Ol' Bozo

Zac and I left our free camping in Columbus and descended into the Gallatin Valley to the town of Bozeman, Montana. The main street is vibrant, full of public art and pizza stops and not one, but two, used bookstores within a block of each other.

We strolled the streets for awhile, then stopped at the Co-op, a grocery store and restaurant that has just about anything you want and can't find anywhere else -- including mini vegan chocolate cupcakes. Say that five times fast. I couldn't because my mouth was too full.

 

We then drove a mere seventeen miles out of town into the middle of the woods and found a beautiful site overlooking a lake to set up our tent. After a quick setup, we drove back to town for some more exploring (Montana State University is beautiful), but we did make fishing plans for later that evening...

 

After a campfire dinner, just as the fish were starting theirs, Zac and I pulled out our borrowed inflatable raft and some jury-rigged fly setups, and paddled out to the middle of the lake. 

Once the wind died down, Zac started hauling those fish into the boat. I had a couple of bites that first night, but I didn't manage to pull any over the side. I did catch some good pictures, though!

We noticed when we got back to camp that the raft had deflated a bit over the course of two hours, but I didn't think much of it and we went to bed and dreamed of trout.

The next morning, we took off for Paradise Valley and Chico Hot Springs for the day. The drive was stunning.

And then back evening for more time on the water. This time I caught a fish!!!!

And Zac did, too. We only have bait-casting rods, but Jeff taught us to tie a dry fly to the end of a three foot leader, then hang a nymph about eighteen inches below that. It may be unconventional, but the fish didn't care. 

Unfortunately, our fishing was cut short because the raft did more than just leak a little bit of air. When Zac realized that he was sitting below water level and sinking, we paddled for the nearest bank fast as we could and then hiked the rest of the way home. Didn't matter, I'm still counting the night as an all-around success!

The following morning we packed up and made our way to Big Sky, another on our list of ski-towns to visit. The Lone Peak Brewery we found there had some of the best dark beers I've ever tasted.

And then, since pretty much the entire western United States is, or had been, on fire lately, we drove through the smoking hills to our next stop along the way...