Wyoming in a different way

This September marked my 20th trip to the "Golden Ring", an area described by Gordon Eastman as encompassing 300 miles in any direction of West Yellowstone, Montana.  This area holds hundreds of rivers of all sizes, and the best fly angling for coldwater trout in North America.

But this trip was different. Fly fishing was not the prime directive; hiking was instead.  My wife, former president of the Louisiana Hiking Club, had organized a group camping trip to the Tetons.  We joined 22 other LHC members over the span of 12 days, for various hikes and other activities.

I was feeling okay about this trip until I went to see the movie "A Walk in the Woods".  What a terrific film!  Robert Redford and Nick Nolte had me laughing throughout.  Leave it to Redford to make movies that inspire us to do outdoor-type things.  First fly fishing, now hiking.  I was ready to backpack the AT, but first came Tetons. We'd see how that went.  

As for fishing... since I had agreed to serve as a hike leader, I knew my time on the water would be rare. Still, as the schedule came to fruition, it appeared that I'd have at least 3 days at the tail end of our trip to be on the water, with a half-day squeezed in on the first half.

My half-day turned out pretty decent, with a few 8-10 inch cuts taken on hoppers and stimulators.

As luck would have it, great weather the first week turned into nasty cold the second week. A big cold front also dumped 6 inches of rain on us, turning all the local streams to milk.  It also affected our hikes... we ended up doing a couple days of sightseeing instead  (not bad, actually, because I never get tired of visiting all the attractions in Yellowstone).

The cold weather also gave our club chefs a chance to cook up a chicken and andouille gumbo, and talk about good!  For several days after, we had a big black bear coming around the group campsite trying to find our where that delicious smell came from!  When folks ask if I lost any weight from hiking 30+ miles this trip, my response is "not much".  Let's just say we ate very well this trip thanks to John Garrett, our Camp Commander in charge of cooking.  Plus my insatiable apetite for buffalo burgers - morning, noon, and night!

On the third to last day of our trip, I did some fishing on Flat Creek, a couple small channels off the Snake River, and on the Hoback.  Overcast, cold and sleeting at times, I was very disappointed I'd missed out on the hopper run.  Small parachute BWOs did bring a few fish up, and I lost one really nice cutt on Flat Creek because I let the cold get to my head and wasn't paying attention.

On the second to last day, I hooked up with John and his BFF, Scout.  John had done so much on this trip and really wanted to get away and do some fly fishing.  He admitted to me that he needed help with a bunch of things, including casting.  Also, Scout had been tethered to her leash for the duration of her time in the Park, and John was hoping his canine companion could get some exercise.

We picked a spot on the Snake.  I gave him a few lessons and instructed him on setup and rigging for dry fly fishing. For most of the morning, I'd be guiding John rather than fishing myself.  By afternoon, he'd picked up enough where the confidence juices were flowing!  Especially after John landed finespotted 7 cutts on dry fly, with more than twice that many coming up to smack it.  I finally got my line wet for an hour, with a predictable spot turning up a bunch of rises with 8 brought to the bank.

We then had lunch in Alpine at Yankee Doodle Restaurant (another buffalo burger for me - lol).  Afterwards we fished the Greys River, one of my favorite streams in Wyoming.  It was a tough afternoon, but I think by now high pressure had settled in and that always makes things difficult.  We each had several rises, and I did manage to land 3 small cutts (7-8 inches).

The final day ended with the big fish I'd been hoping for.  A nice 17-inch Snake River Finespotted Cutthroat trout came from under a log and snapped my Royal Trude.  What a way to end a great trip!

As with any trip to this part of the country, the animal sightings and encounters complete the trip. Here's the final tally by myself:
- 4 bears, including one grizzly  (most bears I've seen on any trip!)
- 6 moose... or is that meese?
- dozens of buffalos
- a couple dozen elk  (they seemed to be short numbers this trip)
- 4 red foxes
- 1 bald eagle
- loads of  deer, ground squirrels, gray jays, chipmunks
- hundreds... and I mean hundreds, of antelope. They must be immigrant lopes.

I took over 500 photos, and still haven't checked them all yet.  In the meantime, here's a few that will give readers a feeling for the Golden Ring.

  

ICAST 2015 - Super Tuesday

New this year for ICAST-IFTD was "Super Tuesday".  This included the first-ever On-the-Water Demo (OTWD), as well as a bass tournament, that took place at Lake Toho Marina in Kissimmee.  There was also a golf tournament as well that morning. And later that evening a concert by country music star Eastin Corbin.

I arrived at Toho around 10am, just in time for the winners of the bass tournament to be announced. The winning team had one member easily recognized by his University of Tennessee cap. As someone told me, "I thought he only fished private ponds.". lol


There were dozens of exhibitor tents on the grounds, and several paddlecraft companies on the shoreline (and several boat companies at the marina).  I came to ICAST with the plan of concentrating strictly to exhibitors with products related to fly fishing or kayak fishing, or which fly anglers or puddlers might have interest.  Even so, it took all of four hours to check everything out.  Well except for the new Wilderness Systems ATAK, which I ended up having to test out later.  The crowd at the Wildy area was pretty thick until 1:00pm, and just as I though I might get a chance to paddle this boat, an advancing thunderstorm announced it's presence with a loud boom.  It wasn't quite closing time (2pm), but everybody packed up in a hurry!

OTWD was a great idea and a big success according to several vendors. It especially was for two unheralded kayak companies that made a major splash with their new offerings. One of them won "Overall Best of Show".  Many of the booths found potential customers that might've never seen them on the exhibition floor.

Rather than give a chronological detail of the products I saw and reviewed, I'll summarize them all into categories, with one post for each category.   Stay tuned!

2015 Spring Garden - May 5th update

I had a late start this year, but the plants are catching up!  Hard to believe when I compare to the pics from a month ago.  Right now, I've got baby cucumbers, lots of small tomatos, a few small bell peppers. The west plot has been slow...  the watermelons and cantelopes have just started their growth spurt in the last week and are climbing the vertical frame.

I put snap beans in the ground and they came up in a couple days and are taking off!  I created five "rows" - at least a row in the SQFG idiom - and planted three.  The remaining two will be put in some time next week. In this way, I should get four harvests of beans (each Contender plant produces 2 sets of fruit).

Someone asked about where I planted the bell peppers (between rows of cucumbers and tomatoes). Their concern was that they'd be crowded out by the vines and not get enough sun or even nutrients. In my experiences over the years, bell peppers do okay in the Spring but great in the Fall.  If you can get them through the dog days of July and August. The cucumbers and tomatoes shade the peppers during the hottest days. While I had fair production in early summer, it was that Fall crop of peppers that was worth the wait.  Based on the average market price for green and red peppers (I picked about a 60/40 mix), the garden produced enough peppers in the Fall alone to cover all the expenses involved over the year for the entire garden (all plants, fertilizer, manure, top soil, etc).  That means that the hundreds of cucumbers, dozens of tomatoes, thousand or so cherry tomatoes, bushels of snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc, etc was all lagniappe!

The Fred Cormier Memorial Garden

My dad - or "Pop" as everyone in our family called him - was a man of many outdoor talents. He could hunt and fish like no one else could.  He was often featured on the local outdoor shows, and a constant contender at the annual ALBC Top 6 Bass Tournament (fyi, the Super Bowl of Louisiana bass fishing). 

And when it came to gardening, he was a master at that also!  Of course, his job was with the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, working with farmers, and with the folks at the LSU Extension Service.  So he was always up to the latest research on vegetable varieties.  He knew tomatoes and bell peppers better than they knew themselves, lol.  And every other crop as well.

Even after he retired, he kept his finger on the pulse of Louisiana agriculture - including garden crops. Living on 2 acres afforded more than enough room to plant a wide variety.  Even better, our home was on the bayou... the garden benefitted from the alluvial soils deposited over hundreds of years, back to when the Bayou Teche was the main artery for the Atchafalaya River.

That deep, rich soil combined with a colossal garden produced more veggies than you'll find at a supermarket!  During one season, it produced: tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, zucchini, squash, cucumber, lima beans, snap beans, cowpeas, corn,  cabbage, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, snap peas, carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, winter squash.  I'm sure there's a few other veggies I missed... those are just the ones off the top of my head.

After Pop passed away, the family made an effort to continue the garden, albeit on a much smaller scale.  However, it seems to be growing in size a bit.  My nephews Steven and Ira, and Ira's wife Chrissy, have been instrumental in keeping it going.  The results have been pretty amazing.  The photos show 2 plots as of the first weekend in May.  The zuchini and squash are coming in, the eggplant is ready, so are the snap beans. I'm not sure if it's the slightly warmer climate one hour south of Alexandria, or that rich soil, but just about everything is ahead of mine except the cucumbers.  I'm guessing it's the latter.

Anywho, I'm so glad to see Pop's Memorial Garden is bringing fresh, organic produce to the family table once again.  He's probably bragging to his friends in Heaven about his industrious grandchildren.

2015 Spring Garden

Two weeks ago I put in my Spring garden. By "Spring", I mean those plants which will produce in late spring, summer, and as last year proved, into fall.  I'm talking cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatos.  As part of my rotational regiment, these went into the "east plot" (last year, they were planted in the "west plot").  Each of the two plots are 16x6 in size, bordered by 2x6 boards.  The soil in each was dug out to 3 feet, then amended with a combination of compost (from my compost pile), manure and Miracle-Gro garden soil.

Yes, I'm a disciple of the late Mel Bartholomew - Dean of Square Foot Gardening. It works!

Plant progress has been slow.  Even though the weather has been warm, perhaps the ground is still a bit cool.  I'm not discouraged... last year this time it was only slightly more advanced. Then in April it really took off (but that was after I added the "secret ingredient"... I'll explain in a future post).  At least 3 plants had to be replaced due to wind damage.  We had a storm that came last week that produced 45 knot gusts!

The West Plot isn't empty.  Half of it is currently in progress.... I'm experimenting with cantalope and watermelon grown on a vertical frame. Yes, another SQFG concept.  I did this once before and it worked out pretty well.  The key is to grow small melons like Sugar Baby.  I think the standard melons would break off under their own weight (although I couldn't find a forum post to confirm that).  Later the other half of the West Plot will be put to snap beans.

2014 Flicks - The Final Verdict

Just as I predicted - Hollywood saved it's best for last.  It always does.  The final 2 months of the year produced three of my favorites - "American Sniper", "The Theory of Everything" and "The Imitation Game".  I loved each one of these movies!  Unfortunately the local theatre showed "Birdman" only for two weeks and I missed out on that one, but from the trailers it looked appealing.  So did "Grand Budapest Hotel"... hey, I'm a Wes Anderson fan!  Add to that, "Heaven is for Real" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" and that's my best list.

Another movie I wanted to see but didn't was "A Walk Among the Tombstones".  Liam Neeson movies are a coin flip - some good, some bad.  But from trailers this looked like positive.

I did see part of "Boyhood" and I'm thinking it got raves for it's very different approach.  But it put me to sleep.  Another movie I saw - "God is Not Dead" - was filmed in Louisiana.  Like the vast majority of movies made in part with our tax dollars, it was not good.  At least it didn't suck like "Benjamin Button",  "Dukes of Hazzard" or "Shark Night 3D".  The state legislature needs to make changes to the film credit program. Have the script reviewed by a panel before any scenes are shot.  If I was on such panel, there might've been three movies EVER made with the tax credits.

But I digress... the end of the year restored my faith in Hollywood.  What little there is!