Pictures

I have uploaded all my pictures onto Picasa. You should be able to access them through this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/crichard.higgins?feat=email

Tetons

Not sure which was a more impressive, Tetons or Badlands. Both were amazing and rugged. Don't think I'd want to be lost in either.

Upper Meadow of Slough Creek

We hiked up to Second Meadow of Slough Creek, which was about 3 or 4 miles in from the trailhead near the campground. It wasn't that difficult a hike, which was fortunate considering how little exercise driving is. Once we made it past the first meadow we didn't see another person. This was the Yellowstone I was looking for. Big Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout cruising around in clear water. If I was able to creep up without being spotted (luckily they weren't as weary as Brown Trout) and made a good cast in front of the trout, I stood a good chance of a hookup....and a better chance of the fish inspecting the fly, nudging it with it's nose and then swimming on. Rejection was common, but luckily there were a lot of opportunities. It took me a while to overcome the excitement of seeing a good fish slowly swimming over, taking the fly and me setting the hook too early. Once I stopped pulling the hook out of the fishes' mouths, I managed to catch several nice fish.

Slough Creek

Catch...


...and release

Lamar River

The first day we fished Blacktail Deer Creek and the Lamar River. We caught a bunch of small brook trout on the creek in the morning and then went to the Lamar Valley for the afternoon. The Lamar Valley is really impressive and felt like it was the sort of place I'd imagine in a dream. We fished while a couple small herds of buffalo (or two groups of the same herd) grazed on the other side of the river.

I caught a couple nice cutthroats in the Lamar and decided to finish the night on the lower section of Slough Creek (where we were camping). I managed to hook a fish that after about 30 seconds decided he had enough of me. He took off downstream leaving an impressive wake. I stood in awe for a few seconds and started to run after him when the line snapped. Oh well, it's easier to take losing big fish when you are catching good fish already, but I was left wondering just how big that fish was as I walked back to the truck.

Yellowstone

Spent 3 days in the park, here's a picture of me driving through Roosevelt Arch.

Made it to Oregon

Promise to add some more posts in the next few days, here's a picture from Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Park Tomorrow

If you can believe it, I drove alongside the Yellowstone River for about 3 hours today and didn't fish once. It was killing me. Going into the park tomorrow and staying away from civilization for a few days.

Custer State Park

I walked around the corner from the bathrooms to meet this guy about 10 feet in front of me.

Badlands

It has been a long trip now. I am currently outside of Badlands National Park. It's a really impressive place. I hope to update this over the coming week, but it may be a while until I update this again.


States so far:
Maine
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Connecticut
New York
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Indiana
Iowa
South Dakota

Indy

Mika after a hard day...

Nothern Maine Brook Trout

The Good- Spent time with my parents in the Rangely area and caught some pretty brook trout and landlocked salmon.

The Bad- My mom and I tipped the canoe. We only saw three moose. I lost the two biggest fish I hooked.

The Ugly- First fish caught on the Rapid River was a smallmouth bass. Luckily that was the only one and I later caught a few brook trout. The bass were illegally introduced into Umbagog Lake and came up into the Rapid, posing a big problem for the native brook trout. Hopefully, this won't be a big issue and it will work itself out down the road.