I sat up on the edge of my cot , watching the sun rise over the redrock hills behind my tent and a solitary thought popped into my head..."It's Monday and I should be at work starting the grind of another week , but instead I'm in a beautiful place I've never been before, exploring new waters and doing the one thing I truly love to do. Life is Good!!"
We didn't have a real plan today , after picking up a few things in town we spent the rest of the day fishing waters that were relatively close to camp. We'd been running and gunning pretty hard since arriving Wednesday night and it felt good to slow the pace for a day.
The best part was that we really didn't sacrifice on the fishing , there really is an endless amount of quality waters to choose from in the area.
Another quiet evening at camp had us talking about our trip back across the valley for our last day of fishing , we were both pretty anxious to get back.
Tuesday we woke early, threw the gear in the truck and hit the road. Our plan was to pack a lunch in with us and spend all day fishing the braided waters for cuts and browns. As we got closer to the valley we noticed the sky getting hazy , almost smokey. The nearer we got to our destination the thicker the smoke got until we were pretty certain that a fire was taking place somewhere in the valley. As we pulled into the access parking lot, the only vehicles in sight were a command unit trailer and three firefighter trucks. A helicopter buzzed overhead as we pulled to a stop. We were here, but it wasn't looking too good for the day. Kevin met someone halfway across the parking lot and was informed that the area was being evacuated due to a fire 10 miles up the valley. The question was asked if we could go ahead and fish the area right below the parking lot , unfortunately the answer was a "definitely not".
We were bummed...a long drive and hours wasted on our last day. We cussed a little and then shook it off and made plans to head over to another river. It was our last day and there were fish to be caught , just not from the waters we planned on fishing. Sometimes it just all works out , we had a stellar day and caught several nice fish on our "second choice" river.
We made the most of it and didn't get back to camp until almost dark. A fine ending to what had been one of the best trips I can remember.
The last morning we packed up camp and headed into town to pick up our buddies new driftboat that we were hauling back home with us.
After hooking up and saying some more good-byes we hit the road again for the long drive. We made it back safely although it took us the better part of two days. Just across the Nebraska border we ran into torrential rains , hail and 70 mph winds that were just relentless.
I'd guess we spent two hours parked on the side of the road off and on. It was a white knuckle drive pulling a buddies new boat for sure.
What else can I say , this was one of those trips that I won't be able to get out of my head for awhile...and that's just fine with me.
