Dress rehearsal for summer days!

What an awesome spring day!  We got ready for summer today.



Is it fishing or playing in the dirt and rocks? It doesn't matter...we're outside!



Noah can't wait to go fishing. (Yeah, yeah...it's not backcountry and it's not fly-fishing, but you have to start somewhere!).



All backcountry kids need to know how to read a map.




Spring runoff......stay out of the really cold water that was snow just a few hours ago.



Kids are happiest when they are outside.

Interesting fish story and Costco Gear

Not your normal fish story, but pretty cool to read...............

http://www.livescience.com/18958-armored-fish-attacks-pterosaur.html


Was at Costco today. They have some decent gear for sale, if you don't expect the gear to last a lifetime (but it might!).

Nice backpack, certainly big enough for a weekend.

Anti-shock hiking poles for under $30?!?!? Nice deal, and they come with alot of different baskets and tips, although I don't really know why you need something other than the powder baskets. The packaging claims they help burn up to 45% more calories, but I think that is entirely wrong because I think they make you more efficient.

I think they help extend your hiking distance at least 33% per day at minimum, or you at least feel much less tired after a given distance without them. If you are hiking with a pack, hiking poles like this will change your world.

I thought about buy my kid one of the Kelty 30deg sleeping bags, but there wasn't a "pillow area" around the head on the ground side.  No pics.

Anyway, if you're looking for cheap, durability-not-guaranteed gear for just one or two trips this year, then Costco has your stuff. The backpack above looked fairly durable to be honest.

April 1st is coming! Get your backcountry requests in soon! And a Snowpack update.

March brings alot of things that I like: more sunlight, spring skiing, March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, and planning for Yellowstone backcountry fishing.

March 31 is the deadline for backcountry site lottery. Of course, you can always request a site later, but getting in early is the smart way to do things if you like to control your own future as much as possible.

Here are the links you need:

Reservation Form, you can complete the form online this year.

Backcountry Planner

Basic Trip Planner

Of course, you can always get my book on Kindle or hardcopy at Amazon from the "how-to" when comes to backcountry fishing trip planning in Yellowstone.

The Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Guide has the best details on each and every river, creek, and lake in the Park.

The Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Guide

You should start your dreaming this weekend and get started on our backcountry site reservation for this summer in Yellowstone. You'll be fighting me for a spot in Blacktail Canyon in July and Slough Creek or Lamar River in September.

I really like looking at the maps and dreaming of what the area must look like and how big the fishing holes must be. Will be there good sunsets from camp and good early-morning light? Is it in grizzly or wolf country?

Get those great spots locked-in early with the Park and on your calendar!

On another note, the snowpack is actually doing well in the southeast part of the park, according this Billings Gazette article today.  The northwest area is pretty dry.

Links to specific Sno-Tel sites are at.http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/Wyoming/wyoming.html

Overall for the Upper Yellowstone looks like this:

This is a different view of what the snowpack looks like: