The 2008 Yellowstone Gang Travels:
“Making Montana Memories Tour”
Expeditioners:
Andy Batcho
John Richardson
Greg Koenig
Al Miller
Mike Shaunessy was going to join us as an on-going active YG member, but family
needs arose and he could not join us on this year’s travels. I am sure we will
have Mike back in 2009!!
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
30 Aug 2008
The journey begins…….
All arrive between 0500-0520 (AB, AM, GK) At JR’s home where he serves us a
filling breakfast of egg sausage casserole, coffee cake, cantaloupe, juice, and
coffee – maybe we should bag the fishing trip and just stay at Richardson
Towers? Claire gets up and joins us for breakfast – what a gal!!
We head off at 5:56 am onto I-90 East bound – AM is elected treasurer this year
in a vote that should have been recounted due to hanging chads!
Stopping first at Indian John Hill exit and then later in the morning at the
Flying J truck stop in Post Falls, we are making great time. Due to a
miscommunication we don’t hook with MS this year on the way out – he has family
issues he needed to address so we have to fill him in the way back from this
year’s trip.
Stopping for lunch at St. Regis, MT we fuel up at the Huckleberry Café. Since
there is at least one fly shop in town, we have to stop by and check it out. The
Clark Fork Fly Shop is right near by – we swing by and chat with Jackie Sanford
(www.clarkforktrout.com) about local opportunities – all rivers are fishing good
but the water is abnormally high for this time of year! A message we would
repeatedly hear through this trip.
We checked out the mouth of the St. Regis river flowing into the Clark Fork River but 3 guys were already in the good slots – looks like that must be the spot! We elect to move on toward our destination of Hamilton, MT. We cut over at Exit 101 from I-90 (Missoula) to Highway 93 heading directly into Hamilton. After checking in to our accommodations at the Best Western Inn (Mike & Linda Wenger (406) 363-2142) we head out to sample and assess the Bitterroot River. Looked at Wally Crawford Access – not much there although we did chat with a couple of fly-fishing rafters who did sort of OK. We headed up river to near the East and West Fork merge to fish around Hannon Access where we turned a couple of small fish only on a dropper behind a stimulator – it’s tough getting into the fishing rhythms after a day of driving.
We elect to use the little remaining light to run up the West
Fork and see if the Lodge we stayed at in 1998 was still standing after the
fires over the year.
We proceed upstream on the West Fork Road where we locate the West Fork Lodge.
No longer a local watering hole and dive, it has gone upscale to be a
reservation only B&B lodge!!
We met and chatted with the new owner Heidi (Tex & Heidi Irwin, 5857 West Fork Road, Darby, MT 59829) who have owned the lodge for about 4 years now. They have been remodeling it to be much nicer than when we here last almost a decade ago. The forest fires have been close including last year but they were spared.
She knew the local resident Darrel T from our last visit –
yes, he still drinks Coors Silver Bullet beer. Darrel is still going strong and
his home higher up in the trees also did not burn down in the fires – we are
glad to hear that good news. The West Fork Lodge is looking great these days,
but our memories of the place will always include the original ramshackle look,
the “greasy spoon” café, the cantankerous owner, the cognac and Chet’s poker
machine in the “seedy” bar. It is getting dark now so we head back to Hamilton.
Dinner at the Coffee Cup Café (500 South First Street, Hamilton, MT, 59840 (406)
363-3822) – We had good solid food – ended the night with a single malt scotch
(thanks JR!!) – everyone was tired so sleep came quickly although I woke and
heard thunder and rain during the night.