I sit alone in my fav. coffee shop in Bozeman after getting supplies today. Great wi-fi and great coffee. I think back to a week ago on Sunday and I hear this voice...
Hey Wally, dont tell Mrs. Cleaver but I was living somewhere between the Kon-Tiki and Castaway on Sunday. North of the Clark Canyon Dam we had scoped out a section of the Beaverhead to float and fish that day.
It was hot and the water was high and fast. Not knowing what any of the float looked like beyond the first bent, there was quite a bit of anticipation. For me, since I had only floated lakes with my cheap float boat Cabella special, I was unsure how it would navigate in current sitting high on the water. Doing floats means driving to your "out point" and dropping a vehicle there so when you reach that destination in "nowhereville", you can drive back to get your other vehicle, then drive back to your out spot and load up the boats. We raced to do it hoping we'd not pass the spot as we floated later in the day. Passing your out spot is not a good option with a boat. You can not turn around in these currents.
12:30 MST we went from under the bridge and the current was fast and it felt pretty unsettling in this pretty narrow river. I set my rod up in a holder thinking 9ft of rod sticking out in front of me would be easy fishing. Oh contraire mr. smartie pants.. So getting my bearings on the seat and oars, i headed for the first turn in the narrow river. I was amazed how hard it was in a little float to move across the river with oars that are movable in the bridles. You see unlike a large 4man drift boat with 1,000 pounds, there is very little oar in the water and fast currents make your planning something you have to do much in advance in a 45lb spinning tube. . Moving away from big rocks all over in the river is much less work but sitting at river level they are hard to see, and if you're concentrating on your fishing, casting or landing a fish..... well... seeya.... Your gonna crash it and get hurt or worse or, hit it on your bottom which is sitting inches from the water. Hmmm, not sure which would be best. I remember as a teen hittig my butt on the bottom of the lazy Apple River in WI and even at that slow pace it can do major damage to the spine.
Well, I went to make the first sweeping left. So I faced the turn and oared backward to slow me down and take the inside turn so I didn't get swept into the trees and brush for a rod snapping potentially puncturing or flipping experience in the covered banks. I was still being pulled forward into and towards the outward bank and began to get a bit of fear. . so in fear of snapping a rod or boat in the trees, I pulled hard... (hard) on the oars to turn and avoid them ..... SNAP. went my alum. left oar. I look and it's bent 45 degrees and I can't touch it for fear of breaking off. I start spinning and again in a panic I stark kicking my feet in the water and sea-sawing my right oar to move left to the shallows before the next turn that would for sure do me in. Now mind you I'm wearing a coastguard approved $100. PFD around my waist that i can pull for flotation in the event I'm kicked out and down river but I can tell you that NEVER entered my mind.Well, there was my partner over on the left bank of the next turn relaxing and waiting for me. I'm sure he was wondering why I was kicking and paddling like a school of gators was under me.
I made it shallow enough to use my feet and kick and stumble to the edge.
Pulling up to Bruce he looked at me like "what's up"? I showed him my oar and we both had that frozen half panic look of "what now" on our faces.
No way to be towed for 4miles behind another float boat. That would just whip me into every corner of trees and brush the entire way. I looked at the woods and old movies and cable shows began floating thru my mind. (jury rig a 6 or 8 branch splint around the break...) yea that's it! Well the oars are not hollow but sealed and questionwas, could I make it strong enough to pull on and yet still be able to fit into the oar guides and still be long enough to row. I pulled out my military multi tool and went to the woods to look for 1' tree limbs. The next hour or more wal alot of silence and talking to my self as I tried developing a multi splint wrap around the oar using 100' of cord that I'd just loaded right before launching. So somewhere around 2pm I headed back out into the Beaverhead with one oar a foot shorter than the other in the guides. (two strokes for every one on the other side....). No fishing today, it would be survival only. Guide boat after guide boat would pass me by and see my oar and yell out "niiiiiice MacGuiver dude" with a big smile and a good luck perplexed stare". Those comments were the highlight of that day for sure. Bruce, well he's no novice at flyfishing and even on a new tube he caught good fish and his new FishCat floated like a dream as he led and then followed me down river to hopefully a good ending...
Somewhere around 7 or 8pm i came around the bend you see above,. to be surprised at our "out spot" right there. I flailed at the oars to try to cross over and kick my legs while trying not to curse and miss the out spot. .. Well I missed it by 20ft and ended in fast water against bushes hanging over the river and a deep pool just feet ahead of me, where if i don't get footing... well, it's down the river to the next spot to pull out and hopefully have space to carry my boat back on my back..The photo above was right after pulling the boat up the bank to pack up.
I walked out of the river and couldn't stop panting and breathing hard. Bruce says "you ok"?. I was fine but all that fear of the last 5hrs was over now and my system finally let down and I realized how hard I had constantly rowed and now, i couldn't catch my breath for about 5min. Fear can be used to create energy instead of the flight factor and this day, that was the only option.
I wish I could show you some fish pictures or nature photos, but a splint and a blog today was a good as it was gonna get. A cold hops and reliving it all around a billion stars, a good fire and an old friend was gonna be the best way to end this day. Now I'll say that at the end of the day God did not rescue me from my problem, but He did give me the ability to figure it out and survive it with only hand cuts and a good day of exercise..
***
Montana 2014 #3..
In all the world there is only one Bob Mac...
After running into him along Paradise Valley 4 years ago, I've grown to love this unique character.
A native of the famous Rock Creek area of Montana he has more stories than readers digest and is not afraid to share them all with enough orange juice and whatever he's mixing with it..
In episode three we head to the Big Hole river to meet up with Bob Mac. Bruce had never met him although he'd heard many a tale from my mouth and although I can embellish a story pretty good, old Bob need NO embellishment my friends. We were to camp a few days together and float the Big Hole on Bobs fav. water in his ClackaCraft low side drift boat. He delivered us down a very steep dirt road without markings that went almost straight down the mountain after a curve. It ended in a 4WD laden dirt road into a field along the river and there was our free base camp shared only with a zillion skeeters..
I cooked a nearly 3" thick cowboy ribeye bone in steak cut into rare bites with Blue cheese dressing all over them, Giant Portabellas with Merlot and melted Swiss and much more that night with real wine glasses and a fire. The night ended with a cowboy guitar session under the stars and I'll leave it at that. It was a night to remember. And when we ran out of wood, Bob would just walk in to the pitch dark woods and literally rip a tree out of the ground or limb off another tree and drag it back, stumbling and singing all the way. Welcome to native Montanan's folks. They are not imports.....
The next day was over 90degrees and the winds were hard upstream to make rowing and casting very difficult.. We were throwing purple cripples and yellow sallies and caddis in 14 to 18 and yup there was alot of fish and almost exclusively Brookies. But in the end the heat hit Bruce and he got sun poisoning that evening. That would change the next few days...
In episode 3 we head to the Madison Valley and Ruby Campground to see if once in our lifetimes we could actually be there when the most famous hatch in America for trout takes place. The holy grail salmon fly hatch.
Well... :) :) :) Thank you Jesus.... cont.
Friends, If you enjoy these blogs, please comment, and forward them, and join my blogspot blog today. Let's do life together....
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