Up at 7AM, 63-degrees. While having breakfast at the lodge, four Canadian Game officers came into the restaurant. We immediately started up a conversation with them. Best fishing spots, pictures of Grizzly bears, and much story swapping. They were at the lodge to trap the Griz that had been hanging around the area to relocate him. The bear had avoided the trap….which was set somewhere behind our cabin…so they were in the process of relocating the trap. They were a great bunch of guys; with tons of stories and experiences…..we had a terrific time talking to them. Jim Mitchell provided us his current info on good spots for fishing that he had heard from some of the other officers.

The real story on the bear hanging around the lodge was; an outfitter had been crossing the river with a horse-drawn buckboard when the horse stepped off the shallow crossing area into a deep pool. The horse drowned before the wrangler could do anything about it. He returned with a truck to pull the wagon out of the river, but darkness forced him to leave the horse in the pool. He planned to return the next day to retrieve the horse.

Upon returning the next morning, the horse wasn’t to be found. At first they thought the horse had floated down river, but it soon became clear by the drag marks that a bear had drug the horse out of the river and into the woods during the night! Can you imagine the strength it takes to drag a horse out of a river? The Game Officers told us this incident had taken place between river crossing #1 & #2. This crucial piece of information will become relevant later in the story.

AB noticed a photo and newspaper story framed on the wall of the restaurant. Seems in 1947 an outfitter and guide in the area was leading a horse pack-train of supplies and hunters through the mountains near here, when he came across a huge grizzly bear on a fresh moose kill. Seeing him, the bear immediately charged, making 20’ bounds directly at the guide. The guide drew his rifle and fired in near panic. He hit the bear in the mouth, breaking off a tooth. The bullet hit the bear directly in the brain, dropping him instantly…..20’ from the guide! Later analysis by Game Officers said it was the ONLY shot that could have stopped the bear before it attacked the man. The bear wasn’t weighted at the time, but later estimates from photographs estimate the bear at 1600 pounds!!! One of the largest ever seen.

Later a collector contacted the guide to ask if he could by the skin & skull, it was sold to him for $200. When officials discovered that the bear skin was sold, both the guide and collector were issued tickets for illegally selling wildlife, plus the guide was charged with "hunting without a license!" A judge suspended the guide’s fine, fined the collector $200 and gave him the skin & skull. The judge also suspended the "hunting without a license" charge, saying the man was just defending his life.

Well ya! Where the hell are these "common sense" judges these days?

At 10AM…… I did say that we swapped stories with the Game Officers for quite a while….we had our somewhat sorry looking vehicles washed by a local yahoo who did it for a couple of loonie (tunes). 

Subsequently we headed down to the Red Deer River to give it a try. MS caught a nice little Bull trout on a white bead-head wooly bugger while the remainder of the YG were trout impaired.

Following the Warden’s advice we headed out to find Panther Creek at 10:40AM. After we headed up some hills and followed unnamed roads, we elected to turn around at the sign that said, "Poisonous Gas H2S"

and traveled several more miles of difficult gravel road past the sign stating; "Travel at your own Risk! Vehicle Traffic not Recommended!", we decided we were lost! (11:30AM)

Fortunately a gas line worker came down the road at about the same time asking, "What are you doing here?". We admitted we were lost, did he know where we were? He said he’d have to notify the office that we were out here and warn truckers on the road of our location & planned route. Then comparing his maps to our maps and using his GPS locator to pinpoint our current location, AM finally figured out where we were. Turns out……. a long way from Panther Creek…..we’d missed a crucial turn miles down the road. The strange thing was we could figure out where we were from his maps but the gas worker couldn’t get it straight. Wonder if he got home for dinner that night?

Retracing our tracks back down the road, we stopped along the river near where we started our day. The brakes on MS’s Ford were so hot from coming off the mountain that we could smell brakes burning. Stepping out of the truck, MS opened the hood to a cloud of brake smoke! We check the temperature of the wheel rims; they were also hot, as were the rims on JR’s Jeep. MS had just had new brakes put on the truck….we surmised that we had just broken them in…big time!

Turns out, we were at the right location earlier…..we returned to the confluence of Panther Creek and Sheep Creek. We all said that this was the prettiest of all the streams we’d seen on this trip.

JR & AM headed upstream while MS & AB headed downstream. AB caught two Bull trout, AM had an LDR, JR had several strikes and hooked a large Bull Trout on a chernobyl hopper. He fought the fish to the net, but as the fish saw AM with the net, it charged off. Only one problem….JR forgot to let the fly line go….with AM yelling…give ‘em line! …give ‘em line! The line snapped. Oh no! There is still a beautiful fish in that hole!!

MS fished hard, but couldn’t find a cooperative fish.

As we were walking out of the area, we spotted a sign….River Crossing #1….and a bunch of "Grizzly Bear Warning Signs" nailed to posts and trees. Seems we’d been fishing right near the spot that the bear had been eating the horse!! It’s a pretty well known fact that Grizzly bears don’t like to share their meals with ANYONE! Yikes! Good thing he was likely full and napping.

Leaving the river at 3:20PM we were off for Stud Creek, but not after a quick stop back at Mountain Aire Lodge for lunch….a bag of chips. On the way back to Mountain Aire ten mountain goats walked across the road behind JR’s Jeep.

Arriving at Sheep Creek it was 77-degrees. AM & JR hiked down to the river to check it out. AB stayed at the truck and was to listen to the radio for fishing reports……or calls for help! When AM & JR returned to the vehicles at 4:45PM, they found AB sleeping on the tailgate of the pickup and MS napping in the cab. AM/JR reported the river was a long series of riffles and there no interest in their fly offerings.

At 5:15 and 1,613-miles from Spokane, the road turned from gravel to asphalt! Yreka! It was a false alarm, shortly after, the road turned back to gravel.

By 6PM we were back on Hwy 1 headed west toward Banff. We turned south on Hwy. 40 at Kananaskis, just east of Dead Man’s Flat’s. JR’s rig was on fumes so we were searching for fuel. A sign for Kananaskis Village promised fuel salvation, but it was not to be. Just a lodge, gift store and restaurant….no fuel. AM went in to ask for directions at the front desk. There was fuel available 18-miles down the road….if we could make it!

On the way to the gas station we saw a group of Mountain Sheep along the road. Finally, pulling into a gas station, and anticipating no dinner again tonight, since it was already 7PM, MS, AB & JR bought sandwiches for dinner at the gas station. They were terrible, but we ate them anyway.  AM was trying to get a decent shot of the mountains in the background with AB in the foreground - JR shot this shot as it appeared to have a more religious tone than intended!!

Going over Highwood Pass (7239’ – nearly 1-1/2 miles straight up!) we had to stop to photograph the incredible scenery. The mountains along this section of road are unbelievable. While photographing, two buck deer ran across the road. They stopped on the hillside and looked back. We were concerned that they may run back across this busy, high-speed highway, so we shooed them up into the woods. Shortly after getting back on the road, 6 Elk crossed in front of us.

Crossing the Highwood River at 8:30PM we arrived 15-minutes later in the small (1-block long) town of Longview searching for lodging. We found the Blue Sky Motel (403-558-3655) with a vacancy.

The proprietor recommended the Longhorn Steak House  across the street for dinner. We arrived just as the restaurant, an unassuming looking western style building, was closing. The waiter invited us in and said they would stay open for us. The brought the wine list….wine list??....and JR selected a bottle that AM & MS shared. The menu was shocking! We couldn’t believe our eyes, the entrees, sauces & appetizers were something you might see in a Paris restaurant!

All were drooling except for AB….he was still physically re-living the terrible Bologna & Salami sandwich from the gas station! No way could he eat one of these wonderful meals, so he ordered a soup (a bisque) and Cesar salad. Others had a 16-oz. T-bone, Chicken with tarragon cream sauce and Pork Tenderloin with roasted apple sauce. An Unbelievable meal!

On the way out of the restaurant, AB started up a conversation with a gentleman at the next table that was there with his family. He told us why the restaurant was so good. The Moroccan owner and his family had several restaurants in Calgary and other locations. On a family vacation, their car broke down. The father liked the little town and decided to move there and open a restaurant, run by he and his extended family. Amazingly, members of the family were trained as chefs in Paris, explaining the extraordinary food.

AB introduced himself to the gentleman (Rick R. Smith, President, Smith & Associates) and told him about the Yellowstone Gang’s adventures. Rick said he was born in Longview, Alberta, went to college at Wesley (in the states) graduating in Business, moved to Calgary and was involved in developing the largest western town in Canada near Calgary. He had visited the western-theme town of Winthrop, Washington and was taken by the great little tourist town in the North Cascade Mountains. It inspired him to begin developing plans to convert his home town of Longview into a western-theme tourist destination. When he was a youngster he sold minnows to the local anglers who used them to catch huge Bull & Brown trout from the Highwood River.

He offered to introduce us to all the ranchers in the area and provide us access to private property on the Highwood if we returned to the area, as he knew them all. He & AB swapped business cards and upon parting Rick said, "I’m building a new home in the area, you guys can stay with us when you return." "Oh, we couldn’t impose; we’ll just stay in town." "It’s not a problem, my new house will have several guest rooms; there’ll be plenty of room for you!"

11PM we crashed.