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Sep 4-5, 2004
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Saturday, September 4th Eva had prepared another great breakfast for us this morning and we were
joined at the breakfast table by four of their eight children who had returned
to the ranch for the Labor Day Weekend. After much great conversation (including
some tips about fishing over by Casper, Wyoming on the Miracle Mile on the
Platte River (North
Fork Platte - Miracle Mile & Gray Reef )), Lowell and his three sons
& daughter rounded up the horses as they were headed out into the mountains to
roundup their cattle, moving them to the lowlands for the coming winter season.
The horses were all pretty skittish, but Paul’s horse wasn’t about to be ridden.
As he mounted the steed, the horse began to buck, and continued to buck for a
good 10 minutes or more, until the cinch broke, with Paul and the saddle hitting
the ground hard! The daughter rode off to catch the horse while Paul, grumbling,
headed to the tack shed to repair the saddle. Paul, we were told wasn’t a casual
rider, he’d worked his way through college on a bronco riding rodeo scholarship!
Eva could hardly watch all the crazy horse action, stating that she’d been
bucked off hard one time and has since given up riding the range & cow punching.
She also said the horse that had just thrown Paul was the same horse that had
thrown Lowell two years earlier, breaking his hip in the process! Finally all
the horses were saddled, had settled down….to some degree….and the group rode up
a sagebrush filled draw, disappearing over the ridge. We had another great day fishing for Bonneville Cutt on the ranch property and everyone caught good numbers of the beautiful trout. GK culminated the trip by again bringing out his spinning rod & Mepps spinner making several casts into a deep pool. Wham….a beautiful Brown Trout, followed quickly by three more big browns! We retired to the bunkhouse that evening with mixed feelings, we were overjoyed with catching the Wyoming Cutthroat Slam, but were sad we were leaving some of the most beautiful country and best fishing we’d seen on any Yellowstone Gang adventure. Sunday, September 5th We packed the van early this morning, left our cooler with the Clarks since there was no room for it on the plane, had another great ranch style breakfast by Eva, said our Thanks & Good-byes and drove south from Cokeville to Interstate 80 and the Salt Lake City airport. All agreed that S.W. Wyoming was a quiet treasure and we’d found great people, beautiful scenery and terrific fishing spurred by our pursuit of the Cutt Slam. This trip certainly changed our perception of S.W. Wyoming; we’d expected flat, hot, sagebrush country with few rivers and small trout. Boy, were we wrong! Kudos to the Wyoming Department of Fish & Game for developing the terrific Cutt Slam program! Trip Costs: JR??? Miles Traveled: ??? Was it 2000 miles? Other trip details: Other sources of Information: Wyoming Fish & Game Additional Great Information on Fishing in Wyoming Link to Wyoming B&B’s: http://www.rimstarintl.com/wy5x.htm |