You’re welcome.
Craft/hobby boards tend to be very clique-ee, so they tend to stay small and stale because they value their own clique more than anything else. Think of boards like this as sort of a morning coffee gathering of long retired old people–they don’t have much to say, nor to offer anyone outside of their coterie. Sort of amusing to watch.
WY is one of my fav places.
Oh, puh-leeze.
Not all paddlers are antigun or antihunting. In my part of CO, not being able to use a gun isn’t a good idea…because the criminals have them.
I need a refresher in shooting, so if I didn’t live so far away, szhin’s trade would be enticing.
To Szihn:
Good luck finding instruction. You might contact paddlers in the Flathead Lake region, because there are a surprising number of them. That lake does not usually freeze over, and it is BIG. Should be no more than a day’s drive from the Jackson Hole area. Hot days in the summer.
Well Dago that’s OK and not unexpected, nor do I see much wrong with people wanting to chat about the things that interest them.
But rudeness and lack of caring about facts or details is a mark of someone that wants to feel superior however, and that’s what I find to be amusing. We would not accept such behavior from 2nd graders, but many people feel so secure in their place behind a keyboard that basic 2nd grade courtesy is thrown away. It’s a matter of core values and character. What you do when there is no consequences for being immoral or unethical, or even just petite is a flag to show who you really are. By far most of the people here have NOT fallen into that category and for those that are in it, it’s fine to let them live there.
So as I said, I don’t mind being “left out” at all. I don’t even mind being insulted by those that think of themselves as “Cyber-Tough”.
I am enjoying this new past time more then any new activity I have done in the last 40 years of so, and those that want to cry that I don’t let them make all my beliefs and convictions ,as well as my schedules and do my money management are of no consequence to me or to anyone else, so only a fool gets upset at such people. He who angers you controls some part of you.
I am 100% willing to “let them be right”. With my blessings
But I think I may have found someone (2 of them actually) who are going to teach my wife and me. I will be very happy if that comes through. And I in turn am going to pay them for their services (what I can actually pay for at this time) and I am also going to teach them some of my skills, as well as take them out to the mountains to get some photos of big bears, moose, elk and bighorn sheep.
I believe I have started a few new friendships that will likely last for the rest of my life.
Just out of curiosity Pikabike----where do you live?
Flathead lake is doable, but it’s a long drive. I have friends in Kalispell and from my door to their home it’s a 10.5 hours in summertime. But that would be worth it to me if there were folks up there to teach myself and my wife. And it’s also a stunningly beautiful area. If we were to take 4 days and go it would be a fun trip. I’d probably take our dogs and arrange for someone to house and animal sit our place when we are gone. Goats, chickens, geese, cats and one pet mouse can’t be left for 4 days with no care.
I live in the extreme SW part of CO, a.k.a. the Four Corners, a.k.a. Droughtorado.
I am smiling at the thought of your menagerie, especially that little finishing touch, the mouse.
EIEIO pictures please!
Didn’t say that. I had a thread here in the tripping section about guns and it was a pretty good thread once the dishonest people realized that they couldn’t censor it/ban me.
But what I said is correct–most paddlers are granolas and as a group not supporting the civil rights of others is the standard rather than the exception. I’d guess same with cross country skiing.
I used to live in downtown denver and during their many bans/threats toi firearms owners, it did seem the only people with guns were criminals/gangs and police, who weren’t around that much.
Shooting skills do have an expiration date unless it’s stationary. That’s why I try to ingrain the reflex type of shooting into muscle memory, but I still shoot that style at least three times a week.
That’s the price of algore’s internet–there is zero admission price, so anyone and everyone can get aboard, so one really has no idea if they’re talking to a 12 year old, an angry and intolerant, passive aggressive 50 year old, or a genuinely nice person who is OK with everyone and everything…and everyone between all of those.
Over time though the person at the other end of the keyboard/phone comes out tho by connecting the dots, or posts. I’ve met some real friends, a few Buds from coast to coast over the internet that I would not have met otherwise. Some known for more than 25 years that way, which is amazing if you think about it.
I know someone in jackson, but he’s a rich hippie and into skiing only so he’d be of no help. One would think casper would have a few people there, but it’s a smaller blue collar type town. Still might tho.
That place I told you about is definitely something to keep in your vest pocket. I’ll tell you more about it later today…after chores and shooting of course. OK mebbe throw in some fishing too.
If you know anyone in gillette, that’s a great place to harvest prairie goats. The war on domestic energy should be causing a depression in the thunder basin, so that could be a draw for the people living there.
If you and wife want some more options for adventure, dubois could be an option for you that’s close. Box Hanging Three ranch is very well respected in the gaited horse community. They breed/raise walking horses. If you want to or know how to pleasure ride horses, I’d contact them and see what there is up there. There might be people that have dude strings so people can go trail riding or they will know people that do. Like I said, they are very very highly respected.
Nice, but tuff area due to their 12 inch rainfalls. Yeah, one drop every 12 inches. I used to go to the pagosa springs area and was surprised at how green it was. Guess I was too used to living in arid CO where brown is the color of most of the world most of the time. North of there is a nice river where hot water comes out of the hills in some places. Natures hot sauna at its best.
If you want green just go up in elevation. It’s not unusual to boat a headwaters of a river with green vegetation and if you continue on downstream a day or two, you then enter the “brown zone”. Even in the “brown zone” a nice little green buffer strip may surround the banks of the river. If the river banks get cliffy or rocky then the green goes away all together. Found this to be pretty true in CO, NM, WY, ID, OR. When I talk about western rivers with peers we talk about the green or brown zone paddles. When we talk about food we want either green or red…chilies.
That is a cool post tdaniel.
Green or red chilies.
I like both. And both go well with elk, deer and antelope meat.
In NM, ask for both red and green by requesting “Christmas.”
Yum.
I’ll remember that. I LOVE the green NM pork chili.
I once smoked a couple of elk roasts; one fairly straight forward and one with a Cajun flair. I later used the Cajun roast in green chile stew, and the combination of smoke, Cajun spices, and green chile was fantastic!
I smoke elk hams all the time. Several every year. One method I like is to pierce it with a thin knife and insert thin very cold slices of butter in them. I then mix onion and garlic powder about 50-50 to fill about 1/2 - 2/3 a coffee cup. In that mix 1 Table Spoon of chili powder, 1 of salt, 1-1/2 of brown sugar 1 Teaspoon of basil and 1-1/2 teaspoon of expresso instant coffee powder. Spray the meat with Olive oil and rub it completely with the mix. Use off set heat for your coal bed and place the meat on a hot grill, and last, before you close the smoker take some Misquet chips you have soaked in water for 3 hours and place on the coals. Cover the grill up and let it smoke. I let it get to about 375-400 for about 20 minutes and then let the temp fall to 225 and hold it there for 3 hours, but after 90 minutes wrap the ham with foil. Let the fire go out after 3 hours but leave it in the cooling smoker for 4 to 4.5 hours depending on how large it is. Just let the juices flow back in the meat as it cools to about 135 degrees. When you open it up you’ll have a dinner worthy of royalty.
True, but there is still a lack of topsoil as they are mountains, so there will be green trees with a barren floor. Where water collects and there is green groundcover, it’s usually a bog of some sort. Then throw in the short warm season. The whole eastern side of the rockies is either semi arid high plains or high desert. Some of the western side can have more greenery but not much before further westward you hit high plains or desert.
People are surprised when I tell them about CO. They think it’s all mountains full of trees and rivers. I explain to them those pictures they see of the national park/forest areas that are so majestic, the camera people get their early in the morning and find a nice spot because if they turned the camera around they’d see a parking lot soon to be full of cars and people.
We moved to a place that has topsoil and rain, so the whole ecosystem is different, from the ground up. The cost of living is a lot less here as a lot of food is grown here and there is abundant fish and game. A lot of the farms in the arid west use need to use flood irrigation in order to grow any cash crops. The food supply train in the front range is very very short, so when there’s any disruption, it takes a while to restock the shelves as food is brought in from other places.
WY is one of my fav states, but the land is mostly sh*t land, but that’s true for mt, nv, ut, co, and nm. There’s a reason why water wars were fought out there. And what a lot of people don’t know, and is prolly never mentioned in the paddling/rafting books is that and how it affects them. If a river/stream goes through private property, they can put a fence across the river if they want to. And block people from using that river inside their property boundaries. So you can float down a river until you hit the fence and unless you have permission to go through the land, you’ve gotta get out or pay a fine. Think of these like an Indian reserveration–you need permission from the landowner first to enter/pass through.
What I never can understand is why RE in WY is so expensive. It’s not due to overwhelming demand affecting the price and it’s been that way for as long as I can remember.
High Desert, do you use Zatarans? That’s the best cajun spice blend I’ve found. It’s their ‘creole’ seasoning. It holds up well to high heat applications too.
Another reason to take a trip to the front range for kayaking instruction. Even in denver you’ll find a lot of hatch green chilis being roasted for sale. You probably can get them shipped to your house, but don’t know how good they’ll be as some things just don’t take shipping well.
Sounds like this could be a good project for you at some time–make a greenhouse for you to grow some of the food you want. While it’s not the same, you can take a butane torch and roast your own chilis/peppers. You also can do it by setting the chili on the grate of a gas stove, but I’ve found torching them in a cast iron pan easier. You can also roast corn like this too.
Best green chili I’ve ever had was in a bar in fairplay CO. It’s at the inside section of where 285 and 9 meet, the NE side.
Never tried Zatarans but I’ll look it up.
Ya know Szihn, driving down the road a little while ago I thought of you. Are you stuck on a kayak? You might be better off with an old town discovery 119. There’s also the sportsman model. I have the latter and use a kayak paddle for it. IMO it’s easier to use than someone getting a kayak and having to learn that. When people do that, they get a rec kayak and this is more capable–and natural–than the rec kayak. Going this route would drop many of the hurdles you’re facing. The only modification you’d have to do is to stick some sort of floatation in it as it doesn’t have any.
Long supply lines?
Thanks Dago, but we already have 2 Old Town Loon 106s