Hello families, one last time!
Well here we are at the end of the trip in what felt like an instant! The last of our guys have gotten on their flights, numbers have been exchanged, along with many heartfelt goodbyes.
Since you last heard from us, we took a day to leave Yellowstone and make the journey back to basecamp. Along the way, we broke up the drive with some great stops. First, we attempted to have lunch at the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring on the way, but the parking was impossible midday on a Friday in Yellowstone. Not all was lost though, as we drove by the boys were able to see many stunning thermal features produced by the super volcano that is Yellowstone National Park. Luckily, the Grand Prismatic was not the main event of the day. After that, we headed towards West Yellowstone, the town just outside the west entrance of the park. There, the boys were able to make some final tourist purchases in Yellowstone, and grab some snacks for the rest of the drive. After leaving West Yellowstone, we headed for what everyone was really excited about: Kelly Galloup's Slide Inn Fly Shop. For those of you who don't know, Kelly Galloup is a world-renowned fly tier and fly fisherman. Many of the most popular streamers fly fishermen use today were invented by Kelly, who innovated streamer fishing many decades ago. Now, he resides in Ennis where he owns a fly shop in town and another one right next to Quake Lake, which was formed by a massive landslide in the 1980s. The Slide Inn, being his original shop and on the way, was our next destination. After pulling into the lot, the boys practically ran into the shop where they were greeted by some of Kelly's guides. They were able to load up on flies, custom shirts (printed in house!) and various other fly fishing accessories. We probably spent more than an hour in there just looking around, talking to the employees, and enjoying the break from the driving. Finally, it was time to head to base camp, where the boys were excited to shower, do laundry, and spend the night playing ping pong, pool, and tying flies. After enjoying Gavin's great pork carnitas burritos, we did just that, along with another amazing game of ultimate frisbee! It was a wonderful way to relax after a long trip of being on the road. After many hours of the basecamp fun (and a little cleaning up and organizing after the trip) the boys headed to bed, many of them deciding to sleep under the stars instead of in the canvas tents.
The next day would be another one full of fun and relaxation after the amazing but tiring trip. We slept in and woke up for a hot breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and breakfast sausage. After devouring breakfast, we took some more showers, and played some more ping pong and pool while we waited for it to warm up a bit outside. Finally, we set off for an awesome day of floating down the Madison River on inner tubes. This time of year, the lower Madison River becomes too hot to fish. However, it becomes perfect for floating down on a hot Montana summer day. We arrived at the put in, filled up the tubes, and set out for our six mile float. The boys were able to kick back on the river, laugh a lot, and relax. Some guys even practiced their rowing skills on the guide raft, which was super fun to see. Maybe we have some future float guides on our hands…
Finally, we arrived to our campsite on the Madison River, conveniently located only 30 minutes from the Bozeman airport. Shortly thereafter, Will Lillard arrived with our banquet dinner: pizzas, salad (!), and root beer floats. The guys devoured everything and had a great time chatting with Will about everything from fishing spots to LeBron getting traded to the 76ers (this was news to us). Finally, we wrapped up the night tossing the frisbee and playing games of washers. Unlike the previous night, we had an early bedtime to get ready for our early airport day.
Now here we are — all of the boys have gotten picked up or are on their flights home. We really cannot say enough about how amazing this group of guys are. We constantly noticed how consistently helpful, kind, polite, and excited they were about getting to know each other and catching fish. We hope they had as much fun as we did on this trip, and we sincerely thank you parents for trusting us with them for these past two weeks. It really was a blast, and us guides were honored to show them how special Yellowstone National Park is. Hopefully we'll see them out on the water again sometime soon.
Thank you all again, tight lines boys!
Charlie, Gavin, and William
