7/17 - 7/25 Wyoming RoadTrip Part 1......New Friends and New Waters

It seems as though it's been forever since my last blog post , and looking back at the date on the header, that feeling is pretty justified. My only excuse is a nine day roadtrip from the plains of Kansas to the Wild West of Wyoming that I just recently finished up. With the planning , packing , tying , lying and everything else involved to make the trip happen I havn't had much time to spend posting on my own blog or even perusing the sites of my many favorite bloggers. That being said , all of the time was well rewarded with a great trip out West that I won't soon forget.

Wednesday morning Kevin and I pulled out of the driveway around 5:00 and started the long trek that would eventually lead us to the town of Cody , Wyoming. The plan was to meet up with some guys from the Drake for a couple days of fishing and debauchery and then spend a few extra days exploring the area and fishing some of the local waters after the others left.

The trip out was uneventful , long and boring being two other adjectives that fit the general description! If you've never driven across the entire state of Nebraska followed up by endless miles of nothing as you traverse the state of Wyoming from Cheyenne to Cody...you're really not missing a damn thing! In all honesty I didn't realize we still had those kinds of places left in this country until I drove across Wyoming , you know , 100's of miles of desolate land with no towns , houses or services of any kind. While I much prefer wide open country to the congestion of the city , one can only stare out the window at dirt , rock and sagebrush for so long before losing interest.
The original plan was to make the drive in two days and show up at the Trout Creek group campground on Thursday around noon. Somewhere just outside of Casper the executive decision was made to push on and make it a one day trip. I think we were both so tired of being in the car we just didn't want to postpone the misery , better to get the suffering out of the way all at once.
Finally , just outside the town of Thermopolis , the scenery began to change for the better and we got our first glimpse of just some of the waters that had been haunting our dreams for the past couple months.

This little glimpse of what lay in store for us during the next week made the last couple of hours go by just a little bit faster for sure. After a little difficulty locating the campground in the dark we managed to pull into camp around 10:00 that night. Seventeen hours and 1300 miles later we were finally home for the next week! We weren't the first to arrive and joined Willi , Bruce and Mark under the group shelter for a few beers and fish talk before everyone called it a night. Not feeling like setting up tents after the long day, Kevin and I threw our cots under the shelterhouse and crashed for a few hours , thinking of the waters and fish that awaited us the next day.
Thursday morning we awoke to a beautiful Wyoming day and after unloading the truck and getting our tents set up we started making plans for our first day of fishing. Unfortunately our plans were quickly changed when we got word that a storm up in the mountains the previous evening had blown out two of the rivers we had come to fish. Luckily the area is in close proximity to many different waters on various drainages and with some help from Mark (the "local" who so graciously set up this shindig and then played guide / babysitter to our group of fish bums) we were soon standing ankle deep in some fishy looking water.

We'd been told to bring big foam stones or hoppers and some heavy nymphs to drop off the back as a dropper so that's what our plan of attack was to be. It didn't take long to hook up with one of the locals and before the morning was over the combination of beautiful scenery and willing fish had Kevin and I both smiling like kids in a candy store!


The fishing was pretty consistent in this first river for mainly rainbows with a few cutts and cut-bows thrown in as well.


It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was on the fishes menu , all a guy had to do was look around at any of the streamside rocks.

We fished a couple different accesses throughout the day , stopping for a quick sandwich around lunch , and then heading back out to camp as evening rolled around. A few others had filtered into camp throughout the day and the party was just kicking into gear when we pulled in. After a few more introductions and several adult beverages the rest of the evening becomes kind of a blur , it's probably better that I don't recall the evenings events anyway. A little sage advice stolen from our friends over in sin-city pertains here as well...what happens at a Drake Bake , stays at a Drake Bake!
The first day of fishing just whet our appetites and tomorrow we get serious about catching a few fish....