Greetings from the Bob Marshall backcountry!!
We have spent the past couple of days in some of the most beautiful terrain one can find in Montana. The past two days we have stayed on the banks of the lower Sun River, preparing our gear, dialing in our fishing skills, and basking in the sun. The Bob Marshall Wilderness has a way of making you feel incredibly small and incredibly lucky at the same time, and this group has soaked every bit of it in. Despite some gnarly winds yesterday, the boys managed to find some beautiful fish in the lower Sun. Multiple rainbow trout and even an Arctic grayling were caught — a rare and special fish that had the whole group buzzing. After fishing, we made our way down river to a slower section and spent the rest of our day swimming in the frigid waters. After our swimming excursion, we made our way back to camp for some delicious burgers and a couple games of Mafia and ultimate frisbee before sleeping under the stars in the big sky.
Today we got up bright and early to finish up packing our packs and hit the trail. We are so proud of the boys and their performance today. The hike was quite hard and the sun quite hot, but rather than complaints, all we heard was the boys admiring the scenery and discussing which flies they'll fish later. There was a lot of trail to cover and a lot of elevation to gain, and this crew handled every bit of it with great attitudes and even better energy. It was truly amazing to see them persevere through the 8 miles with no complaints. We are now doing some hard-earned swimming and fishing in the North Fork of the Sun with backcountry burritos in our near future. Now that we have arrived at our backcountry site, we will treat it as a basecamp and do day trips to different sections of river. This gives us the opportunity to truly explore the North Fork and find the best fishing it has to offer.
It has been really amazing to see all these strangers become so close — it feels like we have all known each other for weeks, not days. The campfire conversations, the trail laughs, and the shared excitement over every fish brought to the net have added up to something really special. Thank you all for sending us amazing kids and we cannot wait for our next couple of days in the backcountry!
Until next time,
The Guides and the Guys
