Ya gotta love mountain weather ... or not.

Let me just say that mountain weather can be quite variable.

As I am taking this picture out the window of the place we are staying.... it is ABSOLUTELY POURING!

Hansel and Gretel go fishing.

We like to find new off-the-track places to fish. Sometimes it works, other time it does not. So, after looking at Arizona Lake on the maps for some time, I chose to go there. There is no trail to the lake, but there was a pretty bad dirt road. It was mostly a stone road that was carved through a glacial moraine. I was a bit like a cobblestone road but made from 3-4" smooth round rocks.

We got close enough and found no trail, so we had to bushwhack - as planned. The only thing we knew for sure was go east - walk to the sun at that time of day. But it was through a thicket of down trees and you can easily get turned around. So what to do, how to find your way back.... breadcrumbs!

Actually we used tissues.

We marked our trail in
Found the lake - it was quite pretty - and home to some trumpeter swans

We found the lake was quite deep at the shore, so we could not wade in. We did see small fish in the shore area, but after a bit of throwing the line, we could not hook into a fish. I am standing on a "quaking bog". It is a soft sponge of grass that mostly floats on the surface. As you walk on it, it gives way.  A little like walking on a water bed.

We followed the tissues back to the car!  and picked them all up of course.

Note about fish pictures

We take a lot of pictures of the fish we catch.

Like this

We are very careful with the fish and try not to traumatize them too much. Our process is: catch the fish, reel it into a net ( which keeps them contained and mostly calm), then keeping the fish in the water - get the camera ready, when the camera is ready, dip into the net and pick up the fish, snap, snap and put the fish back in the water.

The time that the fish is in picture format is about 5 sec or less.

Since we prefer not to kill them, our ethic is to return them to the water with minimal harm. We always release the fish, but only after we know that they are recovered from any trauma.

Fishing on the Grey's River near Alpine WY

You can get to any number of rivers near Jackson within about an hour. Grey's is south of Jackson in Alpine. Not many people mention it as it is not the Snake or the South Fork of the Snake - these are the guided rivers and require a boat. We fish the "other" river which are mostly wading.

Here is a set of pictures of some catching on the Grey's River

Fish on! 

 Control

 Get the fish close

 Success -- a nice 12" Cutthroat ( see the red marking under the mouth)

 Alicia joins the party - with a bigger guy!

"Camping" in Jackson

We are staying at Mike and Jen's in Jackson, out on the elk refuge..

High quality "camping"

Back to the Jack

We are returning to Jackson WY from the Helena area. This will be the fourth time in 4 years that we will be spending time in Jackson. This time it will be only 2 weeks as there was an issue with sitting for our friends Bev and Whitey. But Mike and Jen were off to the Galapogos, so we will be staying in their place.

These are scenes from the car during the drive to Jackson, -- mostly in Idaho and then over Teton Pass.

 Idaho

 Coming into Jackson from Teton Pass

FIshing can be a nasty sport

As I was reeling in "a big one", I had to back up to keep the line tight.... I did not see the large rock behind me... and fell over it.

I lost the fish, but gained a significant soreness in my hip -- I believe the proper area was the trochanter bone.

Really felt sore, but I could move okay, not great - and pressure to the site was not a problem. So, I guess I didn't break or fracture anything.

Well I wasn't walking or hiking so good and it was tender. Then, I was on a wet patio in my bare feet and SWOOSH - I was heading for the floor. Smack! -- you guessed, I landed in the exact same hip area.

Here's what it looks like now

A brand new bird

At the campsite we hear a little rachet, as two birds were being very animated, flitting around, squawking.

We look to see what the issue might be.

New bird learning to fly -- kicked out of the nest.

A little out of focus parents.

The new flyer

Alicia needs to catch

We decided that Alicia needed to catch fish - she was a little grumpy that she didn't catch a fish yesterday -- whenever that was since this is just a post about Alicia.

So, her "handsome, well tanned, nicely dressed, exceptionally capable fishing guide" said, "I will take you to a place to catch fish" and photograph you doing so.

This is the picture story.

Get out and get started

 Work it a little

A bug change may be necessary - how about a Chuck's Brindle?

 Give that a go

 Success! - someday she will learn to smile when she catches!  Small fish are just as nice to catch as big fish.

The MO

It is actually the Missouri. And it is the river that Lewis and Clark rowed up in search of a water route to the Pacific. >>If you are interested in Lewis and Clark adventure, I would suggest reading Undaunted Courage. <<

The main parts of the Missouri are still in tact, but here there is a big irrigation dam near Helena which provides really nice cold water for the downstream fish. We headed here from Missoula, since we knew it was a cold water river.

We were very pleased with the results and glad we left Missoula.

Rainbows!

But Alicia's was bigger.

Calling all Climbers

Bodgett Canyon is called the "Yosemite of Montana" and I must say, there is some legitimacy to the claim.

In a past post, Hike to Fish, we showed the hiking and fishing parts of the Blodgett. Now it's time to show the climbing side of it.

The access is good and starts at  the parking lot. In fact, on the way back down, we saw a wall that you can't see from the parking lot. I looked at a large arch on the wall and thought, hmmm, it is probably called Arch Wall -- nope -- it's called Parking Lot Wall --dah!

 I did check the local climbing scene and there are a ton of climbs on this wall.

So, Parking Lot Wall was actually the first in the series but the last that we saw.

We saw these first - I believe that it is called Flatiron Peak - looks like 6-7 pitches

- 

A smaller peak - possibly Shoshone Peak.

 

A massif well up the canyon

A look up the canyon with most of the peaks stacked up

A few reminded me of Tuolumne domes

All in all, an interesting place to climb. It looks like slog in over scree piles for a one day climb that might go 6-7 pitches. Most of the big climbs require a river crossing -- bring your rack and your rod!

How warm was it?

The fishing reports were suggesting the best fishing in and around Missoula would be in the morning and evening. That means that the water is warm, and warm water means the fish are down. They are not actively feeding since they are more or less in survival mode.  A trout fisherman looks for water less that 60F for best conditions, and while the water cools some overnight, high ambient temperatures push it back up in the daytime.

With that as a note, I moved out at 6:00 - right from the tent. I walked well away from the campground, as most people will not walk to fish. That leaves me the rest of the river and less pressure on the fish.

I walked about 20 minute and found "good water". I wet waded (meaning that I had no waders, and just wore my pants). When I got to the river I spotted a fish resting. I did not spook him and he did not move. So I prodded him with my rod -- he did want to move - so I touched him again and he took off....  Not a good sign!

I fished for over 2 hours and nothing. In addition, I was not cold being in the water. HHHMMMM

I returned to the campground for breakfast and latte - Alicia slept in - and reported my findings.

This will not be a good place to fish -- too warm and too many tubers.

So we decided to pack up Missoula and head to cooler water --  The MO.

Technology

And this doesn't even include the MacBook and the PC ...

  

 

LOVE having a 4G signal and electricity at a campsite ...

The $28 campsite

Well, we headed out of Corvalis and up closer to Missoula. It wasn't more than about 60 miles. Missoula is considered one of the country's top 10 "trout towns" (the list also includes Mountain Home, AR where we were previously).

Missoula is home to Clark's Fork River and the Blackfoot River, which we explored during this travel day.

These rivers are EXTREMELY popular with floaters, tubers, boaters and fishermen ... in that order if this look was correct. There were people everywhere in these rivers... some in groups of up to 10 rafted together. It looked like the Saco on a summer weekend.

That was a bit suspect.

But we has a nice campground in mind at Beavertail State Park -- it advertised electricity. Nice.

We arrived at the campground only to discover that is was $28 - for a tent site! And electricity. It was also right along side of the Clark's Fork. Electricity means power for computers and lattes, so we took advantage. We had become fond of campgrounds that we found for free or for $7 ... so $28 was a bit of sticker shock - sheesh.

Alongside the Clark's Fork

Lattes at the campsite

Power and Blogging -- we had a 4G signal

Our spacious campsite - at least we got space for $28!

Mountain Storms

Mountains create their own weather. Storms come and go. They could last all night (not usually) or 30 minutes. You could be hunkered down on a mountain hike for 30 minutes in a downpour and be hiking in full sun quickly thereafter. You should be prepared, particularly if you are out in the afternoon - 4:00PM is a good time to look at the sky.

In the Bitterroot River Vally we had a chance to see a few on-coming storms.  Here's a selection. Most of these storm were short lived.