Mama Cow vs. Fly Fisher

 

 

 

 

Yes, there is a story behind this. I will get to that later on in this post.

Wednesday I attended the Fly Girls fly fishing class with Morgan Buckert, a local fly fishing pro in the area. We started off with with some fishing early in the morning on the Big Wood River. There was little action to be had. The one fish I got decided to jump out of the net as I was getting my camera ready. The smoke also started rolling in, so we called it a bad day of fishing around noon and headed to eat some lunch. After eating, the class portion started. I learned how to tie a few different knots. I also understand why dad wears those goofy looking glasses when he ties on a new fly.  It takes patience! We also learned all about the different flies around the area and their hatches. Thats cool and all, but I’ll stick to the fake flies.

Big Wood River

Thursday I took another drive up to Stanley. That also meant driving the crazy roads again. The second time around was not so bad. I left 30 minutes before I needed to so I could stop and be a history nerd and look at the historical markers along the way.

Alexander Ross

He came across this summit searching for beaver on September 18, 1824.

He traveled along this road, not paved of course.

Gold!

Levi Smiley found gold on Smiley Creek in 1878. Vienna was s thriving mining town with a $200,000 twenty stamp mill to crush gold. There were 14 saloons, 3 stores, 2 meat markets, a bank, hotel, sawmill and 6 places to eat. More than 200 buildings vanished when this city became a ghost town after 1900.

What it looks like today.

I am sure there were other professions in the town too….

Sawtooth City

Gold was discovered here in 1879. By 1882, there were 3 saloons, two places to eat, a meat market, store, a Chinese laundry, blacksmith shop, mills, and about 90 people building their town. Four more years went by before miners worked out a system to process their gold. 200 miners were employed in 1886. One disaster after another led to suspension of work in 1892.

Sawtooth City today

I arrived to my destination at Sawtooth Adventure Company. I found to be one of the few girls on this trip. Go figure. There was a boarding school there to go on a trip with about 30 boys. Fun… They made it their mission to try and ram my kayak and flip me over. Their mission failed. Ha! I made it through with only one little mishap. I got stuck on a rock, dead center. After paddling and moving back a forth something finally gave and I was off. I was paddled to catch up, a fly fisher nearby yelled, “Gnarly dude! Look yourself up on YouTube!” I haven’t. Hopefully there will be some pictures from the trip since I did not want to pay for a whole CD.

After we returned I headed off to the Sawtooth Museum. Very, very, very tiny. Here’s what the inside looked like.

Mini wagon

“They just couldn’t make a living up here.”

Indians

On the way back to Sun Valley, I stopped at Red Fish Lake. The picture will explain.

Mountain lake.

I stopped at the fish hatchery next. I had no idea what I was looking at, but it looked cool.

Oh boy!

Trout

Hatch away

On the drive down I noticed the smoke coming in. The wind changed. I also passed a dozen firetrucks headed up to the area affected. From what I have been told the fire is huge and still spreading. The news said it might keep going until the first snow occurs.

Smokey the Bear isn’t too happy.

Today was my last day of fly fishing. I had the very good looking Argentinean guide today, Carlos. We headed to Lost River on the other side of the mountain to get away from the smoke. We drove through Sawtooth National Forest and Challis National Forest. The road = scary. Gravel and only one way down. Very high. Glad he was driving. We passed cattle, roaming cattle. Then I learned that there’s farms up there. People live up there, hardcore cowboys. We got to the river and hiked a mile or so through bushes and got to the spot. No fish.

We headed to go upstream, when two other fishermen said not to cross where we wanted to because there was a mama cow and calves behind the bush. We turned around, went back down and crossed at another point. No sign of cows. Good. Carlos was messing with something and told me to go on. I turned the corner and theres a baby cow and it starting mooing. I froze. Carlos froze, and then we hear it. Mama cow comes charging. Carlos yelled run, and I ran. Mind you, wearing wading boots and waders does not make it easy to run. I just had to make it across the crossing and over the fence. Splat. Wading boots stuck in the mud, feet aren’t moving. Mama cow is closing in. Carlos grabbed me, I hit the bank. Lost a boot, but somehow flipped over the fence without hurting my fly rod, or me.

Carlos then tells me that the same mama cow probably, chased him last week. What a day. Only 3 fish. No pictures since I landed on mine when I hit the ground.

The Lost River

Once the smoke started to roll in we called it a day. An exciting day for sure. Tomorrow is going to be relaxing since I can’t really move my body as of now.