At one of the monthly San Diego Fly Fishing club meetings that I used to go to, I saw a gentleman present about fly fishing around his home town of Pinedale, Wyoming. 2 things stick out in my memory about his presentation. 1) He was excited about the trout fishing. The Green river, its head waters, lakes and tributaries. 2) The town. He showed a picture of the town with 1 car on the main street and said this was rush hour. And, honestly, after being in SoCal for so long, and watching the San Diego traffic go from ehh to horrible, I’m not sure if I was more excited for the fishing, or the small town vibe. Either way, it’s on. Living my dream, and going wherever the hell I want. Next stop, Pinedale, Wyoming.
My new way of life, being nomadic, has no rules, but a few guidelines. Try not to be in extreme heat, because, yuk, and try to not be in cold weather because, yuk. Other than that, float on the wind and when I get bored, I will just move on. After a day, a week, a month, etc.. Although, staying in RV parks is cheaper the longer I stay. However, I wont let the $ issues keep me from being happy.
Unfortunately, my willy nilly lifestyle has a complication. I only get 4 or so days in Pinedale, as I booked a guided trip in Saratoga, Wyoming, for 5 days from the time I arrive in Pinedale. Saratoga is about 5-6 hours away, so a day trip wasn’t in the cards. My time was limited and I needed to make it count.
Leaving Green River was a little sad, but I was definitely excited for Pinedale. On the way to Pinedale I had to stop off in Rock Springs to ship some stuff and to get some documents notarized. A fun story is that a lady I called in Rock Springs, to get notary service, said she could help me. When I asked if there was space to park the RV, towing the truck, she said No, its downtown. We decided that she would come meet me at Walmart, as I needed some things from there anyway. I also asked her to bring me an old office box that holds paper reams so I could ship some stuff and she said OK. When I landed, I called her and told her where I was. In 10 minutes she showed up. We handled business and she gave me the box. Of course, we chatted a little bit and when we were done, I asked her what I owed her. She said to not worry about it. What? I pay $10-15 in cali when I drive to get notary service. Now this nice lady is gonna drive to me, bring me a box, give me notary service and say its complementary? Unbelievable. I tried to argue with her for a bit, but didn’t want to be rude. I finally just asked her for a hug then, she obliged and went on her way. WOW, Wyoming is starting out pretty great!
When I finally arrived to Pinedale, I drove through the cute little town, on the main street, just like that gentlemens pictures. But this time it was packed with cars. It was a Friday night, in Summer, and there was a fair going on in the main park with music, factory reps for outdoor equipment, and food. Im not sure if its like that most of the time in summer, or it was extra crowded for the fair thingy.
Either way, after stopping at the fly shop to get oriented, I made my way a half hour north to my campground at Warren Bridge, on the Green River. I recalled at some point that I have been wanting a new dog. I’ve been a little lonely on this great adventure without my Joey, and it was time to start looking. After I got Marge all set up, I called the Pinedale Animal Control to see if there was place I could look at dogs that are up for adoption. They told me they were closing soon, but I could come look at a Blue Heeler they have. She is 8 years old, somewhat overweight, and her human passed away on her. They were closing in a half hour, and I was a half hour away, but we arranged that I would come see the dog, as I was going to the fair to listen to music in the park that night.
When I got there, and met the dog “Spur”, she was a little chunky, but still spunky. I took her for a walk and got to know her a bit. I got to know the lady that runs the shelter and we decided that I would fish the next day as planned, but come see Spur again on Sunday. On Sunday, I decided to foster the dog for a few days. I was hoping to find a good fit, and if not, at least I would have taken the dog fishing a few days, and gave it some luv, which is better than what it gets in its cage each day. More to come on Spur in a bit. I gotta get back to talking about Pindale and fishing.
The music in the park that night was nice. The park was right on a creek, Pine Creek, with a nice large gazebo type thing for the bands that played. I pulled a lawn chair out of Farley and kicked back with a Moscow Mule and special grilled cheese sammich from a cool food truck. It was a nice time. I also found 3 people from the local chapter of Trout Unlimited and we talked each others ears off for a good while. They helped me decide where to go fishing the next morning. From Warren Bridge, I was gonna go up river, to “#12” and float back to the bridge, which is effectively “#0”. I came to find out that there is a dirt road that runs the Northwest side of the river and it has 12 designated day and camping sites. I would have to drive past all of them in order to be able to launch at the highest point on that road, #12. There is a much more trafficked road on the other side of the river, that goes all the way up to the mountains and Green River Lakes area where the road ends, and the Green river begins.
So the next morning I put in at #12. it was more deserty than I had expected, but so far its all been deserty, so be it. The river was wide in this area, it was flowing pretty good, but there wasn’t a lot of features. It was kind of frog water like, without rapids, rocks, trees, islands etc.. After floating for a bit some features started to show up. It took me about an hour to figure this river out. Not all good looking holes hold fish. Those holes that are well accessed from the northwest side of the river where that dirt road is are pretty fished out. I had to keep fishing the other side of the river. That’s where the fish are. I often pulled the boat over and walked the bank and shallows throwing dry flies in soft pockets around and behind rocks. Watching the big browns leave their deep holding spots to come up and eat my offering was pretty cool. I recall one drift I had, directly below me, I was peeling line off my reel to let the fly head down river to a holding spot above a few rocks. When the fly got down there, a big snout came up and inhaled my Adams fly. I waited a bit, as to not yank the fly out of the beasts mouth. When I came tight to her, I experienced something that I have never experienced. Right away, she ran away from me, down stream. No head shaking, no flopping, just gone. Normally, this isn’t a big deal, after all, this is why we spend so much $ on good fly reels. But, of course, my luck, and lack of great line control came to bite me. As she was peeling my excess line off the water, fast, the last of the excess line, before being tight on the reel, came up and wrapped itself on my reel handle. Of course, there is no drag when that happens, and just like that, she, and my Adams fly, were gone. My tourettes syndrome really came out to play after that. It took me a few moments to calm down, assess the situation and tie on a new fly.
Later I found myself fishing on the good back, across from 3 buddies who where on the dirt road side. I didn’t see any of them hook up, but I did see them get frustrated each time I pulled more butter (Brown trout) up from the depths. They figured out the deal pretty quickly and took off, prolly to find a place to cross the river, LOL.
The rest of the day was pretty great dry fly fishing. Nothing huge came to net, but a lot of great fish and non-stop action. I gotta say, today was a good day.
So back to the dog, Spur. It was Sunday and I picked her up, as a foster buddy for a few days. We immediately went exploring up to the Green River Lakes area. It is pretty remote up there, and the paved road turns to dirt about halfway up (an hour) from town. The Green River shows up on the left of the road as it turns to dirt. I stopped and discussed Wyoming’s Open carry laws and was told by the sheriff that Wyoming is pretty much the bees knees when it comes to carrying a weapon to protect yourself. “We want you to be able to defend yourself in the woods. As well, you can carry open, or closed, and loaded, in town, but be smart about it as not to scare people.” Nice. Utah isn’t so accommodating, and I felt more at ease as I was now in forest and bear land.
Shortly after, up the road just a bit, my anxiety got to me and I just had to pull over and fish, and see how Spur would do. She ran around, but would come when called so that was good. If cars or people came near, she would go running toward them, not barking, but excited. Not so good. The fishing was poor, but again, I found that I was on the side more fished and it made sense to not catch anything in spot #1.
We loaded up and ventured up the road more. Not sure how far I wanted to go, the more I drove, the more curious I got about getting to the lakes area. The weather was turning cold and a little drizzly as I was driving up the hill. I found another spot that looked nice, so we went to check it out. I found a few nice rainbows in this area, and then the hard rain started. Of course, I was in a T-Shirt. Spur and I huddled under a bush for a few minutes waiting for the storm to pass. It didn’t really pass, but it did let up a bit, so we headed back to Farley, away from the river, a more direct route. I was thankful for that, as while I was walking back, a large buck deer with a beautiful rack in velvet was coming from where my truck was, crossed the road, and went into the tree covered hill. Then, it appeared again, in a tiny deer sided opening. It paused, fully exposed, looking at me. That scene could not have been more perfect. I will never forget it, and poor you will never see it, as I didn’t have any of my camera stuff with me. Take my word for it, it was special.
We then ventured up the road further, finally to the lake. What beauty laid beyond that lake. Sheer cliffs and stormy clouds. I did get a picture of this, but as you know, sometime pictures don’t do justice to the beauty and feeling of being there. Wow.
When Spur was dont sightseeing we turned around and headed home to dry out and get some grub. That night was our first night together. She was a good inside dog, potty trained and all. But she was REALLY needy. She always had to be touching or laying on top of me somehow. I liked it mostly, as this is what I missed, but she was overly so, and it was a bit uncomfortable. Im pretty understanding of shelter dogs and the trauma and reactions to it. I gave her the benefit of the doubt, but had some time to really evaluate what I wanted from a dog.
The next morning our plan was to drop the boat into the river at the ramp across the street near the bridge. It is the same place I pulled out the previous night. Its a very steep, gravel ramp. I put the truck into 4 low, backed down, unloaded the boat, packed it up with all the fishing and days gear, and pulled the truck back up the hill. I parked the truck and tried to take it out of 4WD Low but the computer kept erroring out on me. I couldn’t let the shuttle driver move my truck in 4WD Low on the highway. I googled and called all the Chevy dealers around hoping they could tell me the secret handshake to get this thing fixed. Jackson and Rock Springs are both over an hour away and no way the truck would make it that far w/o destroying the transfer case. I tried a bunch of smart, and stupid ideas, but nothing would work. After giving in to the situation that my day is ruined, I called the shuttle service to cancel my shuttle. Then I called all of my roadside assistance services and they would all only take the truck about 10 miles, and I would have to pay up to $300 for towing it the rest of the way. Ugh. Eventually, I got someone at Chevy to agree to pick it up and get it to the closest dealer (Jackson, WY) under warranty, but the driver wouldnt be there for 1.5 hours. Now I had to get Chase loaded back up, get to the RV and figure out what to do with the dog. As noted earlier, I had to be in Saratoga the next day, so I could go fishing the following morning. Jackson is the opposite direction. Ugh. I called the dealership to ask them to do what they can to fix the truck in the morning, ASAP, but you know they are always so busy, that it may be a few days before they can get to it. Ugh… Not good.
Luckily a few people showed up and helped me load my boat onto Chase. It’s so much easier with a few people, especially on a steep hill. Then I called the lady from the pet shelter. She was SOOOO nice. She said that since my truck was gone, she would gladly come get the dog, as my life just got really complicated. When she arrived she was great. She asked if I needed her to run any other errands or anything. I told her she had already done enough, and I was very thankful, and sad about having to send Spur back.
I then had to break Chase down as I didnt want it up on top of Farley on the tow truck and in the shop. After a bit, the tow truck driver showed up and loaded Farley up. Bye Farley. At this point I was thinking I would just take Marge to Saratoga and come get Farley (6-7 hours away?) when he was fixed.
The next morning, just after 7am, while sleeping, I got a phone call. Farley was fixed. They just had to load new software to computer and all was good. OK, cool. I got Marge all packed up and headed North to get Farley. The repairs were not covered under warranty, as they were computer related, and that isn’t drivetrain. I tried to argue for a bit, but, honestly I was so happy I just let it go. $200 for the tow and fix seemed OK to me. I hooked Farley up to Marge and was on my way to Saratoga.
I obviously didn’t get enough time in Pinedale, and am very sad about it. I will be back Pinedale! Spur, good luck to you girl. You haunt my thoughts often. As a note, I don’t see her on the website any longer, so I will assume she is in a loving home.
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