Failed Fishing Attempt: Part 3

We had planned to meet a nurse practitioner early Monday morning (6 AM) to go fishing since we were given an additional day off. He called to say that he was too hung over to meet us so we had to come to him. He had no bait or tackle prepared. He eventually did take us to a stream about a half hour away but with it being about 18 degrees there was ice forming in the eyelets of our poles. None of us caught anything and it was a disappointing end to the weekend.

Apparently there is a natural crossing area here where buffalo used to cross. Occasionally you can find petrified bones here

It was a cold one out there

Red Lodge Skiing

The whole trip Josh and I were hoping to ski. Joseph said he'd like to come along to so we set our coordinates on Red Lodge Ski resort. We left around 7:30 AM and ascended the mountain in the continuing snow storm from the previous day. On our way to the lodge we came across a car that had got too close to the edge and almost gone over. Joseph was able to borrow a tow rope and easily pulled the little Volkswagen out. In the meantime I rented my ski equipment and found out that the girl at the register was the daughter of one of the pharmacists we work with at the clinic. 

The fresh powder on the mountain was easily above 2 feet deep, many places above our knees. Since I had never skied before, and my training was solely a series of youtube videos, the first run was difficult - especially since Josh and Joseph started me on the intermediate hills. They believe in the learn by failure technique so on the second run we went to the peak of the mountain (9,432 ft) and skied down the black diamond trails. Luckily the depth of the powder padded my falls and slowed me down somewhat. I did get better as the day wore on but the deep powder was very tiring. I fell quite a bit and got heckled by multiple people on the ski lifts above. I was amazed at the size of the mountain, the number of ski trails, how young some of the skiers were, and how easy some people made it look. Once at the peak we were above the clouds and also the snow storm. I've never quite experienced anything like that! We got home around 12:30 AM and had no trouble sleeping. We owe a big thank you to Joseph for making it a great weekend. 

Roy was my alarm clock

We're going up

Bad place to get stuck...

Pretty awesome headdress

People do some serious skiing

Notice my snowplow technique

It's deep fellas

Can almost see the lodge from here!

Subie deserved a wash. Lookin good

Rollin' Boulder Outfitters

The weekend of the 12th Josh and I got the chance to visit my friend Joseph Leyo. He has moved to McLeod where he works for Rollin' Boulder Outfitters as a horse wrangler and hunting guide. The winter is a slow time so we were able to visit his place and get out on some trails. We arrived Friday night after weaving through herds of mule deer along the roads. His cabin was quite a ways from the paved road but we managed to find it in the dark.

On Saturday morning we finally got to see everything in the light and realized that we were in some serious mountains. Joseph got some horses rounded up and we headed to Gallatin National Forest. We rode our horses up the mountain and tied them when the rest of the way was too steep. We hiked further up the mountain to an Indian cave with a few pictographs inside. I surmised that one appeared to be a man making a pizza. I also suggested one to be an octopus but Josh interpreted it as the sun. The view from the cave was magnificent. The mountains themselves were quite impressive. As we took the trailer back to the cabin the snow moved from the snow-capped mountains to the valleys as well. There were over 100 elk on the mountainside as well as few moose and plenty of mule deer. We got a glimpse of the natural bridge and visited with some painters before making it back to the cabin. It snowed the rest of the afternoon while Josh and I hole-up in the cabin grilling up elk steaks. Joseph had to run an errand and when he came back we made plans for the next day.

The cabin

Josh and Roy, Joseph's border collie horse dog

Obsessed with the chaps

It's snowy up there!

Rose, Derby, and Reba

Our great guide and horse dogs

Pizza chef? Brontosaurus? You be the judge.

Cave makes a great shelter and viewpoint

One of two caves on the side of the rock face

A real cowboy.

Still obsessed with the chaps

Water undercuts the cliff to create a natural bridge in the winter and flows over top in high-water

This would be the creek bottom in high-water

Life is rough

Failed Fishing Attempt: Part 2

We were invited by some other pharmacy students from Midwestern University to go fishing with one of the nurse practitioners at the clinic. We met them at the river near the clinic and fished for a bit. The Missouri river is moving really quickly now and we did not catch anything except a shiner. Nevertheless it was a gorgeous sunset.