Summer in Montana

Long time, no post, but our camera died on the first of the trips below and we have just been taking other trips. I finally got around to getting some of the backpacking pics from Chris, and its now early October and the yard is under a foot of snow, so seems like the time to recount the adventures of summer. Enjoy!

Canoe Trip to Shoshone Lake Backcountry, Yellowstone NP
July 25 - 30, 2009

In late July Marilyn and I took a great 5-day canoeing and camping trip with some friends in Yellowstone NP to the backcountry of Shoshone Lake. We were joined by Nick and Jen, and Chris. It was a great time except for, as our Kiwi mate Nick would say, the mozzies (mosquitoes). They were thick!

Here I am in the back of the canoe as we set out from one of our campsites to go across the lake to the Shoshone Geyseer Basin. The basin is out in the middle of nowhere, miles from any road and with no boardwalks and guardrails. No pics either, since the camera wasn't working at that moment. In the background you can see our campsite, which we called Camp Mozzie Point. If you enlarge the pic you can see our food bags hanging from the bear pole:

We didn't see a whole lot in the way of critters, but did paddle by this awesome looking bald eagle, symbol of American might and power, on one of the shores of the lake:

We had lots of good times and mosquito bites. I even caught a 17" lake trout from the canoe on my fly rod. Nick brought a full bar with beer, margaritas, and wine. Cheers, mate!

Chris was in a kayak and Nick and Jen were piloting the awesome 1970's style Core Craft canoe. Core! Here they are at the head of Shoshone Lake heading back towards the opening of the Lewis Channel. The channel is kind of like a small river between Lewis and Shoshone Lakes we got to drift through on the way back out (had to pull the canoes on the way in):

Here Marilyn is paddling us back through the Lewis Channel to Lewis Lake on our way back to the trailhead (last day). Nick and Jen, and Chris, are way up ahead:

About to emerge from the channel back into Lewis Lake:

Team Mozzie on Lewis Lake:

After 5 days of fun and adventure we made it back to the trailhead and a good drive home. A great, mosquito-filled time was had by all!

Crazy Mountains Backpack

August 28-30, 2009

In late August Chris and I decided to do a double-backpack trip: one weekend in the delightfully named Crazy Mountains, and the next weekend another into the Beartooths.

Homie Chris is ready to go, the Canyonero is loaded:

The delightfully named Crazy Mountains are an island mountain range east of Livingston characterized by jagged peaks and sheer drops. Fortunately they also harbor some beautiful lakes with nice trout. The approach to the trailhead goes through rolling ranchlands. We are heading up that valley in the middle:

Our destination, Blue Lake, is about 4 miles up the valley after a steep climb:

But first we have to pass through the ranch. Here is Chris opening the legenday gate for the Canyonero to pass through:

After a tough slog of about 3 or 4 hours we made it up to the lakes. Blue Lake and Granite Lake sit next to each other and are joined by a small crick. All of them have nice rainbow trout. Here is the crick, looking up towards Blue Lake. We set up camp on a point up on the right near where the crick empties into the lake. I caught a nice 12" rainbow there:

We made the short trek over to Granite Lake, which is very scenic but short on campsites:

We fished it and caught several decent trout, one of which I got off the end of this log:

Our campsite was pretty sweet, and featured single-malt scotch in the evenings and fresh espresso in the mornings. Granted my pack was a few pounds heavier than it needed to be but it was worth it:

To get out of camp it was necessary to cross a giant log over the width of the creek, about 75':


And the log slog back down the side of the mountain. It wasn't the longest trip by any means but it was a workout. At least going down was easier:

Chris crosses the bridge at the lower end of Big Timber creek:


We made it back to the Canyonero where a couple of cold Guiness were waiting. Perfect end to a great trip!



Beartooth Mountains Backpack
Sept 4-7, 2009

The following weekend was Labor Day, and the perfect opportunity to take a long 4-day weekend backpack trip up into the Beartooths to flyfish for cutthroat trout.

Our plan was to hike up to Becker Lake and then head off-trail over a couple easy passes up to Albino, Golden and Jasper, and the Cloverleaf lakes. All are populated by nice cutthroat trout (although Becker is also full of brook trout).

We never made it as far as the Cloverleaf Lakes, but our route did take us to Golden and Jasper lakes which are just beyond the rounded peak way in the distance - about 7 or 8 miles. This me at the trailhead at Island Lake:

The scenery on the way up to Becker Lake is fantastic as you pass by many other lakes and get great views out into the distance:

Becker Lake itself is very beautiful, about 4 miles in. We decided to stop here for the first night as Chris had been out late the night before and was feeling it:

We fished the lake and caught tons of brookies and a few cutts. The next day we headed up towards Albino Lake. This is the inlet to Becker from Albino, we are headed up over the small pass in the distance. There was a pretty good footpath and it was not very hard at all:

Me heading up to the pass, Becker Lake in the background:

Just over the pass is Albino Lake, which is above treeline and very scenic. It had cool islands in it and stuff, and on the way back in a few days we fished it and caught some nice 15" cutthroat trout on dry flies:

We headed up over another, steeper pass to get to Golden and Jasper lakes. Here I am going up the pass, Albino Lake behind:

Golden and Jasper Lakes are also above treeline, and also scenic. The fishing was slow as some nasty weather was coming in and it was getting colder. Chris did manage an 18" cutt out of Golden Lake on a spinning rod (gasp!). Here's our camp in the draw between the two lakes. Chris' tent in front, and if you look close you will see my tent (yellow) up in the rocks at about 1-o'clock:

The next day we huffed back down to Becker Lake and found a different campsite than the first night. A few more brookies were caught and then the weather turned most foul. In the rush to hang the bear bags off the cliff here and over the lake, I left a pocket open and realized the next morning that my $100 fly reel had fallen out and into the lake. Fortunately it was visible in about 4' of water on a ledge along the rock face. Another 2 feet out and it would have sank to the bottom in 0ver 30 feet of water! I had to go Bear Grylls and strip to my skivvies to inch out along the ledge in the water to retrieve the reel. I did but boy was the water cold! On top of this it had rained all night as a cold front came through, and now the daytime temps were almost 20 degrees colder, in the 50's. The point you see is where our camp was and were I had my salvage operation:

After that we packed up and hiked back to the trailhead. It was a great trip and a great time. Lots of nice fish were caught and there was some great scotch and campfire time, plus a real adventure!

Critters in Yellowstone

This past weekend Daniel and Marilyn went on an exiciting weekend trip to Yellowstone NP to see critters. We have been many times before of course, but this time we were going with a wildlife guide dude on a little personal tour that we had won in a silent auction at a local charity (Eagle Mount - they do great programs and stuff for disabled kids). So, this time we were looking to learning some things as well as seeing critters. And boy did we do both.

We met our guide Steve early in the am in Gardiner. We had driven up the evening before and had a great Italian dinner in Livingston on the way. Naturally every trip to Yellowstone you will see buffalo, but in the spring you get to see the young calves too:



Some of them still had umbilical cords attached. We tooled around and saw some other critter, including a wolf visiting the scene of an earlier elk kill. Too bad it's tough to get a good pic of wolves because they are always so far off. Later our guide took us on a little hike, and we saw lots of critter (gophers, birds, antelope). The highlight was when an antelope ran off a coyote who we think was stalking an antelope fawn. The antelope kicked him!

There were lots of bones out there:


And we learned how to identify things like what animal they were from, if they were old, and so on. It was cool. He then took us to a grizzly bear den (not active) and I got to crawl inside and check it out. Far out!




We were on constant lookout as the area has lots of grizzly and other critter. There are also large boulders laying around, evidently dropped by glaciers back in the day. Marilyn by a big one with a coyote den under it:



In the evening after dinner we decided to go back in the park on our own and see some twilight critter. It was great. Almost right away, on the road from Mammoth to Lamar Valley, we passed a young black bear on the side of the road. The pic isn't great but the cool thing was we could hear it chewing:


A little further on after crossing the Yellowstone river we saw this bighorn sheep:




After crossing the Yellowstone but before getting to Lamar Valley, you come to an area they call 'Little America'. It is full of critters and is where we had gone on our hike earlier. The scenery is great, too. Slough Creek is over the hills and to the right, where I caught my huge 19" cutthroat trout last Sept:


When we entered the Lamar Valley the sunset was just getting started (at about 9pm). All those brown dots are buffalo (bison, same thing):

As we motored on to the end of the valley to Soda Butte Creek, where the wolves hang out, the colors became more intense:

We did see another wolf at Soda Butte creek (carrying the head of an elk fawn in its mouth!), but again it was a little too far for the camera.

The next morning we had decided to do another day on our own, so we got up early and went into the park again. We stopped at a spot where they wait for a great grey owl to appear every morning, but he never came. This cool coyote did come by, though. I dig coyotes, they are so cool:

On the way back to Lamar Valley I snapped this pic of the mighty Yellowstone River for my friend Ken to try to convince him to come on a backpack/fishing trip. Here it is about to enter the Black Canyon, looking upstream:

The area is crawling with critters, and giant cutthroat trout.

Here are more bison in Lamar Valley:

With the spotting scope I did manage to see 2 grizzlies on the mountain above them, but again way too far off for a picture.

We decided to drive back home the long, scenic way over the Beartooth Mtns. Here we are headed up Soda Butte creek to the northeast entrance of the park:

We stopped for a bit and I flyfished upper Soda Butte Creek, but no luck. Still too cold:

Up in the Beartooths we saw firsthand more evidence of the devastation of global warming, lakes along the road frozen in the middle of June:

It would get worse as we pressed on and it began to snow! Up at the top there is a sign signalling the actual "Bears Tooth", but you can't really see it in the snow and clouds:

Too late for ski season? Not to fear my globally-warmed friends. In late June you can still carve some snowboard turns in the Beartooths. Some happy looking dudes with their boards were eyeing this spot from the turnout where we took this pic:

There was actually a crowd of skiers and boarders lined up to drop into this sketchy-looking bowl. Someone helpfully sprayed down some nice red guidelines to keep the uninitiated from going off the rocks. "Stay outside the lines!!!!!":

Eventually we crossed over and made our way down into the Rock Creek valley:

We drove into Red Lodge and went to the Candy Emporium and got some of their great steak marinade. After more scenic driving we passed by the delightfully named Crazy Mountains near Big Timber (great golf course there, by the way):

And then we arrived home! All in all it was a great trip and we saw lots of critters and learned all sorts of things about how to find them and identify them.

New Beers Soon: Minnie Bit'er and Otie-meal Stout!

Looks like poochie has had a tough day of brewing some tasty beers. Can't wait to taste the results!

Easter Skiing, Hiking, and Golf

It seems that spring is finally here. The weather has finally warmed up (50's!) and the snow in the valley is melting fast. But there was still plenty of snow in the mountains so it was time to head up for the last day of skiing and to clean the locker out and bring the gear home.

Just to think, this was last week and now the yard is almost green:

We headed up to Bridger for our last ski day on Saturday. It was nice and warm and sunny. The road was completely dry and full of Lance Armstrong wannabes in their brightly colored nut-grabber pants on the way up. Sure, the snow was the consistency of a well-chilled Slurpee but the crowd was light (even for Montana standards) and it was a fun time. Since it was the last day I went for something crazy and rode my backcountry cross-country skis. It was exciting, even though I biffed several times (unable to stop/steer).

Beautiful Marilyn on the slopes:

Here we are at the top of Pierre's Knob, you can see the delightfully named Crazy Mountains in the distance:

If you are thinking to yourself, "Gee that looks like a long way down, how is he going to do that on cross-country skis?", the answer is "On my ass."

The next day, on Easter, after church we decided to take Reagan on a hike up Drinking Horse Mountain and then go hit some balls at the golf course which has just opened for the season. Here poochie has treed a couple of squirrels - boy was he excited!

Further up the mountain, a man and his dog. You can see the Tobacco Root Mtns way in the distance:

Marilyn takes a break while poochie looks for critter.

After summiting the mountain we went to the golf course to hit some balls and try out the new clubs we had gotten for Christmas. My new driver from Marilyn was fantastic (maybe my slice is gone now), and she tried some putting and chipping with her brand new putter and chipper.

All in all it was a great weekend and hopefully the nice weather will stick around for good. But no, looks like maybe snow on Tuesday. Global warming, you know.