Fishing, Wind and Cows

Today we traveled thru West Yellowstone and up the Gallatin River to "the Meadows" that we like to fish. It had rained last night and was sunny all day but the wind was crazy...the dust in the air made it look like air pollution! Needless to say fishing was "hard" but the views were great...I seem to be saying that alot. We have cows next to our campsite and Riggs is in love with them...barks and wants to play. He even tried to squeeze under the barb wire fence! Crazy dog. I forgot to mention all the animals we have seen in the park...Buffalo, Elk, Bald Eagles, Osprey(many and one that dove into the water and brought up a fish right in front of where we were fishing), two river otters, snakes, black birds, beaver, pronghorn and of course fish.

We are watching the weather and that will determine our agenda for tomorrow but we will be off the grid and off line till Friday night when we will be in Bozeman.

Lesson for the day: Wind wins!

Kathy, Mike and Riggs

Muddy waters and who is going to fish this spot

Well we had some plans change today due to two rain storms in the Lamar Valley. We camped Sunday night at Slough Creek and fished there Sunday and Monday. There were rainstorms both nights and the result was that the next planned camping at Soda Butte to fish did not happen due the both the Lamar River and the Soda Butte being very muddy. That is what rain does. So we changed plans and came back to the west side of the park today and fished at the Firehole River...beautiful but no fish. We had a great camp site at Slough creek, right on the river....fantastic. We hiked a long way to fish on Monday and with fish coming up the pesky buffalo in the picture came across the river right were we were fishing. Needless to say we gave him the right of way. Then no more fish coming up and the winds started to blow which did us in for the day. Tomorrow we head for the Gallitin River. Love that Mike guy with his casting ...I have learned lots by watching him.

Lesson for the day: Always give the buffalo the right of way

Kathy, Mike and Riggs

Laid back day

Yesterday we relaxed, walked, hiked and rode bikes. Had a great cock pot dinner and readied ourselves for 3 days off the grid in the Lamar Valley. We will be out of touch and just wanted to check in this morning before leaving...listening to the storm on the east coast news...we hope all our friends and family out east are ok. The Roosevelt Tower is the north entrance to the part...impressive. I finally got enough of my travel west scrappy red,black and white quilt together to show it off.

Lesson for the day...early bird gets the camping spot.

kathy and Mike and Riggs

Three Thunderstorms..and then more

Today we went back into Yellowstone Park to fish..and after wandering around a bit ended up at Slough Creek. The fishing is difficult and very technical with "smart" fish. Kathy had three hits and actually hooked a big fish that broke off the actual hook of the fly...that fish has a sore lip tonight! Anyway we hiked all over the place as you see from the Slough Creek picture..to find the best fishing spot. We had three thunderstorms come thru with very little rain but lots of noise and then drove thru a thunderstorm that you see in the picture in the distance on the way back to Gardner...one of the areas that had forest fires in 1988...devastating but beautiful in its own way. It is now thundering again with some lightening...but we are snug in the Big Bad Boy so no worries.

Tomorrow we are going to fish around here on the Yellowstone as people in the know say it has been hot. We will then go back to the Lamar Valley for Sunday,Monday, Tues and then Wed at Madison Junction. The weather is to improve for next week.

Lesson for the Day: You never know how strong your hook needs to be

Kathy, Mike and Riggs

Fishing our favorite river..The Lamar

Today we traveled from Gardner thru the North Entrance to Yellowstone into the Lamar Valley. We love fishing the Lamar River and spent the late morning and most of the afternoon pounding away but with no fish luck. There were very high winds along with a storm that blew thru but it was still BEAUTIFUL. We talked to lots of fishermen and non fisher people...all in awe of the views and wildlife. Lots of buffalo ,some prong horn deer and saw an osprey with nest and heard the baby birds crying for food but as luck would have it NO BEARS. I have the bear spray all ready!! The mountian view is after the storm and looking east towards Cook City. The other view is from our campground looking down toward Gardner and the Yellowstone River. We had another big storm with rain and wind at about 7pm after we returned to the campground...very glad that we were not in a tent. We will return to fish again tomorrow and will be in Gardner thru Sat night...then we will try a few nights in the park after some of the crowds from the weekend are gone.

Lesson for the day: There is beauty in Yellowstone no matter what the weather

Kathy, Mike and Riggs

Madison River to Yellowstone

Greetings all...we are back on line in Gardner Montana at the north entrance of Yellowstone Park. We have been off line because we have been in the wilds and had no internet service. We traveled down the Madison River to the Campfire Inn and had a beautiful campsite on the river..we fished right out front. Caught a few fish but had a rainstorm one night with a big drop in temp...not good for fishing. Fun place and nice people. We then traveled to Yellowstone Park and camped at the Madison Junction campground...that is where the bottom two pictures are taken. We fished on the Firehole River and caught lots of fish and had a blast. Today we traveled up thru Norris...saw the Geysers and the fantastic Gibbon Falls(the picture of Mike is at those falls). The road from Madison to Mammoth has been closed for construction for the last few years and we have not traveled that way since 2001. It is an engineering feat and we now know why it took so long. We tried fishing but with no luck, visited the Artist's Paint Pot geysers and in general enjoyed the scenes of beauty. Kathy did not get enough geysers etc so she climbed to the top of the Mammoth Hot Springs...got her cardio for the day.. and Mike opted to walk Riggs. We are now in Gardner and our campground overlooks the Yellowstone River. It has been hot and everyone says the fishing is good! The plan is to head into the park tomorrow to fish the Lamar River...the fishing reports say it is crowded so we will see how it goes. Yellowstone is so fantastic...it is always a revelation!

Lesson for the day: We can have fun and not catch a fish...but it is more fun to catch a fish

Kathy, Mike and Riggs

Madison Fishing

we fished on the Madison river with our favorite guide Matt who came over from Twin Bridges. It was a beautiful day with views of the mountains, fields of hay, cattle and a river of fish. We caught lots of little trout which are fun but were really after the big guys. The picture is of an 19 incher brown trout Mike caught....there were two short distance releases that Matt estimated were 20 inches plus. Great day for Mike!! We saw the bald eagle in the picture and watched him hunt over the water and the fields...breathtaking. It was a long day on the river...got back to the big bad boy about 8 pm and then decided to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant next to the RV park we are staying in just north of Ennis. We plan to fish our way down the Madison over the next few days and then head into Yellowstone Park.

Lesson for the day: Big fish will come to those who wait!!

Big Hole and Wise River

We have been off the grid and out of phone/computer range for the last 3 days. We went north from Twin Bridges to the Upper Big Hole River...beautiful mountains, streams and farms. We had lots of wind...not too good for the fishing. We then drove south from the town of Wise River ( after the most comical attempt to get fresh water and dump our tanks!!) down the Scenic byway of the Pioneer Mountains. Camped two nights on the the Wise River...caught some small brown trout and a good size rainbow for Mike. Very quiet and relaxing...read and hikes. Riggs was in heaven with all the smells and new places to investigate. We are doing laundry now in Dillon and will head east to Ennis to fish on the Madison River and then off to Yellowstone later next week.

Lesson for the last few days: You CAN live without cell phones and computers!

Kathy, Mike and Riggs

Great Port

So here it is ..the pictures of drinking the port..It was fantastic after a great day of fishing on the Big Hole River with Matt...and then a great dinner prepared by Marsha....steak (Mike was happy) ...Thanks Marsha. Kathy, Mike and friends

Fishin Fishin Fishin!!! on the Big Hole!

Today we fished on the Big Hole again with Ma tt from Flatline Outfitters...a fantastic day. Lots of big fish...Kathy caught a 20 incher and Mike caught a 19incher ...we also caught 2 17 inchers at the SAME TIME...pictures on Matts camera and will come later. We had a great lunch on the side of the river made by Marsha...delicious. Great dinner after a beautiful dinner on the river. We are on our own for a few days now...going up to the Wise River. We also drank the port that Gary Silverman and shared it with Matt and Marsha...the best for good friends...Thanks Gary.

Lesson of the Day: Port from 1977 is well worth it...Fantastic!!!

Fishing on the Big Hole River

Today we floated with Matt on the Big Hole River. We caught a few Brown Trout, a fewRainbow Trout...a Cuthroat Trout and a few white fish. A beautiful day with lots of sunshine, good company and good food. We are staying at the King Motel with Marsha and Don and their son Matt who was our guide today. It is nice to fish with good friends. Tomorrow we will have a day off to fish on our own and then we fish with Matt again on Sunday.

Lesson of the Day: Listen top your ____ Guide!!!

Sewing and walking

Today and yesterday have been relaxing for me after many days of traveling. I took a long walk with Riggs yesterday and today along with short ones. I did lots of sewing inside the RV and outside on the picnic table..the featherweight works fantastic. Listened to the computer..science Friday. Riggs did lots of sleeping. Great weather here with the temp at about 80 and sunny. I did take a dip in the pool but it felt as warm as a hot tub...after that I decided hot tub must be a cooker. One thing about Montana is that it is cool at night and warm in the day..nice and great sleeping weather. Had thunder and lightening last night and some predicted for this afternoon...we will see. Mike is getting it done in TC and reconnecting with his people...after all he is "the Nolan" If you have not heard the radio add called "the Nolan" go to his Nolans Tobacco web site to listen...it is fantastic.

Lesson for the day: Relax Relax Relax and then the fishing fun returns.

Yellowstone Montana

Hi to all. We have been off line since arriving in Yellowstone Montana. It seems that Sprint does not have a data plan agreement when you are roaming in Montana. This has made our hotspot unusable which has been very frustrating.

However we had several very nice days in Yellowstone Park enjoying the beautiful scenery and fantastic vistas, doing some fishing without much results and seeing a few bison and elk. The park was jammed with people and no campsites were available. So we stayed for Fri and Sat night at a National Forest Campground,Bakers Hole, on the Madison River. A nice place but a little too close to the highway for our taste. But at least we had a spot...once again we were Free Wheeling Camping and all went well. Today, Sunday, we headed north towards Bozeman. We tried fishing in the meadow area of 191, a favorite place of ours, but storms came in with thunder and lightening. So we headed to the Bozeman KOA where Kathy will be staying for the next 4 nights while Mike returns to TC for work related activities. I plan to sew, walk Riggs and relax. Mike will be back on Thursday and we will head over to Twin Bridges. This picture is looking down on Lewis River Canyon that runs south out of Yellowstone. An area we had not been in before...very beautiful.

Lesson of the Day: No matter how much you want to fish...when it thunders and there is lightening don't stay out there with your graphite rod!!

Kathy, Mike and Riggs

Tetons...the three giants

Today we traveled thru the Tetons...a short distance...lots of fishing time and time together. The Tetons (French for the three giants) were spectacular and I took lots of pictures. campground (The new camera is working great) . Camp sites are hard to get so we got the Lizard Creek about noon and staked out our site. It is a campground that is mostly tents...no RV's greater than 30 feet so we fit ok at 25 feet. Then we back tacked to Pacific Creek and spent the afternoon at this beautiful mountain stream. We did not see lots of fish but had several strikes. We stayed and had dinner on the creek...see pictures when I can download them(we are lucky to have some internet connections but not enough to download pictures. We fished till 7:30 pm and then Kathy was driven out by the mosquito's which were the size of Riggs. Ha Ha. Not sure what we do tomorrow...that is fun to think about! Probably heading for Yellowstone.

Hope all of you are having as much fun as us.

Lesson of the day: Love is never being separated from your fishing partner

Remote Camping in the Big Bad Boy

Yesterday we traveled southeast from Jackson to the Green River. We turned off the main road at the Warren Bridge and entered new territory. The road went over huge hills and big dips, lots of flowers ..and we did not know were we were going!! We finally found remote camp area #7 and parked the Big Bad Boy. It was fantastic and awesome!! Huge vistas and rolling hills. The river was fast,cold and had flies and fish. We caught some and lost some. Very very quite with lots of stars. We slept like babies. Fished in morning and then headed back to Jackson. Stopped for lunch on the Hoback river as we went over a pass. We consider it a success and will try to come back again. Tomorrow we are heading into the Tetons and then Yellowstone and will be off the grid camping for the next few nights. We may not be able to make contact till the weekend.

Lesson for the day: Life requires that you always try new things!!

The Nolans on the Oregon Trail

Today we traveled thru the rolling hills and farms of Idaho...lots of hay and potatoes. We drove along the Oregon Trail and the Snake River that he pioneers took from St Louis Missouri to Idaho and beyond. We had a much easier drive than they did...air conditioning and the diesel engine far exceeds oxen. Beautiful rolling hills and vistas...I could not capture it on film. We crossed into Wyoming over the Teton pass...breathtaking with a 10% grade down...wow!

We are in Jackson at the Virgianian RV park...quite a commercial enterprise. We checked in at the North Country Flies and saw an old friend of Mike's from TC...Brad Scharm. He gave us fishing advice and we will be taking it as we go south to the Green River for our first Free Wheeling Camping Adventure(no electricity, water or sewage). Sounds like a beautiful place and we hope there are lots of fish. A little rain tonight again and we hope for clear skies tomorrow.

Lesson for the Day: Diesel is more powerful than oxen

Kathy, Mike and Riggs