BilletHead

In Wyoming you cannot even drop anchor. Those residents own the bottom of that stream.

Nope

Wood duck grilled and bok choy grilled. Topped with blue cheese, halved cherry tomatoes and bacon.

They sure are trying to get as close to a straight American chestnut as they can. I know there are plantings south of here somewhere but it's not published where it's trying to be done. I know one thing after three years of drought my trees are loaded with burrs. Limbs are already bending from the load. I might even let a few stay on the ground to share with the deer and squirrels.

I have not either but we both know that they were. The first nations people (Natives) did use the streams and rivers for trading and travel that is for sure. Much easier to paddle a dugout than to travel through the bush from place to place plus all people's lived by water sources. This is a fact I know villages are on big rivers where they intersect with smaller rivers. Then in the smaller rivers villages are again at a intersection of a big creek, then another village on the big creek by a small creek. So on and so forth. These people had to have water. Water is where it is and that is where they will be. Water is life. Water was the interstate,then highways, then secondary roads, then dirt roads and trails to us. IMO for what it's worth water is a travel system and a trade route. Modern man changed that.

Many records.

I thought about Mike right away. Thanks Phil.

Logs were floated down many creeks as well as fur trappers doing thier things. Would this be commercial use? This land was opened up by fur trappers. I'm talking anything that can be floated in a raft of canoe. Personally I would draw the line when all you did was drag across many gravel bars and downed trees.

Yes and I love using an old/new tool.

I figured this thread would be a good place to share this. There is something to say about simple things from a more simple time. I found a pair of waffle iron paddles for a Griswold new American waffle iron. They were one big mess. I already had the deep base. I won the fight. Turned the handles out of Osage orange. Everything finished yesterday. This morning took it for a test drive. Perfect! Found a recipe for old time waffles. It has malt in the batter. VID_20250728_115405273.mp4 VID_20250729_070031290.mp4 VID_20250729_071944621.mp4

That's a fact!

Not too shabby yourself John! Can we have a dang,

Great write up trip report! Congrats on the new species. Chalk them up to researching so well. Pat and I say HI LIVIE 😆.

Been there done that many, many years ago. Works great!

Brunch! Actually I had a BLT for breakfast but another meal a brunch a bit later. Oven baked Brie with Rosemary and Thyme Chanterelles. Oh my goodness. We have found a new favorite way to use the chanterelles.

Nice @dpitt! We love cutthroat and the West slope is a favorite. Caught them in glacier Park, near the Canadian border in grave cree in Montana also. Then in the North fork of the Clearwater in Idaho. We find them feisty taking drys. Hoppers and trudes especially. Thanks for sharing your fishy outings. We are in a holding pattern after Alaska but are planning a trip west in August..

If funds would let us we would do this again despite not liking to fly. We would recommend to anyone this type of trip. By now we are pretty much recovered but reliving the trip still daily. Dave and Mike stayed a couple days longer. Caught some nice grayling and bigger rainbow before they came home. We still all have a group text going on and hope it continues to stay going. Good bunch of people. For those that don't follow Duane he's still working hard getting the place spruced up and in top shape. Thanks for letting Pat and I share the trip. We sure enjoy others posts on outdoor activities.

Next morning was the day we departed. Did our flight in the afternoon which was late by a couple hours. Before we took off up to the village Dave showed us the non lethal bear deterrent. I think the bear might die laughing. VID_20250716_070929020.mp4 We loaded up the boat with our stuff, Duane our captain took us to town and Dave and Mike came also, VID_20250716_112430371.mp4 Looked around town and visited the post office. Store was open. Not much in there and what was priced high as expected. Checked out the community building. Sat down and waited for the plane. Mike decided to nap again. VID_20250716_123011778.mp4 We finally told the three amigos to head back and go fishing after finding out the plane would be late. Last hugs given off they went. Tiny coffee shop in the waiting room. Young lady showed up and we got a hot drink. Raining again. People in and out. Most greeted us and were friendly. One woman came in with two little children. She tied a dog outside. The kids with the barista made their own drinks. Woman told us that the dogs name was stormy. Stormy would be on the flight with us to Anchorage. She belonged to her aunt and needed to go there. Plane landed we and Stormy got our stuff in the plane and flew to Anchorage. There we headed to the Anchorage airport to wait for an extra hour because that plane was running late. Split an elk burger with fries and a couple of blueberry sodas, Flight at Chicago layover was on time but layover was short because we were late. Neither one of us could sleep on the plane. That sucked big time. Trying to land in Springfield was interesting because we dropped down, landing gear down pilot tried twice to land and then pulled up because of inclement weather. We were routed to Bentonville airport for an hour. We even offloaded there. Right back on and back to Springfield. A couple hours later home to unload, get showers and to bed where we actually slept for 11.5 hours. We have never slept that long before. Guess we were tired.

Tuesday the 15th time is getting short for Pat and I. Work day. Find a leak in a boat on the water plus get a boat with motor on a trailer flat on the ground and get it launched. First pumped water out of leaking boat. Trailer on back of a four wheeler. Backed that in and loaded up leaking boat. Parked an went to work. I peeked under the boat. The keel had been damaged. Like in a strike sideways. It was bent out of shape and sheared off a rivet. Put water in the boat to find that. Everybody had an opinion, VID_20250715_094232292~2.mp4 Scaveged through the tool shed. Found a stainless steel nut and bolt. Had some epoxy. Dave did some body work. Dried everything up applied epoxy and tightened up nut and bolt. , VID_20250715_094601601.mp4 While that was drying took a break. Not sure how but Dave put a hook in the palm of his hand. Doctors Duane and Marty working together did the string/monofilament trick. Popped that hook out and Dave didn't shed a tear. , Put boat back into the water and tied to the dock. No leaks now. Next get boat on trailer. Duane backed the trailer to the nose the boat and attached the winch strap. Dave is a beast he began to crank boat started lifting onto the trailer and ATV lifted at the same time. VID_20250715_113854277.mp4 Duane, Pat and I got on the ATV rear end it went down. Dave started cranking again as Mike pushed the back of the boat with motor. Got it on the trailer. Tried motor after fresh gas and a battery. Launched and tied off. Yeah! The three stooges geared up and headed to find new braids and creek to fish. Sadly Pat and I did some packing and watched our waders and boots dry. VID_20250715_135209299.mp4 We walked to the braid and fished a bit. Had a greyling and rainbow on but that was it. Back at the lodge before taking rods apart I messed with a few sculpin. Did not have a hook small enough for stickleback but big mouth sculpin chomped on an egg pattern. This is for the multi species guys. The contraband iris starts,

I just checked the gauge at igiugig. There it's 19,000 CFS. Lots of figuring for water depth etc to convert to mph. I might give Duane some homework. I think there is some GPS units in the lodge. See if he can figure out how to use one. Float down the river in front of the Lodge in his boat.

It really is pretty swift.

Needs to more sets of wading shoes for that!

Afternoon, Dave, Mike and myself took off in the rain to revisit the same morning spot. We had actually left Duane's net on the bank. Trying to save face and not hearing for the rest of our life we had lost Duane's favorite net we thought it would be a good thing to get it. We ran out of rain but could look back to the lodge and seen it pouring. Back at the braid we fished more. I caught a greyling and a couple small rainbows. We had another Bear spotting that afternoon. A big one. Couldn't get the picture before the bear went straight up a bluff bank in just a couple strides. We motored to the bank to see if we could see it. Mike screaming all the way saying no,no,no that Bear could get us. As we got to the bank and looked up that bear was standing brodside looking down on us and just disappeared in the bush. Big I'm telling you. All along the banks and everywhere you looked there were Irises. I looked it up and yes Alaska has a native iris. Pat and I took four starts back with us. Planted one here and sent the other three with my sister that has a commercial iris garden. Surely she can keep them alive and get a bunch growing. Boat riding back to the lodge Mike was napping. That guy can snooze anywhere, VID_20250714_165459493.mp4 Made it back to the lodge and another guide flew out with a client, VID_20250714_131919053.mp4

Monday the 14th AM, Time for exploring Dave, Mike, Pat and myself headed downriver looking again for potential pike. Got out of the boat following braid sloughs and backwater. Again seen two tiny ones. No follows, no hookups. Then we went to braid that looked interesting. As we got closer I seen a fish jump. We beached the boat and grabbed five weights and drys and hoppers. We all spread out on the upper end of the braid. I caught a decent rainbow, Pat and Mike caught some greying,