The best part of most of my fishing trips is in my head – checking out rivers and fishing resorts online, reading client reviews, talking to prospective guides. My optimism goes into high gear and I fall asleep some nights thinking of how great it’s going to be once I get there.
Whether or not the actual destination lives up to all the hype I gave it in my imagination, it is all part of the experience, and, if you do it right, getting there can be part of the enjoyment.
Driving to fly-fishing meccas in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, for instance can be a grind, especially if you try to do it in one day, but we’ve learned to take our time, plan at least one overnight stop midway, and download several interesting novels from Audible.com to entertain us along the way.
There’s not a lot see on Interstate 80 between Reno and Wells, Nevada, for instance, so a captivating Harry Bosch story by Michael Connelly keeps us awake and entertained. But, we’ve learned to add a stop in Elko or Twin Falls, Idaho, just to break up the trip. We’ve actually found some fairly good places to enjoy dinner in those towns.
We added the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho, as a stop on our most recent fishing adventure. We’d seen the museum signs on previous trips, but never took the time to stop. This time we did, and enjoyed it.
Not only did we learn a lot about the history of the potato and why it became so important in Idaho, we all learned that there is a Sonoma connection. The Russet potato that is the most common and popular variety today is really the “Russet Burbank Potato,” developed by Sonoma County’s own Luther Burbank in 1872, when he planted 23 seeds from an Early Rose parent pant. All produced tubers, but one was superior in yield and size. And the rest is history.
We absorbed lots of other fun facts about potatoes and then enjoyed lunch, baked potatoes with all the trimmings, in the museum cafe.
Further along in our fishing meander, after having spent several days fishing on the Henry’s Fork River in Idaho, we decided to take a side trip through Yellowstone National Park, on our way down to Jackson Hole, where we planned to fish the famous Snake River.
It has been many years since I visited Yellowstone and I’d forgotten how enormous and spread out it is. We were not too far past the West Yellowstone entrance when we saw that all traffic on the road ahead was completed stopped.
We sat there in our car for 15 to 20 minutes, assuming there was some kind of accident ahead. Then, the reason for the delay became clear – a small herd of bison was making its way past the halted cars and sashaying toward us, and occasionally stopping to much the grass by the side of the road. They passed so close to Dottie’s passenger side of the car, that she could have reached out and touched them.
Of course the geysers were in great form, and because Dottie had never seen it before, we pulled into the Old Faithful Geyser parking lot and joined several thousand other tourists to watch the steaming fountain gush into the sky almost as regular as clockwork.
Further south, our drive took us along the breathtaking Tetons and on into Jackson, where we had a lovely stay and enjoyed several excellent dinners. Fishing on the Snake River lived up to our expectations and I would gladly return for that reason alone. But I have to honestly say, getting there was half the fun.
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