Actually, Max is 5 years old, but the title sounded good 
We have known for quite some time that Max is a different kind of kid. He has been doing and saying things that amaze us since he started moving around on his own. So, it was an easy descision to decide to take him on a backpacking trip into the wilderness. We left Casper late on Friday night after the first week of school (for teachers). We took a Ranger ride from the truck to the wilderness trail head and started off on our adventure. It was late in the evening when we began the hike, so we made camp quite a bit lower than normal. The next morning we hiked for a couple hours and made a base camp and then headed for Angeline which is a lake that sits just above timberline. Max did an amazing job carrying his pack and keeping up (for the most part). He was able to catch a fish for our breakfast, drink straight from a mountain stream and start our campfire. GOOD JOB, MAX!!
Posts Tagged fishing
Timberline with a toddler
Sep 11
Grand Finale, summer 2011
Aug 13
Every summer we spend a few days with our nieces somewhere in Wyoming on a camping and fishing adventure. We had wanted to take the them to Yellowstone for quite some time now and this year was the year! The circumstance allowed us to spend the week with some good friends as well. On this adventure we slept in 32º weather, caught cutthroats for breakfast, saw a chocolate colored wolf, watched the sun set on the Tetons, witnessed the many amazing colors of Yellowstone, played games in the dark, disected owl pellets, ate many smores (sometimes for breakfast), rafted class 3 rapids on the Snake river, told ghost stories around colorful fires and drove 1,000 miles.
Hopfully these pictures tell part of the amazing story that was one of our best vacations…
We may start sounding redundant when we talk about taking kids out fishing and hunting and the importance of doing so.
“Passion does not arrive on videotape or on a CD; passion is personal. Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young, it travels along grass- stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.— Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, 2005
It was awesome to see Kassidy and Tristy light up as they reeled in fish after fish and contemplate touching the slimy things. By the end of the day they were measuring, weighing and discussing fish. Tristy even picked one up that had been gutted!!
Top 10 reasons to spend your days off in the mountains!
1. Cooler temperatures. In our 90+ degree mid summer pattern life gets to dragging by, lethargy takes over drive and everyone gets cranky.
2. Have the area to yourself. You don’t have to go to the same place as everyone else. There hundreds of square miles in the State of Wyoming and only 600,000 people; who all seem to congregate in the same 10 places.
3. Quiet. As the day passes the most peaceful sounds surround you when you are in the mountains; birds, lapping water, breeze through the trees… And at night- silence.
4. Great fishing. Often the less pressure a fishery has the easier it is to catch fish. Throw out a fly or even power bait and catch yourself a tasty breakfast.
5. No services. Are we really better off with Internet and TV everywhere we go? We lived without these for most of our lives and what a nice time to live without during our down time.
6. Cooking over a fire. It takes time to get good at making sure you have just the right amount of hot coals under your meal, but if you spend all your off time around the fire you will get good fast!
7. Wild flowers. With the exception of the drive to Pathfinder, you will be hard pressed to find as much color around the well used areas for weekend goers. In the mountains, however, the flowers abound and the varieties are endless.
8. Milky Way. No, not the candy bar. When we spend our evenings around city lights or campground lights we miss the endless stars our sky shines down on us. In the mountains you can see satelites, planets, the space station and even galaxies!!
9. Hiking. Exploration is one of the more enjoyable ‘do nothing’ activities. Climb a hill and look back; you may be amazed at what you see and where your mind takes you.
10. Mosquitoes. Ok, not the best part but look back at this list. Pretty good trade off, eh? And if you bring the deet you will have no problems
Pathfinder fun!
Jun 17
We waited until evening to go to Pathfinder hoping the wind would die down enough to have an easier time controlling the boat. Trolling for trout is one of the funnest ways to catch fish when the action is fast. It takes teamwork and concentration to play this game! Using a kicker motor for speed and a bow mount trolling motor to steer, we drop our lines from 50 to 100 feet behind the boat and wait for the action to begin. Once a fish hits, you must get the pole out of the holder immediately so as not to lose or break off the trout. Then another person needs to kill the kicker and take over steering to make sure the other lines that are still out do not get tangled. This person also must get the net ready, these are nice big trout! Once the fish is on board, kick the motor back in gear and put out the crank bait that just landed a fish. It gets wild when there are only two people in the boat and 3 or 4 lines out and even more crazy in the wind.
Glendo
Jun 15
A lot of fishing is best in the evening and early morning. So, it is great that we have reservoirs nearby that we can get to for these bites. We got to Glendo around 3pm Tuesday and headed to a spot that has not been drowned quite yet. It is a place we know we can always catch fish when water levels are still not too high. We jigged for walleye while also dropping a smaller jig to the bottom for perch. It was a chilly, breezy night, but the fishing was quite good. We stayed until well after dark and used the almost full moon to guide us back to the ramp. We were in the water by 5am and limited out by 5:30, but we kept fishing around the lake looking for other potential hot spots for the rising depths.
Jan Lake day 11
Jun 8
We started once again at Harper. It seems like a great starting point for our days. We hammered the walleye this morning and Erik caught another whopper of a pickerel, measuring 24″ long. It was a steady morning with several doubles. We took our lunch fish and headed all the way into the narrows to shore. After we concentrated on the northern pike one last time. They were really in the bays this day. The larger pike came in were on the bite. It was a perfect last day for the year at Jan Lake.
Jan Lake day 10
Jun 7
We went first to Black Rock today since we had done so well yesterday. We anchored and started jigging. After a time we moved over to Harper to drift. We got into the fish and had a great morning. For lunch we went to Dunsmore. After we threw spoons for northerns in Dunsmore, then moved up to the second narrows to fish for northerns as well.
Jan Lake day 9
Jun 6
We started at Harper today, it was very windy. The fishing was ok, but the wind was getting tiring. So we decided to hit some places that have produced fish in the past and would get us a little respite from the gails. We went to MacMillan Point and anchored for a time. The fish were definately not there. We tried Black Rock next and within a minute or two we had our first bite.
After lunch we tried another part of McMillan Point and still had no luck, so Erik checked the map and decided to try a new place. It was a chain of barren rock islands. It turned out to not be good this time of year, but it is nice to try different places on days like this.
Jan Lake day 8
Jun 5
We went to the upper narrows and saw a group of guys we had seen in years past. They are a group from Colorado that comes up every year around the same time as us. It was another slower day, however we still caught plenty of fish and had a great day with plenty of sunshine.
