by Fire Girl Jess on October 14, 2012
Dusk in the Tetons.
It’s been nice to be back in Bozeman for the fall. Good to have friends and great rivers all around. But I’ve had a nagging feeling it’s time to move on. Time to seek out another adventure.
Though it seems that adventure did not quite come in the form I expected it to.
I’ve been offered the job of reporter / photographer at a small newspaper in the town of Pinedale, Wyoming. Just over an hour south of Jackson Hole, Pinedale is nestled against the Wind River Mountain Range and rests near the largest natural gas field in the continental United States.
7,200 feet in elevation.
No stoplights.
No mail service.
A “barmeuda” triangle on Main Street.
And, apparently, a moose statue in front of the Chinese restaurant that is regularly visited by a selection of curious real moose throughout the winter.
I’m looking forward to the conservation news I’ll be able to dig up. As a personal project, I’m planning to document life in this small town for a year. As one of my new team said in the interview process, “This is not normal everyday America.”
I will continue to work freelance in my free time and am looking forward to new rivers to fish, new mountains to explore, and old haunts to return to.
So here’s to a new adventure!
by Fire Girl Jess on October 13, 2012
A DELIBERATE LIFE “Promotion” from RockHouse Motion on Vimeo.
This is a short vid that all creatives need to watch. Those who fly fish will appreciate it even more, but even if you’ve never cast a line in your life, watch it.
Kudos to RockHouse Motion for the vid, and to the ChiWulff crew for posting it so I could see it.
I realize the blog has been quiet this week… there have been big goings-on here at Fire Girl Photography. Watch for a post tomorrow with more details. Things are rolling and calls are being made.
by Fire Girl Jess on October 7, 2012
Tetons.
I made a quick dash to the Tetons for business and made it back in late last night. Spent a lot of time in that area as a kid and it’s always strange to go back to places with lots of memories.
It was a very productive trip, though – details to be announced soon! For the moment, here are a few images of the northwest Wyoming.
Nothing like a fall dusk in the mountains.
A mountain man’s church. Chapel of the Transfiguration, Moose, Wyoming.
by Fire Girl Jess on October 4, 2012
Fall in the mountains.
Fall has finally arrived in southwest Montana. We had a snow flurry yesterday morning – not enough to stay on the ground for long, but enough to coat the FGP Suby with a dusting of slush. Suddenly Bozeman-ites are sporting Patagonia down jackets and knit hats instead of baggies and t-shirts. People are buying neoprene bootfoot waders in anticipation of waterfowl season.
The coming of fall weather seems to bring with it a change in color and light. The daylight seems to have taken on a different quality (or perhaps it is simply that the lingering veil of smoke has finally dissipated). The air is clearer and each time I step outside I can’t help but take a deep breath and fill my lungs with the chill air. It’s revitalizing and something I need right now when not many things seem to make sense.
Fall on the Gallatin River.
I’m heading to northwestern Wyoming tomorrow for work – very much looking forward to some clear-the-head car time. The fly rod and waders are coming along on the burgeoning hope that I will have time on the way home to hit the Firehole in the Park and swing some soft hackles. We’ll see how the days shape up.
As a side note, today marks the anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book and movie ‘Black Hawk Down’. I have a small contingent of rough-shod friends who make a special point to remember the day.
by Fire Girl Jess on September 29, 2012
A fall dawn on the Upper.
Ten days without a post. In all reality I have no excuse, save that an extended stretch of 0400h mornings, political interviews for the press, and a series of startling life decisions have been kicking my derriere.
Realizing I had to get outside – away from the computer and out of cell range – I headed up to the Upper Gallatin for some dawn patrol fishing before covering the Blue Water Task Force’s Upper Gallatin River Cleanup Day this morning.
It was refreshing to see the canyon section of the river being taken care of. The Gallatin is a heavily utilized river and it’s good to see people giving back. I worked with a few groups – my favorite was the creative removal of this large piece of metal pipe. It was pried from the bank and then loaded onto a stand up paddleboard and swung across the river. As you can see, there were some… minor difficulties. But, true to the Montana ethos, these men “got ‘er done”.
While temperatures are still unseasonably warm – it’s nearing seventy-eight here in town as I write this – fall color is starting to show and it makes for a stellar time to run into the mountains. Anglers and hunters are bemoaning the weather but, in the end, make the trek outside just the same. Driving up the canyon at 0600h this morning I could make out in the darkness the looming shapes of pickups pulled off on the side of the road, their drivers already into the hills after their quarry.
It’s nearly October and fall in the Rockies.
by Fire Girl Jess on September 19, 2012
An Erickson Air Crane helicopter loads up in the evening light.
I headed up into the mountains a few nights ago, hoping to have a quiet few hours on the water and wet a line.
The evening ended up as a cast-and-photograph. An Erickson Air Crane helicopter was working the Millie fire, slurping water from Hyalite Reservoir before disappearing over the ridges and into the smoke.
The sound of running water and the whump-whump of a large helicopter immediately took me back to Russia. A quick look around, though, showed that I was indeed back in the Rockies and not on the Kola.
by Fire Girl Jess on September 14, 2012
A Chanel bag hangs in stark contrast to the meagre inside of a remote tundra Sami hut, Kola Peninsula, Russia.
“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese
Myself and a Russian friend found this Chanel bag hanging in a remote Sami reindeer herder hut in the middle of the tundra. I thought the juxtaposition of the Chanel bag, rather meticulously maintained, and the rough-and-ready inside of the hut to be quite interesting.
