Day Two, The East Wind River and Upper Bear Creek

The next morning, we still were not sure what to do, or where to go. Last night another fly fisherman told us of all the fish he had caught on the East fork of the Wind River. He also said that it would be difficult to get to the upper reaches of the river with our four-wheel drive truck.

We decided to get more information and better maps by stopping at the Shoshone National Forest Headquarters in Dubois. It was a wise decision as the Forest service representative took one look at our truck and told us that if we tried to drive to the upper reaches of the East Wind River, we would never get our truck back out!

Furthermore, he told us about two other campgrounds that we could reach safely with our vehicle. Both were along a forest service road out of Dubois. We still wanted to look at the East fork and at another stream, Upper Bear Creek, so we headed east of Dubois, about ten miles before turning north on a good gravel road.

The East Wind was muddy, stained, and as we drove north, we saw really strange signs. They read that no Humans were allowed on the land west of the road from December 16^th till May15th. Now we were not only looking for bears, wolves, or mountain lions but also for extra-terrestrials. How dare visitors from another world keeping us from going fishing!

After crossing Wiggins fork, we reached a fork in the road and turned west. The road deteriorated but was still a passable road. Reaching the Upper Bear, we found that the water level in the stream was so low that fish could not survive and so we stopped and turned around after reach8ng the campground.

At the fork Renita reminded me that there was another spot on the river further north. There was a primitive parking lot and campground but the river still looked too low to fish, even though a jeep arrived and three fisherman got out and headed to the stream with their flyrods, (probably looking to catch their Yellowstone Cut throat. It is the fourth fish in the Cut Slam Award and the one we both needed).

After further discussion we returned south and headed back to Dubois. Reaching Horse Creek Road, we again turned north and after twenty-five miles we found a beautiful campsite. Our campsite was perfect as it backed up to a beautiful full and fast-moving stream! Setting up our truck camper we got out our fly roads and walking down stream we begin to fish.

We both opted to use dry flies and at the first hole Renita set the hook on a nice fish! Carefully fighting it in I netted her fish and we took pictures of a nice Yellowstone Cutthroat trout. It was now my turn and after safely releasing her fish I made several casts before catching one myself. ( I am fighting the new blog program and I do not want this blue or underlined)

We continued fishing and catching more cuts and even a nice brown trout. Brown trout can be kept here but all cuts must be released, (brown trout and brook trout are not native here). As we fished, we saw that dark storm clouds were nearing and so we went back to our campsite. It was not long before it started to rain, I had just told Renita it probably would not, so of course it rained hard and the heavy rain changed to hail!

It hailed so hard that the ground and our chairs were covered by hail and it alternated with rain for the next two hours. Our campsite was at the mouth of a slot canyon and we kept a sharp eye on the water level as the possibility of a flash flood always exists in mountain valleys.

While the stream level did rise, it never did threaten our spot and so we finally were able to cook a quick dinner of hot dogs. We had both brought books to read and it was a good thing as there was no internet, television, or phone service, (We spent three days without such staples, and it was wonderful!

Covid nineteen ceased to exist! The only person we had to avoid was the campground host. He stayed away. That evening we made plans to drive up to Wiggins Fork and the Frontier Creek confluence. It would be the first time we had ever been there, and we would be surrounded by the Absaroka Mountains. Clear skies