Welcome to my blog!
This blog is primarily devoted to discussions on various aspects of public policy, chiefly economic, business, energy, and environmental policy. It also contains—and its archives are chock full of—photo essays and trip reports from various adventures in the out-of-doors of Montana and New Hampshire. For more information about me, click here.
Were the rivers open and fish plentiful
Lately I have been rather nostalgic for this past year’s backcountry fishing trips. Trout occupy my dreams. I would rather be catching dancing trout than drinking Dancing Trout. The forecast is 50 degrees for this Saturday, and I plan to head down the Bitterroot River to try my luck there. But my heart is yearning for the North Fork of the Blackfoot, Upper Rattlesnake Creek, and South Fork of the Flathead. So until then, two pictures from a backpacking/fishing trip last summer, in the middle of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, two days from the nearest trailhead, but oh so perfectly in the heart of wild cutthroat country.
This wasn't the biggest cutthroat that I caught that day, but it was a fun one. You can see the absolutely amazing hole in the top-left corner of the picture.
“I was fishing just up by the bend. Absolutely wonderful. Crystal clear water, ten miles of the river to myself, and no grizzly bears in sight.
Grant Teton Backcountry Skiing
This is a belated post with pictures from early February. I visiting some good friends from Dartmouth in Jackson Hole, and one day we went up to the Park to get some backcountry skiing in, on a mountain called 25 Short (because the elevation is 9,975 feet). While most of the time I was either too cold, too tired, or too used to low altitude to snap some pictures, I did take a couple.
On the top of 25 Short, about to ski down. A wonderful blue-bird day.
This is one of the Tetons or some big mountain by them. I forget exactly. Pretty sweet whatever it is.
St. John’s Episcopal Church
St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, CT
From the Archives: Namibia
A lovely tree in Namibia
Missoula is cold. Missoula doesn’t have much snow. I am at work all day cranking out year end reports, and in coffee shops all evening working on graduate school essays. Lately, I have found myself missing my time in Namibia, during which I traveled around sleeping in tents for weeks on end. Ahhh, the simple life. The warm life.
Mountain Biking on Sentinel
Today has been a day of graduate school applications. All day long I have cranked away at my personal statement, making minor tweaks and major overhauls alike. When I saw that today was also one of the last days of the fall when the temperature sneaks above 50, I decided to go for a mountain bike ride. I live right by a trailhead going up Mount Sentinel, and am about 1.5 miles from the main Pattee Canyon Recreation Area trailhead. This makes for a perfect loop, biking up to the main Pattee Canyon trailhead, and then snaking my way across Mt. Sentinel, before decending back to my house. I took a couple pictures – here are two – one of the backside of Sentinel, and the other of a buck that I startled upon rounding a corner.
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- The evening sun hits the backside of Mt. Sentinel about 20 minutes before sundown.
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- I startled this guy as I rounded a corner – t’was probably 20 feet from me.
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- Gotta love the ponderosa pine forests of Montana
