Messin’ Around in Missoula

So, I have no idea what a BFF is – but Kirsten had one in high school and her name was Natalie.  So, as Kirsten tells the story – she started exchanging emails with Natalie right before we left on this grand adventure.  As Natalie knew that we were going to be in Montana, she invited us all to come stay with them in Missoula, Montana for a few days.  So, this was a mini-High School reunion for Kirsten. 

Turns out that Dave and her husband Steve would have a bit of a High School Reunion as well, as Steve graduated from the same High School as Dave and even graduated from the same MBA program at UConn.  More importantly, Steve loves dogs and we hit it off.  He was an excellent scratcher behind my ears.

Natalie and Steve also have two children Sydney, 10 years old and Eric, who was 2½.  Their kids and our kids also got along famously.  Caleb and Eric enjoyed chasing each other around and I enjoyed chasing them both.  Caleb also taught Eric the valuable skill of making goofy faces.  Steve was also quite proficient at this skill.

Sydney also could do her fair share of goofy faces.

The kids got along so well they even slept out under the stars together on the porch over-looking the mountains and Missoula.





Although Steve did love dogs he shared none of the amazing smelling meats that he cooked up over our stay.  Steve is a successful hunter and had prepared, flavored, and cured many varieties of venison sausages.  I think they ate some delicious variety at every meal.  But, did I get any of this... Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!  Look Steve even taunts me with his amazing grilled pizza complete with Italian venison sausage.

In addition to eating, the family did get adventurous and floated the Blackfoot River in inner-tubes.  And contrary to the calm water shown in these videos, I am told there were portions of the river that were Class IV and even Class V rapids. 

At one point Kirsten’s quick motherly instincts were called into action as Anika was launched from her tube and grabbed by her mother before she went down the rapids without her tube.  But, everyone survived and a good time was had by all.

In case you were wondering whether there was wildlife in the area – the answer is yes.  The white-tailed deer were a bit hungry as you can see.  This one grabs for an apple.

In addition, Dave just wouldn’t have survived this portion of the trip in the neighborhood of where the movie,  A River Runs Through It  took place, without some fishing.  Steve took Dave to Rock Creek to catch brown trout and Dave’s first Bull Trout.  That makes Dave’s 5^th trout species caught while on our trip.

Here is Steve in the process of catching more fish than Dave:

Our last evening in Missoula, both families left me behind, (I needed a rest from chasing Eric), and went out for dinner.  The boys were all decked out in their green shirts…

… and the girls got all gussied up in pink and green:

Many in these families rode the world’s fastest merry-go-round.  Luckily they did this before dinner as I am sure the results afterwards would not have been pretty.

Caleb caught the brass ring and donated the free ride to his sister.  What a nice big brother!

We all had a wonderful time with these new friends and old.  And from the looks of it, it was quite a reunion for Kirsten and Natalie:

I’ll write again of our adventures in South Dakota next.  Until then…

…big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Great Big Fish near Great Falls

A presenter at one of Dave’s Trout Unlimited meetings had presented the idea of catching enormous Rainbow Trout on the Missouri River in Montana.  As Dave is oriented to the pleasures and learning experiences of his children, he would ask the presenter for some advice as to where Caleb and Anika might catch some of these large “bows”.  With this information in hand Dave set out on his own for a day of reconnaissance to the Blue Ribbon Fishing Section of the Missouri River in the tail-waters of the Holter Dam.  Caleb, Anika and Kirsten would stay back at the KOA in Great Falls and enjoy the day at the water park there. 

Dave would watch as these enormous rainbow trout would be caught by the dozens of fisherman floating by in drift boats.  He would then watch as dozens of these porpoise behaving fish would roll around him and even fin within casting reach.  At one point he said a Montana Fish and Wildlife Ranger would stop to check Dave’s fishing license and would exclaim, “hey look at all those ‘big dogs’ around you – you should go after them”.  Dave was not pleased…

But, he was pleased when he caught two of these “big dogs”.  He would catch this 20 incher and another 18 incher. 

The next day Dave would bring the kids to this hole, but alas the fish were far more finicky on this day.

Even with Dave’s help the kids just couldn’t hook into one of these big rainbows.

Directly from this fishing hole we would head to Missoula, Montana where Kirsten would be reunited with her long lost BFF from High School.  Until then…

…Big Wet Kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Yellowstone National Park - Part 2: Slough Creek: Where Dreams Come True

That’s right Dave caught 30 trout in our 3 days here at Slough Creek.  You are sure to hear all about it when we get back – but I thought I might as well tell you about it to start and get it over with.  He would catch one of these big Yellowstone Cutthroat Trouts each day we were there.  Two of them were at least 20 inches and one was 18 inches.  The one shown above was especially meaningful to Dave as it was his first, his biggest, and he caught it right in front of the whole family, (except me – funny how I wasn’t invited on this fishing expedition).  In fact, everyone participated in the catch in some way.  Dave caught it with Anika’s fly rod, Caleb netted it for him, and Kirsten took the picture.  This was a realized dream for Dave.

We met up with Tayler and his fiancee.  He was kind enough to have camera in hand when Dave was fishing with him.  He took these great shots of Dave catching 2 more large cutthroat trout.


Taylor was newly hired by the Yellowstone National Park Service Fish and Game Department.  Here he is fishing Slough Creek.

And here is one more of Dave's big "cuts":

Pretty remarkable that Dave would catch 3 large cutthroat trout and have all of them so beautifully captured on film.  Thanks Kirsten and Taylor!

Our first dream came true when we first arrived at the campground and realized that this already small campground, less than 30 sites, was even smaller this year because a few of the sites had been washed away by the Buffalo River which met up with Slough Creek here.  But, my family’s dreams would come true, again, and they would get the best site in the place, right on the river.

It really was a beautiful site.  Dave would catch many of his fish within 30 yards of our camper. 

Dave would spend a lot of time fishing this beautiful river.  He would catch mostly Rainbow Trout from 8” to 14” in size.  And did I mention he caught 30 of them in 3 days? (Dave made me put that in there again.) He had been advised by many on the other rivers to fish in the area.  But, why go elsewhere when you are having this kind of luck?

What was also interesting is that we would watch many fisherman come to the river and get skunked.  (In layman’s terms:  “not catch fish”.)  Not this family.  The kids caught some nice little rainbow trout too.

And then there was Dave’s dream of seeing a bear.  In all of his time spent in the woods, he had never seen one in the wild.  Well, he would realize this dream as well.  In fact, he says he had the perfect bear encounters.  The first was when Caleb and Dave hiked up a hill in the Hayden Valley of the park and a group of animal spotters would let Caleb and Dave use their spotting scopes to see their first grizzly bear almost ½ mile away.  Caleb spotted the mother and cub just before they went over the back of a hill.  Dave would just see the mother – but both had seen this notoriously dangerous creature from a safe distance.

But, what about the rest of the family?  Most importantly what about me?  I wanted to see this creature that is my distant relative and a canine of the same color.  I really wanted to see a black bear.  Not to worry.  The family had been told that a black bear had walked right in back of their campsite just a few days before.  So, while Dave fished...again, near the campsite, Kirsten would call to him that this big black bear was right behind him. 

 

After I got a peak, I was ushered into the camper.  But, the rest of the family got to watch as he would wander right in back of their campsite, as promised.  By the way that is Dave's boxers hanging on the clothes line near their bear box.

He never even looked towards them.  He would dig at a nearby stump for ants and then just keep walking up the hill.  A close but safe encounter with a bear for the whole family.

And, as for Caleb and his wish to see a wolf.  Yes, that dream would come true too.  He had been given the tip that if they were out in the Lamar Valley and spotted a yellow XTerra SUV, to pull over as that was one of the park rangers that tracks the wolves in the park.  So, Dave and Caleb drove out in to this wide open valley on their last evening there.  They would be rewarded to start with a beautiful and unusual sunset.

They would spot the largest herd of bison they had ever seen, with over 800 of the beasts.  And, sure enough they would spot the yellow XTerra.  This ranger would lower his spotting scope for Caleb to see his first wolf.  And, it was his favorite color wolf too, black of course!  All the finest canine creatures are wearing black these days!

And finally, Anika and Caleb had one of their childhood dreams come true when they found a mud hole along the river that Kirsten and Dave allowed them to roll around in.  Oh the joy of getting truly muddy.  Unfortunately, Caleb did get a little exuberant with his jumping into the mud hole and broke his lttle toe.  But, nothing a little duct tape couldn't help.

Slough Creek was truly a place where dreams come true.  I’ll write again from Montana, where Dave and the kids will probably be fishing again...

Big Wet Kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Yellowstone National Park in Two Parts

First of all, an apology for not writing sooner. 

Bad Bloggin’ Dog!

We have been in Yellowstone for almost two weeks and did not have internet service the entire time.  And frankly we were having an awful lot of fun.  This park is so big and we had so many wonderful experiences that I have divided this blog entry into to two parts.

Part 1: Old Faithful Does Not Refer to Dave’s Gas…

…but, it does refer to the expulsion of gas from this very famous geyser.  I am told that everyone must visit this once in their lifetime.  My family saw it twice.  The first time when they first arrived, and the second time as they waited for our vehicle to get an oil change and a tire rotation.  After all, we have been almost 7,000 miles so far and Kirsten had been strongly hinting at our vehicle needing it.  Seems like a funny place to get a car serviced, but Dave assures me he got a great deal and it was fast courteous service.

This whole region was filled with active geological features (hey, dogs read scientific journals too you know!).  I especially enjoyed the noxious smells that accompanied these features. They smelled a lot like rotten eggs, (Dave says it’s sulfur).  I just wished they would have allowed me to roll around in it…

Ah well, here is one of those interesting active geological features.  This area was called Artist’s Pot where there were colorful hot springs.

In this exciting video (yawn) you can witness the bubbling of the mud around Artist’s Pot:

Of course, I was the most interesting animal in the park.  But, we did spot our fair share of other interesting animals.  Dave had the wish to see a bear on the trip.  And Caleb really wanted to see a wolf.  I know, I know, you are dieing from the suspense. But, you will just have to wait to see if they realized their dreams.

 As the family pulled into the Old Faithful parking lot, they would spot their first buffalo.  It stood a mere 10 feet from their vehicle.  And they would soon discover that this large creature was quite abundant around the park.

They would also spot many elk around the park.  They are quite a bit larger than deer – so I restrained myself from chasing these big boys with their huge racks.

Kirsten and the kids were just a river width away from this cow elk and her baby.

And, of course no Eastman vacation spot is truly worthy until Dave and the kids have fished there.  Dave did not do so well in the beautiful Gibbon River that snaked by our campground.  Dave seemed to enjoy getting fooled by those spooky trout though, as he fished there almost everyday.  The only thing he would catch is a 6 inch brook trout though.  Caleb had to show Dad how to do it when they went to Indian Creek and caught this pretty little brook trout.

I enjoyed this spot as well.  Caleb and I played my favorite game of “get the thrown stick out of the river”, over and over again.

I also really enjoyed playing the games of “muddy up the trout hole where Dave is fishing” and “catch the fly line in mid air”.  Dave was far less enthusiastic about these games.

Indian Creek was recommended to us by another one of those terrific people finds that we have done several times on this trip.  His name was Caleb and his new wife was Kayla.  They were on their honeymoon and my family and I would hit it off well, as they were dog lovers and fished too.  In fact, Caleb had an amazing tattoo of a huge trout rising to a fly on his stomach.  Like our Caleb, he too had a strong connection to the earth and water, and Native American culture.  He would teach our Caleb that his name, spelled phonetically using the Cherokee alphabet translated to:  Kay-Lee-Quee.  The whole family enjoyed meeting these interesting newlyweds from Colorado.  Caleb has put together some really cool fly fishing videos filmed in Colorado that were used in the Fly Fishing Film Tour.  Check them out by clicking on the links below. (The first one shows Caleb's very cool tatoo which he showed us at his campsite.)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xzIIKsBO-Q


Also check this oneout:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIAiY97bZ8Y

Dave did briefly try to fish the famous Madison River (without me), but alas…no fish. 

Would Dave find that magic trout stream filled with those elusive Western Cutthroat Trout he had drooled over in his fishing magazines?  I know…the suspense is killing you again…but, you’ll just have to keep reading.

Our campground was so nice that the family even tacked on an extra day there.  That day was mostly spent hanging around camp, but we had all been so busy we decided to take it easy.  Here I make sure the kids stay in bed in the camper with me and snuggle.

Make sure you check out the second part of this blog post for more exciting news from Yellowstone National Park.

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Parkin' It in Park City & Big Teets

 

Enticed by family, food, fun, and fishing, the family decided to change their itinerary to include a visit to Kirsten’s cousin’s, (the Muscat’s), new condominium in Park City, Utah.  What a beautiful place.  And we were pleasantly surprised to find Kirsten’s cousin’s the Blackshear’s there as well.  This was quite fortunate as we didn’t get to spend very much time with them in Florida.

Have I got your attention?  Well I was raised on ‘em – but these mountains we visited next were named after ‘em.   That is the Grand Tetons.  Some Frenchman decided it would be a good idea to name these pointy mountains after a woman’s breasts.  They sure are grand…

We didn’t spend a long time in this area as we were anxious to get to Yellowstone National Park.  But, this was sure a beautiful area.   Our campsite was practically right on Jackson Lake overlooking these grand mountains. These Tetons sure are beautiful.

Catching all those trout in the Provo River in Utah gave Dave the bug to fish again (as you can see from the first picture).  Unfortunately, the lakes and rivers of this area would not be as productive for catching fish.  But, they sure were beautiful spots. Here Dave fishes the Snake River. 

He claims it was too high to catch fish and only good for rafting.  But, then again, Dave has a lot of fishing excuses…

We were not only anxious to get to Yellowstone National Park, but we were also interested in getting away from the swarms of mosquitoes that would descend on us each evening and again in the morning.

I was happy to stay in the camper away from the mosquitoes on this day as the family visited Jackson Hole.  Here they stand in the town green under an arch of elk antlers.  Not to worry as in all of this blog no animals were harmed to create any of these pictures.  In fact, a local Boy Scout Troop collects the antlers when they are shed by the elk in the nearby preserve.

So, I will write again from Yellowstone National Park where I hope to find less mosquitoes and as much beauty.

Big Wet Kisses, Mookie, "The Bloggin' Dog"

While here the boys, Dave and Caleb, did some action park adventures with their relatives. 

Here is the teenager boy's only chair.  They would attempt to launch oral liquid projectiles at the woodchucks spotted below them.

The fun included a zip line, a mountain coaster, and an alpine slide. 

Dave enjoyed all but the beginning of the alpine slide which threw him off on the first turn. 

It did the same thing to Faye. 

Below, Dave and Faye commiserate over their boo-boo’s.  I made sure to lick Dave’s wounds thoroughly to speed the healing.

The next day, while Kirsten and her cousin’s spent some quality time together, Dave and the kids went with all of the boys to fish the storied Provo River.  Dave and the kids gave the group casting lessons the day before and Dave tried to put them where the fish might be.  Caleb and Anika didn’t want to show off in front of their relatives, so they let everyone else catch fish on this day.  They did enjoy being out on this beautiful river with snow capped mountains in the distance.

Here is Connor with one of the Provo’s newer residents.  Hey, I said they all caught fish – I didn’t say they were all of size.

Here is Tony multitasking while fishing.  Other than Dave he did catch the most fish, some while on his cell!  Well, he has to pay for that sweet new Park City condo somehow.

And Dave would stay behind to fish a few hours after the family left.  He caught six of the Provo’s beautiful wild Brown Trout.  Here is one of them.  Dave assures me that had the fish not curled back its tail it would be about 6 inches longer…

This will be the last we will see of Kirsten’s cousin’s on this trip…or will it…?

Big Wet Kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

(See Below for Big Teets:  The Grand Tetons)

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Big Teets

Have I got your attention?  Well I was raised on ‘em – but these mountains we visited next were named after ‘em.   That is the Grand Tetons.  Some Frenchman decided it would be a good idea to name these pointy mountains after a woman’s breasts.  They sure are grand…

We didn’t spend a long time in this area as we were anxious to get to Yellowstone National Park.  But, this was sure a beautiful area.   Our campsite was practically right on Jackson Lake overlooking these grand mountains. These Tetons sure are beautiful.

Catching all those trout in the Provo River in Utah gave Dave the bug to fish again.  Unfortunately, the lakes and rivers of this area would not be as productive for catching fish.  But, they sure were beautiful spots. Here Dave fishes the Snake River. 

He claims it was too high to catch fish.  But, then again, Dave has a lot of fishing excuses…

We were not only anxious to get to Yellowstone National Park, but we were also interested in getting away from the swarms of mosquitoes that would descend on us each evening and again in the morning.

I was happy to stay in the camper away from the mosquitoes on this day as the family visited Jackson Hole.

Yes, that is one of four arches around Jackson's town green made of elk antlers. But, not to worry, as with all of this blog, no animals were harmed to create this blog nor the pictures in it.  In fact, the local Boy Scout Troop collects the antlers shed by the elk in the nearby preserve. 

So, I will write again from Yellowstone National Park where I hope to find less mosquitoes and as much beauty.

Until then, big wet kisses, Mookie "The Bloggin' Dog"