11 Miles From Somewhere. (Take #5)

15 miles from downtown Bozeman MT.  Hard to believe you can have an Espresso or three at Rockford Coffee and  head out 19th Ave. South to a place like this within 30min..   http://www.trailheadmontana.net/activities/bozeman-hyalite-canyon/

This photo of my old fishing partner B.K. in his new FishCat  with the sun beginning to set and the moon in full view was just one of those magical days.  Calm waters on the back of the reservoir where the two feeder mt streams flow Ice Water into the man made lake.  Driving up the canyon, and around this reservoir felt like going back to the early 30's and looking at the cover of every field and stream magazine. The throw back feel was like a time warp sans the Boogie boards and new SUV's. amongst the old red canoes and sail boats moving across the lake in slow motion.

1/2 way down the mountain, we spent a week camping at Langhor deep in the woods on the banks of the hard rushing creek. No sound machine could duplicate what mother nature threw out that week at bed time. I thought the brookies there were nice eating size (10"), until  till some retired man walks by me at dusk on the dirt road with a 20" 3lb brown. Walking like Andy Griffith with his fish on a rope and a bounce in his old retired step he was a pretty proud ...... Pretty freekin, bait casting... worm throwing proud.  No challenge and no sense of stream etiquette say  the flyfishing snobs up and down the creek as he passed by whistling all the way to his fire pit. He did dine alone...

Now I'm not that foofoo but I do love flowers. There were a few mornings I picked some bouquets and deposited them inside a roll of toilet paper in the outhouse. Maybe not very manly, but the effect was appreciated by all.

In my camp site, there were two butterfly colonies that lived there next to the fire ring. Hundreds of violet and then orange one inch butterflies dried their wings each morning in the dirt and then landed on us as we made French Presses and Oatmeal.   Or Eggs and Trout, or Steak and Eggs, or Sausage and cheese, onion,garlic, provolone eggs... and more espresso.. Maybe they were hungry now that I think of it. Here's one that landed on my leg one morning. 

 And then there were the sunsets and stars by campfire.  Jane and I sat up one night with a fire during a 11/12th's full moon and watched a 3D cloud display pass by the moon with so many characters that we were laughing so hard we almost wet ourselves. And on this evening the very last image in the clouds that passed by was a cow. Yes a full cow in the clouds and I kid you not, as it passed over the moon, we both recited  "and the cow jumped over the moon".

Between those two big pines in this pic, the clouds just kept on providing God's little movie show with a light breeze.

Sadly we prob. woke up all our neighbors with our constant laughter but hey, laughter is much better then fighting, kids screaming and or the sound of RV generators...argggg.

The fishing on the creeks up there was cold and fast. I fished a bamboo sweet grass and jane watched as I caught my first Brookie on that 6 sided bamboo.  Throwing line in tight and small streams on tree lined banks is no easy task  but that 4/5wt sweetgrass 8'9" boo, was beautiful...
Jane filmed a bit of my fishing around site #7 one evening. Only kept one Brookie but it sure was and always is fun.

Waking up and sitting alone in the buck along a stream each  morning in the early sun and heat is something that just, well reminds me of what Adam must have felt like.  Everything is covered with dew and smells great and you kinda feel like at any time you could hear Gods voice outside of the creation around you. No obvious pics of any of that, but I did strap on a guitar and howell a few tunes in the morning dew.... which is nice..

So many things I did not get pic's of this trip. Friends along the way, Dogs, unique people, a lot of released fish, cool restaurants and hangs and more. I will tell you that although we carry a military shovel, the Montana DNR is pretty good about providing an old friend every so many miles along the rivers. God Bless Tax Dollars at work.

So I finished up my 18 days with my wife Jane who had flown in for the last 4 days to experience my camping style for the first time. Followed by an incredible dinner at the 2nd Street Bistro in Livingston as a guest of GM. Tiffany and owner/chef Brian followed by a gig in their old Murray Hotel Bar where we made new friends and established old ones.

At the end of this trip, I was reminded of what a good friend a good truck is. The Blood Mobile, as we call it,  my old 200k Expedition took another 3k journey on some fast and 4wd bumpy mountain back roads without a quart of oil and less noise from a lifter than my hip in the morning.  Thank you Ford.

What next?  Well, big trout in Wisconsin I hear on the "Rush". Ole Mark Dopkins from "The Good Guys" audio repair shop keeps sending messages like "I'm breaking off fish until I decide to quit and go home. Hurry over by 8:30PM"

Then of course there are my normal friends who want to play racket ball every afternoon or 18 holes of golf with any spare time.  I'm thinking about my next dinner to create, song to write, gig to book, event to plan, script to edit and verse of scripture to meditate on and get centered again...

Till then, breathe deep my friends. Everyone is truly a gift.