Triploidjunkie
Life of the Party
I thought about putting this in the weekend thread, but figured it was going to be too long winded.
Last weekend was move in weekend for my daughter at MSU. She can't fit everything that goes in her dorm for the year in her car, so we haul over the rest and help her move in.
My wife had splurged and got us a room in the fancy resort on top of Big Sky. The views were gorgeous, and she was looking forward to the beautiful pool.
The day before we left, my wife severely broke her foot at work. Basically a compound fracture that prevented her from coming. We couldn't cancel the hotel on such short notice so I could just sleep in the car, so I went on vacation alone.
I shot straight through to Big Sky, only stopping in St. Regis for lunch and fuel. Nine hours of windshield time. I was informed that move in wasn't until six pm on Saturday, and my daughter and her boyfriend would unload her car first. I didn't need to show up until seven. Meaning I had all day to fish! I immediately made plans to hike into the backcountry and fish for cutthroat and grayling. .
I was in no hurry the next morning. Walked around the resort while drinking coffee, enjoying the views. Got some food and confirmed plans with my daughter. I didn't reach the trailhead until almost noon. It was packed! Got my rod put together, flies I had just bought at Finns & Feathers stored, and my pack on. The last thing to go in was the bear spray. I grabbed it and started to stick it into my pack. Just then, my goofy ass thought, "Isn't there supposed to be a plastic clip on.... POOF!"
The safety was missing, and it went off! I jumped away from the cloud, but it still got in my eyes and beard. The worst part is it painted my arm from my armpit to my fingertips orange.
Luckily I had a gallon of water in the car, and was able to get the worst of it off. I was in considerable discomfort, but figured it would wear off eventually, and headed up the trail, sans bear spray. I was too spicy to eat anyway.
Everything was ok until I really started to sweat. That burned! About a mile and a half in, I went over to the creek and tried to wash off better, but it made it worse. I thought about turning around, but pushed on to the lake. No sooner had I got there, an afternoon thunderstorm rolled over the ridge in front of me. I threw my rod and watch and phone in the bushes, and huddled in some bushes a ways away watching the lightning hit the ridges all around me. It was miserable, but went away after half and hour. The sun came out, and I enjoyed great dry fly action for Yellowstone cutthroat (my first time catching them), and grayling.
I made it out and back to Bozeman right at seven, and even though I was still burning, helped get everything squared away at the dorm room. We had planned to go out for dinner, but I begged off to make the drive back to Big Sky to shower, drink beer, and hang in the pool. But the shower ran all the chemicals into my eyes, and reactivated it. Now everywhere burned, and my eyes were swollen completely shut. It took me a good half hour to even see again. I didn't want anything to do with the chlorine in the pool, so I just stayed in the room.
The next day I planned to hit some sweet looking water I had seen on Google maps. Online research said the area just upstream had 1500 brown trout per mile, but they were small. The section I wanted to try had few fish, but the browns grew large, and it was like a big spring creek. Most people avoided this stretch due to the difficulty of the fishery. Right up my alley!
And it was. It was ninja like wading for super spooky fish, but I landed two nice browns, and missed several more using nothing but hoppers. I even hooked one that spit my fly that was easily seven or eight pounds. I was happy when a t-storm finally chased me off the river and back home.
Last weekend was move in weekend for my daughter at MSU. She can't fit everything that goes in her dorm for the year in her car, so we haul over the rest and help her move in.
My wife had splurged and got us a room in the fancy resort on top of Big Sky. The views were gorgeous, and she was looking forward to the beautiful pool.
The day before we left, my wife severely broke her foot at work. Basically a compound fracture that prevented her from coming. We couldn't cancel the hotel on such short notice so I could just sleep in the car, so I went on vacation alone.
I shot straight through to Big Sky, only stopping in St. Regis for lunch and fuel. Nine hours of windshield time. I was informed that move in wasn't until six pm on Saturday, and my daughter and her boyfriend would unload her car first. I didn't need to show up until seven. Meaning I had all day to fish! I immediately made plans to hike into the backcountry and fish for cutthroat and grayling. .
I was in no hurry the next morning. Walked around the resort while drinking coffee, enjoying the views. Got some food and confirmed plans with my daughter. I didn't reach the trailhead until almost noon. It was packed! Got my rod put together, flies I had just bought at Finns & Feathers stored, and my pack on. The last thing to go in was the bear spray. I grabbed it and started to stick it into my pack. Just then, my goofy ass thought, "Isn't there supposed to be a plastic clip on.... POOF!"
The safety was missing, and it went off! I jumped away from the cloud, but it still got in my eyes and beard. The worst part is it painted my arm from my armpit to my fingertips orange.
Luckily I had a gallon of water in the car, and was able to get the worst of it off. I was in considerable discomfort, but figured it would wear off eventually, and headed up the trail, sans bear spray. I was too spicy to eat anyway.
Everything was ok until I really started to sweat. That burned! About a mile and a half in, I went over to the creek and tried to wash off better, but it made it worse. I thought about turning around, but pushed on to the lake. No sooner had I got there, an afternoon thunderstorm rolled over the ridge in front of me. I threw my rod and watch and phone in the bushes, and huddled in some bushes a ways away watching the lightning hit the ridges all around me. It was miserable, but went away after half and hour. The sun came out, and I enjoyed great dry fly action for Yellowstone cutthroat (my first time catching them), and grayling.
I made it out and back to Bozeman right at seven, and even though I was still burning, helped get everything squared away at the dorm room. We had planned to go out for dinner, but I begged off to make the drive back to Big Sky to shower, drink beer, and hang in the pool. But the shower ran all the chemicals into my eyes, and reactivated it. Now everywhere burned, and my eyes were swollen completely shut. It took me a good half hour to even see again. I didn't want anything to do with the chlorine in the pool, so I just stayed in the room.
The next day I planned to hit some sweet looking water I had seen on Google maps. Online research said the area just upstream had 1500 brown trout per mile, but they were small. The section I wanted to try had few fish, but the browns grew large, and it was like a big spring creek. Most people avoided this stretch due to the difficulty of the fishery. Right up my alley!
And it was. It was ninja like wading for super spooky fish, but I landed two nice browns, and missed several more using nothing but hoppers. I even hooked one that spit my fly that was easily seven or eight pounds. I was happy when a t-storm finally chased me off the river and back home.
