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Cole and I had been looking forward to having Jeff Hardwick and his wife Inga come out to Montana for some herping and trout fishing.
About 10 days before they arrived Cole and I took a little time to hunt some habitat after he got off work. We both have been working so much we really haven't had much time to hunt some of the habitat we talked about hunting all winter, but this is one of the spots we really wanted to hunt.

Yellowstone county, 10 min. from our houses.

Here are the first part of the book ends in our story.

We were really pumped to have found this pair of males, and it felt like Jeff was going to arrive at the perfect time to hunt Pales this year.
Ten days later I met Jeff & Inga for a day of Fly-fishing on the Bighorn river. I forgot my camera, and maybe Jeff will fill in the rest of this story w/ his fish photos from our trip.
He really did great, and Jeff picked up Flyfishing quickly. I could tell he really enjoyed it.

Here are few photos of him eating one of the trout he caught the next night at a barbecue we had at my house.

Really he did catch them, we didn't buy them for the photo.

After fishing the next day we went to Stillwater co. for a day of herping. We saw a number of herps, Bullsnakes, Racers, Buzztails, Horned lizards, but we didn't flip one milk. Damit!

Here is Bullsnake we flipped that day.

Driving out of Stillwater co. Jeff spotted a Badger poking it's head up on the side of the road. It dove down into a culvert, and we took a few photos. Man was thing pissed off, growling at us, and musking up like the skunks it is related to. My camera still smells like Badger musk.

Wait come back.

Good god! To close, back up, back up.

Here are Jeff & Cole airing out their Badger musking. Jeff's wife Inga really enjoyed the musking too.

Later that night was the barbecue. This is how Ryan (Deepsea) alwasy looks. We put up w/ it. It's important to include the lessfortunate.
That's Jeff in the forground still eating his trout.

Jeff & Inga were great to have in Montana, and hope they come back soon.

Two or three days after they left, Cole and I went out hunting again. We worked hard on hillsides like this w/ out finding anything w/ milk in it.

We were nearing the end of the day when we flipped this sweet female. The other end of our book ends.

Sorry we didn't flip any milks w/ you Jeff, but it was nice to have out here.

-Dell

That pretty much covers our last couple of weeks, man! Why the hell is my right eye all squinty in a couple of those pictures?! Oh, yeah... allergies have been kicking my ass...

It was an absolute pleasure having Jeff and Inga out here for a long weekend. We all had a blast, and would love to have them back. What great people.

I've got some additional photos from our herping outing and the trip up into the mountains that I'll add to the set this evening.

-Cole

Those pics of that badger are very cool. It looks like you had a great time.
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Thanks!

Joe Exposito
Thoroughbred Exotics, LLC
www.thoroughbredexotics.com

Thanks Joe, we did have a good time. The Badger was a real treat to see.

-Dell

The best kind of post. Family friends and herps. Love it.
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

Tony, glad you liked the post. I wish we had busted a multistrata w/ Jeff here, but even the great Brian Hubbs didn't
find a Pale when he was up here. Not so easy sometimes.

-Dell

must have been one BIG trout....man....it was being eaten for the whole pic series...LOL....SO that's what a J. Hardwick looks like......Hello....nice stuff.....you all looked happy....even the redneck in the pic with the guy with the cigar....(J/K )
......
don't worry Jeff...they actually took you to the non-milk spots just to get you to come back .....???.....I got friends like that too....HA!....

badger stink....there's something I won't look forward to.....my wife albut puked when I got a large male longtail weasel off the road once , roadkill with just the face hit, (he's in the bedroom still standing )...she still gripes about it, it's been 20 years???

Good stuff.......Thanxx.....
.

.
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......14
......92/ 11-4
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1(normal,mojave,3 spider mojaves)
2(normal,pastel,pinstripe,blast)1 dud 2 boobs died...
.

Ha! Did you just call Ryan a "red-neck"?! Bwaaaa ha ha ha ha!

I've always got a cigar...

-Cole

...yes,I think so
and yes I know...
LOL

.....had to man, had to........
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......14
......92/ 11-4
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1(1.normal,.1mojave,2.1 spider mojaves)
2(1.normal,1.pastel,spider?Huh,.1blast)1 dud 2 boobs died...
.

Jeff, we do have a few trout here in the Big Sky state...........

And it is interesting to see what a Jeff Hardwick looks like.

Get out west man. -Dell

tell me about it all....

Jeff H is cool man, and a cool man....

west trout...the river is bigger than streams we fish here, I can walk across them usually, at times you can jump over them, well, before my knees started going....>
as for your trout?...I notice like 3 brown and 2 rainbow traits, different spots as if they were from different lines , ?...wild or stocked fish you got???...PA has stocked fish, and I see the different types, we stock different ones from other states lineages, some with big spots some small and the speckeled brown in the oe shot is cool.....we have native stuff now....and the native brook trout here (and stockeds)....some streams in Pa have native brooks that live and breed and might max out at 6 inches, some even 4 inches ...! the streams they may be found in might be but a foot across.....!!!...
for a river I live at the Susquehanna,,,,a mile wide where I am........and my boat...well...someday I'll get it rewired...hasn't moved in 5 years....AGH....LOL..

,.......westward....!!!....LOL....sometime-- someday....

....

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......15
......98/ 11-4
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1(1.normal,.1mojave,2.1 spider mojaves)
2(1.normal,1.pastel,spider?Huh,.1blast)1 dud 2 boobs died...
3(2pastelghost,3pastel,1normal....)
4(1 normal,3 pastel...

Awesome post, Dell! Man those pales you found are incredible!! What beauties. Looks like you guys were having a great time.

Dave
DNS Reptiles

Dave, glad you liked the post. The milks found this year in Montana this year have all been very nice looking bright animals.
Just not as many as last year.

-Dell

Dude, it was the best time ever! You're the most patient teacher for flyfishing on the planet and a very gracious host. It just reinforces my love for Montana - what a great state! Even the buzztails were mellow!
We actually got snowed on June 14th but had to drive straight up 10,000 feet - nice view from the top also.
Thanx for hosting us Dell, Cole and Ryan - we had a ball!
Jeff
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If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see it with representation.

As Dell said, we "MT Maffia" guys were lucky enough to play host to Jeff and his wonderful wife, Inga. It was a quick-and-dirty run through the state, and the two of them had hardly a moment to rest. We wanted to pack as much into their trip as we could: MT "culture" (=beer?), fishing, mountains, and HERPING!

Take a look at some of what we saw:

Dell with a freshly flipped Pituophis

Inga investigating the creature, and being photographed

A sweet little Crotalus viridis heard long before it was seen - Thanks, Ryan!

An oddly colored Coluber for our area. They're generally a greenish or greenish-blue coloration at this size. The coppery color reminded us of Taipans from Australia.

A happy group of herpers at the end of a nice day

My better half and I took the Hardwicks up into the mountains on their final day in MT. On the way, we stopped to photograph this tragic, abandon silver mine

And up in elevation we went

Our women-folk

Higher up in elevation, we got a nice view of a deep valley. Notice the righteous storm rolling in near the peaks.

That storm brought cold and lots of snow as we reached the top of the pass, WAY above the tree line. I believe we were ~11,000 ft. at the highest point. This photo was taken as we dropped back into "Grizzly Bear Country".

Beautiful shots Cole!

Dave

I'm loving the photos!

-Rusty

spell that correct?
...nice...real nice.......someday I gotta get west of...ummm...PA...LOL........really..........

...
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......14
......92/ 11-4
...........................
1(1.normal,.1mojave,2.1 spider mojaves)
2(1.normal,1.pastel,spider?Huh,.1blast)1 dud 2 boobs died...
.

Yes, you do!

-Cole

yea...pathetic isn't it....I been south as far as Daytona I guess, east to, well, miles into the ocean, north as far as, umm, salmon river,Lake Ontario,Polaski ,NY...and west as far as McKean Co , PA....LOL......west wasn't in many plans....any plans......

Texas seems a waste of time , Branson MO looks like a really ,really nice place, TO EAT......Cali....I told my uncles once that I was going to fly out to LA and eat sushi at a place called "Floats" with them...then fly home....that may happen someday.....they don't want to take me on a tour of Compton or Watts???...why not I wondered ....they wouldn't explain (they used to live a few blocks from O.J. in Brentwood?.....they must not get around much either ....actually they could take me to the LA Mt's and look around herpin...but they are scared $h1tle$$ of snakes pretty much....

...westward HO!!!......no idea where it would actually be...LOL....
..
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......14
......92/ 11-4
...........................
1(1.normal,.1mojave,2.1 spider mojaves)
2(1.normal,1.pastel,spider?Huh,.1blast)1 dud 2 boobs died...
3(pastelghost....)

I would love to pet that Badger!

-Rusty

LMAO, get your minds out of the gutter boys.
Geezzzzzzzz.I had no idea what I was going to do with the snake hook.He just wouldn't stay on the hook just like a sidewainder.

L8r

........really....pic is a beaver, not huge, ...? alive?...explain a little ?....
I like beaver too...slow roasted is cool, or fast fried...?
...either way.....it 'em up....

...
.
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......14
......92/ 11-4
...........................
1(1.normal,.1mojave,2.1 spider mojaves)
2(1.normal,1.pastel,spider?Huh,.1blast)1 dud 2 boobs died...
.

I was hunting rubber boas a few weeks ago and the thing was just cruising around in the road kinda lost or something.Well, being the nut job that I am I got out and just had to play with it.It was the biggest beaver I ever played with.LOL....it was pretty soft and furry but it was a little rough on the tail.

L8r

wonder what's up with it?...maybe got bumped by a car...??? who knows....

....they taste too much like beef and not enough like a rodent...'

....good luck and have fun......!....
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......14
......92/ 11-4
...........................
1(1.normal,.1mojave,2.1 spider mojaves)
2(1.normal,1.pastel,spider?Huh,.1blast)1 dud 2 boobs died...
3(pastelghost....)

And I would never use a snake hook on one.

-Dell

Rusty, I don't think you'd get your hand back.

-Dell