This report comes from the site of it all, and what a sight it is: Moose wandering up and down Rock Creek, whitetail deer in even greater abundance than last year, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep ewes with their new born lambs grazing at the 8 mile mark of Rock Creek Road, chipmunks galore, birds of all feather and, coming up the road last evening, a white tip tailed fox stuck his nose into our headlights before thinking the better of it and scurrying for roadside cover.
Two weeks to the day from the long expected and much anticipated arrival of the valiant and notorious warriors of Group One, I am here in the early morning hours looking out my MT office window as the sun graces the fully tree laden mountains outside--mountains that two nights ago were further graced with snow, as, yes, on June 5th we had yet another snow storm here in God's backyard. As is want with me, the graceful dancing of John Denver's words play overhead, singing, as they did in my last message to those of Extravaganza 2006, of "Eagles and Horses" and of "Montana Skies". The spirit of this wonderful place is fully captured in his music and lyrics.
Kathy arrived here safely late Wednesday afternoon after, literally, fighting all the 18 driving hours here through violent winds, torrential rains and, coming over the passes into MT, through mountains of snow and ice that made the trek seem more winterish than the summer trek that it was. Trusty cocker spaniel Sir, our Montana mascot, arrived safely as well and now rests on the carpet beside me, preferring the warmer inside to the now 38 degrees outside. It happens each year to all three of us (Kathy, Sir and me, that be): Upon arriving here in Montana, each time without fail, our steps get livelier, our smiles gets broader and our perspectives on life and all that this good Earth has to offer of widen. It is life's balm, and we look forward to being balmy with you in the quickly approaching weeks ahead.
On the rivers front, three years ago our groups would just be arriving to fish Rock Creek; two years ago, we shifted over to the larger rivers to go after larger fish. Our decision was a good one, for, if Group One were to arrive today, as reflected in the attached updated flow chart, they would not be fishing as, with one of the wettest Junes ever (over 40 inches of rain in some places) the rivers are still running high and are so cloudy that all drifts on Rock Creek were cancelled yesterday and, most likely, will be so through out the weekend, at least until our barometer river, Rock Creek, subsides from it current 2200 cfs to under 1500 cfs. This is FANTASTIC news for those of you in Groups One and Two, as, by all counts, all rivers (perhaps with the exception of the Blackfoot) will have just opened up before your arrival(s), with hungry undernourished fish anxiously awaiting your offerings.
Of Fire & Brimstone, the primary purposes of my early trip here were to make appearances before the Missoula County Commissioners on Wednesday (to oppose the proposed 36 unit subdivision at the foot of Rock Creek) and, last evening, before the Granite County Planning Board (to oppose the ludicrous 2 hookup rv park proposed on the property between ours and the Blue Damsel). Needless to say, "fire and brimstone" were the order of each day, as my fervent feelings on both subjects were verbally expressed to the best of my ability. It is not nice to mess around with Rock Creek Ron.
Well, mid-message to you, we had a power surge here in the wilds of Montana and this message is being completed from Kathy's computer in the main house, with my office computer now a possible doorstop candidate. No worries...belts and suspenders, multiple fishing rods and fishing reels, more than one hat and shirt and many layered clothing are the order of the Montana days. As to the evenings, it was absolutely stunning driving home from county seat Philipsburg around 11:00 p.m. last evening, as it was just then getting fully dark as the moon's reflection on the snow covered Pintar Mountains was truly a sight to behold.
And to so behold each of you will in the now not too distant future. In the intervening weeks, make some space in your mental hard drives for the intake of an overload of visual images that, now like my MT office computer, will most likely lead to overload.
I am sending this email to you directly, so you can get the attached flow chart; also, you can pull it up on our Extravaganza 2007 blogsite @ http://montana2007blogsite.com/ which will be the direction of future emails to you with this connector link.
Best to all from the scene of it all!
Rock Creek Ron
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