Month: June 2026

The skies are clear and it is almost 70 degrees. Too bad we are leaving now that the weather is so nice. We say good bye to our next door neighbor, Stu from Florida and leave with the smell of his cigar lingering in the air. Nice folks!

Ray learned from online that you shouldn’t drive over 50 mph and over 50 miles on a donut spare and being the cautious engineer he is, was worried that we would damage the transmission. So I got to work in the am to find a tow company. I decided to try AAA first and again they came through. Tow truck would be here in an hour, plenty of time for the 2 hr drive to Bozeman for our 12 o’clock appt at Firestone. Also in time for me to have lunch with Megan, my former coworker at POST. We’d been trying to meet up after her plans to come camping got cancelled due to rain, and our plans to meet in Big Sky didn’t work out with the road closure and our tire mishap.

Yellowstone Towing arrived, the owner of the company that came last night. He lives in Island Park ID in a 5,000 sq ft house on 2 acres he bought for $1.3M decades ago. We didn’t even know there was a subdivision of close to 30 houses as from the highway, we always pass just a few fly shops. Apparently wealthy mostly Californians own houses in the tens of millions. He grew up on a dairy farm in northern Illinois, son of the lical police chief and started out with United van lines then trucking, and now owns the tow company but also transports large construction equipment. He survived stage 3 prostrate cancer and has been a deputy working with youth in trouble with drinking and drugs. He hired the deaf boy a few months ago, formerly in trouble drinking but now good. He said he checks up on youth to help them get clean – they need someone who cares as most have absentee parents. He was anti Pelosi, anti Newsom; we didn’t go deeper than that! He talked about how they never shut down during Covid and said the autopsies showed those vaccinated had sticky blood ( it did something to the coagulation) and those who got Covid had been vaccinated, the rest of them had natural antibodies. No one died. We kept our mouths shut. I asked if there is a doctor shortage and he said no, local kids have come back to practice in Rexburg about an hour away. All in all he was a nice guy and a decent person and we got to Firestone on time.

Lunch with Megan was fun. She brought her son Weston,an adorable 8 yr old. Their lives are so different than before they moved out 5 yrs ago from Pescadero. Their kids raise 5 pigs and 10 chickens for 4 H and they have goats and dogs. She said life is less stressful, people have better work life balance, where they work so they can do the things they love. She said she’s seen too many people get degrees because they have to and don’t end up doing what they love.The schools in the area are good but the kids learn practical skills in 4 H instead of academic enrichment after school. There are a slew of campgrounds and ski slopes close by. It’s a good life if you can stand the winters!

We got our new tires and stayed in until the rains stopped then spent the evening fishing. The snow capped hills made it feel like early spring, not summer.

Rain in Cameron and the Madison River led us to venture back to Yellowstone. We stopped along the way to check out parts of the upper Madison which flows through the park and the town of West Yellowstone. Baker’s Hole Campground is serene and lovely and we have lunch by the winding waters.

We fished the Gibbons, catching several in our usual spot and drove through the majestic Firehole Canyon. Alas, dusk was falling and it was time to leave. We thought we had timed it such that most visitors had left but alas found ourselves in a long line of cars. Arriving in West Yellowstone, we bought groceries, picked up dinner at Firehouse BBQ, then headed back.

I was doing on the 2 lane road when suddenly there was a large boom. Apparently the rains had released some rocks onto the road and I drove over one, puncturing our left front tire. I drove into a large pull out and while Ray inspected it, I tried to contact AAA. There was no cell service but miraculously, I was able to use SOS which connected to satellite and road assistance. AAA was amazing! Our location coordinates were transmitted to AAA every few minutes and they got in touch with a tow truck. We are our dinner and sat for 3 hrs in the dark, pouring rain outside, waiting. But they gave us updates every 20 min on eta. A car pulled up, also having hit a rock but their car was ok. We told them to let the police know about the rocks and later saw a snowplow come by clearing the road. A truck pulled up with 2 guys offering help which we declined. He later told us he was an off duty deputy but we politely thanked him saying we had already contacted AAA. Finally the tow truck arrived, a very nice deaf driver who proceeded to change our tire for our spare, using his phone to communicate. We loaded back our stuff and slowly drove the few miles back to our trailer.

We discovered that most tire stores in Bozeman are closed on sundays and we were worried there would not be tires our size in the area. This would have meant delaying our return indefinitely and finding a new rv place with openings but missing the arrival of Robert’s family! To our relief we finally found supply at Firestone and have made an appt for tomorrow morning. Keei g fingers crossed we can leave on Tuesday as planned!

The weather forecast changes by the hour here and projected rain is not a constant rain, but rain clouds that blow in and blow out within minutes. It can be sunny and warm one minute, and windy and pouring the next. We are getting used to this variability, just have all weather gear close by!

The fishing has generally been pretty good from 8:30 until noon. All action stops after that and some feeding fish can be seen at night. The river is pretty quiet at night which should tell you something. They say that fish feed aggressively when it rains. Apparently bugs get washed into the water and fish feed indiscriminately, though we usually don’t stick around long enough.

The parking lot has been more full than years past. It seems more and more guys are sleeping in their vans and campers for free.

I’m actually improving and becoming more independent in selecting a fly, tying it on, casting it out and catching fish. It sure makes a difference in enjoyment of flyfishing when you catch a few. Else casting hundreds of times with no reward gets pretty discouraging. I believe it is a very difficult sport to master, more so than many others where a little bit of skill is enough to “play”. There’s a long learning curve! I do see more young women out, and many fly ships are offering women’s classes. What I haven’t seen is more women tying flies, odd because it is the more crafty side of flyfishing.

Evening tonight on the Madison brought a firey glow to the mountains. I’ve photographed this scene so many times but this scene was the most majestic.

Slide In. Hadn’t changed and we have our same RV slot. Evening fishing wasn’t very good but we look forward to the next few days. We did pretty well early in the morning, getting out on the river at 8:30 am to stake out our spot. The action started around 10 and we caught quite a few. In the afternoon we drove in to Yellowstone and fished the Gibbons River, catching 5 small wild trout. The skies turned gray and a very dramatic thunderstorm with hail followed.

minutes later, the skies cleared and we sat by the Firehole River watching for rising fish, but none appeared. With daylight to spare, we made a quick stop at Grand Prismatic Springs. It was sunset and the lighting was extraordinary. It had been many years since we had seen it and it was every bit as beautiful as I remembered.

On our way out of the park, Ray gives it a few more casts. This is the

Our next stop is Helena, a lovely small town, so well kept and clean. We arrive early and drove to see the sights. Mass was just starting at St. Helena cathedral I went in, the wrong door apparently and ended up in the rectory and next to the line of altar boys and priests getting ready for their processional. He kindly directed me to the pews.
The music took my breath away- the acoustics and architecture are astoundingly gorgeous with high vaulted ceilings, and stained glass. It was designed by an Austrian architect in the early 1900’s modeled after gothic churches in Europe. Helena had the most millionaires per capita at that time from mining, ranching and banking and donors funded the cathedral. Amazingly Helena has 4 quilting fabric shops. One shopkeeper was from Altadena and said in the winter they hunker down and sew! The girls are yellow with canola.

The tiny town of Craig, 30 min away has 32 residents and are there solely because of flyfishing guiding. Our guide on the Missouri River was Cameron, a young guy from Helena, who said many houses are being bought by people converting them to airbnbs, making it tough for young people to afford a place to live. He got his degree in Fish and Wildlife Management and said all his friends went back to being guides. When I asked if he’d do it again, he said he supposed the education was a good experience but he really didn’t know what to study. This was the first time I’ve fly fished from a boat and it was hard. First of all it was windy, secondly I have never cast sitting down and thirdly, the fishing is very technical. I made lots of mistakes but he was so patient. We lost quite a few but also landed several. All in all a nice day.

We had dinner twice at MT Ascension, a local brewery and li and behold the waitress was from Northridge. The cashier at Albertsons was from the East Bay. Geez, is everyone in Montana from California?

After 2 1/2 days of driving, we arrived in Livingston MT, ready for a few days of fishing on the De Puys River, a family owned ranch that is open to flyfishing by reservation. During June and part of July, space is hard to come by and once you get open days, you keep those days year after year. The weather will be clear though windy and the locals say the insect hatches are 3 weeks early.

In the morning we meet Simon Chu, a New Zealander with a beautiful accent. We talk about our backgrounds and learn his parents left China in the 40’s and settled in Queenstown. They wanted him to be an accountant and he got his degree, became a high school teacher and later a guide. His mom calls him a trout bum. His son is a pro cricket player in NZ. Simon was a great guide and taught me a lot of techniques, especially how to properly land the fish, though I still think it is easier if the fish gets away! He tells us the outfitter he works for has access to many private rivers owned by individuals and you can be the only ones out there. Simon was a great teacher and it was a really fun day. I caught several fish with his help and then in the evening by myself despite the wind.

We had a late reservation at Campione, an Italian restaurant that had gotten listed in the NYT. The food was great as usual and the waitress super friendly; she was originally from SJ.

We fished on our own on Thursday. It was not as successful a day but enjoyable just the same.

Friday was a free day and I went fabric shopping for Nina’s quilt. In this tiny town, there are 2 beautiful shops. I got lots of samples for online ordering. I was amazed at the variety of items at the kitchen store and at the local bookstore, all downtown. The shopkeeper said Livingston has grown in the last 10 yrs and now he has trouble getting help because housing is too expensive. I guess that is happening everywhere. The owner of the fabric store was from Monterey! There was a long line outside Mike’s Burger, every time I drove by., a diner type place. I was tempted to try it. People in line said it is so good and the line sometimes wraps up the block. What a disappointment! The burger was small and tasted like a McDonald’s burger!

On Saturday we had breakfast at Pinky’s and then headed out.

Our drive was uneventful until we reached the outskirts of Yellowstone going north toward Bozeman. Suddenly a girl is standing there with a stop sign. She tells us there are bees ahead and she has to help someone with their suit. . Then a large truck pulls up onto the shoulder and a guy gets out, and proceeds to don a white beekeeper suit. We are then permitted to drive through and we see hundreds of bee boxes on the side of the road and swarms of bees. In the news we later learn that a truck had overturned that morning and he was carrying a load of bees boxes. We also learned that bees are often transported from state to state to pollinate commercial orchards and farms. The local beekeepers help to get the bees back into their boxes and have 24-48 hrs for the bees to find their queens else the bees will scatter.

We stop for huckleberry ice cream in West Yellowstone at our favorite stand and the kid scoops a single size that is equivalent to a container of Ben and Herrys. Way too much ice cream!!!