Grizzly On My Old Stomping/Fishing Ground

Photo by Baylor Beers via Cowboy State Daily. This photo was taken at Togwotee Pass near the Continental Divide. 

IN MY MANY FORTUNATE DECADES living part-time, working and fly fishing on these rivers and high mountain streams, I have seen and encountered more grizzlies than I care to remember. Except for the extreme adrenaline rush that accompanies seeing these beasts up close, these sightings are mostly uneventful, thank God. Today, however, I have lost my taste for running into them at all, not wanting to push my luck. And grizzlies here have proliferated almost exponentially. So my occasional fishing near Togwotee is always with a man, preferably packing heat, who is careful and knows how to proceed in this willowy terrain. It is still one of my favorite places on earth!