Mushroom Hunt then on to West Yellowstone

J and I traveled to West Yellowstone on Wednesday. We were to have left on Saturday, but I did not feel right skipping the IFF board meeting Tuesday night so we got a late start. The Park closed on the 2nd so we missed that. The road to Cody, WY, goes thru the Park, so I missed the visit to the Buffalo Bill Plains Museum. I really want to see that someday. I did fish the Madison River between lake Hebgen and Earthquake Lake. I hooked three fish, landed two and had a couple other strikes that I missed. The two I caught were 18" whitefish. They don't make big runs like brown trout or jump like RB, but they just resist real hard and bury themselves in the current. I had fun landing them even though they are not considered one of the premier gamefish. Another fisherman visited to see how I was doing and said he is local and fishes the Madison often and thought the day was slow, He had only caught one smalll RB so I was feeling pretty good. I don't have pictures of the fish because I don't like to have the camera on me when I am wading a river. I have a wading staff, but have been known to go down while using two wading staffs.

I thought Earthquake Lake was pretty ugly. Hebgen was pretty. You can see a picture of the intersection one takes to access Hebgen and Earthquake.

West Yellowstone has very few stores open this time of the year. Activity picks back up when the Park opens on the 15th of December for the snowmobilers. See the sunrise from our condo which overlooked the Wolf and Bear Discovery Center. The first morning there I opened the window of our bedroom at 4:30 to listen to the wolves howl. Sounds much more like a moan.

I went out to fish again on Friday but the wind was howling worse than the wolves so I gave that up (don't need another Bow River experience). J and I packed up a drove home. On the way we visited Upper Mesa Falls on the Henry Fork of the Snake River. You can see the pictures. We thought it was pretty impressive.

The Tuesday before leaving my mushroom hunting partner and I spent the day looking for mushrooms. The pictures shown are from Cabin Creek Campground on the Middle Fork of the Weiser River. We found sixteen different mushrooms, but I have only identified a few. We found the edible Coprinus altramentarius which is closely related to the Inky Caps. We found these in the yard of the Second Chance store on the corner of lane and the highway. These are edible mushrooms, but can make one very sick if alcohol is consumed at the time or even a day later.

Got to go and see how the U of I is doing against Fresno State. Go Vandals!

Papa Coyote loves you all