Dreamcatchers: Western Adventures

-Wind River Range 2011

We had anxiously planned a trip to Glacier National Park this summer, to do a bit of backpacking and fishing. Those plans were thwarted by the incompetent permit system in place there. After getting our intial trail rejected we turned out sites to a different area. A vast wilderness with no roads, was waiting to be explored. It may be impossible to see all the sites the Wind River Range has to offer in a lifetime, but we had 5 days to make to the most of our first trip. We had read and heard of massive golden trout stocked long ago, being caught in numerous lakes. We figured to maybe hit one or two of these lakes on our hike, in hopes to natch a trophy for our trip. Since we had a dual purpose mission we were also set to see some of the more beautiful sites the range has to offer. As often happens, things did not go as planned. Only one day were we actually able to do what we had planned from the beginning. A series of problems arose such as complications with altitude sickness, eye infections, etc that caused us to turn away from some of the places we had intended to visit. But with each problem a new opportunity arose to fish for things we might not have anticipated when we journyed off. We settled in on two lakes that had golden trout in them, and were not very fortunate. Mike and David both ended up catching a couple goldens a piece but that was it for the trip. Where we would find our luck was in the cutthroat department. With our plans to fish a couple of golden lakes changed, we now had the opportunity to fish some nice cutthroat waters. We had great luck, thanks to Mike ordering us a number of scuds that proved dynamite in the apline lakes. Danny nabbed the beast for this trip early one morning. A good fish, I think could have been a golden cutthroat hybrid. David and Mike both lost BIG fish fishing in the outlet streams of various lakes. It was an incredible trip, with unbelievable lake fishing. One day we hope to make it back up to a certain lake we only got an hour to fish at. But in that hour I saw many golden trout over 20 inches. This trip will have to wait though. It is hard to capture the incredible sites you see with photgraphy but I did my best. Below is a mix of pics and video from our trip...til next time

-Dreamcatchers

Freemont Lake