Dearest 320 Guest RanchBlog Readers,

Today, Father’s Day 2021, has brought me to a happy state of nostalgia.  Isn’t that, after all, what days like Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are for?  As important as it is to live life looking forward, it is no less important to take a day like today to look back.  To think of all that dads do for us from the moment of our birth and onward from that moment.  To think of all the memories born within that same said time frame.  Memories like a day of fly fishing for the first time ever in Montana’s beautiful Big Sky country.

Even now, many years later, memories of that day upon the Gallatin River – a happy Sunday which my dad and I have since dubbed the Fly Fishing Father’s Day – are as fresh as the day we lived it.  Neither my dad nor I had ever been fly fishing before.  It was going to be a day of novelty and adventure; we had not a single doubt about that.  I remember it being a rather warm day.  Actually, it was on the brink of being a hot day.  However, the warmer weather was of no consequence by the time we stepped foot into the Gallatin’s shallows.  Then, by the time we waded into the river’s deeper waters, it was a glorious ten to fifteen degrees cooler.  Like jumping into a cold pool on the hottest of summer days.

It was never too cold out in the river.  Our waders kept us the perfect temperature throughout the entire afternoon.  And it must’ve been a generally perfect day to pick for fly fishing because the fish didn’t stop biting the entire time.  What my dad and I both loved most about standing submerged waist-deep in the Gallatin was the sound.  No white noise machine on Earth could replicate the sound of glacial waters flowing steadily along.  It’s a sound which hits the eardrum and causes the brain to register a sensation of absolute peace.  The world seems to noiselessly dissolve.  Thoughts of life or work or anything material simply vanish.  And it’s as if all of a sudden you remember what true tranquility feels and looks like.  Thinking back on it now, I realize that what I experienced that day, and what my dad more than likely experienced too, is one of those truly once in a lifetime kind of things.  And it’s not something that can be found or felt easily.  No…it takes really making the effort to really stop.  To really look around.  To really take a moment to remember that every second of every day – especially days like Father’s Day – is special if you let it be so.

At the end of the day, upon re-surfacing back onto the shores of the Gallatin River, we had caught nearly a dozen big and beautiful trout.  Talk about a reward for what was both a physically tough day and an extremely fun day.  For dinner, we savored our reward wholeheartedly.  A Father’s Day spent fishing for trout ended happily with tummies full of trout.  And trout-full tummies ended in smiles bigger than even Big Sky country itself.

Happy Father’s Day Everyone!

Sincerely, A Big Sky Writer Who Loves Her Dad & Who Loves To Fly Fish