Hawgwild Fly Fishing

So the other night I got an email from my brother.  I was pretty surprised actually, because I knew they were on their honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies, and I expected no communication until they were back in the real world.  Nathan and I had actually honeymooned in the same place, 5 years ago, and I knew that it was remote and wifi-less, and blissfully free of the distractions of home.  So the email was a surprise!

The title:

We picked up the brochure for fly fishing.....

And the content of the email:

Yes, those are Nate and my smiling faces in a fly fishing brochure for "Hawgwild Fly Fishing" in Banff, AB.  HA!!  First of all, Nathan and I had no idea that our photos were being used in this brochure.  Secondly, can you imagine Jeff and Rebecca's shock when they opened this random brochure and there was their sister and brother-in-law?  I am dying!  What a small world we live in.

Once I got over the complete hysterical-ness (is that a word?) of this coincidence, I started thinking about our own honeymoon and how much FUN it was!  I haven't relived those memories in a long time, so I dug up my old photos, and I spent some time remembering the day that we spent fly fishing on the mighty Bow River, near Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Big Jim Dykstra picked us up in downtown Banff, and we rode in his beat up old pick-up truck to pick up a bunch of yummy pastries at a little shop nearby.  He was so proud to tell us to pick whatever we wanted!  And they did turn out to be delicious.  We got our roadmap for the day while we sat having breakfast and coffee, and learned that we would be hiking to a few "sweet spots" along the river, and both fly fishing and regular lure fishing, depending the type of water.  This was all complete gibberish to me, but the weather was fantastic, the views even better, and I was game!  We got our waders and gear, and off we went!

I remember lugging fishing poles, and coolers, and tackle boxes through thick trees and tall grasses, all the while yelling "here bear, here bear!", to try to warn any grizzlies of our presence before we stumbled upon them.  Um, scary!  Big Jim was the King of story-telling, and we heard all sorts of tales of bears and moose, and other interlopers on the fishing scene.  Alas, we saw no dangerous wild-life, Thank God!  We had an encounter later on the trip with a black bear, and that was enough to cure me for life of hiking solo in the Canadian Rockies, thank you very much.

Anyway, we spent the most luxurious day just basking in the sun, casting our poles into the crystal clear waters of the Bow River, with the golden larches lining the shoreline, and the majesty of the soaring peaks of the Canadian Rockies surrounding us.  It truly did feel magical, and I loved watching my new husband enjoy a day of fly fishing, one of his passions, along one of the most famous stretches of river in the world for that sport.  

  

I feel like, even though I've only been there once, that a part of my heart will forever be in the Canadian Rockies.  Pieces of it can be found in a canoe on Moraine Lake, in a tea house at Lake Agnes, along the steep hiking trails of Lake O'Hara, and on a balcony over-looking the perfect gemstone waters of Emerald Lake.  And of course in the flowing waters of the Bow River, where I went fly-fishing, and unknowingly become the spokesperson for "Hawgwild Fly Fishing" :)