Hello All!! I'm back to blogging for a bit. The summer is chugging right along and I am getting better and better each day. At what? Well I guess guiding in general and river boarding. As of tonight July 21st I can officially role a kayak. I got it on my second try and it was awesome. Everybody was like "WHAT THE HELL, HOW DID YOU DO THAT AND ON YOUR 2ND TRY"! Needless to say it was a cool feeling of saving yourself from drowning upside down. After that I was able to do it like six more times. It is pretty sweet!! Now I'm planning on going kayaking as much as I can.
So I am getting excited for Sunday when I get to pick up MOM and DAD and ALLISON at the airport in Billings!! Sorry everyone else that I don't get to see you, but you gotta buy a plane ticket or just drive really fast. I think the plan is to visit Yellowstone and maybe the grand tetons and fish and raft andeat and go in the boiling river.
Interesting thing as well.....I got a nice black eye from playing a softball game in the park. I was playing 1st base and I got low to catch the ball but it took a bounce right over my glove and nailed me right in the eye. Such a great feeling......NOT!! Everyone was like oooooohh right away and I was like "shit everyone is going to make a big deal out of it, sweet" And sure enough when the game ended (we got our butts kicked,) the team did the cheer to my black eye. All in all the game was still fun. So I will post some pictures of things.....so take a look.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Proof that I am, infact, a Guide
I just posted some pictures that our photographer takes on all the customer runs. There are a fun variety of shots, as well as families. There are a couple of pictures of me river boarding through the picture waves. River Boarding is where you gear up with a wet suit, dry top, gloves, helmet, swim fins and ultimately, a board. It is quite the workout that's for sure. I was exhausted after the first mile of kicking. The water temperature was around 53 degrees and it was on the 4th of July.
There is also another picture of me helping to dig a hole for a tree we planted in the back of the office. So, enjoy the pictures and I'll try to keep more coming!
There is also another picture of me helping to dig a hole for a tree we planted in the back of the office. So, enjoy the pictures and I'll try to keep more coming!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Hike to Black Mt. and Pine Lake
Sunday June 21st I decided to skip out on my 4:30 standby to go hiking with Mark, Kevin and Jen. We went up into the Western Beartooth mountains which was the best hike thus far. We scaled up around 4000 feet and got to the lake that sat at 9032 feet. And let me tell you it was no easy feet. Mark and I decided to bring our fishing poles because it was said that this lake had some of the best fishing in it.
When we finally reached the top after a good 4hrs of hiking we realized that the lake was still frozen. I know!! what the heck....its the middle of June and still frozen over!!? I guess that's the mountains for ya. None the less there was some open spots of water where we could still cast. So after a couple of casts there was no luck and to make things even better I got a nice birds nest in my line. EVEN AT 9000+ FEET I CAN'T ESCAPE BIRD NESTS!!! GOD!!! But I eventually fixed the problem like I always do and took a couple more casts and of course caught nothing. It was still a great place to fish though. There couldn't have been a better scene.
Other things on the way up were two really cool water falls and some smaller crystal clear lakes. A really cool part of the hike was the fact that we had to trudge through snow and we even lost the trail at certain points. The coolest part of the snow was the descent. We slid down the snow sheets to make the drop a little quicker. It was hilarious whatching everyone ski on the bottom of their hiking boots and trying to stay up. All in all the best hike so far even though we didn't catch any fish.
When we finally reached the top after a good 4hrs of hiking we realized that the lake was still frozen. I know!! what the heck....its the middle of June and still frozen over!!? I guess that's the mountains for ya. None the less there was some open spots of water where we could still cast. So after a couple of casts there was no luck and to make things even better I got a nice birds nest in my line. EVEN AT 9000+ FEET I CAN'T ESCAPE BIRD NESTS!!! GOD!!! But I eventually fixed the problem like I always do and took a couple more casts and of course caught nothing. It was still a great place to fish though. There couldn't have been a better scene.
Other things on the way up were two really cool water falls and some smaller crystal clear lakes. A really cool part of the hike was the fact that we had to trudge through snow and we even lost the trail at certain points. The coolest part of the snow was the descent. We slid down the snow sheets to make the drop a little quicker. It was hilarious whatching everyone ski on the bottom of their hiking boots and trying to stay up. All in all the best hike so far even though we didn't catch any fish.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Yellowstone Hike from Blacktail to Gardiner
On Monday, seeing that i had no boats to take out, went with Pam and Derek on a 14 mile hike in Yellowstone. We started at west Blacktail and hiked North to meet up with the Yellowstone river and followed it back to Gardiner. It was a sight to see! Walking through huge canyons and seeing awesome creeks and falls was and adventure to say the least. I have some pictures that I'll put up so you guys can see. I also took some awesome video of the river, but I can't figure out how to post that yet. We say a Bull Elk driving through mammoth and then saw some prong horn antelope. On the hike we also saw some Elk antler sheds and a Marmot. It was one of the funniest animals peeking over the rocks at us.
We stopped and had lunch at a waterfall which was Deer Creek that was eventually meeting up with the Yellowstone river. From there we crossed the Yellowstone River VIA a suspension bridge and took a photo of all of us(which I will Post). From then on we followed the river back to town stopping at all the sweet rapids that were probably class IV and V. Towards the end of the hike it started to rain and we got bogged down with mud on the bottom of our shoes. It made the walk back much more intense as we frequently stopped to scrap the mud from our shoes on nearby rocks.
We finally made it back to town and by that time my knee was sore enough that i just laid down and didn't get up until we had our meeting at 6:30. The meeting pertained to facts about the yellowstone that we could tell our customers on the boats. Geology, plants, animals, history, etc it was a really cool meeting.
Thats about it for now and I will try to put up as many pictures as i can .
We stopped and had lunch at a waterfall which was Deer Creek that was eventually meeting up with the Yellowstone river. From there we crossed the Yellowstone River VIA a suspension bridge and took a photo of all of us(which I will Post). From then on we followed the river back to town stopping at all the sweet rapids that were probably class IV and V. Towards the end of the hike it started to rain and we got bogged down with mud on the bottom of our shoes. It made the walk back much more intense as we frequently stopped to scrap the mud from our shoes on nearby rocks.
We finally made it back to town and by that time my knee was sore enough that i just laid down and didn't get up until we had our meeting at 6:30. The meeting pertained to facts about the yellowstone that we could tell our customers on the boats. Geology, plants, animals, history, etc it was a really cool meeting.
Thats about it for now and I will try to put up as many pictures as i can .
Its Official!
Well, I am finally a raft guide as of Thursday the 11th of June!! It is the 16th right now and so far have taken three customer boats out (two today). Everything is going great and every time I get out on the water I feel much more comfortable.
I have met some interesting customers most of which are European. I took some people from Belarus and Serbia. Today I took some people from Holland and the whole time on the water they were speaking Dutch. I never figured out if they were talking trash about me, but the whole time I was with them I wanted to say..."Hey,....I don't speak freaky deaky dutch!" Some other people I took down were from Houston and Miami, so I could understand them very well. Business is going better now that people are traveling and it can only get better and busier from here on out.
I have met some interesting customers most of which are European. I took some people from Belarus and Serbia. Today I took some people from Holland and the whole time on the water they were speaking Dutch. I never figured out if they were talking trash about me, but the whole time I was with them I wanted to say..."Hey,....I don't speak freaky deaky dutch!" Some other people I took down were from Houston and Miami, so I could understand them very well. Business is going better now that people are traveling and it can only get better and busier from here on out.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Snow in June
So this morning I woke up to snow falling down just after it being like 75 degrees two days ago!! I took a cool picture of the mountains I always see with a fresh layer of snow covering the trees. If you look at the picture you can see the defined line of where they snow was staying because of the colder elevation.
Well, no boats today obviously. No one wants to go on the river when its 39 degrees outside!! So i spent my time today sleeping and watching Transformers. I can't wait until the next one comes out so I can go be a nerd and travel up to Bozeman to see it in theaters. Well I wish I had more to write, but it has been a slow day and its cold out so until next time.
Well, no boats today obviously. No one wants to go on the river when its 39 degrees outside!! So i spent my time today sleeping and watching Transformers. I can't wait until the next one comes out so I can go be a nerd and travel up to Bozeman to see it in theaters. Well I wish I had more to write, but it has been a slow day and its cold out so until next time.
Meeting Family
Another day, another turkey boat. That puts me at three so far and hopefully I'll only need one more before I can check off and start making some real money. Not just money or beer that you get as a tip.....but the real dough. Even though beer is a great tip.
Ironically, two days ago, one of the older raft guides Sam said he saw my cousin over at the Tumbleweed book store. He was telling me this early in the morning just after we had a nice night of drinking heavily. I'm like "Sam your crazy...you did not see my cousin"! Blah Blah Blah....but when one of the girls (Jen) came up and asked me if i met up with my cousin yet I'm like, "ok what the hell is going on"? So i did some investigating and found out my cousin Katie was in Gardiner, MT getting a cup of coffee. So I biked around the city to see if i could find her. Of course i didn't find her so i called Allison my sis to see if she could get her number. Long story short I got her number, called her and she said they were in the park(who is they I'll get to that later). So we talked and decided to grab a beer later that evening.
So they got back into town and ate at Helens Hamburger Place, which i found out has the best hamburgers in the west. They are the size of your head and you get a lot of fries with it. So i walk into Helens and who do I see, But Katie Bain from L.A. and my aunt Sarah whom i haven't seen in like 15 years. So we talked and caught up on why in the heck we were all in the same little town in Montana.
Turns out Katie is making her way back home to De Pere, WI and then down to Tennessee and then back to L.A. on the 16th of June. Sarah is driving with her and i found out she was here with some famous guy Jim Halfpenny helping him track Grizzley Bears and Wolves. How sweet is that!! She showed me a cast of a bear paw print that she made and one of a wolve that was right next to it (they got them from the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone).
So after i saw where they were staying, which was like 5 blocks away from me....yeah i know!!!! we went off to the K-Bar for some beer. We continued to talk about life and siblings. I especially enjoyed of how jealous they were of me and my summer job. Yeah....life is good! So after making them feel bad about being able to give them a free raft ride down yellowstone and talking about the crazy drunks at the bar we parted ways. All in all a funny and crazy coincidence.
Ironically, two days ago, one of the older raft guides Sam said he saw my cousin over at the Tumbleweed book store. He was telling me this early in the morning just after we had a nice night of drinking heavily. I'm like "Sam your crazy...you did not see my cousin"! Blah Blah Blah....but when one of the girls (Jen) came up and asked me if i met up with my cousin yet I'm like, "ok what the hell is going on"? So i did some investigating and found out my cousin Katie was in Gardiner, MT getting a cup of coffee. So I biked around the city to see if i could find her. Of course i didn't find her so i called Allison my sis to see if she could get her number. Long story short I got her number, called her and she said they were in the park(who is they I'll get to that later). So we talked and decided to grab a beer later that evening.
So they got back into town and ate at Helens Hamburger Place, which i found out has the best hamburgers in the west. They are the size of your head and you get a lot of fries with it. So i walk into Helens and who do I see, But Katie Bain from L.A. and my aunt Sarah whom i haven't seen in like 15 years. So we talked and caught up on why in the heck we were all in the same little town in Montana.
Turns out Katie is making her way back home to De Pere, WI and then down to Tennessee and then back to L.A. on the 16th of June. Sarah is driving with her and i found out she was here with some famous guy Jim Halfpenny helping him track Grizzley Bears and Wolves. How sweet is that!! She showed me a cast of a bear paw print that she made and one of a wolve that was right next to it (they got them from the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone).
So after i saw where they were staying, which was like 5 blocks away from me....yeah i know!!!! we went off to the K-Bar for some beer. We continued to talk about life and siblings. I especially enjoyed of how jealous they were of me and my summer job. Yeah....life is good! So after making them feel bad about being able to give them a free raft ride down yellowstone and talking about the crazy drunks at the bar we parted ways. All in all a funny and crazy coincidence.
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