Whitewater rafting on the Wind River

Our family spent memorial day weekend in Thermopolis, Wyoming. It is a small resort town in north central Wyoming. It has the largest hot springs in the world which is a state park and has 2 water parks with several pools and slides with the warm mineral water. Our kids enjoyed the water park because even with the cold and rainy weather, they stayed in the warm pools and were very comfortable.
I wanted to fish the Big Horn River which runs through town, but due to high water levels decided to book a whitewater trip in the Wind River Canyon. Even with a wetsuit and shell, getting drenched with 44 degree water and 55 degree air mixed with rain made for a cold float, but I will do it again because it was quite exciting.
In the pictures I am in the rear on the right with sunglasses and blue helmet.

Rock Climbing

I finally went rock climbing in Wyoming. I met this guy named "Ben" who is a local climber.(reminds me of Gordon, about his age too) He took me to Vedauwoo just east of Cheyenne for some trad climbing. It is a famous area for climbing. I had fun, but have to admit I need to climb some more.

The May trip with high school friends Dan and Randy was enjoyable. We rented a cataraft and floated the river 4 times in 3 days. It was not the hottest fishing, but the fish were hitting the cicadas. I could have spent another week there.

Green River Spring Fishing

I have annual trips now to the Green River. In April with my Dad and May with my high school friends. This year Adam came with us and enjoyed the spring weather(cold and rainy). I borrowed a friends drift boat and due to the low flows managed to hit many rocks and left some chips in the paint.(I won't ask to borrow a drift boat again!)

Big Buck!!

This is the first mule deer I've shot in 11 years and it is the biggest by far. I shot this near Wheatland, Wyoming. It turned out to be an enjoyable hunt. The weather was nice and Dave and I saw many deer. He didn't get one, but did pass up some smaller bucks. We spent 3 days hunting and hiking. I look forward to doing this next year.

Antelope 2009

Did you know there are more antelope in Wyoming than people? Even with the hunting the numbers remain constant because each doe has one and most times two fawns each year. It took about 4 hours to harvest this buck and other than the rainy weather it was enjoyable.
My friend Dave got one the same day and so we were home that evening.

Alaska Trip

I have wanted to do a trip to Alaska for 20 years now. My brother Andy moved up there 4 or 5 years ago so I finally got to see him and experience Alaska. It was an amazing trip and quite an adventure. The weather did not cooperate however and rained 7 days straight. I can fish in the rain, but it caused the rivers to flood and made fishing difficult. Also because of the rain I didn't take many pictures for fear of ruining my camera.
We did hire a charter to take us out in the ocean one of the days. I caught a 120 pound halibut.(my arms and back were sore after reeling him in) In the river we caught mostly pink salmon, which averaged 4-7 pounds. Towards the end of the week we started catching a few silver salmon, which averaged 10 pounds and bigger.
Andy and Cherie were very nice to us and we ate fresh fish every night cooked by a different recipe.