An Outdoorsman's Journal

Four Cool Outdoor Women

Hello friends,

   I returned home from a 4,200-mile road trip last week where I helped my daughter Selina Walters relocate from Missoula, Montana to Calgary, Alberta Canada. Selina majored in both Fisheries and Water Resources and will be pursuing her master’s degree. Over the last 2.5 years I have grown great respect for three of her unique, go for it, outdoor oriented friends and this week I am going to write about Rachael Valeria, Rose Chitko and Claire Bernard. Time passes, friends relocate but there are always memories and future get togethers
   Rachael Valeria is one year older than Selina and grew up in Pulaski, Wisconsin. Rachael and Selina were both officers in UWSP's chapter of The Fisheries Society, and I met her when they both attended UWSP alongside her now fiancée Andy Johnson. In my simple words, Rachael Valeria is one cool and accomplished outdoor oriented woman.
   While pursuing her master’s degree through The University of Idaho in Moscow, Rachael remained a hardcore outdoorswoman despite the challenges of furthering her education and becoming pregnant. Since Arlo's birth, he turns 3 this month, Rachael and Andy have carried him in a pack on shoulders while hunting for deer and elk, fly fishing and shed antler hunting. A unique problem that Andy and Rachael have is that they cannot find a pack to carry an older child in.
   Rachael received her master’s, the ticket for biologists to climb the ladder, works as an Anadromous Fish Biologist studying Wild Salmon and Steelhead in Idaho. The last two field seasons Selina worked with Rachael out of Salmon, Idaho and these two are the definition of great friends.
   Rose Chitko is from Oak Creek, Wisconsin and majored in Natural Resource Management with an emphasis in Wildland Fire Science. I met Rose who was also a friend of Selina's back at UWSP in February of 2024 when I helped Selina move to Missoula. Her and Selina were roommates until May of this year. Rose is an Assistant Fire Engine Operator for the Forest Service, in other words, Rose is a forest fire fighter who fights fires all over North America.
   I have spent time around Rose twice and literally heard about her from Selina in voice, text and photo well over a hundred times. Anyone that knows Rose would describe her as the definition of physically fit. A typical off season training day can include swimming, lifting weights, and back packing with a 40-pound vest or running.
      The last 3 seasons Rose has worked as a Hot Shot on a hand crew, meaning no trucks or engines, they just dig line which is very physical.
   Like Rachael, what captivated me about Rose is her incredibly excellent can do, attitude and her genuine love for the outdoors.
   Claire Bernard is from Rapid City, South Dakota and lived below Selina and Rose with her longtime boyfriend Andrew Mullen. Claire just graduated from The University of Montana in May with a degree in Journalism and just yesterday was hired as a journalist for Bloomberg and will be moving to Washington DC where she had interned earlier this summer.
   Claire and Andrew were a major part of Selina learning to ski and they were like a brother and sister to her. They had a pretty cool rivalry, Andrew is a Vikings fan, Claire loves the Steeler's and Selina is a true Cheesehead.

     Back in May of 2025 Selina became horribly ill with stomach issues and this persisted until early July. As a father with a daughter 1,200 miles away it was major stress for me as well and her roommate Rose was off fighting fires.
   Selina was losing her body mass and weak as a kitten, Claire and Andrew took Selina into their home, were excellent about communicating with me and that combined with good doctoring saved the day.
   Claire like Selina, Rachael and Rose simply has to be outside and active and a super bonus is she is a ton of fun.
   As always, the space for this column is limited, each of these gals is my definition of great, young American women, they are active, well spoken, tough, kind and beautiful. In reality, I would be glad to help any one of them in a pinch and thankful that the stars lined up for all four of them to become such good friends in the outdoors.
  Carry on Ladies,

  Sunset