Final Comments 2007 Triathlon

Betty finished the race completely for the first time, and deserves special kudos for finding her way back without incident!

Special congratulations to Jeannine, Shirley, and Barry, our first timers this year. We hope you will come back and join us for many future triathlons!



Congratulations to all participants. As your certificates say, YOU ARE ALL WINNERS!. Seriously, not many can do what you just did, and you should be really proud of the shape you are in!



Thanks so much to our support crew this year. These folks really make the whole triathlon possible. Picture here are Charlie, Jim, Andy, Caitlin and Chris. Thanks to Duane Nichols as well for many of these pictures!

And as Bill likes to remind us: Until next year, Be Well!

Here's to the good life!

(NOTE: more pics, etc. below)

2007 Forks of Cheat Forest Triathlon!

This year, the SIXTH annual FCF Triathlon was held on Saturday, September 8th. As is the tradition, the triathletes assemble on the McGraw deck at 8 AM. It was a warm, clear, gorgeous September morning. After loading bikes on Charlie's truck, we trundled down the path to the dock, loaded our running/biking clothes into the canoe, and loosened up while the canoe, piloted by Caitlin and Chris, ferried our gear across the lake. This year Jan and Bill donated some extra flotation from their sailboat to help the musclebound 'sinkers' in the crowd stay afloat - 'safety first' is our motto for the triathlon! Because this triathlon is all about having fun. Some of us like to push ourselves a bit to see if we can beat our last year's self, others just want to see if they can do it. It doesn't matter.


Once the race started, I can only comment on my perceptions, but I felt like I swam quite a bit faster this year than last...doing the crawl most of the way across the lake. My best evidence that I was faster was that I was close on the heels of Jan, the premier swimmer in our neighborhood! I emerged from the lake right behind her, and though she threatened to shove me back in the lake off the dock to give Bill an advantage, her better self prevailed. I was amazed that the bulk of swimmers were very close behind the first ones out. It seemed to me that everyone swam faster this year. My biggest problem was getting my new bike shirt on - it was tight! and got stuck half way on. That took a while to untangle. I had also decided to run with my ipod shuffle, and I kept having problems getting the earpiece untangled so it would stay on. Ah well.


The nice flat rail trail (thanks, CLEAR!) and the cool morning air made the run a pleasure. The views along the lake were awesome. I don't think I ran as fast as last year for some reason (perhaps I had spent more energy in the swim), but when I reached the 108 steps at the end by the dam, I had plenty of energy to run up most of them. My transition to the bike was slow - I had taken Ann and my bike over early in the morning, so I had to unlock the bikes, switch to clip on bike shoes and glug some liquids before hopping on my bike. To my surprise, only John Souther was ahead of me at this point.


The bike ride was also really nice this year. I was glad my tires were pumped up and the gearshifts were working. In previous years I had coddled myself going uphill in the lowest gear, but this year even on the steepest section coming up out of Pt. Marion, I kept the front gear on the second gear (what is that, 8th?). Anyway, I felt like the bike ride section was my biggest improvement this year, and I was able to finish more than 3 minutes ahead of last year's time. For those who don't know, the bike ride is pretty challenging; 4.1 miles of 'flat' along the Cheat River below the dam, 0.6 or so in town, then a steep hill climb to Stewartstown. The deceptive part is that there are actually 3 hill climbs in that 2.5 mile stretch. Aerobic fitness is essential there! My calves came razor close to cramping on the last hill.

Jan, Dylan and Cody opted to kayak back to forks-of-cheat forest from the Cheat Lake park, instead of bike - very good exercise in itself...so they completed a 'modified' triathlon; a nice option started by Jan in previous years. On the bike leg, Sara Souther decided the regular route did not traverse enough of the town of Pt. Marion, so she took an alternative route, ultimately retracing her steps and adding several minutes to her time. She still managed to come in first among the women finishers. Ann learned a valuable lesson in bike pre-race maintenance as she had to pump up her tires prior to starting the bike leg of the race...and the presta valves took some figuring out.

Please check out the next post for more!

Last Full Day in Big Sky

It is always sad to leave Big Sky, so for my last full day here, I had to make the most of it. I had considered climbing a gargantuan peak over near Ennis called Sphinx, but the more I read about it, the more I decided discretion was the better part of valor; I probably shouldn't do that one alone.

Instead I happened upon the Hyalite Creek Trail to Hyalite Lake. In one of our hike books, this was described as the premier hike in the Bozeman area, plus Kevin hadn't done this one yet (to my knowledge!). So I decided to take it on. At 11 miles round trip, and ca. 2000 vertical feet, I knew it would be a vigorous hike, and the description led me to believe, it would be a scenic one as well. Being so close to Bozeman, I suspected I wouldn't be alone hiking the trail.

I arrived at the trailhead, a mere 20 miles south of Bozeman in Hyalite Canyon at 9:40 AM. I was toting all my video/camera gear, this time with compact flash storage, and binocs, and food (minimal), and a full camelback of water, for the weather prediction was for very hot temps (ca. 100 in Bozeman proper).

The trail paralleled Hyalite Creek. Eleven, count 'em, 11 waterfalls were found en route, varying in height and spectacularitude, but all very pretty, and often framed with mossy rocks and gorgeous wildflowers. I was wishing for Colin's nice camera because mine was not up to the task, but you can get some flavor for the hike from the photos above. The only steep section was the last mile or so, where the trail followed a series of switchbacks to get up over the ridge to the beautiful alpine lake, surrounded by towering Rocky Mtn. peaks over 10,000 ft in elevation. I scanned the peaks for animules, but had no luck, other than the birds, a marmot, and some squirrels. Nevermind, the flowers made up for the lack of wildlife and the beauty of the lake made me think of John Denver, cliche as his songs often were, they did describe the glory of the high rockies such as this.

After a dusty, quick descent, I splashed my face and soaked my feet in the icy waters by Grotto Falls, along with other locals who knew about this little swimming hole. All in all, a great hike - I completed it, with many stops for photos, lunch, etc. in about 6 hrs.

This hike would definitely be a hyalite of any visit to Big Sky! (sorry, I couldn't resist any longer...).

The blog wouldn't be complete without mentioning two slight disappointments. Last night, the band at the Big Sky amphitheatre, Toubab Krewe (pronounced 'two bob crew'), was a disappointment. I stayed for only one set. It was a combination of reggae and west afro-pop with no lyrics. It was just rather dull. Second disappointment - after hiking today I went to the Gallatin Co. fair. Let's just say the Clinton Co. fair in NY is much nicer. Could be the 100 deg. temps didn't help my mood, but I was expecting more. I didn't stay long.

Tomorrow I'm considering doing a mini-version of our mini-triathlon in the morning before I leave; swimming some laps in the pool, running on the trail to the community park and back, then taking Kev's bike for a spin toward Lone Peak. There I've said it, now I have get up in time to do it!

Skip Wednesday, Go Straight to Thursday

Yesterday, I took Bill to the airport and did errands in town, then took it easy most of the day.

Sorry, no pics today. But I'll give a brief verbal description of my Thursday July 19.

Decided to follow in Kevin's footsteps today and climb Lone Peak, alone (is there any better way? Somehow it seems appropriate, given the peak's name).

I did it the lazy way. I paid the $18 to take the gondola to the base of the big steep peak, if that can be called lazy. The climb was as Kevin described - steep and rocky! I followed the traditional route up the ridge, reaching the summit in pretty good time - a little under 1.5 hrs. It's not a long hike, but the elevation change (>2000 ft) is substantial, particularly given the starting elevation of over 9000 ft! It was nice to be able to huff up that ridge with reasonable ease. I saw some rocky mtn goat tracks on the way up, so I thought I might have a chance at seeing them.

Once at the top, I foraged on granola and scanned the surrounding mountains for animal life. Mainly lots of mountain bluebirds feasting on abundant insects, which were flying around despite the 10 - 40 mph winds.

The sky was a gorgeous shade of blue, though in the distance there was haze, probably due to distant wildfires, which are abundant this year. I could not make out the Tetons, which we have seen in winter frequently from the summit. Like Kevin, I scurried down to take a closeup look at Big Couloir, the superexpert run we WILL SKI this coming year! It is fairly intimidating, looking more like a v-shaped vertical chasm in summer than anything ski-able.

Back at the summit I decided to take the lifty's advice and try coming down the south side, by which I assumed he meant Liberty Bowl. Well, that was probably a mistake. There was no trail, and the first 300 yds or so was plate-sized rock scree, and fairly steep. Before descending into that morass however, I followed the ridge to the left of the summit and spied some white dots on the slope above the tarn on the back side of Lone Peak. Aha!!! Binoculars showed them to be 10 Rocky Mountain Goats foraging on the alpine vegetation. Cool!

After negotiating the scree and a couple hundred more yards of loose soil/rock, I realized I was going to end up too low to take the cat track back to the Gondola, so I decided I would cut left at that point. Mistake #2. That route led over a near-cliff - now skiers do huck these cliffs in winter, but I've seen some beautiful wipeouts from the vantage point of shedhorn chair below. I didn't want to be one of these wipeouts, especially while out solo hiking. So I picked my way down very carefully over the loose rock and large boulders comprising this 'slope'. Interestingly, the easiest way to go down was the steepest, where the rocks were not loose and the toe and handholds were secure. Well, it was no harder than what we negotiated in South Africa on Table Mountain, so I figured I could do it. And, thankfully, no twisted ankles or bad scrapes occurred. Luckily I had brought along my sturdy boots and an old ski pole as a walking stick - the first time I had ever done that (the stick), and I was glad to have it!

Well, sorry no pics today. That was mistake #3; I brought my camera, but forgot to retrieve the compact flash card from the card reader...sigh. There were some beautiful alpine sights I wanted to share. Luckily Kevin did a great job photodocumenting exactly this hike; see his post of July 12 - exactly one week ago! http://moonlitknight-travels.blogspot.com/

Tonight, I'm going to one of the Thursday night Big Sky concerts - this group sounds interesting. I'll let ya know! ttfn.

Day Three - the best for last?

On Day 3 we decided to go to Larry Harris' favorite river (Larry is a flyfishing guru who taught our tying class this winter and has had much experience fishing out here); the Gardner River.

Reading the Matthews guide and Larry's recommendation, we decided to drive to the Mammoth-Tower bridge over the Gardner and hike down, fishing the stretch below the bridge (toward Gardner, which lies just outside the park). This part of the park is much drier, and you feel it as you walk through dusty sagebrush vegetation down to the medium size stream.

It didn't take long for Bill to find the 'fly of the day'; a Dirk's tarantula (?) pattern that looked like a gangly spidery thing. Little rainbows were fairly jumping on this beast with every other cast. Jamie and I quickly followed suit and started having success as well. At one pool, Jamie and I hooked fish at the same time. Mine was a nice 12" gorgeous rainbow trout, while Jamie's was a huge brown or cutthroat. We're not sure which because the fish first headed upstream, dragging a bunch of line out of Jamie's reel, then headed downstream where it wrapped the line around its body and combined with the current's pressure, snapped his leader. Alligator tears were shed (not really...) about the one that got away; we think it probably was one of those 'lunker browns' described in Matthews book. It seemed like it could have been ca. 20".

As we moved downstream, I switched to a grasshopper when I stopped getting hits on the tarantula, and lo and behold, the rainbows loved it! I caught the nice rainbow shown in the picture above, which for me was the prettiest, though not the largest fish, of the trip. I don't know; this fish was the essence of fly fishing success for me; it was a hefty 12 or 13" with gorgeous coloration: the photograph just doesn't do it justice. And that fish fought like a demon for several minutes. I even have video. I was so thrilled at having caught this fish that I reached over and grabbed the video camera to take some footage, then grabbed the digital camera to take a still or two before finally landing it and letting it go. Each of us caught some nice fish on the Gardner, and we each began to understand why it was Larry's favorite river!

We spent the rest of the day sightseeing because the river 'closed' at 12. We enjoyed this immensely, despite the peak season crowds. Gorgeous vistas of the yellowstone, nice drive by the thermal features. At one stretch of the road between Canyoh and Yellowstone lake, there was a crowd of cars stopped. We knew what it was because the same crowd had been there 2 days before - WOLVES! We saw 4 pups and a parent across the yellowstone through our binos. What a thrill and a privilege to witness such a family, and to think hundreds if not thousands of tourists have and will experience that thrill as well. The den must be nearby that spot. Anyway, what a charistmatic animal!!!

Day Two at Slough

Personally, I was excited about yesterday's opening day bonanza possibilities, but realistically, i was anticipating our day at Slough Creek even more. Slough Creek (pronouched 'slew') required a 1.x mile hike from a trailhead that was a bit off the beaten path near Slough Campground. I thought the hike might reduce fishing pressure for the native cutthroats. I had hoped to hike to the second meadow (ca. 4 mi.), but due to very warm weather there was a Fish Advisory posted in which a voluntary stream closure from 12 noon to 6 PM was in effect to reduce the 'stress' on the fish. Perhaps this is what we have to look forward to with a warmer future climate!

At any rate, though we rose fairly early and got to the trailhead by ca. 8 ish, we felt the longer hike would take away too much fishing time. So we fished a small part of the first meadow. The hike there, by the way, was very pretty and worthy of simply the hike, with views back toward the valley of the Yellowstone.

When we arrived, we found a beautiful meadow stream and could easily see small (6") to large (16") cutthroat trout cruising the shoreline. Being in the first meadow, we expected these fish to be a bit more wily than some. However we all had good success! My success came with a fly called a PMD (Pale Morning Dun), followed by a fly called an 'attractor'. I basically stalked the larger fish cruising the shoreline by crouching low and dropping a fly in front of their noses. I caught 3 sizeable fish that way, including the beauty shown in my hand above. It was very exciting to have fish of that size on the line, and I lost a couple of them - one broke my line and swam away with the fly in its mouth.

Slough Creek does have a feeling of remoteness about it - true wilderness. We were alert for bears and whistled the Andy Griffith theme song to alert them to our presence.

Bill found the cutthroat nursery and hauled in several pretty smaller fish, but he was having a great time with his high rate of success. Jamie found a more challenging stretch of river, but managed to land a couple, including a small one that was followed by a huge fish as he reeled it in!

All in all, a very successful morning of fishing, and Slough Creek is one place I must go back to, if only for the beauty and the wilderness experience. This is Yellowstone fishing at its best!

Opening Day, Yellowstone River

July 15 is opening day for the Yellowstone River between Yellowstone Lake and Canyon in the park. It was one of the reasons we timed the trip as we did, for the reputation is that huge cutthroat trout migrate down from the lake to spawn in the river. And supposedly they are naive fish, not having had flies tossed at them since last year! Every trout fisherman's dream - naive large fish!

Well, we had adventures aplenty. The first place we stopped was a popular fishing spot called Buffalo Ford near Sulphur Cauldron. We hiked out to the river, keeping a nervous eye on the bison all around. We crossed a small branch of the river to get out on an island where we could fish the main channel on the far side with a little, mind you a little, less competition from other fly fishermen. The river was very pretty there - tree- lined but large and sweeping with a couple of smaller eddies and pools along the edge. It seemed perfect.

It was then that we realized that Bill Peterjohn somehow entices bison to SWIM across the river directly toward us, or rather, him, wherever he was standing! Seriously, this happened several times during the morning and early PM hours. Each time, you were forced to reel in the line and wade quickly up or down stream to get out of the behemoth's pathway! Fortunately, they were not much interested in us once they got to our side, and they meandered off into the meadows behind us, grazing. But we were forced to keep a wary eye all around all the time!

On the opposite side of the river, there was a whole herd of bison rolling around in the dust, stomping the ground, and snorting. Flyfishing next to this spectacle, punctuated by steam rising from vents on land AND underwater, produced a truly surreal fishing experience!

Sadly, no trout were to be caught by us that day. I did see the adjacent fisherman pull in a 25" cutthroat, and I offered to take his picture. He was happy I offered, and the fish really did live up to the hype described in the books. However, it was clear most fishermen were not getting anything. After a late lunch we decided to move on.

We found another spot down the river with less bison (this one wasn't called 'Bison Ford'! We learned our lesson there!). Eventually some fish started rising there, but they always seemed just out of reach of our flies. After a couple hours of fruitless casting, we were forced to flee from a huge bull bison that decided, perversely, to swim straight across the river at you-know-who, so we left to get dinner at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel. It was a bit fancy for three tired sweaty trout fishermen, but the food was good and the atmosphere nice.

After dinner fishing at a suboptimal spot led to no more action. So, here is a picture or two of the Yellowstone river in all its glory, taken later...

Friday the 13th; bad day for fish!

...and good day for us!

We decided to go to the #1 rated river in North America, if not the world, in the Henry's Fork in Idaho. The only problem with this, as I pointed out early on, is that if a fisherman gets skunked on the best trout stream anywhere, what kind of a fisherman is he, or her?

Well, that was not to be a problem.

We received some nice local's advice about where to go, which is always helpful, and even more helpful, some suggestions on what to use. The fly of the day for me was a big yellow stimulator; these basically look like a cross between a large mayfly and a bee.

So when we went to the Box Canyon (usually accessed by driftboating), I caught a nice rainbow on about my 3rd cast with that fly. This was a beautiful river. Large and swift through the Box Canyon, you had to watch your footing. Trees on the bank made backcasting a challenge. I was able to land a couple more fish including one brook trout, that was quite gorgeous. Jamie landed a couple and Bill finally got his due as well. Colin was still finding it challenging, but his time would come later.

Next we went to a lower section of Henry's Fork off Scenic Byway 47 near fish hatchery ford. The river was much wider here; still a strong current, but clearly big river fishing. All the fish were hanging out in the shade near the far side of the river by the rocky vertical bank (we were sure), b/c we had no luck here. But we enjoyed watching the osprey fish, and saw an immature bald eagle calling for mama.

Colin became the photographer for a spell, and thanks to him, we finally have documentation that we did in fact flyfish on this trip! Colin is an aspiring photographer, and would like to investigate this as a possible career path. Judging by his photos, he certainly shows potential! (see above)

After grabbing pizza and a brew at the Wolf Pack Microbrewery in West Yellowstone, we were enticed to wet a line for a third time that day in the park section of the Gallatin. Fish fish everywhere, and I couldn't get one to bite! But Bill got a nice cutthroat (first native!) and Jamie had a sweet fish on. That fish was scared by the arsenal of toys he was carrying, and decided to toss the hook before getting any closer :) Colin finally caught a little rainbow on his last cast, and was a happy camper.

July 12 - Day 1 of Flyfishing

After driving along and by the great Gallatin River, even rafting it last summer, it was time to see what that beautiful stream had to offer for fishermen.

After arriving at a pullout not too far downstream from the Big Sky stoplight, the gear rolled out of the back of the car in great quantities; vests, waders, poles, reels, pocket knives, zingers, flies, reading glasses, polarized sunglasses, hats, and other flyfishing accoutrements too numerous to mention. Jamie Shumway took the prize, however, as the guy with the most toys (see photo). If this trend continues til his death, he wins!

In fact, Jamie's toys must have helped b/c he landed the first two fish; nice wild Gallatin River rainbows. The rest of us saw rises and had strikes but no lucky strikes.

After lunch, we headed further downstream, and I found a spot to wade across (very strong current! It was a near dunking...). But that gave me access to a couple of pools that were not easy to reach from the near side. I happened upon the right fly for the day (PMD) and landed 3 nice rainbows myself, making sure Colin was witness so it would not be treated as one just so fish story... Unfortunately, no pics of these fish, and they were all caught and released. But the other photos shows us heading off to the stream. We look fairly eager, eh?

I'm Back!!! And it's 2007

July 11

The long-awaited trip to Montana for a flyfishing adventure came July 11. Bill Peterjohn and I boarded the flight in Pittsburgh after a 1 hr delay, arriving in Minneapolis with only 15 minutes to reach our next gate on the far side of the airport. I was glad I had been running quite a bit this past winter in spring, because it came in handy! We made the flight, and miraculously, so did our luggage. So this was clearly the quickest trip to Bozeman ever. We arrived shortly after 1 PM, got the rental car, bought some grocs, and were on our to Big Sky Dream, our home in the mountains.

No fishing on day one, but Kev and I were eager to hit a few of the green fuzzy spheres, so off we rode on bikes to the nearby community courts. What a way to start getting acclimated to altitude! Felt good.

Jamie arrived later in time for sumptuous pasta dinner, and the planning began for our first day on the river.

We decided to stay relatively close to home on Thursday and fish the Gallatin River outside the park, necessitating purchase of a Montana license.