Reason #4532 why jail sucks

You can spend three days shoveling the snow from an entire stadium,

but you still don't get to stay and watch the game.

Sign

Good hunters notice sign. Sometimes we pick it up to find it is still warm. But sign comes in many forms and not all of it is subtle

A damn good sign close to your elk camp



Sign of a damn big bear



Sign of a damn big bull



Sign of a damn big lion



Just a damn funny sign

Season of the Shroom

One of the great advantages of moving slowly and quietly through the Fall woods for most of a week is that it gives a fellow time to enjoy the mycology

Elk Camp

When Clyde drew a coveted tag this spring and asked if I would go in with him, there was no hesitation. Yes. We hauled in a back-country camp on our backs in the rain yesterday. Dad came along for the hike. It was a stormy day high on a wild, windswept ridge and he couldn't resist the adventure of it all. Tent, water, stove, fuel and some food are ready for next weekend. Saw some big bulls and a beautiful jet-black bear. We're camped on the top of the world, next to some of the best elk habitat in the neighborhood. It's beautifully rough county. I'm glad there are horses on stand-by if we get lucky, because there are some damn awful places in there to put that much meat on the ground.

Give a boy a glue gun,,

and alien robots will come down to invade earth.

The creative force is strong with this one, Luke.

Fall is getting off to a very good start!

Already?!?

Summer is over already!?!

The list of things I wanted to do this summer was way longer than the list of things that got done, but I guess that is par for life on earth.

Life seems to be about balance:

Did some camping
Didn't do any backpacking

Did float the GR and the Snake
Didn't float the Salmon

Did play at the cabins of three different friends
Didn't get to the ocean

Did get pulled in a tube by a boat
Didn't wet a water ski.

Did some fly fishing
Didn't bring my fly rod home in the same number of pieces

Did have some great evenings paddling w/ my lover
Didn't get to linger anywhere for very long

Did get each boat out at least twice
Didn't get the ropes out once.

Best quote of the summer: "There must be a metric shitload of fish in this river"

Steelhead are coming, I have my elk tag and a very special deer tag in hand, but the bird dog is fat.


The glory of September can linger deep into October, and we are already talking about skiing around here.

2 in 1 for Tuesday

Two afternoon trips to water in one weekend is what summer should hold.

On Saturday Ben and I got some elevation and did an afternoon of lake fishing.

Then on Sunday the whole family headed down to the dunes just to soak up some sun and splash around.

West Slope Cutthroat

Pursuing Salmo clarki lewisi in small headwaters with a fly rod is fantastic fun.

Add plenty of shooting stars and other wildflowers at waters edge for aesthetics, toss in some good company and you have yourself a recipe for a wonderful day. Thanks, Joe!

John Stuart Mill

"A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. "

"The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle."

"In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

"The object of this Essay is to explain as clearly as I am able grounds of an opinion which I have held from the very earliest period when I had formed any opinions at all on social political matters, and which, instead of being weakened or modified, has been constantly growing stronger by the progress, reflection and the experience of life. That the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes — the legal subordination of one sex to the other — is wrong itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. "

"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it."

Sunday came early

Father's day is whatever day looks like better weather.

Today marks the second time Claire and I have stayed up late hunting worms by flashlight and stored them in an old sour cream container in the fridge until morning, only to find that when we get to the river the next day, the container is actually filled with sour cream. No shit, I've done it twice! To make it two for two, we lost a stringer of fish that came untied for my second bonehead encore. Your Papa is an idiot, get used to it, senility is coming soon.


We saw frogs, ducklings, tanagers, buntings, grosbeaks, herons, etc. etc. and had a wonderful day paddling around and setting hooks.

2 for Tuesday

Today's 2fer is: Jobs done well

Kick @ss read length

Kick @ss stairs

Too fer Tuesday

Having Claire at 5th grade camp was TOO cool

I can never have TOO many days on the river

Summer flowers are starting to show up, TOO.