It was quite a happy occasion last Tuesday, as an old friend of mine from college, Griz, and his girlfriend Jessi came up to Big Sky Country for a visit. They drove up from Denver, spending a few days in Teton National Park, then making their way through Yellowstone before arriving in Bozeman.
Unfortunately, I had broken my foot playing soccer the a week before they came, and I was (still am) hobblin' around on crutches with a boot on the left foot. Could've been worse, that's for sure, but it wasn't the ideal situation for having the rare occurrence of a visit from good friends. I didn't figure that a bum wheel would hinder my ability to put-in and take-out a boat, untangle knots, or row... so we headed up to the Upper Madison on Wednesday. We got a late start, and didn't arrive in Ennis until around 5:30. After making our own meteorological predictions, we decided that a float that night wasn't a good idea based on the massive storm cloud hovering over the river to the North. It was the right call, we would have rowed into a nasty wind, gotten pounded by cold rain, and arrived at dark. I have to thank Jessie for that judgment call, because if left to Brandon and I, we would've ended up in the dark, drunk and wet. The weather that afternoon did provide a nice reprieve from the recent Montana heat...with temperatures at around 72 degrees when the storm was overhead.
After fighting off the mosquitoes at our campsite during dinner, we were treated to an amazing sunset on the Madison River. Truly amazing.
After a sunset like that, we figured the only sensible thing to do would be to go have a few cocktails in Ennis then retire for the evening.
As suspected, Thursday morning came and it was a beautiful day. Light breeze, pretty mild temperature, and some sunshine that willingly shared the Big Sky with multitudes of cloud gatherings in every direction. For some reason those clouds decided to let us stay warm and dry all day, and the trout seemed to have the same great attitude that afternoon.
Griz is a novice fly-fisherman, but picked up the rhythm quickly. About 10 minutes into our float he poked a nice brownie which told me immediately that it was gonna be a good day.
We finished off the day by stopping by Norris Hot Springs for a soak, where there happened to be this gorgeous blond woman who sang original bluegrass tunes and picked guitar. Then we gorged on Rosa's pizza when we got back to Bozeman. Not badski.
My feeling that it was 'gonna be a good day' was correct. It's not that we caught a ton of fish (although Griz did catch some good ones) it was more of a combinations of things...basically just what happens when good friends get to catch up on a Montana river. I float these rivers so often thinking, "man...'so and so' needs to see this", and when they actually make the trip it's pretty much the beez knees. It means the world to me, actually. So to Brandon and Jessie...thanks again for making the trip, and to the rest of you clucks who haven't made it up, I reckon I'll see you next year.
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