Wyoming Update

This will be my Wyoming update post, even though I got back from the trip over a week ago.

In a nutshell, my trip was everything I hoped it would be. It was a much needed retreat from life, and a chance to organize my thoughts and priorities. I feel like I made some decisions that will keep me focused on the present, and not worried so much about the future. Also, I got a chance to develop my leadership skills through good information and real-life leadership labs. It was really good. I highly recommend NOLS to anyone that is interested in developing leadership and has the guts to live in the back-country.

Of the decisions I made, the biggest one was to stop pursing my own business. Over the last 2 years or so I have made a few attempts to get a website business off of the ground. I have started to slowly shed that work simply because it takes too much time, money, and stress to keep afloat. After that I had a few solid entrepreneurial ideas, however I've decided that again I do not have the time or the capital to truly invest myself into another venture. Most importantly, I have plenty of work to do at the church and I feel the greatest reward will come from serving there. In short, my attention has been divided by too many activities for too long. By letting go of some of these "pipe dreams" I'll be able to focus more on ICY and less on money and business.

Now we can move on the pictures. I uploaded most of my pictures to flickr, but if you don't have the time to surf there here are some highlights.

Picture of me on the trail

This is the most common "scenery" I saw.

Europe Canyon, it looked like a foreign planet.

View from the top of Mt. Victor, this was my highlight of the trip.

My biggest fish, 19"

Big Fishing Trip

I am going on a big fishing trip this weekend. We are leaving tonight. I am so excited about going, so much so that I can't seem to do anything but think about fish. I really doubt any work will get done today.

So I decided to tell you all about it, and post some pictures from last years trip. That's a picture of me pulling in a brown last year. I let this one go because he wasn't that big. Not a keeper.

In all honesty. I am not really a good fisherman. I just love doing it. I love buying the tackle. I love getting in a boat. I love the action of casting and retrieving. I really love to hook a fish, even if it doesn't happen that often. I love being with the guys.

This is an emotional trip too. Lee took a bunch of us guys fishing to the same place, the same time last year. I remember he pissed me off so bad. By the time we got home I was sick of him. We were in the boat one day, and Chris Alvis and LeAlan were pulling in trout after trout. I was not catching anything. Lee was driving the boat so he wasn't really fishing much, he was letting us do all of the catching. Well I got a little "upset" because I could not hook a fish. Lee finally got tired of my bitching and he said "give me yer rod". So I gave him my rod. Literally, the first cast he hooked a big rainbow trout. Bigger than anything I had caught the entire trip. My ears turned blood red. He pulled the fish in and handed it to me to put in the live well. Then he just kind of smiled, that stupid/goofy smart-ass smile. There was this awkward silence for a moment. Lee then just handed me my rod, and I resumed fishing. I finally got into a rhythm after that.

On the drive home, LeAlan and I were two seconds from pulling the car over and walking home. Chris and Lee talked non-stop on the drive. Telling lame fish story after story. And none of them were true. LeAlan gave me this look that said "omg I'm going to go insane". I agreed.

Well we all know what happened two weeks after we got home. Somehow, that made our fishing trip that much more special. I cherish those memories now. It was absolutely everything I want to remember Lee for. This year, the same crew is going back. Same place. Same lodge. Just minus Lee. It is almost like a tribute to be going. I feel compelled to go. If they had told me at work that I can't take the time off, I would have quit. I'm sure we'll tell Lee stories. I'm sure I'll cry at least once for missing him. At the end of the day though, I hope to honor him by catching a fish :)

Peace and Grace, Zane

Rooster ?(tail)

This is a roostertail.


And so is this.