship in Canada and America. (As does Straube.)