...this morning Al officially declared the Big Hole River trout fishing DIW. Hard to argue given it snowed all day Saturday and since Friday the high temperature in this neck of woods has yet to reach double digits even though both Saturday and Sunday the weather gurus promised highs in the low 20s. Sorry not on my porch anyway. Three mornings in a row now bottomed out below zero, -10 Saturday, -8 Sunday and -4 this morning. OK, for southwest Montana such readings are no big deal and far from what Old Man Winter is capable of dishing out but...Single digit highs and that the wind is almost never still this time of year do make it damn chilly and while I don't know if the Big Hole is yet starting to ice over you can bet the farm should the forecasted lows for the next few days--negative 20 something in town Wednesday who the hell wants to know what up Wisdom way--the ice gods will damn sure be wearing a big grin anways.
Signs of winter have been around for awhile now, most days barely reaching the freezing mark, snow piling up almost daily in the mountains, rumors of big elk herds migrating down from the high country (near Lima several road closings in the past few days to protect one big herd from yet another potential slaughter (hooray, tis about time, eh?) otherwise. Ducks and geese abandoning now frozen over potholes and showing up in great numbers wherrever open water exists by the thousands. Up near Stevensville at the Lee Metcalf NWR thousands of geese showed up the other day to say nothing of the many thousands ducks accompanying the big migration and on and on...
For my dogs sake and OK for our sanity I hope the Ol' Boy reconsiders at least long enough for us to make a few more swings before heading south. As come mid-December we plan to head to southwest Idaho, then on to Nevada, Death Valley and eventually to chase quail about the deserts of Arizona. And yes, winter-like or not, we can still, no doubt will still hunt but...Well you know, wimpy geezers and all, what can I say.
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