I bent over hands on knees while a volunteer carefully untied my right shoe to remove my timing chip and stood uneasy enjoying the rotation of the earth and trying not to puke on her head, really I could actually feel the earth rotating, or maybe it was all the Oreo cookies I had eaten in the past two hours.
When we got back to the car it took a few minutes to come back to full awareness. Then I looked at Bob and said, "Where is the closest Starbucks? I NEED a coffee."
Tony
“…okay 5 mile loop, I think my fastest time on this loop is around 40 minutes, it could be way faster but for the hills, yup it is the hills that slow me down, watch the gravel, the driveway is .25 miles long, I gotta get through this so the boys don’t play to much Wii while I’m gone, going in to Mexico in November for a week need to pack: shorts, socks, snorkeling gear, snorkeling in the Bahamas on the Bimini Road that was fun and in Guam with Amy, bad sunburn, also need to pack more light clothes, the kids stuff, sun-block, camera, does Cheryl have a photo shoot tonight?, look at the size of the pine cones from that tree, the squirrels that take them must be huge or just demented like the critter from Ice Age, “Ball of Confusion, that’s what the world is today, hey hey……..Ball of Confusion…”, beautiful clouds, is that a deer or a tree stump, it’s a deer and a buck too, where is my gun?, Monroe Fire Department station #32 – how you boys doing?, Look both ways when crossing the street, 12:30 to this point I remember when it use to be 16:00, up that road is the 3 mile loop, I could do figure 8 and make it a 8 mile run, no wait I’d be covering less distance, it would be a 5 mile loop with two times over the middle part so it would only be an 7 mile loop, which way would be faster?, pretty flowers, new paint stripes, how do they make the little reflective balls in the paint?, I hate the new reflective vests at work, “Does this vest make me look fat? No it is the bunker gear that makes you look fat, the vest just brings more attention to it!”, “…Do you really want to live foreveeeerrrrrrrrr???......Forever Young…..”, cool old car, more pine cones, If a mile is 5280 feet and my stride is around 7 feet how many steps in a mile?…..can’t do that one… I’ll count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5……78…..126, I love this song, 145 I think, ugh I lost count, I should just do it on a track and not have music, laundry, groceries: veggies, milk, eggs, “I’d like to buy some cheese and some butter.” Robin Williams is so funny, The boys need to do their reading when I get back, oh they trimmed the trees in their driveway and it looks nice now I can see around the corner and wont get hit by a car, the last crash we went on was a just a car vs. guard rail and I’ll we got to do was set up cones and disconnect the battery, I need a new batter for my other running watch and the heart-rate band but that needs to be mailed in and will cost $50, my heart is still beating so screw it, cpr 100 beats per minute and push to you feel ribs breaking, “….the Reflex, flex flex flex flex flex….buh dum dum dum….”, ooo a quarter, remember that time you saw a pair of Oakley sunglasses and didn’t pick them up and on your way back they were gone?, bag of pot definitely the most bizarre thing I’v ever found running, need to add an epi pen to the list for Mexico, I wonder if the turtles will be laying eggs on the beach, okay two miles down and the hills begin drive the arms and knees just a bit more, 17:30, that’s 17 divided by two, uh, 16 by 2 is 8 minute miles and 1 would add another 30 seconds for 8 thirties and 3 more seconds would add 15 more seconds per mile so right at 8:45 per mile good pace, feels a bit slower but whatever, “…..riding on the metroooooo….”, that train ride in Japan was weird, I wonder what the radiation is doing now?, oh yeah gotta make an appt for my year end physical, that’s the house with the mean dog, where’s a rock, I could just do it David style and kill the bear and lion with my bare hands, and this rock…….and stick, how does it work when you see rocks and your mind says don’s step on that and you foot lands just to the side of the rock, that’s cool, like skiing moguls you pick a line and go , but I always crash, I’ll stick to running, those folks still have that dead car in the yard and the blackberries are slowly eating it, “Feed me Seymour feed me!!!”, top of the hill and then one flat-ish mile, nice, mow the yard, pick up the dog poop, spray the weeds in the driveway, get the trash to the end of the driveway, order more gravel for the driveway, PAVE THE DRIVEWAY, the ranch in Montana has a 23 mile long driveway you should be happy, “…baby this town rips the bones from your back, it’s a death trap, it’s a suicide wrap, we gotta get out while we’re young, baby we were born to Ruuuunnnnn…”, gotta get that book back from Bob, crap I forgot to renew the tabs on the Honda, I want a Hummer they are getting cheap now, maybe an older style Land Rover, “I’ll sit here in the car while Mike tags the ferocious lion currently feeding on its latest kill and protecting its young”, glass is a liquid, taco salad for dinner tonight, snot shot oops got my shoe, Mile 4 at the intersection looks like I’m going to be at 35 minutes right on pace 34 divided by 2 is 17…..plus half of one is 30 same as mile 2 so still on 8:45 pace even with the hills, nice, going to finish the marathon in first place!! Ahead of the Kenyans the old white guy from Monroe comes from behind to win at Boston, “looks like a 4 iron here at Augusta, little bit of wind in his eyes I guess as he…..oh IT’S IN THE HOLE……”, hey look two different trees growing out of that dead stump, Halloween candy the good kind not that sugar free crap the lady down the street use to give us and no pencils either, bean dip and nacho chips for tomorrow night, Oh gotta get flip-flops for Gabe in Mexico, Jon’s got soccer practice at 5:00 tonight, another house for sale, more pine cones?, this is the pine cone run, oh drip of sweat right in the middle of my sunglasses, blurry vision in one eye GREAT!, now I swerve to miss a pine cone get hit by a car end up in the hospital and no one will know that I just beat the Kenyans or who I am, well maybe the medics, I wonder if M*A*S*H is on HULU I should check, oh I feel a blister on my toes from my last long run, hard to tell which toe it is on, 5 miles at the turn here at the driveway, “…Mia Hee Mi Ya Who My ya Ha My ya Haha…….”, sharp pokey gravel step carefully, MORE PINE CONES, stream with fish in it under the road, no deer in the field, winter is coming better clean out the fireplace, are there pine cones in Mexico?, potty, shower, food, homework and off to soccer practice, mile 5, 44:30 little fast at the finish but it is downhill , whatever, still beat the Kenyans and didn’t get hit by a car.
Tony
After Jon displayed his lack of buggers, Gabe promptly caught a tiger muskie in lake Curlew when we got there to camp. It was our base camp for the next few days of digging.
During the dig we had an up close visit from a local resident...
Above is the upper section of the dig site where we found most of the fossils we brought home. After digging for a few hours we delivered our treasures to the scientists for evaluation. If we found something unusual they would document it and swoop it away to be evaluated and possibly displayed in the Burke Museum in Seattle. Both Grandpa Don and I has a sample fossil taken for research.
Here is Gabe sitting outside the mercantile eating an ice cream cone.
It was a great trip with Grandma and Grandpa to the high mountain area of north-east Washington.
Tony
I estimated being away from the lake for an hour giving me forty minutes to climb and twenty minutes to descend back to the lake. I really wanted to reach the summit but my years of backcountry trail running have taught me better, so I turned around. The rest of my family had gone down from the lake back to the trailhead as I headed up. I discussed being about an hour behind them, and being in unfamiliar grizzly country with a possible wet thunder shower coming soon I felt it best to head back. I reached the lake in twenty minutes pounding carefully down the hillside. Passing several hikers I soon reached my descending family roughly one hundred meters shy of the trailhead right as the rain started to fall.
Today is a July 14, 2011 and marks our third day in beautiful Gallatin, Montana. Yesterday we walked to see the unfishable flooded Gallatin River, hiked a few miles along Swan Creek where Gabe earned $1 from Jim for jumping into a deep section formed by an old beaver dam and fished Squaw Creek; we were skunked by the way. Even so Jon had a few fish rise to the flies he presented. Jonathan has been here for a few days celebrating his “double digit” birthday with Cheryl’s Uncle Jim, Aunt Linda and Cousin Carly. The cabin along the Gallatin River has been in the Robbins family since Jim’s parents purchased the three acre plot and simple structure in 1968. The cabin has doubled in size with more modern additions, but still remains rustic and romantic. Cheryl has been here many times as a child and young adult with her family; this is my second visit and the first for the boys. The cabin sits roughly in the center of Castle Meadow, a large long grassy stretch bordered on the east side by I-151 and on the west by the Gallatin River. This is our base camp for all our adventures.
As part of Jonathan’s birthday or more like an excuse to fish we floated a large section of the Madison River. The local newspaper reported the most important news of the summer for the fly fishers; the salmon fly hatch had begun.
This annual event is of the utmost value and fishermen travel from the far reaches of the globe chasing this hatch. Time, water temperature, and sunlight dictate the actual timing of the hatching. The Salmon fly will start its life cycle as eggs deposited far upstream on the water surface by the female flys. The eggs settle to the rocky bottom of the river and spend the next three years in a larva/nymph stage eventually crawling onto the shore, molting into the full sized fly. Here in Montana the Salmon flys reach three to four inches long and when they all hatch together it is more like a swarm of giant locust. Here is a shot of Jon with one. 
They are everywhere for a few days and the fish go crazy in a mad gorging feeding frenzy. Then it’s done the mating process is complete the eggs have been deposited and the spent flys drift down stream. We were fortunate to actually be here right as the hatch occurred and it was quite a sight. We hit the river on the third and possible final day of the hatch on the upper stretches of the Madison starting at the McAtee Bridge and pulling out just above the town of Ennis. It was an eight hour day of floating and fishing, producing many fish including brown trout, white fish and rainbow trout. We had a great day fishing large salmon fly patterns both dry and nymphs. Here is one of the browns and below that a white fish Jon reeled in. 
Our guide was fantastic with Jon. His skills as a fisherman and guide mingled well with his fatherly abilities. He and Jon quoted recent movies and made jokes all the while learning and teaching new fishing skills. Here he is working with Jon on his casting. 
Jon did most of the catching of the twenty or so fish we landed. We were fortunate to avoid two different weather systems that provided thunder, lightning and heavy rains.
While we fished Gabe, Linda, Carly and Cheryl spent the day in Yellowstone. Geysers, paint pots, hot springs, bison and bears were the highlights of the day.
The next day I had the opportunity to spend time fishing with Jim, cashing in my Christmas coupon for one free day of fishing in Montana. We set out late in the morning after a blueberry pancake breakfast while the rest of the group went off to visit a couple antique and thrift shops. Jim had scouted out the best waters for a one day wading trip. We settled on fishing the Gibbon River in West Yellowstone and waiting for suggestions from the Blue Ribbon Fly Shop at the west entrance for more information. 
The guys at the shop said the Firehole River was also producing well. We maximized our time by pulling off at a newly built access point right on the river. Wading upstream we quickly got into a few good sized rainbows and browns. 
The mosquitoes were just thick enough to tolerate and provided a bit of surface food for the fish. After a couple hours we headed down stream to the Firehole River. It is called the Firehole due to the many steaming springs and geysers that flow into the river, many of which are right along the banks. We walked across a grassy meadow avoiding the bison manure to the riverside. It was a slow flowing section of water filled with the evening hatch. Caddis, mosquitoes and mayflies were everywhere and the fish were feeding on the surface. We threw a yellow caddis pattern called a “Yellow Sally” that matched the surrounding caddis. I easily drew a dozen or more strikes to the surface but in frustration failed to hook a single fish while Jim put on a short clinic on how to hook brown trout. Our time at the Firehole was short as were wanted to get home before dark, and had a ways to drive. A small group of guys arrived to take our spot next to a large snag in the river and several steaming pools of water. 
We took a few photos, waded back across the river and crossed the meadow to the car. As we left the park I took this shot of the valley we were driving through. I had to block the sun with my hand but the steam plumes rising looked so amazing in the evening light. 
We skipped stopping for dinner, even so it was still dark well before we arrived home, that’s what happens when you fish in Yellowstone; time gets away from you in a flash.
The next morning we woke early, said our goodbyes and headed off for the thirteen hour drive home. On the way we stopped to fish in the St Regis river before leaving Montana, refuled and found amazing ice cream in Wallace, Idaho, played a much needed round of "Flyers Up" at a rest stop in Moses Lake. and grabbed a Subway dinner in Ellensburg.
Tony
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