aquatic adventures

fall in mawntanner means hunting. during the winter months it's generally skiing and ice fishing. come spring and summer, it's basically all out water sports.

me and the papa catchin the breeze.

chillin in canyon ferry lake. we made it almost 25 minutes before numbing the extremities.

netting a keeper. the trout on this lake are some sort of rainbow-salmon hybrid. they live pretty short lives and grow incredibly fast. erik's been steadily taking these fish to school (get it?) all year. the wedding appies included smoked fish that he caught and sliders of an elk he shot. coupled with the sizable garden they have going, there isn't a whole lot that they don't produce.

start of the whitewater trip. since there were 14 of us, we hired guides to float down the middle fork of the flathead river. much fun indeed.

after the smoke cleared and the planes took off, the three of us headed for the hills. fished a bit saturday, camped out, then absolutely killed it yesterday. the fishing was incredible the first half of the day. sara boated the first fish.

about the average size of the trout i pulled, most on the caddis.

me "slapping a fatty" (broseph is a great source of unique lingo). we anchored up at this hole and threw everything we had at this guy until he took a small stimulator.

cutthroat, post-landing. this is easily the biggest trout i've ever caught, at least on a fly rod.

this rainbow was the biggest fish of the trip. erik was slayin' all day with the wooly bugger.

alas, the time for fucking around is now long gone, and the trip to p-town is in full preparatory swing. i have this huge list of things to accomplish before setting off. i need to knock up some quick maps of the trip, get a phone, get some food, and hit the bike shop for starters. then i need to organize my shit and figure out what stays and what goes. hoping to set out tomorrow morning. if that slips a day, no big deal. mostly i'll be camping, but i have a few couches to surf and a hotel to stay in one night. i think everybody's flexible with my schedule given the nature of the travel.

here is a link to the decided route. if anyone has friends or family within, say, 200 meters of any of these roads, let me know. i'll now stop blogging and get to work.


update:
this article has some really good resources for buying environmentally friendly products. i needed to stock up on bug spray and sunscreen for the trip, but i'm tired of rubbing down with chemicals. i used the green guide to read about some more natural options. it has a pretty cool section where you can click to a room in your house, then click objects in a picture to learn about them.