Friday, April 3, 2009

Two Passions


Living in the mountains, I see the calender year as being divided into two seasons: summer and winter. We have virtually no spring to speak of, and the fall season goes so quickly that it is just a quick extension of summer, with great colors and cooler temps. What really defines the seasons here are the activities that we do. Summer means fly-fishing, and winter means skiing. There are days in the middle of the summer, while casting large dry flies to big trout, that my eyes wander to the mountains, and my mind wanders to thoughts of skiing. Conversely, while riding chairlifts and skiing here all winter long, my mind drifts towards fly-fishing. By this time of year, I am usually thinking only of the coming fishing season. Over the past two weeks, we have had three large spring storms come through here that have dumped an incredible amount of snow in the mountains. It's been some of the best powder skiing of the year this past week! (And there is nobody here right now). Our snowpack has received a very large spring boost, which is great news for the rivers. It looks like we'll be fishing some of our rivers a little later than I would have guessed even a month ago. We're leaving for Montana next week to fish the Big Hole...hopefully it warms up! It's interesting skiing powder all day, and coming home to organize trout flies for a trip only a week away! I think I enjoy planning and daydreaming about upcoming fishing trips as much as I enjoy the actual trip.

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