The Wise River
My collection of memories that were made along the Big Hole River run deep.
The upper is still my favorite stretch of water in Montana and I usually make a point to float it a few times in June. The tea colored water brews very large brown trout, particularly in the lower stretches.
An enormous eddy once tried to swallow my boat on the lower stretch during a year that was marked by high water. I happened to be the guy on the oars, so it was entirely my bad. Full disclosure, I thought I had powered through it and, well... I didn't.
But like I said, it was enormous.
It was definitely a learning experience and part of a very long day, which was riddled with sweepers and only a handful of trout.
This brings me back upriver, to where the Wise River flows into the Big Hole. We used to pull the boat up here... fix a little lunch, have a beer, toss a few dries where the two become one and then we were down the river again.
It was the best of times during a formidable period in my life.