In the age of cell phones and video games, it's a novelty to find a kid more interested in recreating in the great outdoors than doing what all his friends are doing. But that's Colin. Thus it was I had a ready companion to accompany me to Fan Creek once again to enjoy the wilderness stream and seek out its predatory trout. We had a rather lazy start and got to the trailhead about 12:30. A pair of red-tailed hawks was putting on a show overhead, and Colin was lamenting leaving his camera back at the condo. His new Canon EOS Rebel digital camera is fantastic, and his zoom lens can really do justice to wildlife. As we traversed off the beaten path toward the stream, Colin's comment was "I can't believe I'm going to have to go back to Illinois later this summer, and leave this behind." Amen. Hard to leave. But we were in the moment, plying the waters with attractor flies, and arousing quite a bit of interest from 6" - 14" rainbow and cutthroat trout. The high visibility seemed to be giving the flies away at the last second though, because we had numerous swirling fish turn away at the last second before grabbing the hook. I managed to land one 6" cutthroat, but that was the sum and total of our tangible take for the day. Actually, he wasn't taken at all - he was released back to the stream to grow bigger to provide a thrill for some future fisherman or a meal for some osprey another day. Meantime, we took home great memories of a beautiful pristine stream.
That evening, Kevin and Laurie and I went to the Art Walk in Bozeman. Many of the galleries open their doors to all comers from 5 to 8 PM about once/month during the summer. Enticed by wine, crackers and cheese, hundreds of people, many if not most locals, tour the galleries to sample the area's thriving art scene. It was a beautiful cool evening for July in Bozeman (70's instead of the usual 90's), and we ended up enjoying a great local Sushi dinner with more wine after the walk.
The only down side: The trip to Bozeman destroyed my gas mileage - it went from 58.9 mpg to 56.1 by the time we returned. Sigh. :)
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