Four Generations atthe Edge of the Wild.
It started with the land
Before it was a business, it was a place we knew by heart — the creek bottoms, the high benches, the way weather moves through the valley. Four generations have learned it one season at a time.
That knowledge is the whole point. We don’t rent expertise by the day; we’ve spent a lifetime earning it, and it’s the reason a trip with us feels less like a tour and more like being shown around by family.
Standards over shortcuts
We keep groups small, we tell you the truth about conditions, and we’d rather turn a day around than cut a corner. Fair dealing isn’t a slogan here — it’s the only way we’ve ever done it.
The result is the kind of trip people come back for, year after year, and bring the next generation along to see.
Built on standards,
not shortcuts.
Local for generations
Small groups, full attention
The right gear, dialed in
Leave it better
The people behind the trip.
From the first generation to the fourth, the people of Blackwater Ridge have one thing in common — they know this country the way you know an old friend, and they would rather show you the long way around than the easy one.
Wade Hollister
Wade was born in the cabin at the head of Blackwater Creek and learned the high country before he learned to drive. He runs the hunting side of Blackwater Ridge the way his father and grandfather did, on foot and on time.
Eli Calder
Eli reads track and snow better than most men read a map, and he keeps his hounds honest through the worst of a Bitterroot winter. Fourteen seasons in, he still gets up the ridge before the dogs do.
Tomás Renfro
Tomás keeps twenty head sound and willing across country that breaks lesser strings, and he loads a pannier so it rides square all day. If the camp gets there dry and the elk comes out whole, that is Tomás's work.
Cole Marsh
Cole came up shadowing Wade and now runs the spike camps deep in the private wilderness, where the bulls hold and the trails quit. He hunts patient, glasses long, and trusts the wind more than the calendar.
Ready when you are.
Tell us what you have in mind and we’ll help you plan the right trip — the dates, the details, all of it.