The Innkeeper

This is a great poem by John Piper.  Please watch!

The Innkeeper

Montana 2012

Three years ago while visiting my sister in Montana my dad and myself took along our fly fishing gear.  Well, it's sorta turned into a yearly event know.  Not visiting my sister, but rather fly fishing Montana... :o)  (I love you Holly).  When we talked about where we wanted to fish I was pretty animate about my desire to fish Yellowstone.  So this year we fly into Bozeman MT. When we arrive we where greeted with the "Spirit Bear" or something like that.

This year we decided to take some other with us.  We were joined my dad’s brother, Uncle Skip, and one of dad’s co-workers, Jared, who is an Orvis guide. It was late when we got there, and we went to the store for food then straight to our cabin, about an hour upstream from Bozeman. The next morning, after breakfast we head out to the Gallatin.  We drove past it all night and never got to see it since it was dark.  It’s not my favorite river to but it’s in my top 3, and beautiful river able to hold it own.  We started off fishing at your favorite spot.  The last 2 years we have done REALLY good here.  “Where is here?” you ask, well I forget.  :o)

 

After fishing the Gallatin for a while in the am we decided after lunch to head to West Yellowstone and get our permits for fishing in the park. We also needed to scout out the area since the 8 days earlier the park closed down the 3 main river  to all fishing.   That bad news was quickly over put out of the way.  The whole way there I was excited that I was going to see a wolf.  After my ‘list of first sightings’ last year that included Big Horn sheep and moose, I needed something big this year.  I was convinced that I was going to see a Wolf.  After talking about seeing one, my dad reminded me that we were not headed to the part of the park that had any of the wolf packs in it.  I was really saddened but I remained optimistic still.  A couple miles later, I was over whelmed with excitement.  There in the middle of the road, waiting on me, was a WOLF.  As our vehicle drew closer he trotted off the road and over to the berm.  There he waited till we stopped beside him and allowed up to wind down our windows and take some pictures.  I was so excited to see it that I didn’t even remember to take any pictures for the first 10 or so seconds.  From that moment on I didn’t care how the rest of the trip went.  My vacation was already made.  Wolves are hard to come by, and this one was a once in a life time shot.  Some people follow the wolf packs all over Yellowstone and never get a view like we get. What was even more impressive was that we were not even in Yellowstone at the time.  I called my sister Holly up to tell her the great news.  She then turned around and 1-up'd me by spotting a couple of Juvenile Mountain Lions playing in the mountains outside of Missoula.

 

In case you can't tell, this picture was taken as we entered the park.

The Gibbon River.  It was closed due to hot weather conditions.

An other view of the Gibbon, further upstream.

Not something that I wanted to see.  The red marks the closed sections of the Gibbon, Firehole and Maddison rivers.

Me, Dad and Uncle Skip.

Dad caught this Grayling.  It was the only one caught on the trip.

A Bull Elk, we actually saw a Bull Elk.  This was dad's 5th trip to the park and this was his first Bull.

Uncle Skip standing at the look out beside Gibbon Fall overlook.  Great view!

On our way out of West Yellowstone we stopped and fished a little creek called Grayling. 

 

The fishing was the best quantity wise, but the size of the fish was lacking.  Most were only about 4-5 inches long.

Dad with a nice trout back on the Gallatin.

After fishing Yellowstone and the Gallatin for a couple of days we headed to my favorite river, Rock Creek.  Rock Creek is outside of Missoula, and its a 20-40 mile drive up a dirt road to get to the good fishing.  Yep, we were out there.  My kind of place.  Dad and Jarred went one way and me and Uncle Skip went another.   I was glad that we went another way as our fishing at one of my favorite holes was a lot better then the fishing that Dad and Jarred had.  We got into some nice Browns, as well as some Rainbow and some Cut-Bows.

While fishing the Rock, my sister tracked us down and brought us lunch.  I guess that 26 miles of the main road was not far enough...  just joking.  Love you Holly!  Miss you already!  

We did go into town for the evening and go out to dinner together, as well as some huckleberry ice cream at The Big Dipper.  It was fun, but we had to get going again.

The next day where where 5 miles southeast again at West Yellowstone.  This trip in the park we got to see a wild buffalo.  This was my first ever buffalo.

Later that day my life go a little more exciting again.  We decided to split up again to cover more area's.  Dad and Jarred went to Bacon Rind Creek and my and Uncle skip went to fish Fan Creek just a mile up the road.  As I approach the parking lot I see they have bear warning signs.  Now they typically only put these type of signs up when Grizzly bear are frequently sighted or there is signs of them.  Now the sign says to hike in groups of 3 or more.  Well, there is only 2 of us, but we are experienced outdoors men so no worries.  As I park I get out of the car and Uncle Skip decides that he wants to rest for a while.  OK, just one now.  No biggie, I'm an experienced outdoors man, I can handle it.

  

I go over to read the rest of the signage while putting on my fishing stuff and I see another sign about the bears in the area.  I notice that someone has penciled in "CARCUSS NEAR FAWN PASS". 

Well, this could be bad. In a couple of minutes I find this sign. I'm not worried now because as you can see Fawn Pass is 9 miles away and I only have 2 hours to fish.  There is no way that I can make it that far.

Well, 3/4 of a mile away I find this as I round the bend.  My second Bull Elk of the trip.  But this one is not moving.  He was pretty much intact,other then some hid ripped off his rib cage on the one side. Well, that was a long walk out of there by myself.

The next day me and dad went back and found the carcass ripped to pieces and dragged everywhere. Upon our return to the parking lot we found a ranger who confirmed that it was most likely a wolf pack kill and not a bear.  Wolfs will corner animals, kill them and leave them lay where they die and eat them.  Grizzly bears will drag their kill into the bushed and try to hide it.

I neat picture of one of the trout that Jarred caught.  This was his first cut throat.

 

Me fishing up Bacon Rind Creek our last day of the trip.  Beautiful area, but the fishing was  lacking because of the warm weather.

We are already looking forward to hopefully next year!!!  What adventure will we get into next time.

Hitting the trail...

Today we decided to hit the trail...the bike trail that is.  A couple miles from the house is one of the parking lots for the Great Allegheny Passage rails to trails system.  This system not runs from Pittsburgh, Pa to Cumberland, Md and connects with the C&O Canal Towpath and continues to run all the way to D.C.  The part of the trail running from Confluence, Pa to Ohiopyle, Pa was the first section installed to be tested.  It was completed when I was a little kid. Today I got to take my wife and kids on it.  We loaded up the treks and strapped on our helmets and off we went. It was a great day to go to.  The temp was only 96 degrees today.  Not near the 100 that it was the last couple of days.  :o)  We started at the parking lot, went down about 3 miles then turned around, went back the other way, past the car and to the tasty freeze to get some lunch, then back to the car.  We didn't about 10 miles all said and done.

Emily and Ben enjoyed getting towed around....

The kids and me posing for a picture by some white water. While we were there some rafter went by.  The little ones loved it and waved to everyone as they went by.  They got the biggest kick out of the boat that kept going in circles.

Laura and Aron enjoying the cool breeze that almost always blows down the valley.

Tasty treat

After spending a couple hot days loading and unloading trucks I decided to take the kids down to the local tasty freeze, pajamas and all, get couple of ice cream cones.  I really missed Galliker's ice cream.  It is so creamy.  As you can see the kids loved it too.

Moving

After spending 13 years in Ohio circumstances popped up that brought into consideration to move back to PA.  It was a hard decision that was only was only decided after much pray and consideration by my wife and myself.  We packed up a uHaul a couple days ago and drove it across Ohio to Pennsylvania.  I was very happy to get out of the city, but it was a very emotional time to be leaving family and great friends.  Everyone will be missed greatly.
The truck loaded down and ready to roll.....

 After the long haul....

Laura got tired of waiting for my to go up and down the hills (I don't blame her) so she left me behind and arrived almost an hour ahead of me.

1st Dual Sport Event

I finally got to ride in a dual sport even before leaving Ohio. Nate and myself went out and rode in the "2012 Flint Ridge Dual Sport" ride.  Its one of the most well layout rides in the country.  The Licking County Trail Riders organization does a great job of setting it up.  It consisted of 2 riding sections, 1 for the morning and 1 for the evening.  They are close to 50 miles each, ALL though private land.  It was a blast!  I hope that I can go back and ride it next year.  I will be using my other bike though.  My DR650 was way to heavy for the type of terrain that I was riding.  I laid it over 8 or 9 times because of the front wheel kicking out from under me (that's why I wear all the gear).  Only thing I broke though was one rear turn signal. I was really happy about that.

Before the ride....

 After the ride..... Only some minor scratches, and the broken rear turn signal.

There where a couple of GASGAS bikes next to us.  They where powered by KTM engines and built race ready for the dual-sport world.  They were 305cc 2-Strokes.  Amazing power.  These though only has about 17 miles on them. They were some really nice bikes.  Very sought after.

Others at the event.....

Amazing

It's amazing how my stuff some people can get into their car.  I don't think that I can fit that much into my truck.   I followed this guy for about 10 feet them figured that I didn't want to be behind him anymore.  This guy not only drove through town like this, but he got on interstate right behind me!

There was more stuff on the roof that you can't see from this picture, like a microwave.

Cherub Choir

Today Emily sung in her Cherub Choir during the evening service.  She did a good job and only picked her dress up once this time.  :o)

Sold

Many know that we put our house on the market.  Well, the first couple to look at it decided to buy it. Closing was set for April 28th.  After missing 3 closing (not any fault of the buyers or sellers) we finally closed on the 30th of May.  So many memories were created and shared there.  But like many things in life it was time to move on. 

Enjoying bath time.

Enjoying bath time.

Turkey's

Today Shawn and myself went to another park called Blendon Woods to see what kind of birds we could add to our list.  We ended up finding a bunch of Turkeys.  Some still strutting around. All the gobblers hard really nice beard on them.  To bad they were in a protected area.

After looking at the turkey's for a while we moved on to a look out shelter and had the privlige of a mother duck and some ducklings coming up to us.  Emily was there an was really thrilled to have them that close.

Bald Eagles Nest

A friend of mind is into getting into bird watching and has awaking an old interest of mine.  I dug out my binoculars and tagged along on a couple of journey.  The first stop was a couple mile walk back through a park to see a local Bald Eagles nest.  Well, I guess you could say that we saw it.  I circle it to help you out.  It was only like 1000 yards away an I was using the phone on my cell.

Zemba Family Days II

This past week it was that time of year, Zemba Family Days was upon us again.  Like last year we joined the Snyder’s, and this year Mommy and Benjamin went with Emily and Myself.  It was a great time.  

Benjamin enjoyed his time with his buddy Levi

 Emily getting her chance at operating a 300 class excavator.

 Benjamin getting his chance at operating a 300 class excavator. 

 As we were walking up to get his turn the operator stepped out and asked if we minded letting him refuel as his fuel light was blinking.  As he drove the track-hoe away Benjamin puts his head in my shoulder and cries "Oh-no, its over!"  A quick 5 minutes later he was in the control seat. As you can see by the look on his face he was more then happy to be driving.

In the end though, nothing can make a boy more happy then just playing in the dirt.

  

(This is what happened when I made him stop playing in the dirt)

  Well, maybe horses can make him happy too.

Emily enjoyed her time on the horses.  In fact she road them twice.

 A fitting picture to the end of a GREAT day.