Heading for Home - Goodbye Wyoming!

We knew the day would come... but it was still sad when it came.

Time to load up the truck, tighten the wire holding up the muffler, and head for home!

That trailer is alot more full than when we came...

And here is Wyoming in the rear-view mirror.

Soon we were in Montana and the sky got alot bigger.

Alot more snow in Montana than what we had gotten.

It was beautiful out, and the clear, dry roads were especially pretty!

On the way out, 55 mph were the best we could do with only 5 of our 8 cylinders working...

Mean Green Van hit 70 mph without effort and purr'ed right along. Belching fumes, that is.

Bozeman MT had 2 feet of snow fall on them just before we got there!

Pretty to see as we flew through.

We got to Missoula in record time.

We stopped to fuel up and get dinner before heading to the hotel, and the kids got a real kick out of some guy dancing on the street in just a Toga.

They couldn't stop laughing! Too long in a van...

...maybe exhaust fumes?

And finally to the hotel! Grab your blankey and hit the pool!

Wait... where did your shoes go?

After a nice waffle for breakfast, we were back racing along the Blackfoot and Clark's Fork rivers.

Beautiful in the slanted morning sun.

Heading over Lookout pass, we crossed into Idaho.

Most of Idaho seems downhill from MT. Good thing!

Finally, early in the afternoon, we hit Oregon and the land-of-windmills. Man, there sure are alot of them!

More were loaded on trucks that we passed by, too.

We got better than 12 miles-per-gallon heading back to home. Hurray! That gave us more than $260 savings from the trip out... enough to pay for the engine work.

" And this is how our vacation ended - not with a bang, but with a wimper. "

The best way to end the trip! The muffler hung on like a champ - even when we drove over a curb at the Ritzville WA gas station.

The kids were great, and Dad's bum went numb. Only 1 big pillow-fight...

The perfect roadtrip home.

Cowboy Doctorin' - Stitching up a horse's head

In between all the odd jobs and car repairs, there really is alot going on at a working ranch. One minute you are repairing a bed, fixing a muffler, then stitching up a horse's head!

The neighbor's horse split open its head - about an eight inch cut that lifted the scalp. My bro-out-law went to work with his side-kick holding the horse down.



Actually, it looked like the horse was holding them more... it tried to roll here on them and they almost lost it!

Too slow with the camera to catch the first rodeo, I stood ready with the camera.





"If you're going to photograph me, at least put my hat back on" he said as I pointed the camera. "Justs shove it down hard on my head."

I abliged and he gave me a bit of a smile.





Here you can see a bit more of the stitching.

I think these guys have done this before...







Just about done here. To keep a big, injured animal to lay down, just twist its head.










The last rodeo wasn't a letdown. Here's the video with a great dismount. He didn't last the full 8 seconds, but close enough and he got off the head without openning up the stitches!



Good job, guys!

Done with Deer, on to the Rabbits

The last few days of vacation and beautiful weather had us out hunting coyotes, rabbits, and just waking the sage brush.

Here is a huge local herd of antelope we saw every day. They sure look great with their rumps flaired in alarm and running in unison.

There was a coyote out the day before that would hang out on the fringe and run though the animals occasionally. Interesting to watch the animals interact with eachother.

Here's a nice shot of the canal. They turned the water off a few months ago and its nice and quiet. Alot of animal tracks through it too - it was just like a deer highway.






Out by the shop we spotted alot of pheasants. There were more than usual out this year - interesting because we also saw more coyotes out than usual.

The roosters we saw here never flushed - they were old and cagey and ran for miles. Duck-n-run.

Fun to see!


Alot of bunnies around too. Infestation is the term Grandma used - bunnies are not a cute, cuddly thing to Grandma and her garden.

We are curious about the predator-prey balance, with seeing so many of both.

Shortly after we started talking another rabbit flushed, and off they ran.

Fun-n-Games for the kids

So what have the little kids been up to while we hike, hunt, and fish? Well, they've been hiking and other things outdoors with us, but when its cold and we are hunting they are...

...playing games.

Duck-Duck-Goose was the favorite for the 2 year old at Grandma's... especially 2-person DDG. He kept it up for HOURS!


All the aunts showed up to suprise Grandma, and they got in on the action, too!

More Van Repairs - Miffed up Muffler

We finally were packed up to leave the cabin, for a few more days in Cody with family... and as we left, the muffler on the van finally fell OFF!

Well, not OFF - just off on one end... and we couldn't pull it off because of the long, twisted tailpipe!

So... right in the middle of the Chief Joseph Hi-way we tried to use a rope to tie it up, out of the way. No good.

Fortunately, the only traffic that cold, icy night were two power-lineman trucks just returning from restoring electricity to Cooke City, MT. They stopped and helped.

We tried to knock the muffler off the pipe with a hammer. It was pretty rotten and corroded... but those things are tough! It didn't work.

We even tried a hacksaw and sawz-all... but they barely scratched the pipe!

Finally, we re-inserted the muffler back onto the manifold pipe, and using 6-guage copper wire, wired it back together.

We also used wire to attach the muffler to the frame in 2 places.

It worked! Actually, the van ran better (and quieter) with the muffler OFF! The wire kept it up to get us down to Cody. We were careful not to hit any roadbumps and go slow over all the cattle guards.

Back in Cody, we tried to get it fixed, but all the shops were booked and we had to leave the next day for home.

We wired it up with Bailing wire in several more spots, and drove it 1050 miles all the way back to the Pacific NorthWest, without a hitch!

Good ole Wyoming bailing wire... definitely the cheapest fix of the trip!

Another Fishing Trip

The only drawback to WY vacations in the wintertime is that some of the bigger mountain peaks are NOT available to hike or climb.

Oh well - on to fishing!

Its been about 4 years since Josh was able to fish the Clark's Fork with us - we used to carry him down here EVERY year since he was 5 months old. No wonder the trail is easier now... !


Right off the bat he caught a nice brookie (above). We only had two poles, so the boys fished while the rest of us explored and tried to build a fire.

Here's another big fat brookie Josh got.

It was much colder and wetter - rain and snow moving in. We didn't get a fire going, so we didn't keep any of the fish the boys got, and we headed back up much sooner.

On the way up, we found a big cave well off the main trail.

This one was big - and had been used a long time ago. There was an old fire and plenty of space for several cowboys or indians to use it. We named it "Cowboy Cave".

This canyon has alot of history. This is where Chief Joseph lead the Nez Pierce indians to escape 7 US Army units on their flight to Canada. Dead Indian Pass we drive over to get into the cabin is where the Army said they found some wounded indians who were "already dead".

Also, when Captain Clark left the rest of the "Lewis and Clark" expedition in 1806 on their way back to St Louis, he apparently came through this canyon on his solo journey.

During prohibition, some locally famous bootleggers had stills down in the valley on the river where they made their "shine". We have found cans, equipment, a woodstove, and miles of metal pipe they used to pipe the smoke of their fires all over so the Feds couldn't find them.

Our cabin is actually in the meadow where a lumberyard had operated until the 1920's. The junkpile is pretty cool to explore - even an old safe still there! I know there is a gold coin or two in it still because I put them there! (Shhh!)

Lots of history. So who used this cave??? None of our family - none of them know about it. Definitely worth exploring more.

There were other caves we spotted, but the little girl was impatient to get back to the cabin and cocoa. Next time we'll look in them!

On the trail up we found Mountain Goat hair on a branch that wasn't there on the way down...

There are lots of goats there - usually seen from below while they watch us fish... but we only saw fur this trip.

Finally - there is the cabin! We got to the meadow just as the skies openned up and dumped on us.

Not alot of snow, but it was windy and cold.





The cabin sure is a welcome site!

And perdy, too.






... with hot cocoa waiting for us!

Thanks Mom!

Back to the Mountain - for some Mountain Climbing

With a successful deer hunt completed, it was time to head back up into the Beartooth Mountains.

There is a big mountain up above the cabin we love to hike and explore, with several of our expedition flags are still hanging up there. This year, we decided to hike the North Face, where the cliffs are to see if we could get into the big Caves we see up there.

But no one remembers the way up!

Here is the mountain emerging from the weather as we start up.

Sugarloaf mountain isn't a big one, but it is prominant and fun.

You can see all the dead and burned trees. The Yellowstone fire from back in the 1980's burned right up to our property and these are remnants from that fire.

In fact, the cabin is built from salvaged logs from that fire.

It is cool to see how the fire and later wind sculpted the wood.









The hike up the side got very steep and tough in places.

The rock is very rough, brittle, and "rotten". Very tricky to keep your footing!

Great views, though. We've hiked, hunted, and explored most of this basin area you can see.



Finally, we made it! The youngest boy and I got to the top rim-rock at the edge of the cliffs and avalanche shoot.

We were only 30 yards from the caves, but the high winds, ice, and steep, loose rock kept us from making it!

Oh well, we made it close and felt good about turning back. You can see the cabin WAYYYYY DOWWNNNNN below!


At the base of the mountain there is some great country. Alot of deer sign, and a few "bear caves" we had to snoop around in.

It would be a tight fit for the big bears we've seen, but perfect for a smaller, 7-8 foot bear...

Or a 10 year old kid...


Here is a look at how rough it is below the cliffs. If you look up at the top of the cliff you can see the biggest cave we tried to get at.

Alot of deer - big deer, sigh in this area. We watched a small bull moose run out of here while up above. The elk seem to like this area, too.

We called this part of the mountain "Busted Crotch Bench" because of all the "Crotch-busting" timber and rocks.

Great cover for animals, though - they can move fast through it and the wind (and your howls from a busted crotch) will warn them of your approach!

Another purpose for this hike was to find a route off of the upper bench. There are sheer cliffs 100 feet high for miles around these mountains, and all the game trails indicated there was SOME way the animals went down and up...

... and we found a very small, narrow ridge of dirt and brush - we had to hunt a while to find it but there it was! A heavily used gametrail right through the middle of it.

We named the ridge "little piney pass". All the brush and cover - it will be hard to find from down below.

As we hiked closer and closer to flatter land, there were more and more signs of cattle.

I introduced the boys to "Wyoming Frisbee"... and there were alot of frisbees around!

They didn't think I was serious until I flung one at them! They can't catch WY-Frisbees very well... need more practice ;-)

Here's a parting shot of the mountain. It defeated our purpose of eaching its protected caves, but revealed its secret passage off of the lower bench.

A very fun and cool mountain, guardian of the meadow.

Here is a really cool stump. Alot of trees blow-down, pulling up dirt, big rocks, etc in their rootwad when they fall.

This rootwad is old enough that all the rocks and dirt have washed away, revealing a very cool and beautiful pattern.

The tree was at least 60 years old, and had blown down at least 60 years previously.

All-in-all a great hike. Saw new country, top'ed the mountain, learned some secrets, and had some fun. Oh, and didn't "bust" anything, too. Another great day!

Caping out a Trophy

We didn't plan to mount this big buck my son shot, but before we started peeling off the skin, his uncle called a local taxidermist who wanted to buy the cape.

We took the deer down to him see, and he definitely wanted it!





It was interesting how he caped it. First, he cut a "V" starting from the back base of each antler and pointing to the back of the deer's neck.

Next, from the middle of the "V" cut, he cut WITH THE HAIR backwards along the ridge of the neck.




Then, around the body well behind the front shoulders. Again, making sure to cut WITH the hair and not against it.

Pretty straightforward...





The boy's not too excited to see someone else messing with his animal!

Oh well. It had to get cut-up sometime.






After taking the hide off the body, the head was removed and the rest of the cape skinned off the skull.







While the caping was going on, our friend the Fish-n-Game officer showed up and checked all the paperwork.

With all paperwork in order, he measured the animal and left.

There is always a bit of sadness after the shot and during the processes that turn a beautiful animal into a piece of meat. It is sad, and it is good that it is sad. Always a tough lesson, though.