9 September
Up early, it is cold (39F) but with clear blue skies. Packing up for another
move day, we are in Twin Bridges by 8:35 am for a quick breakfast. Over to the
fly shop to settle up on our cabin bills. Greg shared with us some of the
difficulties the fly shops are seeing with the Fly Fishing Shows, which are held
in the winter months at places like Bellevue, WA. He is not convinced the show
is drawing enough customers on the West-side of Washington due to multiple
reasons including some of the show organizer’s vision and actions. There is a
newer Spokane show in March, which might actually be a more productive
investment for him. Time will tell. Of course, the interesting part here is that
it was through the Bellevue show that we met Greg and the Twin Bridges crowd! It
worked for at least one of us!
After wishing Greg a good day, we swung by the R.L. Winston Rod Company on the
way out of town. They have a small but fun little museum and while they do allow
you to grass cast some of their rods, they do not offer free sample rods! Both
GK and AB have Winston rods and are quite pleased with them. We also learn that
one of the past owners of the El Western in Ennis is now one of the owners of
Winston rods! Small world!!
Heading into the Big Hole River drainage, we reach Jackson, MT (via Dillon) at
about 11:15. We must have driven through a total of 20 miles of cow “sign” on
the paved highway – interesting place to do a cattle drive?? In any event, this
was going to be a cleaning problem for JR and AB to get off their rigs. It was
suggested that it represented Montana camouflage but we weren’t sure. A friend
of AM met earlier in 2008 at a business meeting where when the conversation
turned to fly fishing (and it always does), it turned out she was from Jackson
where her parents still live!! We had planned to stop by and visit them – so we
stopped by Shepherd’s Garage and introduced ourselves to the proprietor,
Richard.
He had received my earlier email about our schedule and was
expecting our arrival – although perhaps not such a motley crew! His shop had an
extensive range of farm equipment of many vintages as well as some pretty new
stuff. Our guys like the 800cc 4 wheel ATV – it looked really powerful! Richard
shared with us that his ancestors had arrived in the valley in 1887 and built
homes, raised crops, stored fuel all in a very short time before the first
winter set in. Those were tough days. After WWII, his uncle had packed fish
plants into remote mountain lakes using barrels on the horses. Jackson is pretty
remote as they have both deer and moose at the edge of town (and sometimes in
town!). The Jackson Hot Springs Lodge across the street has great food and an
haute cuisine menu. Unfortunately, our travel times keep us moving so we didn’t
get a chance to eat there on this trip but will on a future foray. We did learn
that the historical Clark Hotsprings where Clark cooked lunch on the return leg
of the L&C Expedition is now located on private property without public access!!
We remain baffled as to why the State or US Govt. didn’t acquire it (or access
rights) at some time during the last two hundred years. We are a little
disappointed, as AB in particular is an L&C aficionado. Also AM drops into the
Post Office to introduce himself to Shirley, Richard’s wife, who is the town
post-mistress! Shirley’s great grandparents include Antone Jackson, one of the
founders of Ft. Jackson along with his brother.
We elect to head out of Jackson away from Wisdom so we could explore the head
waters of the Big Hole River and because one of us has had a fixation on fishing
a high mountain stream for some years – not because of the fishing but because
of its name. Heading out of town on RD 6, we cross a field with ramshackle
building on it – suddenly we see what appears to be a really big dog looking at
us and then heading quickly across the field and its high grass. We can just see
the head of the animal as it quarters away from us – it can really run! We
realize together that it is no dog but a wolf!! I have never seen a wolf in the
wild much less see one in the middle of the day! Later I learn that local
ranchers believe they have a wolf problem and that perhaps 6-8 wolves have been
shot around there this year. No wonder he ran like the wind!! Also it was
interesting that this wolf was alone – no others were seen.
Climbing up the many miles of rough, dusty, backroads along the upper Big Hole,
we find the “summit” and drop into the next drainage for access to Bloody Dick
Creek (BDC). Enough said – times were tougher back then when the settlers named
these streams. One vehicle, with a fly rod case in the front seat, was parked
near the stream. Hmm… why would anyone else come this far on these rough
roads…maybe the area holds better fishing than we suspected? There is also a
reservoir Lake but we skipped it and let JR/AB fish BDC. JR raises a fish by the
bridge but finally puts everything down.
OK we have fished it, let’s head back into the Big Hole
River source drainage. Later we learn that Reservoir Lake holds big brook trout
– we should have minimized the time on BDC and focused instead on the lake. Also
had we turned left instead of right into BDC, we would have headed to Fox Creek
(a trib of Governor Creek which is a trib of the Big Hole) which apparently
holds pretty big fish despite the small stream size. Alas we learn this that
night and not when we needed to know while we were in the area. Lots of water to
explore – we need more time!!
We select a likely looking section of the upper Big Hole which it turns out is
full of small brook trout – 3 inches to 12 inches. They rise to any fly! These
guys have vibrant colors but a little of this kind of fishing goes a long way.
Now I should note that GK will catch a much LARGER Brookie in the next day or
so!!
Heading out at about 5:15, we head for Wisdom and the
Nez Perce motel.
After checking in (with the new assistant – more to come on this), we grab an
early dinner at the Big Hole Crossing where the waitress tells us about a few
more local fishing holes of note including Jahnke Lakes, Dooling meadows, etc.
Now I actually think the waitress was one of the owners of the restaurant. In
addition to sharing some great local fishing information, she also gave us some
great background about a huge home we had seen in the middle of nowhere on the
Upper Big Hole. Turns out that it is actually a hunting lodge with 10 bedrooms
and all kinds of high end amenities. She and her husband had been one-quarter
owners but the partnership didn’t work out over the longer term, so they sold
it. They then re-invested in the Big Hole Crossing restaurant!
After dinner, we head over the local Park for access to the Big Hole River. Both
grayling and whitefish are caught – they often seem to occupy the same water
types. AM uses his 6 wt Orvis for a little more casting distance and hooks up
with a big whitefish (naturally to form!) under the bridge by the highway.
Stringing up his 5wt Winston, AB chooses a Stimulator / Pheasant-tail dropper and hikes upstream to a spot we’d caught graying on our 1997 trip. The water level was higher that in the past, but the holding water was still there…..and there were many fish rising along the opposite bank. After several strikes & misses on the Stimulator and no action on the dropper, AB decided to switch flies. The light was slipping away fast, and it seemed the fish were actively feeding on something very tiny just under the surface film. AB chose a #18 BWO comparadun and needed his “LED Heads” light & “Hat Eyes” magnifier to tie on the tiny fly. It was too dark to see the fly as it drifted down the foam line, so AB just waited for a tug. It didn’t take long before a feisty Grayling was ripping line around the pool. JR came upstream at that point and help AB land the beautiful Grayling.
It is getting dark, so we pack up our gear and head back to the trucks. We met
in the Park a young fellow who was bicycle touring by himself from Colorado
Springs to Woodinville, WA where he has relatives. Turns out they live close to
me AM! Wow – talk about a small world! I compare bike notes with him – he says
that while the trip has been physically demanding, the mental challenges of a
solo bicycle event like this are much harder to handle. I give him my email and
hope he looks me whenever he reaches his destination.
Now the evening gets fun………………..
It was suggested to me that we look up the owners of Fetty’s Bar & Grill (Guy &
Joanie) in Wisdom. So we head for the bar and learn that neither of them is on
duty that evening – so we leave a message with the staff to let them know we
came acalling. But as long as you are in a bar, what the hey!, you should be
courteous and order some drinks…..so we did.
We met and chatted with Mellissa who was tending bar that night.
Turns out she was quite the fisherperson as she started flyfishing just three years ago but had already caught a steelhead on a fly on the Clearwater River in Idaho!! The folks at Troutfitters on the Big Hole had helped with the trip and the fishing. We also had a long chat with Kim who was sort of the lead person on duty that night for Fetty’s Collectively we had a fabulous evening learning about life in Wisdom.
Wisdom & Jackson are small tight-knit communities with folks
who have a lot of pride and personal accountability but who have the same human
issues of relationships we all encounter. However, because of the small number
size of the communities (versus the huge geographical size) there appears to be
little interpersonal space for real privacy. Crowded urban areas like my home
offer substantial anonymity for privacy (it is easy to get lost in the crowd)
but at the expense perhaps of a community spirit and inter-connectedness.
Without attribution, here are some takeaways:
· School is K-8 and they are strongly supported by the community. I suspect
getting teachers out there can be problematic. They just hired a top notch K-3
teacher from California. As an example, he wanted to take the kids snowshoeing
for winter PE so the community went out and acquired snowshoes for the class –
no questions asked. [His daughter was the new assistant at the Nez Perce hotel
who checked us in that day! She was also the new morning waitress at the Big
Hole Crossing Restaurant the next day. So I suspect she and her dad came as a
package deal.]
· Most everyone does multiple jobs to make ends meet and to keep the community
stitched together. For example, Kim is on the school board, is an EMT, works on
a ranch, works at Fetty’s and lives 18 miles out of town.
· The belief is that the locals can tell if new folks will “make it” in Wisdom
within 30 days of the arrival. The multiple jobs, the hassle of driving
long-distances for shop-ups to get things we take for granted, the remoteness of
amenities like movie theatres, big stores, etc., all have to be off set by one’s
personal enjoyment of the of the community, the values, and the environment. I
don’t think you can know if you would like Wisdom or Jackson for sure until you
have tried it. You need to be there long enough for frustrations to set in to
see if the balance works for you.
· After 8th grade, kids have to generally live with relatives or friends during
the week as the nearest high school is 78 miles away. Kids are busy now not only
with studies but also football, basketball, rodeo, etc. – all of which lose a
lot of the freedom of being a kid – seems like we all end up being a grown-up
long enough without having to rush it! (GB Shaw - “Youth is wasted on the
young”)
· We have heard about drug and alcohol problems in Libby, MT (YG trip in 2005)
and certainly saw a glimpse of this in Ennis, MT on this trip. These local kids
tend to be better but they can get into trouble although level of despair and
problems are probably less in Wisdom and Jackson. One good thing for the local
kids is that the county deputy sheriff lives in town in Wisdom – Sheriff Jack –
who also keeps a good eye on the kids.
We called it a night about 11-ish and crashed back at the Nez Perce Motel.