HEART LAKE, MONTANA (Ryan's 1st post)

Hey everyone! I finally have something worthy of posting on the family's blog. It only took 2 years but I'm pretty excited about this one. Friday afternoon Sam and I left with the scouts from our ward for an overnight backpacking trip. Even though Sam is still 11 the scoutmaster said to bring Sam since I was already going to be there. I thought it would be good for him also, because in August I am taking he and Noah on a longer backpacking trip into the Uintah Mountains with some of my friends from our old neighborhood in Farmington.

The trailhead to Heart Lake is about 80 miles from our house in the Scapegoat Wilderness area -good grizzly bear country. The trail to the lake is about 3.7 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain. A good hike to measure how Sam will do and also a good indicator of where his fat, out-of-shape father sits. We made it to the lake in about two hours, not bad for Sam's first trip carrying his own gear and our food. Because he was carrying all the food I nicknamed him "Bear Bait" for the trip. He thought that was pretty cool!

We set up camp with our new, cool (and expensive) NorthFace tent. (Ask Melanie what she thinks about the tent. I think it about ended our marriage. Thanks ladies for taking her on that expensive shopping trip to the outlet malls in Park City in June - I owe all of you dinner.) Unpacked our gear, ate a trail delicacy of freeze dried Chicken A-La-King w/ noodles, and then went fishing.

I was told, before we left, about the cutthroats in the lake but wasn't prepared for what I would catch. After about 10 minutes fishing with a fly rod and a yellow humpy I landed this nice 16" cutthroat, handed it to the boys (along with a sharp knife) to clean and get ready to cook.

I went back to where I caught the first one and within a few minutes landed a second one about the same size. I handed that one to Sam and fished for awhile longer. I have fly fished for years, mostly in small rivers and streams and hadn't caught anything of any real size. And I have never caught anything in a lake using a fly rod - so I was pretty excited. I was wet and really cold, but really excited. I fished Saturday morning too and caught a few more but the highlight of the trip was Sam catching his first fish - a beautiful 20" cutthroat.

He did it all on his own, fishing with a lure - casting, hooked it, landed it, and released it. He still is glowing with excitement - especially because it was bigger than what his dad caught. It doesn't matter to me (ok, maybe a little). I'm just hoping he's "hooked" and wants to fish more.

But what makes me more happy than seeing him catch a big fish was his attitude in comparison to some of the older scouts. Some of the boys broke camp first thing in the morning and kept asking (for hours) about when we were leaving. When I asked them what they would do if they were home, a few of them said "Play X-Box." What!?!?!?!?!?! Later Sam said to me, "Dad, I can't believe those guys would rather play X-Box than be here."

Thanks "Bear Bait"! You passed the test. Welcome to the club! Now we just need to convince your mother that we need that new, lightweight camp stove.

RJA