Skin up and ski

The Snowy Range Highway opened over Memorial Day weekend, and a lot of backcountry enthusiasts were there to shred some spring snow. Jan, the soul skier from Montana, made the trip down from Big Sky Country. We joined up with Marty, the Ph.D. of Ski, to make some turns on the south flank of Medicine Bow Peak.

The snowpack is pretty impressive this spring. We got to the mountain fairly late in the morning, though, and snow conditions were getting a little soggy. Still, wet snow is better than no snow.

We skinned up at the Lake Marie trailhead. The biggest challenge was getting out of the parking lot because the snowbanks are 7-8 feet high and nobody had packed in any steps yet.

Jan and I were on telemark gear while Marty employed his alpine touring setup. Despite the cloudy conditions that threatened thunderstorms, we all worked up a sweat climbing the 1,100 vertical feet.

We climbed up to the ridge above School Rock and made two runs in the snowfields up there before skiing all the way down to the parking lot for a celebratory toast of Stella Artois.

Two days later, we did the same route but this time in rain at the parking lot, graupel higher up, and finally heavy, wet snowflakes that resulted in surprisingly nice conditions for our descent. I'm not sure that it was powder, but it was definitely more skiable than slush. Even though we were soaked after a couple runs, the day still called for a Stella Artois.

Jan and I even snuck in a day of flyfishing at a couple of lakes between ski days. All in all, a great holiday weekend spent with good friends and good beverages.

First flyfishing trip of the year

After a long, hard winter which finally ended Sunday, I made it through some slippery roads to an area lake Monday and broke out the fly rod. I was rewarded with a small rainbow on my first cast and a small cutthroat on the second.

The day went like that with fish striking a beadhead prince nymph regularly in shallow water where it was probably warmer. The sizes improved, too. I managed a nice Snake River cutt in the 18-inch range, and a half dozen other cutts in the 15-inch range. A few rainbows were decent - probably around 13 inches but fat.

It felt great to catch some trout on the 6-weight. The only trout I'd caught this year had been a few while ice-fishing for perch and ling. And I only went on the ice three times this winter.

Once the fish had shredded the prince and I broke off the replacement, I decided to hit a stream and try to complete the trifecta with a brown trout. I tied on a bugger and slung it into the wind for a while. As I worked upstream into a narrow channel, I cast into a shady back eddy and Mr. Brown took the invitation to play. The next cast into the same eddy, a smaller brown took the bugger.

Trifecta completed, I headed back to the car happy with my first day of flyfishing. It bodes well for the rest of the season.

Tight lines.

Keeping Wyoming Safe from Ling

As a card-carrying member of Trout Unlimited, I believe it's my duty to help protect coldwater fisheries from dangerous intruders.

So I headed to Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming to kill some ling. Ling, if you haven't heard, were illegally introduced sometime to the huge lake that spans from the Cowboy State into northern Utah.

To retaliate for that intrusion, the Game and Fish Department has declared open season on the ling - no limit year-round. It's a sportsman's obligation to keep every ling caught to try to protect the Gorge's trout, kokanee and smallmouth bass population.

Ling, also known as lingcod and burbot, are caught at night at the Gorge using fluorescent jigs baited with sucker meat flavored with anise.

It was wonderful standing on the ice in the dark, listening to coyotes sing, the ice crack and groan as it shifted in the evening temperature drop, and watching the stars in the black night sky.

And we caught some ling, along with one rainbow and one lake trout.

I hear ling are delicious eating. One local recipe is to boil pieces of ling fillet in Seven-Up.

I'll let you know how that works in a future posting.