Bogley

[shlingdawg]

I cover seven states as part of my sales territory. Montana isn’t laden with people, so I only get out there every 6 months or so.

I left Western Washington early Monday afternoon, even though I wasn’t meeting my friend from Bountiful until Thursday at 2:00pm. I really did have to put some time in and make a few calls.

I drove straight through to Missoula. Seven and a half hours behind the wheel really wasn’t that bad. Cliff-noting a bit, over the next few days I drove from Missoula to Great Falls, on to Helena, Butte, Bozeman and finally Billings. I love my job. Between talking business I get to see some of the most beautiful country in the world, right out of my very own windshield.

The plan was to go from Billings, over the Beartooth Pass and through Yellowstone National Park and meet my friend in Island Park, Idaho. Well, I woke up Thursday morning to rain and the snow level on the mountains near the valley floor. I checked the Montana DOT website and found the pass was closed. Grrrr, I’ll have to wait til next year. I was really looking forward to testing the skills of the GM engineers by seeing how my Saturn performed at nearly 11,000 feet. Next year.

So, I drove back to Bozeman and went down the Gallatin River, through West Yellowstone and on to Island Park for the rendezvous location.

If you ever get the wild hair to see some of Gods best work, visit Montana.

We made it out to our camping location by 4:00. We erected the Springbar and got things ready for dinner. My specialty while camping is a very tasty burger. I start with a steakburger, and while it’s grilling I add ample amounts of Tobasco, allowing it to seem into the meat. I usually go through an entire bottle during the course of 4 burgers. Then, while the meat is cooking I fry up some thick-cut bacon – getting it nice and crispy. Finally, just as the burgers are about done, I cover them with heaping amounts of crumbled bleu cheese. When the cheese gets nice and gooey, I put the burger on a toasted Kaiser bun, stack on a few strips of bacon and indulge. While I listen to my arteries fight the battle to continue blood flow through my body, I water down the sizzling taste buds with an ice cold Black Butte Porter from the Deschutes Brewery out of Bend, Oregon. Life just does not get any better than this.

The campfire is built, the camp chair is positioned and another Porter is close at hand.

Friday morning, after a hearty breakfast of camp-cakes, hash browns and bacon – and a cup or two of black camp coffee we put the gear in the truck and head up to the lake. Halfway up there, I realized that I left my camera back in my car. Instead of going back for it, we decided that we could take pictures of the fish we caught the next day.

I’ve been frequenting this lake for the better part of 2 decades. My friend, on the other hand, was making his maiden voyage. Not only was he new to the area, but this was his first time fly-fishing. We grabbed our gear and headed down to the lake, stopping off at the natural spring to get the best drink of water that we’ll get all year.

After doing some float tube maneuvering 101, I grabbed my 5 weight with sinking line and started teaching/fishing. Greg picked it up a lot faster than I thought he would. He never once whipped the fly off the end of his line and to both of our surprise; he landed the first fish of the trip.

Fishing was slow at first but gradually picked up as we got to the other end of the lake. As we were coming back the other side, it got even better. The geography of this lake is that one side, the east side, is much steeper than the other. I always like to fish close to the shore, throwing my olive bugger just off the rocks and stripping it back to me. So, I’m very close to the shore – about 15-20 feet is all.

We had kicked down the other side of the lake about ¼ the way back to the dock. I was picking up decent fish every so often, the biggest being a 23” gorilla that must have been nearly 5 pounds. We were having fish for dinner that night, so I had 3 or 4 on my stringer. Just as I was casting back towards the shore, I heard a very unusual sound back behind me and up on the hill. As I turned around to see what made the noise my heart stopped for just a second – I was 25 feet away from a black bear. Now, like I said, I’ve been fishing up here for nearly 20 years and have never seen a bear of any kind. I’ve seen the signs at the trailhead to the lake warning me of bears in the area, but never have I seen one. I did run into a Mountain Lion once, literally, and I still don’t tell people the truth of weather or not I really pissed myself.

So, there’s a bear. I call out to my friend, “Greg! Holy sh!t, there’s a bear!!”

Now I’m not a bear expert and I don’t know if black bears are aggressive to humans that are floating in the water or not. I kick back away from the shore a little ways to create a comfort zone, and then I watched. I reeled my line in and just watched. Having never seen a black bear in the wild before, I didn’t want to miss a minute of it. Then I realized – I forgot my camera! Oh how pissed I was.

So we both sat there in our float tubes and watched this black bear. It was sneaking along the edge of the water, about 10 feet up the bank eating berries that were growing there. He was rather clumsy, crashing through brush and trees. He never really paid us any attention. After watching him for about 15 minutes, the bear suddenly took off on a dead run, diagonally, 30 feet up the mountain. He stopped and turned around and looked back down at the lake just up from where we were sitting. Then, we saw a river otter poke its head up out of the water and stand up on a rock with its front legs. Then, 4 more river otters did the same thing. The ring-leader of the bunch was completely out of the water, hissing at the bear. The others had its back. The bear was hissing and growling back at the otters. This confrontation went on for almost 5 minutes before the bear, deciding that it didn’t want anything to do this pack of otters, turned and went the other way. It was like we were sitting there watching an episode of “Wild Kingdom”. Apparently black bears don’t like river otters.

So the bear turned and started walking the same direction we were going. After a while, we came down to the water for a drink. He lapped up some water and then looked up and watched us for a minute. I asked my friend if bears swim fast but he didn’t know. I told him that I didn’t need to out-swim the bear anyway – that I only needed to paddle faster than him. He wasn’t amused.

So, that’s the bear story. Eventually, he turned and went back the way we came so we didn’t have to worry about getting out of the water with 4 fish and trying to make it back to the truck without having bear issues. It made my trip.

The next day I brought my camera, but as it goes we didn’t see a bear and the fishing was mediocre. I did manage to take a few pictures and we did happen to catch a few fish too.

[LOAH]

Hell yes!

You hate yourself for forgetting the camera that day, right? :haha:

Sorry you don't have a photographic record of your adventure. That would be awesome. I've never seen a bear in the wild and I'm sure I'd pee myself if I wasn't packin' heat. :nod:

I saw a wild cougar hopping along the red rocks once in So. Utah...but I was in a helicopter, so there was no "danger excitement".

Great trip. Thanks for posting.

[accadacca]

Excellent. Montana is a great place for fishin'. I have been fishing up on the beaverhead river a few times. Good stuff.

[Last Child]

Yeah buddy! Montana is the place! Haven't been there in a while but I sure do love it there. So many great places to fish.

[Jaxx]

My wife has been talking about going new places to camp. Mabey it will be Montana. nice pics!

[chickenlicken]

That looks like a fun diversion from work. I used to travel Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, and most of Utah. I'd work from 8-5 then wrap up sales calls and head for the hills for an evening of fishing. I used to fish enough to justify a Colorado non-resident fishing license. Although I never saw a bear or otter, I saw lots of moose that scared the !#@$ out of me sometimes. :2thumbs: