I Caught a Fish and it was this Big

This week was spent in a couple places, the first of which was Yellowstone, mainly fishing. I helped my buddy from high school, John Hender, move up to Mammoth in Yellowstone. He came and crashed at my pad on Saturday night and we were off early Sunday morning. The drive took about twelve hours for us to get to Mammoth, where we stayed with his aunt, uncle, and cousins. I helped John move into their basement, which took up most of Monday. On Tuesday, we were set to spend the day fishing, but a snowstorm got in our way, so we decided instead to spend the day hiking. 

First we went out to Wraith Falls. It was a short hike, only a half mile from the road, but it was rather neat with all the snow that was coming down. We continued the drive up the road to another good hike. We took a trail that first crossed the Yellowstone River. Then it continued across until we ran into Hellroaring Creek. This was a rather short hike being only about four miles round trip. I was hoping for a bit more, but you take what you can get, ya know. It was a good choice, because we were able to drop out of the snow on the way down and by the time that we went back up, it stopped snowing.

The next day we went out on the Gardiner River to fish. John tried fly fishing and caught nothing. His girlfriend, Mindy, caught one fish, while I had the high fish count of two, including the fish above, using spinners. It was a cold day, but we had a good time just being out there on the river. 

The following day, we got to do something that I would really enjoy doing again. We hiked to a lake to fish. The lake was called Trout Lake, so we figured that would be a good bet to get some fish. I was the lucky one as I struck within the first five casts. Then I went on a dry spell where John caught six fish before I caught another one. He caught some rather large ones, too, this picture being one of the smallest ones that he caught. It took me a while to catch my next fish, as we fished all the way around the lake before I caught my second one at the same place I caught my first. Then I caught my big one for the day in a place where all I was catching earlier was algae. I was happy that I was able to catch this fish, it just seems like if you are going to put a fish through that much torture, you should at least eat the dang thing. John was into catch and release, though, so that is what we did. We fished pretty much all day long and John beat me with eight fish to four. 

The next day, I had to say goodbye to Yellowstone. John drove me down to Idaho Falls where I was supposed to catch the Greyhound bus. Instead a whole series of irritating events followed. It took us half an hour to find the unmarked door to the bus depot, where I got a ticket at 11:30am for the 12:30pm bus. We went over for lunch at Pizza Hut and I came back at 12:20 to be informed that my bus was already gone. Upset, I told the ticket agent to call the bus driver and have him wait for me at the next stop in Pocatello, fifty miles away. John drove me as fast as he could to Pocatello, where the bus driver informed me there were no seats on his bus. 

Angry, I stated, "What do you mean you have no seats, I have a ticket right here?" He basically told me to shove off, cause he did not care. I went to the Pocatello ticket agent with my outrage and she managed to get me on the next bus that took off from a gas station. I had no choice but to agree, so John dropped me off at a gas station, where I sat for an hour and a half waiting for the next bus. When that bus showed up, they informed me once again that they had no seats. I said, "Oh yes you do! You are going to have to find some way to put me on this bus!" I talked to and he talked to the manager, where I was able to ride sitting on a cooler between the driver's seat and the passenger seat on this sixteen passenger van. 

This was not particularly safe as any wreck meant that I was ground beef on the pavement. I rode the three and a half hours to Salt Lake City just like this. When I got to Salt Lake, I informed the bus company of my story and got my money back. That made me happy. Then I was off to enjoy the weekend hanging out with Jacqueline and her bro, Paul, and also some of my old buddies, Brian Hays and Jessie Dudley. Jessie hung out with Jacqueline and I, but unfortunately we were not able to do anything more than eat. She went with Jacqueline to check out wedding dresses, while I went for a short hike with Brian. I was a little disappointed by the brevity of the hike with Brian, because I always expect to do something a bit crazy with Brian. When I heard that his wedding was back on for the next Saturday, I understood. We took a short hike out to Silver Lake up in American Fork Canyon. His fiancé, Angela, was supposed to come with us, but she was tired so she slept in the woods off the trail. Her friend's dog, Kona, came with us though as we took a six mile roundtrip hike. We were able to both talk about the excitement of getting married and our future lives, while we enjoyed a pleasant November 3rd. There was some rock skipping and some Ritz eating, but mainly it was a rather dull hike as far as a Brian and Pete expedition is concerned. Oh well, I guess you need those occasionally. The rest of the weekend was spent watching some football, while Jacqueline did homework and then the long drive back to Toquerville to begin planning the next adventure.