Fishing

Trip Report – “We’re goin’ to Jackson…” Week 3.5 of 4

January 16, 2021 by kvec Leave a Comment

The Winter is coming… oh, you say it’s already here?

Jackson, Wyoming and the surrounding area.

Bouldering and Fishing on the Hoback River with Derek.

When we got into town we made our way through the Hoback Canyon and Derek fished there. We drove through Jackson, intending to stay at the Gros Ventre campground and of course they were full. We knew we were taking a risk coming in on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend.

The campground manager pointed us to the amphitheater lot for the night and said to get in line by 8 am the next morning to claim a spot. They had 44 camps opening the next day so we felt positive. We got into like a little bit before 6am and there were probably 20 cars ahead of us already!

We got in line and made coffee on the hood of the jeep with our jet boil. Ugg. We needed coffee. The day prior we had met a couple staying at Gros Ventre campground and leaving the next day. They told us they were leaving the next day (today) and to take their spot because of how nice it was. We took their advice and it was a great spot for sure. We were right along the edge of the cottonwoods with a beautiful sunset view of the Tetons and the Gros Ventre range.

We set out and fished at two of our favorite places on the Snake River. Top Secret. lol. I had my best fishing day on the whole trip there. I looked behind me and Derek was sitting on the riverside watching me go.

A teeny, tiny bear encounter.

Derek wanted to fish near the Visitor Center at the Grand Teton National Park entrance – believe it or not. We parked and hiked in about 200 yards to the Snake river access. I was going to swim but decided not to at the last minute. It was getting colder too. I just sat on the riverside and watched Derek fish. So about 30 minutes in I hear a rustle in the bushes from the trail behind me. I stood up and saw the head of a grizzly bear on the path just 20 feet away. I had my bear spray out with the safety off, but it saw me and immediately turned around and went the other way on the path. It seemed annoyed it had to go the long way around and wasn’t intrested in me at all. Now that’s a good bear!

I whistled for Derek and made a growling face with claws next to my head as my sign of seeing a bear. He understood, got out and we left. Derek never saw the bear because it left as fast as we did. It definitely was a rush. Sorry, no photos of that!

We initially were planning to stay for just three nights but we were having so much fun and getting good fishing in we decided to stay three more days. On the fourth day was the calm before an actual storm. We received a note on our trailer handle that a huge snow and ice storm was coming with 70 mph winds. They said that we could stay, move out with a refund or move into a campground that was not directly facing the wind. We were planning to stay through the night but when that note showed up it said they were worried about trees possibly falling on us. So…

We went to Plan B.

Derek called a couple of hotels and we got a reservation at the last minute in Jackson for two nights. We were trying not to stay in any hotels during the trip but it was just too dangerous to stay in the trailer. We took out all our needed belongings and hurried to the grocery store to get dinner. Rotisserie chicken and salads seemed good. So we hunkered down for the storm to pass.

Ooooh – The Greyhound Recipe

Then Winter showed up.

The next day we got breakfast at Jackson Hole Roasters and then drove out to the trailer to see if it was still there. (See photos below.) Like my mom always says, “Ugg-a-bugga meatballs!” We were so glad we didn’t stay in the trailer. We talked to a couple across from us that had a tent. They said they had to get into their car halfway through the night because the wind and cold were too much to take. They also said they never got a note about falling trees either. They seemed freaked out after why we told them we left. It was just too cold to stay inside the trailer. I’m glad Derek booked two nights at the hotel.

We drove around the campground and they had bulldozers out pushing downed trees to the side of the road. We saw a tent ripped in half. We didn’t see any trailers with large trees that had fallen on them. Just big branches were thrown everywhere, on everything, stuck in ice. This is August? Ok.

The Tetons. The morning after a 70 mph sleet/snow storm coming from the North.

We assessed our trailer for any damage (there was none, luckily) and decided we would leave the next day. So we decided to drive around the park to look at the all snow on the trees and see parts of the park we hadn’t seen before.

The park service shut down a visitor’s exit and its connected parking lot on the north side because, they said as we passed, a group of grizzlies was coming down from the mountains after the storm.

We spent most of the day making my latest Bigfoot video while looking behind us, at all times for bear and moose. Then we went to Dornan’s for a celebratory drink. It was about 42º outside and quite beautiful. The snow was half melted by then.

Next stop for us: Butch Cassidy’s hideout, Boysen State Park, The Badlands, and then going home.

Trip Report – Heading into Wyoming – Week 3 of 4

December 16, 2020 by kvec Leave a Comment

Continued from Trip report Week 2: here

Say hello to my little friend.

On the last day we were camped in Ennis we had a really cold night in the trailer. It was 26º F. The trailer doesn’t have insulation and we didn’t have a heater. But we had comfy below 0º sleep bags. Thank God!

The next morning we decided to stop and get a heater. We wanted to get a Mr. Heater – Buddy but all the local stores had was the small version: Little Buddy. The small one is fine and works well, but we don’t love how “tippy” it is in a small trailer with nylon sleeping bags. Per the heater instructions we kept 9 square inches of ventilation. (Actually we kept a lot more ventilation than that.)

Even with that ventilation we were just too paranoid to run it all night. We cranked the heat up, got into our bags and went to bed, turning it on again in the cold mornings. It worked out pretty well, but were not sure its the permanent solution for us.

I realized on that one chilly night, once you get too cold it becomes really hard to get warmed up again. My teeth were chattering and I was actually shaking uncontrollably. We were having a late dinner and hung out by the campfire a little too long. Within a few minutes, the temperature dropped about 15º and we left our trailer door open so it was cold inside. I let myself just get way too cold. I used Derek’s body heat to warm me up. You know like in the movies when someone almost gets hypothermia, they use another person’s body heat to warm up. It worked! That next day we bought the heater.

When we arrived at Alpine, Wyoming it was rainy and cold so we decided to stay at a campground just outside of Alpine. We ordered out dinner and breakfast at a local Mexican restaurant La Cabaña Del Tequila (choose the green sauce) and heat up the trailer with the heater. It was cozy.

Boondocking in the Caribou Targhee National Forest on the Greys River.

The next day we made our way to Caribou Targhee National Forest and camped along the Greys River about 35 miles in from Alpine. We found a great spot with a deep pool within the river that we could swim in. After we set up camp we fished up and down the river and the water was VERY cold. As soon as my legs were in the stream, they went numb. Needless to say, I didn’t end up swimming in our “swimming” hole.

A Careless Hunter.

After setting up our site and we were preparing to go fishing right there. A white truck stopped on the road, which was up a small cliff about 30 feet above us. He probably didn’t see us camping down here and we couldn’t see him, we just heard him. It sounded like a man got out and then all of sudden a rifle goes off – twice! The shots echoed in the canyon and we heard the first bullet whiz by over our heads. Then you could hear a dog retrieving what was killed and the shooter said, “Good boy.” To his dog. I think he shot some sort of small game. I know I yelled, “What the hell!” really loudly. The man looked down at us and he didn’t know we were even there. He waved to us in an ashamed manner looking down and got in his truck and drove away. We were mad for about two hours after that saying “What if…?” this happened “What if this happened?” then…

The Precious Bucket.

Our anger quickly changed to hilarious fear.

So you know those orange buckets you can get from home depot? We tied a rope to one in order to scoop water out of the river (the bank was about 5 feet above the swimming hole) to clean our dishes.

Derek accidentally let go of one end of the rope and we saw one of our most valued camping tools swirling around in our river pool back eddy. It seemed with one slight move of the current it would carry itself down the river at a fast pace and be gone forever.

If any of you know me very well, you know I love Wonder Woman. I had to channel my inner Wonder Woman and while running to the river downstream I quickly stripped down to my undies, slid down this muddy riverbank, and jumped into the river to catch our precious bucket. Instantly my legs went numb. I was yelling out, “Ooooh it’s cold. Maybe an assortment of swear words was added to that too. It’s all a blur. Derek was laughing so hard and couldn’t believe I had just done that. The bucket came hurtling down the fast current towards me, spinning and submerged in water. It was really heavy. I grabbed the handle quickly and it kind of tugged me towards the river at first. Using all my strength I held on to it as long as I could and yelled, “I GOT IT!” It was such a large victory for something so silly. That day, I dodged bullets and rescued a bucket. I am a real superhero. lol.

The Cut Slam.

We were on a mission. One of the main reasons we were there was to access the rivers that hold the fish you need to catch in order to complete our Wyoming CUTT SLAM. It’s a pretty neat program funded by the Wyoming Department of Fish & Game intended to educate anglers on the species of Cutthroat trout that exist within Wyoming. If you catch all 4 species and document it, they will send you a certificate and a medal! In the area we were camped, we could fish for 3 of the 4 species: Bonneville (Bear River), Snake river, and Colorado River Cutthroat Trout.

On a VERY rough dirt, gravel, and rock road and up and over the Tri-Basin Divide (a mountain pass) to access the first river. We drove around 98 miles. Derek caught a Bonneville and boy, I was trying my hardest too. I think Derek caught the ONLY Bonneville that lived there.

I was trying to be as sneaky and technical as possible and not spook the fishing pools before I approached them. This crystal clear alpine headwater was barely 4″ across most places and we had to hike through tough thick willows that wanted to trip us at every step.

It was a tough day for me, but Derek had a great catch. We expected a tiny 4-8″ fish, but Derek’s was 12-14″. That’s a trophy fish up at that elevation.

After some frustrating fishing and hiking for an entire afternoon, it started getting dark. It was time to get back to camp. We never saw another fish that day – not even from spooking one. Unfortunately, I missed my chance this year. Needless to say, we didn’t have time for the Colorado River Cutthroat that day, but it was a great day of adventure! We’ll be back next year to finish up both of our Cutt Slams!

The Two Unforgettable Animal Encounters.

Do you remember the line in the movie Jurassic Park, from Nedry (Newman from Seinfeld), when he’s being stalked by a Dilophosururis and it makes a chortling sound and pops out from behind a tree? Then Nedry says, “Well, yeah, yeah, that’s nice, gotta go.”? We had a couple of those moments while there.

The second night we were parking the Jeep at our campsite. It was dark and as the headlights hit the mountainside across the river we heard some shrieking in the woods. It sounded like a woman screaming. Super loud.

We were walking to the trailer at that moment and just froze. It was a very weird sound. The kind of scary that makes your hair on the back of your neck stand on end. “Well, yeah, yeah, that’s nice gotta go.” Turns out it was a female fox. To hear an example of what we heard. I found it here.

The next encounter happened on the third night. In the total darkness, we were brushing our teeth and we decided to spit into the river, by our pool area. All of a sudden we heard a big splash like a huge rock was thrown into the river next to us. Derek looked at me and said, “Did you do that?” I said, “No, where did that rock come from?” My first thought was sometimes Bigfoot throws rocks at people to get them to leave the area. “Well, yeah, yeah, that’s nice gotta go.”

Derek saw something swimming away by seeing the wake it made in the water. It was a beaver! It smacked his tail really hard on the water as a warning and swam away. I found a video of what it sounded and looked like if it was light outside – here.

This place was beautiful. Can’t wait to get back.

Next stop: Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Trip Report – Montana – Week 2 of 4

November 30, 2020 by kvec Leave a Comment

Ennis, Montana and the surrounding area.

Continued from Trip report Week 1: here

We love this place and decided to spend six days here.

Coming off the really stressful driving day from the Bighorns through Bozeman, we drove into Ennis seeing active smoke and fires on mountainsides on the Northside of town with 40-60 mph wind gusts.

Camping along the Madison River near Ennis was fantastic. Great fishing, great views, and overall super relaxing. On the downside, we’ve never seen it as crowded here as this year. Camping areas where you’d rarely see more than one other person this time of year were completely full on the weekends and very close to it on the weekdays.

I have mixed feelings when I see this overcrowding. It’s hard to know whether increased use of our outdoor resources is good or bad. On the one hand, it increases responsible stewardship and public lands are owned by all. On the other hand, the overcrowding damages said resource and somewhat reduces the experience of it all. I’m often left wondering if we are part of the problem or part of the solution.

We needed to make a few repairs to Derek’s bed as the wire cot frame was sagging a bit from us both lying on it trying to watch movies. In hindsight, using a wire cot for a long term trip wasn’t the best call. We should have taken the time to build a wooden bedframe. We definitely will make that change for next season. With a trip to the local lumberyard, Derek shored up the frame with some plywood and shims. Overall, Ennis was the perfect place to make updates and get some work down with cell/internet access.

We added a new paper towel holder and screwed in some new hooks throughout the trailer. It seems simple but its pretty crazy how disorganized stuff gets crammed into a small space. I also bought an “Ahhh Montana” fly-fishing art poster for decoration at the foot of my bunk. We got this great little softshell cooler to take while fishing and grocery shopping. We also hit up the local laundromat and handled all of the more administrative stuff in town.

Thanks Aunt Kim for the Bigfoot pillow! Love it!

So many neat things happened …

My solar outside lights turned on as we were eating dinner one night. I thought they wouldn’t work at all. It felt like a little miracle to me. Derek and I decided to sit outside under our lights that night and I looked over at the grass field and off in the distance in the moonlight a huge bull moose was walking through the grass to get to the other field. At first, I thought it was a deer but as we kept looking at it we realized it was a huge bull. It was so beautiful and chill. No one was chasing it with a camera like they do in Yellowstone. It was a special moment for me.

Establishing our base camp here and day tripping around the area was the plan. We fished on the Gallatin River and shot a new bigfoot video there. It was exciting. I’ll make a post solely on my Bigfoot videos to date. Look for those here. Before heading down to the Gallatin we drove to West Yellowstone.

Visited some of our favorite small businesses.

My favorite store on the planet is there and it’s called Free Heel and Wheel. They sell and rent bikes and gear, fix bikes, and certain sports gear you would need in Yellowstone Park and the surrounding area. They have a great coffee bar and assorted cookie kind of snacks for the active. When I’m there I always tell them they are my favorite store on our planet!

The fly-fishing legend Kelly Galloup has his own store named Galloup’s Slide Inn that has the fly-fishing gear, guided trips, lodging, and a fly-tying material section of his store that is unmatched, says Derek. Kelly was there that day and I’ve seen so many of his DVD’s about fly-fishing that when I see him in person I get a little star-struck. A few years ago, I had him sign my sweatshirt with a sharpie pen like he was a rockstar! It was funny.

Planning is everything when you have an adventure-packed day.
Ernie’s Bakery is the perfect place to order lunch to go. They have great sandwiches to choose from. They even have gluten-free bread! We picked some sandwiches and drove to the Gallatin River to fish in places Derek had never fished before but always wanted to try it out. When we were heading back to Ennis it started snowing and it accumulated on the side of the road. That was the first snow we saw in 2020. It ended up becoming a foreshadow for what we were going to experience later on in our trip. Stay tuned for that on Week 3.5 Trip report. Let me just say “Shit got real!”

We put the word “Adventure” in “Happy Adventure Club”!

Going into our fifth day in Ennis, Derek and I decided to investigate some new possible fishing areas for us. A nice jeep trail took us to a new fishing spot by some huge boulders that must have had mountain lions living around them. I always got that feeling I was being watched there. The sky was gorgeous that day.

While driving, we found a couple of abandoned properties on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land that at one point was a working ranch. We even saw the shell of an old-fashioned car that had bullet holes all through it, a root cellar separate from the house and underground into the side of a hill, and several old wagons, tillers, and other misc. farm machinery (photos below). They were all falling apart and weathered. It was a fun day to see so much. It felt like a ghost town and we were the only ones left on earth. Social distancing was not an issue here.

Trip Report – Week 4 of 4 – Boysen, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Hideout, and The Badlands. Then home.

November 13, 2020 by kvec Leave a Comment

Continued fro Trip report Week 3.5 of 4: here

The 3 B’s – Boysen State Park, Boondocking at Butch Cassidy’s hideout, and then bring on The Badlands...please.

We found a great campground at Boysen State Park that was right next to the great fishing in Wind River Canyon. We were there just a couple of nights since the fishing license there is kind of expensive. We needed to plan the perfect fishing day. We had to do some bouldering to get to the river in all spots, but it was worth it. The canyon was gorgeous. So were the fish.

Fishing in Wind River Canyon – Boysen State Park

On the hillside across the river, there was a train track ledge going through the canyon. In the evening a train came through with lights on. Kind of creepy and neat to watch. I felt like I was in a wild, wild west movie!

Speaking of the Wild, Wild West, we decided to drive to Kaycee, Wyoming to drive into the Willow Creek Ranch 30 miles to get to the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid’s hideout. There was a campground but it was too hard to get to it with the trailer in tow. So we boondocked just outside their hideout. It was secluded with beautiful 360º views. We were tired that day and decided to open the back trailer doors and take a little nap. The sun was warm and the breeze was cool. So relaxing.

The next day we left and headed to the Badlands. We found a great boondocking site and parked right on the edge. We set up our chairs and set up the stove to cook dinner. We couldn’t have a fire there. All of a sudden we looked to our right and a herd of Big Horned Sheep were make their way from the grasslands to the cliffs of the Badlands for protection that night. We sat and watched what they did closely. It was neat. They had a procedure for this trek. There was a frontman that was a lookout and stood at the cliff entrance as a guide. For the other large sheep and their lambs. There was also a large male sheep coming in from the back as extra security. The frontman was getting mad because the herd wasn’t hurrying fast enough to go down the cliffs. It just sat down and waited an hour for them to finish grazing.

The next day was a big drive to Minnesota. We stayed at Kilen Woods State Park. The campgrounds were really clean and the grass was so think at the capsite it was like a green carpet. Great showers too! We had a huge fire, since we had to use up all the firewood before leaving the next day for home.

The trek home was sad but, we wanted to see our cats. We dropped the trailer off at our storage spot and it felt weird to separate from our trailer since it was basically part of us for the past month.

We are planning a new trip for 2021 September – October right now and made some new updagrades to the trailer in the past few weeks. Look for the trailer work post next and MORE ADVENTURES!

Better than a tent.

August 20, 2020 by drikfan 7 Comments

We love tent camping… for the first 2-3 nights. I guess we’re old(ish) now and the lack of good sleep started wearing on us. Excuses, excuses, I know – but the idea of a minimal camper – a hard shell tent with a real bed – started really appealing to us. Last year we went to the Chicago RV and Camping trade show and honestly just didn’t like many of the options. We don’t really want a kitchen, plumbing, complicated electrical system and all of that. We’re not trying to make a “home away from home” really – we just want to sleep better for extended periods of time.

The Plan

The first thought was buying or building our own teardrop camper. I still do like that idea but we had a month from when we decided to take an upcoming trip from when we started looking for options. Finding a trailer base and then building it out was going to take a longer time than that. We did find some teardrops out there that fit our needs well but they all had extended lead times that wouldn’t work for us. One we particularly liked was https://www.hikertrailers.com/ – great product and great prices but a 9 month lead time right now.

Next, we looked into renting a teardrop but the cost was pretty crazy – was going to run somewhere between 2k and 3k for a 3-week trip. Then while poking around in craigslist I saw that someone had taken a 6×10′ cargo trailer and built out the interior a bit. I started looking at trailer prices both new and used and found a great deal at Country Blacksmith Trailers in southern Illinois (https://www.countryblacksmithtrailers.com/) We came home with our econobody 6×10 cargo trailer a few days later.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDAK2i4gq1z/

The biggest challenge we’ve had is that there’s no reasonable place to store the camper in the city. We live in downtown Chicago and street parking is not really a safe option. I called about 40 storage facilities ranging from typical self-storage units to commercial truck storage, to RV specific storage, but it was way too expensive in the city or nearby suburbs. Typically in the $175-$250 per month range. We settled on a place out in the far western suburbs for 33$ per month. It’s about an hour’s drive (sigh). It won’t be an issue once the trailer is built out since we’re not driving there every day, but during the conversion, it posed some challenges.

The entire project cost a little over $4000 including a brand new trailer. We consider this year a prototype build out since we were limited on time. We also didn’t want to spend a ton of energy and money to do a high finish build out without pressure testing the layout. Our goals with the build were pretty simple for this year: Comfortable sleeping for 2 people, as much flexible storage space as possible, and being able to complete the build in under 7 working days.

The Build

In order to make it a bit easier to do the main build and also test the trailer a bit, we drove to Cleveland to visit Kristen’s mom. We set it all up in her driveway and got to work. Was really nice to see some family we haven’t seen for a long time due to COVID-19 as well. Side Note: Kristen found a new purpose in life that she somehow missed growing up – setting off fireworks.

The build plan was really simple. Step by step it went like this:

Install windows (day 1-2) (DON’T BUY CHEAP WINDOWS)
Paint the interior (day 3)
build a small dining table (day 4)
build/install bunks (day 5)
install table (day 5)
mount spare tire (day 6)
install an awning (day 6)
decorate/finish everything up (day 7)

We had a few issues with the build but nothing major. The first issue was the cheap RV windows I bought off of ebay. They were half the price of normal RV windows, but if I had to do it again I would spend the extra money. These will work, but they were a pain in the ass to install and required several trips to the hardware store and a lot of frustration. They also just feel kind of cheap compared to the more expensive rv windows.

The next issue was mounting the spare tire. I mounted it on the tongue with a specialized mounting bracket and it mounted just fine but it reduces the already pretty low clearance and also interferes with our Jeep Wrangler’s spare tire, reducing the turn radius in one direction. In the end I tossed it under the bottom bunk, wrapped in plastic so there’s no rubber smell and made a simple little mount to keep it in place. It will work for now, but at some point id like to figure out a exterior mount on the back door.

We decided to splurge a bit and bought a solar generator. So far its working great for our needs which, again, are really simple: charge phones & laptop, run a fan at night, lighting, etc.. We ended up getting a Maxoak AC50 as the generator and a Togopower portable 120w solar panel. https://www.maxoak.net/products/bluetti-ac50-500wh-300w. I’ll spend some time on our upcoming trip putting it to test a bit and report back as well.

That’s it for now. We’re busy packing for our three week trip around Wyoming and Montana. Looking forward to catching some fish and a lot of time outside.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmCfIQmguHD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link