Winter in Paradise Valley

I must be getting soft in my forties, because I no longer desire to fish when the fly line freezes to my rod’s guides on every other cast.  Sure, I used to.  But now I’d rather stoke the fire in my house, tie some flies, or go for a hike when winter is at its worst and the Yellowstone River looks like a highway on Ice Road Truckers.

Hiking during Montana’s winter is pretty awesome.  The human crowds are thin, and the rattle snakes and grizzlies are all sleeping.  My wife, Ruthann, and I have turned our hikes into a daily routine, where we try to hike somewhere each of the days we’re off work.  Most of the time, our hikes are just a few miles from our home in Paradise Valley.

I seldom carry a real camera on these hikes.  But the views are so pretty that I can’t even mess them up with my poor cell phone photos.

Sometimes you discover really cool things like this stone archway that made a neat shot.

The holidays are over.  And the fishing can only wait for so long under winter’s grip.  The first trout of 2016 need to be caught.  Dan caught some yesterday above the Yankee Jim canyon, so now I’m getting a little jealous.  (You can read about Dan’s day in our fishing reports under “First Casts).”

It’s supposed to be around 40 degrees tomorrow and a trip to Depuy’s Spring Creek, or the Yellowstone above the canyon, is definitely in my future.  The calendar says it’s 2016; a new fishing year is upon us.  It’s time to get started.