Friends, Fishing, Shopping, and Bears, What a Great Week!

Renita motioned me to stop as she watched the brush below us. She asked me, “Can you hear the brush breaking?” At first, I couldn’t but then I heard the snap of a larger branch, (thanks hearing aids), there was definitely something in the brush below. Sure enough, she spotted and pointed out the black bear’s head as it poked through the top of the berry bushes.

It was a great week. Our friends Bob and Nancy had driven from Kansas to visit us. Bob and I taught Science together and Nancy was a guidance counselor which meant that Renita would have to hear too many school stories.

The first night they arrived we had them over for dinner and ended up staying up late as we sat around the fire pit and talked of what we could do while they were here. Bob, of course wanted to go fly fishing. Nancy did want to go shopping and so a trip to Jackson and Alpine was in order. We also wanted to see if any bears were feasting on berries in Grand Teton National Park.

The next morning, I drove over to their motel room and picked up Bob. We headed to one of my favorite creeks where we hoped to have Bob catch a Bonneville cutthroat trout It didn’t’ take long before he caught his first ever, and after the obligatory picture and safe release we continued up the creek.

We hopped from hole to hole letting each other have a shot of having the first cast and we ended up having a great day. Nancy and Renita had spent the day crafting as Nancy had brought her materials from Kansas. She graduated from high school in 1969 and was in charge of making the decorations.

The next day Bob and I decided to fish the Greys River. We first fished the Little Grey and we ended up releasing eleven Fine Spotted cutthroat trout, (it’s another of the four native cutthroats in Wyoming. We then decided to fish the Grey River and stopping at an easy hole to fish, we spread out and begin to cast.

At first nothing hit but then I made a long cast upstream. I missed a nice fish and casting again a big fish rose and took my dry fly. I set the hook and knew that it was a large cut! Slowly fighting it in. I kept the fish in the water as Bob got my camera ready. Lifting the fish up he snapped several images of the eighteen-inch fish.

After the release we waded back, and it seemed like I could do no wrong! I caught and released four more nice cuts with an even bigger one measuring nineteen inches in length. I had called to Bob and suggested that he fish where I was at and as he did, he had several large fish rise to his fly.

The fish quit taking, so we headed up stream to several more holes. It was a bad decision as we never did catch any more fish. Hindsight is always better than foresight, but we had had a great day releasing eighteen fish.

Returning back to the ranch we learned that the ladies had had a great day shopping in Alpine. Renita had delivered a jewelry piece I had wrapped for our friend Barbara and she had picked up a shell for another custom order! They both did find some art items they could not live without!

On the last day of their visit we drove to Jackson and headed to our favorite bear viewing spot. There weren’t any along the road and I checked several berry patches. While there were berries, they weren’t quite ripe, and we wondered if we were too early.

Driving to the ponds, I got out the bear spry and we hiked in a way, looking for bear sign. We didn’t see many berries and we did not spot any bear scat. Renita walked to a clearing and suddenly waved for me to come over. She had spotted a grizzly bear walking across a meadow and I was so excited I forgot to turn my camera on, (later we talked with a park volunteer who stated that we had to be wrong as there were no grizzly bears in the area, I trust Renita's spotting as she has had years of experience watching black and grizzly bears).

The bear disappeared into a thick copse of trees and so we hiked further before Renita again stopped and told me to be quiet as she could hear branches breaking. I was getting nervous as it was the second bear in a short distance and so I started to watch behind us as we didn’t want to be surprised by any more bears.

The black bear seemed unconcerned as it was in berry heaven and we and watched it feed. The bears go into a feeding frenzy before hibernation and berries are a big part of their diet. Bob arrived and also watched the bear; Nancy had decided not to hike with us.

Lunch time arrived and we headed back to the car, where Nancy had been bird watching. We did not see any moose, kind of unusual in the area we were at, but perhaps the numerous bears had scared the moose and they were hiding in the forest.

We ended the day shopping in Jackson, after a nice lunch at our favorite brew pub. It had been another great day and a great week. Time with friends, fishing, and bear watching! Clear