I am back in Seattle at my Parent's house for just a couple of days. Normally I am ecstatic to be home for a quick trip, but unfortunately this trip has happened because of tragic circumstances. My parent's closest friends from more than 35 yeas back are Rick and Pam Hoag. They have been friends, family, God Parents, mentors and teachers to my sister and I all of our lives. After a long and difficult battle with Liver Disease, Pam passed away on July 8th at the age of 57. I flew here to try to be support for Rick and his two kids Chris (32) and Rick (29), and help them start their healing process. As it turned out, I was one that ended up needing the healing. Through situations like this I try to be as stoic as I can be. Be a pillar for all around me. But as soon as I saw Rick, Rick, and Chris before the funeral, I broke down. It hit me how close my family came to being in that situation. It hit me that someone that had been an fixture in my life since I was an infant was now gone. It hit me that we have to live and love as much as we can while we are all here because we never know when we are going to forced to live the rest of our lives without someone we love. We all cried, ate great food, told funny stories, drank Irish Whiskey, played music, and had a phenomenal party in Pam's memory. And as I sit here on Sunday morning, I know that the long road of the healing process for all of us has begun.
July 13, 2008
June 30, 2008
Featured Tier
This week I was the featured fly tier for the Montana Standard Newspaper.
Here is the link to the article and the video
http://mtstandard.com/articles/2008/06/30/outdoors/hjjbjdhehghcjb.txt
June 25, 2008
June 15, 2008
Lots of bugs, lots of boats and lots of business
It's June 15th and it finally feels like summer is here, and our busy season is officially under way. Since the 1st of June, Ryan, Joel and I have been averaging 13 hour days, we have run 53 guided trips, the shop is up over 200% month to date compared to 2007, and we are as happy as could be. It's amazing how good weather and good business puts a smile on everyone's face. Here are a few pictures from the first half of June.
Here's a collection of guide boats sitting next to the shop just before we sent out 10 guided trips on the 6th of June.
Guests at the Lodge eating breakfast before a day out on the Big Hole
Alpenglow on the Tobacco Root Mountains as seen from the front porch of the lodge.
No, that's not snow. It's actually as caddis hatch on the river near Thompson's Corner.
The only way to enjoy an amazing start to June. Enjoying a Rainier with good friends.
June 04, 2008
May 22, 2008
Blown-Out Big Hole, Crowded Beaverhead, Beautiful Yellowstone
On Saturday My Dad and three friends made their way to Southwest Montana for a weekend of fly fishing on the
We agonized and agonized aver what we would do with the Big Hole looking more like Nestle's Quick than a Blue Ribbon trout stream. We made a million phone calls to guides all over the state to try an find any fishable water, but as we all expected, the warm weather had destroyed every river within a 200 mile radius. So on the first evening we decided to try our luck at our private pond and wait to hear reports from the Beaverhead. We drove down to the pond and enjoyed a gorgeous evening catching big rainbows on dry flies.
After catching a few nice trout, we went back to my house, tapped the keg, grilled a few burgers, built a campfire, and settled in for a long night of drinking, reminiscing, and catching up.
As we sat around the fire consuming beer after beer, the next day's plan began to solidify. We'd wake up at a leisurely pace, head down to The Old Hotel for breakfast and then head down to the Beaverhead for an afternoon float.
Breakfast was phenomenal, and with a full belly made the 28 mile drive down to the Beaverhead.
The Beaverhead is a tail-water, which means that the water comes out of a reservoir, making the water pumped into the river both cold and clean. This is why the Beaverhead was fishing when the rest of the rivers in the area were completely blown-out. Having said that, as soon as the first tributary came into the Beav (about 2 miles below the dam), it too was blown-out. We did pretty well, catching a 22 inch rainbow, a 19 inch rainbow, an 18 inch brown and several fish between 15 and 17 inches. But since every angler in SW Montana that wanted to fish this weekend was forced to fish this 2 mile section of the Beaverhead, we decided that a little sight seeing was going to be more enjoyable than fighting the crowds on the Beav. So on Monday we made a trek to Yellowstone National Park.
The first stop in the park was Fountain Paint Pot. Amazing bubbling mud, small spurting geysers, and the strong smell of sulfur.
As I rounded the boardwalk near the red spouter, I saw my first Bison of the visit. The best part of Yellowstone for me is to see so many amazing animals in such a unique geologic area. Truly amazing.
The next stop on the whirlwind tour of the park was the Celestine Pool. This was a beautiful collection of pools and geysers adjacent to the Fire Hole River.
Here again we ran into a few Bison. This time they were grazing along the banks of the Fire Hole River. The Fire Hole River is the one of the Headwaters of the Missouri River. The Fire Hole meets the Gibbon River and creates the Madison River. The Madison River comes together with the Jefferson River (which is created at the confluence of the Big Hole, Beaverhead and Ruby Rivers) and the Gallatin River to create the Missouri. Its pretty amazing to be standing at the start of the country's second largest river.
Our third stop of the day was Old Faithful. If you have never been to the park, this is an obligatory stop, but once you have seen the anti-climatic burst of steam, water, and gas you sill agree that it was worth seeing, but that you probably don't need to return to see it again. With so many amazing natural feature to see in Yellowstone, it kinda makes me wonder why this one became the most famous.
After watching Old Faithful do its thing, we headed up to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River to look at the canyon and see the swollen river raging over both the upper and lower falls.
The final stop in the park was Mammoth Hot Springs. We were again blown away by the unique beauty of the unusual geologic feature.
As we were exiting the park, we were given one final view that you will only get to see in Spring. A newly born Bison Calf.
As we left Yellowstone and started our drive back to Twin Bridges we were treated to a beautiful sunset as we went north up the Paradise Valley.
Even though we didn't get to fish the Big Hole, we still had a fantastic time catching up and playing tourist in Southwest Montana.
May 13, 2008
All that work for nothing
The other evening Ryan, Katie and I were having the first meal at the new house. Katie was cooking coconut-curried kabobs with venison, shrimp and vegetables. 
In planning for the meal, Katie and I had stopped at the Front Street Market in Butte and bought a couple of nice bottles of wine. When it came time to open the wine, we realized that ALL of the wine openers were still buried somewhere in one of the boxes that we had yet to unpack. So rather than skip on the wine, we came up with a McGiver style solution to remove the cork. We sank four wood screws into the cork, grabbed the heads of the screws with the handle of a can-opener (which we were able to find in the chaotic abyss on boxes in the kitchen) and gracefully pulled the cork out of the bottle. 
We let the bottle breath for about 30 minutes and then pored the 2006 Ricardo Santos Malbec. Ahhh, the first well-deserved sip...BURRRRRN...Oh No...the wine was awful. Each sip of the wine gave each of us instant heartburn. I absolutely LOVE Malbecs, and it was so disappointing to have spent so much time and effort selecting the wine and then opening the bottle to only have the wine taste like Tabasco.
May 12, 2008
May 09, 2008
Off The Grid
We finally found a place to live! The house sits on 11 acres in an area called "The Bench", which is a high plateau between Melrose and Twin Bridges. From our house we can see 5 different groups of mountain here in the Rockies. We can see The Pioneer Mountains, The Ruby Mountains, The Tobacco Root Mountains, The Madison Range, and The Highlands. Being situated between these mountains kinda puts us in a bit of a rain-shadow, so the only vegetation within a 5 mile radius is Sagebrush, but having such an expansive view sure makes up for the lack of trees. The best thing about the house is that it is off the grid and runs off solar energy and propane. The Propane runs the hot water heater and the solar energy is responsible for the rest of the house. 
