Outstanding and beautiful flight, from West Yellowstone to Salt Lake City. Flying above the Tetons. Taken with my new Droid Incredible.

Here is something incredible, here is that same shot, taken though the propellers with the Droid Incredible.  Somehow the video sampling rate beats against the prop frequency.

If you need to park a car, here is the West Yellowstone long term parking:

Is Island Park in danger?

Island Park is 33 miles long, and only 500 feet wide. There are only several hundred people that call Island Park “home” in the official census form, but its many thousands have their hearts there.  The physical population does swell during fishing season.

Being that long and skinny, with all those fishermen. Is Island Park in danger of tipping over? Will it capsize?

I’m worried.

I found this bottle in Beltramo’s, for a nifty fifty bucks. The bottle is definitely cool, with the label going around the bottle with a rainbow trout pattern. It was marked Batch Two, also a coolness factor. What else can I say about this, a great name, a great bottle, a low numbered batch; I just wish the whiskey tasted better for me.

The whiskey is dry, and starts off crisp. However, it has a nasty kick in the sinus a second, or so, after passing the lips. To compare to others, that first second reminds me an Irish whiskey, like Bushmills, and that kick like bourbon that comes in a plastic bottle (think Ten High).

Palettes vary, and maybe just this hatch didn’t match mine. I may try batch five or ten. If you know me, I’ll be happy to give you a taste of mine. Don’t hurry, it will be around for a while. Dry Fly Whiskey definitely doesn’t displace Gentleman Jack.

Tonight, I served Dry Fly to a friend who is a Scotch connoisseur. He enjoyed Dry Fly, as did his wife (she is not a whiskey drinker, nor does she drink whisky).  So, tastes do vary, and you may enjoy Dry Fly. But if you drop $50 for a bottle and don’t like it, don’t blame me.

The discovery of the rainbow trout came about, as most significant discoveries do, during a search for something else. The US government was looking for salmon to restock the decimated Atlantic Salmon of the eastern US.  Oregon was mentioned as a source of salmon, but there was some doubt, as everyone knew that pacific salmon do not take a fly. In fact, according to the story, Britain ceded the Oregon territory to the US because the brother of  Lord Aberdeen was skunked on a fly fishing trip to Oregon. Who needs fish if they won’t take a fly? Who needs Oregon if you can’t catch the fish with a fly?

Now, with all our modern technology and rich history, we know that getting skunked on a fly fishing trip to Oregon is not unheard of. The last time I was skunked, I thought of ceding my spey rod to the river, but not the whole territory…

This particular book was pretty cool to start reading. I opened it for the first time this weekend, on the banks of the Upper Sacramento river.  The story opens with some guys from Washington DC traveling to Red Bluff by railroad, then to the McCloud river by stage coach. They went to find salmon; what they discovered was Rainbow Trout.

I’m a couple of chapters in, and have really enjoyed a few nuggets of prose.  Instead of a a book review, I thought I’d share these nuggets as I come across them.

The first was not written by Anders Halverson, the author, but instead  written by someone else, quoting someone else. The Foreword was written by Patricia Nelson Limerick, where she shares this quote from James Madison:

“As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other”

Wow. We get all worked up and passionate about those things that are important to us: water management policies, vice-presidents, indigenous species populations, and the annual budget of the Department of Fish and Game.   Who would have thought we could get all indigent over the budgeting process for land use agencies in Idaho? Well, Madison did. We know the best way to manage state parks because those decisions potentially impact our access to Millionaire’s Pool.

Will the Firehole drain into hell? Or as Jamie Farrell of the University of Utah says, just an interesting event to study earthquakes.  (hey, didn’t he play Corp Klinger?)

Opening day is 4 months away. Check back then for an eye-witness report.