Special Agent Cooper Takes Montana

CatskillsRunner

Adventurer
Big Creek Campground

And Glacier
 

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CatskillsRunner

Adventurer
East Branch Delaware River

Almost home...
 

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CatskillsRunner

Adventurer
Home

While my vegetable garden is a mess, many of my perennials are in bloom and it is nice to see the ponies again.
 

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CatskillsRunner

Adventurer
Thanks for following along

Hey guys,

Thanks for following us in this adventure. We had an amazing trip!

Hope you enjoyed it, Kristy & Coop
 

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CatskillsRunner

Adventurer
Great report and photos! Thanks for taking us along and I'm glad you're all back safe.

Thank you! It was more fun than I thought it would be to document it.

Here are more pictures I just got. I can't resist. Her pictures are so beautiful.
 

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CatskillsRunner

Adventurer
More

..
 

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SmoothLC

Explorer
Great TR.

I gotta pick up fly fishing.

I went a couple years ago but haven't been back.

Spectacular scenery and wonderful photos. What did you use to take them on the river?
 

CatskillsRunner

Adventurer
Hey there!

It was nice to be in such a varied landscape. It changed so quickly...

I was sitting at Toyota today and picked up Fly Rod and Reel which contained an article about fishing Montana's alpine lakes. The author had hired guides and taken horses up to the lakes and the pictures were unreal. I feel like we just got a taste of Montana in our two weeks there.

Even tho we had my Canon with us we didn't end up using it. This was partly due to the fact that it was easier to take pictures with my Droid then upload them to ExPo.

Thank you for saying the pictures were nice. The pictures were so much better before I had to resize them so they would fit here. But, anyway, I took mine with my Droid Turbo, which many people love. I don't love mine. Eileen's were taken with her iPhone. She is definitely the better photographer and I also think her phone took better pictures than my Droid.

Both of our phones were kept in Seal line dry bags, altho while we were fishing I got pretty lax about mine...never know when you'll have a fish on. Or--the likelier scenario--your husband will, and you'll then have to have the boat pointed in the right direction to get the fish, hook the oars under your legs, net the fish and have your camera ready...all at the same time.

And just in case you were wondering, the most important components of that equation are...

1. The fish: because trout are fragile and you want them to come in when they are ready to and not before or after that
2. The rods. *See story below.
3. Trying to get Tim to play along with this but he won't engage in "hypotheticals."
4. I'm not sure where my phone would be in this equation. I would guess not very important.

*This little story is not about Montana. It took place in Colorado. One year we rafted the Upper Colorado at 5000 cfs. Which is high. Especially when you are rowing a 16' boat, fully loaded for a three day trip. Anyway, the Upper C has loads of rr bridge crossings. The pylons are midstream, and sometimes, just for fun, there will be a road alongside the rr bridge, so you sometimes have to negotiate two sets of pylons. There are warnings in the river lit about how these are known for trashing boats because they flip the rafts up and are incredibly dangerous since the boat could trap you between the pylon and the (now) wrapped frame.

None of that would be that scary, but we had 5k Upper C water. And here was a steep river gradient, so steep you literally were looking down at it, and a healthy, loud rapid I was rowing into, and a big turn river left mid-rapid, and now here we have them: two separate sets of pylons maybe 20 feet apart, which obviously no engineer had designed with river runners in mind.

I am rowing. And I realize too late I am not strong enough to negotiate the boat through it.

You have to yell just to hear at this point, so I yell to Tim that he has to take over. Must.

Of course, all the time spent swapping seats has left us in a worse position than we were in before. And all I can think about is how cold the water is, the huge pillow of water coming off the pylon I think we're going to hit broadside, how, even looking downstream, I don't see any slack water I will be able to use to get out of the river, how there is no cell service, how we are alone.

There was no spit in my mouth. I was truly terrified.

The next thing I knew, Tim was yelling at me to grab the fly rods, because they were in danger of being lost off the back of the raft.

I thought I was going to lose my life.

Tim wanted his fly rods.
 
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bigskypylot

Explorer
It turns out that they got some pretty good hail here, so this time my waiting paid off and we avoided a good storm.

The drive today was scenic and it was so nice to avoid interstates. The landscape changed dramatically as we went along. We passed over the Powder River Pass in Wyoming. There was snow high in the mountains and, as always, it is a treat to drive my truck over a mountain pass. I've never been able to say that before!

I'm feeling heartsick and uninspired and I don't want to drive east. And I'm feeling very Chris McCandless all the sudden. Even interactions at the gas station are too much for me. Man. This is bad.

I would rather sleep on my Paco Pad in my tent than in my bed at home. Anybody rich out there care to fund me?

20160810_001959.jpg

Speaking of Powder River Pass... that was back on July 1st. Enjoying the trip report!
 
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CatskillsRunner

Adventurer
Took me a few months, but I'm finally going through the Go Pro footage. The river footage is more interesting, but here is the first video I put together of driving the North Fork Rd...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7aykUpr_zf0

Can I also say...this is the first video I put together in my life. So I'm hoping the next ones are better. Bear with me.
 
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