Another school year in the books for this ol' teacher, more
specifically my last year as a teacher. It's time to put the lesson plans and
pencils in the trash, and replace them with a fly rod--FOR EVER! After a
lifetime in school, as either a student, or a teacher it's time to rock some
Alice Cooper, crank up the volume to "School's out forever," and
explore my next "Trout-law" adventure. Thank You Jeff Erikson
With the same vato loco brother James Tobler at my side, we hit
the Wyoming trail in search of a few more remote towns made famous by old west
out laws, and rivers within their proximity. On the northeastern edge of
Wyoming, just miles from Spearfish S.D Harry Longbough did a few years in the
state penitentiary for stealing a few horses. He spent a few years in prison,
but he ended up with a great nickname—“The Sundance Kid” A small spring fed
river slowly meanders through the town of Beulah not more than a 30 minute
drive from Sundance.
We decide to take the route through Lander, a cute little town
with an awesome little bar—the Lander bar, and amazing rivers, one of my
favorites the Little Po. From there up the 20 to Thermopolis then to Worland.
At the gateway to the lower section of the Big Horn mountain range is Ten
Sleep.
I haven’t heard of any famous outlaw activity going on in Ten
Sleep, so I can't actually count it as a “Trout-law” river, but all the info I
could gather about it, qualifies it as a true beauty. It did not
disappoint—what a stunning Wyoming gem. Late June and the river was still
flowing high, but come September it would not disappoint.
We fished the West Fork and I fell in love. The water ran clear,
with a large rock bottom, surrounded by pines. I cant get back to the Big Horn
range soon enough.
So many rivers in the area we just sampled, some we just got a
look at. With any luck it won’t be long until I get back to this part of the
country. The town of Ten Sleep is surrounded by rolling green hills and wrapped
in red cliff bluffs.
Tobler always plays the part of the navigator, because driving is more
suited for me, and he’s kind of a shitty driver. He found a dirt road that led to
Canyon Creek—I lost a couple really nice fish.
Sundance WY is every bit as cute as Ten Sleep, but outlaws
wouldn’t really call a town cute, now would they? But non-the less, it’s
cute. Sand Creek was just packed with
fish, even a few large sicker fish, some in the water and some who pulled into
camp after we did. As I approached the camp after fishing up river it looked
like a few pretty, young, girls blowing up little rafts. As I approached I
realized they weren’t very young, and they weren’t very pretty, but they were
blowing up rafts. Let's just say they
looked like they lived hard and fast. Not 10 minutes later a good ol’ boy
showed up just in time to hit on them, followed by a couple more jackasses to
rock their speaker and float the river as well.
It was time to retreat from Harry Longbough’s fabled namesake and head
for his out-law cave—between the area he was imprisoned and the canyon he hid
his rustled cattle with Butch and the gang, I choose Middle Powder hands down.
We booked it through an amazing rainfall in our iron house to steal a few precious
hours on one of the Cowboy states best rivers.
