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Into the Arctic – Brooks Range
When I first started telling people that for our 10-year anniversary, Wes and I were going to take a trip to the North Slope and the Arctic Ocean I got two very different responses. The first response was a very confused look followed by but why? The other response was an excited and intrigued that […]
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Yellowstone – The Journey
There’s an uncomfortable buzz under my skin. I can’t tell if it’s nerves, stress, adrenaline, excitement, or everything all at once. Maybe it is. I’m attending a clinic with some of the most legendary women alive today in the sport of fly fishing. I’ve read about these women, watched their videos, and heard of their […]
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Yellowstone – the Process
It’s noon and the sun is sinking its warmth through the threads of my shirt. Or maybe that’s just the bead of sweat I feel between my shoulder blades. I have retreated into the cool of the shade, and the temperature difference beneath these pines is staggering. Everything is so still, there isn’t even a breeze […]
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Yellowstone
The morning air is crisp and clean despite the wildfire haze on the skyline. This meadow of tall grasses and pines smells like bison dust and crushed spruce tips. The water here is crystal. It fractures the sunlight where the morning sun scatters on the surface. It’s so clear the pebbled bottom looks like it’s […]
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Book Review: Rookie No More
Rookie No More: The Fly Fishing Novice Gets Guidance from a Pro By: Cecilia “Pudge” Kleinkauf In complete transparency, I did not enjoy this book the first time I read it. I don’t see this as a bad thing because it forced me to think of where I am coming from as a reader and […]
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Winter in Alaska: Paper & Feathers
“Is it cold there yet?” That’s the question I get from everyone I talk to as winter starts to set in. My mom will send me pictures of the beautiful fall colors in northern Idaho with a frozen face emoji, and my sister will send memes of Randy Parker in A Christmas Story all bundled […]
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Research & Reward
If I close my eyes I can feel the air humming. It’s vibrating with the sound of mosquitoes over the soaked tundra. Standing in the water up to my thighs is the only way to get some distance from them. I can tell my waders are leaking because I can feel the cold mountain lake […]
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Breaking the Bubble Line
The Journey I am five days away from doing something I have dreamed about since I was a little girl: publishing a book. I have been writing since my mom gave my first journal when I was six. I still have that journal. It’s embarrassingly pink and has cats and teacups on it. I distinctly […]
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Hunting: Taking My Rifle for a Walk
Spring in Alaska is a special kind of awakening that only happens in the northern most territories. It can be snowing one day and raining the next. There can be beautiful sunny days that look like summer, but it is mostly grey. Spring also means training and getting our bodies used to hauling around the […]
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Idahome: Chasing Dinosaurs
Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here. Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees White sturgeon are native to the Snake River and many waterways on the Pacific. The Snake is a river that makes its way from the […]
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Saltwater Fly Fishing: Eeyore
Two years ago my partner and I decided to start taking trips out of state in the winter time. Since we moved to Alaska in 2020 we have been brainstorming what to do with the snowy months that span from late October to April. Neither of us ski or snowboard and we don’t have a […]
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Bourbon, Neat
The Manifestation Chronicles If you would like to only read about fishing and outdoor adventures, please skip to the next blog post. A Writer’s Reflection It’s hard to put into words the chaos of the last four years. Collectively we’ve all felt it and will continue to feel it as we move away from 2020. […]
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Firsts: Bonefish on the Fly
The idea to go to Belize came one night after my partner and I had talked about saltwater fly fishing. We watched a bunch of YouTube videos of people fishing for bonefish, permit, trigger fish, parrot fish, and just about any other reef fish you could imagine. The ecosystem, the idea of being somewhere warm, […]
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The Becoming: Still Learning to Fly Fish
We all come to this sport in our own way – whether it’s through a book, movie, friend, or family member. We are captivated by the artistic beauty of it. It looks effortless, like painting the sky. It looks peaceful, standing in the middle of a river or stream. I was introduced to fishing by […]
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Our Journey: A Thank You
Many of you who are reading this have followed the journey of Living on River Time since its inception in 2018. The thought of that alone makes me smile so much my face hurts. You are our friends and family we have found, lost, and reconnected with our our adventures. I am so grateful that […]
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Smiles for Days: Sharing a Legacy of Fishing
“The Lord has blessed us all today…It’s just that he has been particularly good to me. Rev. Maclean – A River Runs Through It Tributaries My mom turns 60 this year. I turned 31. I won’t be there for her birthday, but we have adventures planned for next year here in Alaska. When I turned […]
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Kisaralik River: The Adventure
Papa Bear Adventures & Float Alaska Once we had made it to Bethel, we were picked up by our host lodge: Papa Bear Adventures. It was a relief all of our bags had made it and that Bella was in good order. Our itinerary meant we were staying one night in the lodge before heading […]
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Kisaralik River: The Before
I looked down the carpeted stairs to the padded basement floor littered with camping gear, dry bags, and fishing gear. It was an organized mess of things waiting to be put together and weighed. It was the compilation of three years of planning, saving, strategically buying, and logistics. It felt surreal and terrifying and exhilarating. […]
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Seward, Alaska: Fjords & Tacos
I grew up 45 minutes from the ocean, but had never been out on it except for a cruise ship when I was 14. I don’t count cruise ships because they’re so massive, you can’t even really tell you’re on the water unless the seas get really rough. The closest I had been to actually […]
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Surprise Me: Our Story
The Stories We Tell If you grew up fishing like I did, somewhere there is a picture of you as a child next to or holding one of your first fish. There is a gleeful grin on your face, or maybe a slightly disgusted or concerned look about what the heck this creature is that […]
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New Friends & New Places
New Friends Truth: Making friends is hard for me. That got deep. I am not going to apologize. Let’s talk about fishing. Like most Thursday/Fridays, Wes and I were talking about what our plans were for the weekend. This particular weekend, he mentioned that we had the opportunity to float the Kenai River. Since deciding […]
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PWS: Cutthroat & Salmon
Things You Didn’t Know Were On Your Bucket List I remember hiking into Hells Canyon from Pittsburg landing to Kirkwood Ranch for the first time. I was hiking with two other volunteers and friends who had driven the Outdoor Adventure Program (OAP) vans to the takeout at Pittsburg to pick up the boats from a […]
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First Hikes & New Terrain
“How many feelings can one heart hold?…Infinite, Luna thought. The way the universe is infinite. It is light and dark and endless motion; it is space and time, and space within space, and time within time. And she knew: there is no limit to what the heart can carry.” Kelly Barnhill, The Girl Who Drank […]
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Welcome to Alaska
We did it. It took us awhile, but we finally made it to our new home in Alaska. It took two months, seven days, one rescheduled flight, over 3,000 miles of driving, three audio books, some tiptoeing through closed borders, and 14 days of quarantine, but we are home. What a wonderful feeling it is. […]
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The Promise of Time
April 15th, 2014 We set out on a new chapter in our lives six years ago today. Wes joined the United States Air Force and left for Lackland, AFB and Basic Training on the 14th, and started his six-year contract on tax day. It was emotional. It was challenging knowing that we wouldn’t be able […]
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Year in Review: 2019
Our Year Winter 2018/2019 When it gets cold and ice starts to crystalize on the banks of the river, that’s when most people call it quits. But there is a special reward for those who brave the cold and snow. The quiet on the river is unmatched, especially when fat snowflakes start to fall and […]
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Humbled
Panama City Beach, FL Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Panama City Beach for my last TDY with the Air Force. Early Spring, 2020 I’ll be transitioning back into civilian life, and we’re excited for the new experiences this will bring – Hopefully more fishing and hunting opportunities in all of the places […]
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Welcome Home
2019 ReCap So…It’s been more than a year since our last post! Record! While I don’t think more than a year between posts should be celebrated, what has happened between then and now has been pretty spectacular. Let’s recap: Fall/Winter 2018 – Fly fishing for kokanee and trout in Idaho – Wes goes somewhere in […]
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Kokanee on the Fly
Every fisherman has their favorite time of year. For some their favorite time of year is that one week they take off work to go to a special place, one they’ve planned their whole year around. Sometimes it’s a local camping trip or an extended adventure to a far-flung place they’ve never been. For me, […]
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On the Fly: Learning to Fish…Again
The Meaning of Lifelong Learning Anyone who has grown up spin fishing and made the transition to fly fishing knows how different and difficult it can be. You literally have to learn a skill that you learned as a child all over again. This has been my biggest struggle. It has also been a struggle […]
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Summer Rafting: Tents & Paddles
Fishing & Rafting The past two weeks have been a learning process, but more about that in my next post! For this Throwback Thursday, it is only fitting that I share one of our many “learning experiences” in the wild and on the water. Summer of 2016 was eventful for us. After finishing my masters […]
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Adventure Buddies: A Letter to Our Pup
Happy Birthday to Our Little Adventurer Dear Bella, This is your second birthday. You are officially a teenager. Because of this coming-of-age, your humans would like to reflect on your puppyhood, your adventures, and the exciting years to come. So, here goes… Bella, we spent a very long time looking for you. About 15 years […]
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Friendship & Mosquitoes: Our Trip to Alberta
The Great Road Trip This July marks the one year anniversary of our three week road trip from southern Idaho to Edmonton, Alberta. So, in light of the occasion, it’s only fitting that this Throwback Thursday post is all about our Alberta trip. I have to say that our trip to Edmonton, Alberta took a […]
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Fly Fishing: Expectations & Realities
Those Aren’t “Wind” Knots… I am not an expert fly fisherman, nor will I ever claim to be. I started fly fishing a year and a half ago, and I have struggled, triumphed, gotten angry, celebrated, cursed, caught fish, and lost a lot of fish. Growing up spin fishing and bass fishing, I always looked […]
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Hiking: In Memory of My Boots
The Adventures We’ve Had I love being outside in the sun, rain, wind, and elements. I love hanging out with my guys, stumbling along through the brush, bugs, and mud. But I am still a girl. I still like pretty things. I still love my shoes. They help take me places I never thought I […]
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Learning to Float: Whitewater Rafting ’16
Outdoor Adventure Program Mountain Home, Idaho Whitewater rafting isn’t something I ever thought I would enjoy. I was wrong. To fully understand my relationship with whitewater rafting, you have to first understand that I grew up fishing and boating on lakes in a bass boat, with a motor. I am completely comfortable on water that […]
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Backpacking: Trail Hunting & Fish Finding
Where is the Trail? This is something we kept asking ourselves once we made it to the end of the maintained trail and set out on the footpath that leads up the mountain. This is also when maps and research pay off. My biggest piece of advice to anyone making their way into the backcountry […]
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Backpacking: The Uphill Battle
Just One More Ridgeline This week we are prepping to take our first backpacking trip of the year into the Sawtooth National Forest. Yes, we are late getting up into the mountains this year, but that’s life! Our first extended backpacking trip last summer with family and friends was breathtaking, and immediately had us hooked. That […]
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Spring Camping & Thunderstorms
Silver City, Idaho Recovering from our Alaska adventure means taking a weekend trip into the mountains. For those of you who don’t know, here’s a bit of history on Silver City, Idaho… During its “heydays”, Silver City had about a dozen streets, seventy-five businesses, three hundred homes, a population of around 2,500, twelve ore-processing mills, […]
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Last Frontier: The Reflection
Ready for a New Adventure Working in the education system and being in the military has brought out a certain sense of sarcastic cynicism in my normally optimistic worldview, but a few things this trip has taught me are: Just about everyone we met from our research acquaintances, our neighbors at Raven, the guides and […]
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Last Frontier: The Adventure
Did That Really Just Happen? Alaska Adventure: April 30th – May 8th You know that excited feeling right before you set off on a big trip? I do. It’s mostly why neither myself nor my partner-in-crime went to bed before our 5:00am flight out of Boise, ID. We slept pretty much all day Sunday, and […]
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Last Frontier: Pre-Trip Prep
Prepping for an Adventure Like all great adventures, this one started out as an idea. Between washing dishes, helping cook dinner for customers, and setting up camp, we were telling stories about fishing. Then, during dinner, we were listening to stories about Alaska. Alaska is known for its wilderness and its fishing. These two things […]
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New Mexico: Looking for Water
Watermarks For the past four years I’ve lived in deserts. After growing up on the coast, the arid and harsh climate of the desert has been difficult to acclimate to. The air doesn’t wrap you in a warm blanket here. It scorches with heat or cold, and burns with wind or dust. And it rains. […]
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Learning to Adventure: Tres Meses en España
Asturias, Spain España was and forever will be a turning point in my life. Most moments when a person leaves their native patria are. I was confronted with being on my own in a country where no one spoke my native language, in a space where it was easy for me to understand what was […]
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The Journey Begins with Who We Are
We can love completely what we cannot completely understand. —Norman Maclean River Time Much like other sayings “River Time” has many different meanings for lots of different adventurers. The common underlying theme among our understanding is fluidity. It acknowledges that some things, if not most things, are out of our control. It acknowledges that the […]
Meet The Author
I committed to fly fishing as my form of healing when I decided to buy my first set of waders in 2016. I still have and wear that same set.
I haven’t looked back.
the adventures
Our lives are not just a series of wild adventures. They are chaos, pain, love, joy, heartbreak, boredom, struggle, and happiness. This life on the water and in the mountains.
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You have a place in the wild and beautiful spaces of the world. Let’s celebrate the adventures together and share what you’ve learned on your journey.
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