The Blackfoot River---Norman Mclean

“Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise." Norman Mclean A River Runs through It

In our travels this fall we could not but help visit the Blackfoot River of Mclean's past. It is in the north, away from the eyes of most, wondering through sheep and cattle country not that far from where they danced at the Rascal Fair. There are few towns, and Missoula is distant by Wisconsin standards.

We travelled along a dusty dirt road to a place we later learned was one of Mclean's favorites, and to a spot that might have been used to shoot the film. As the miles passed, we could see glimpses of the rock-filled river and recall the stunning scenes in the film.

It was, in the film, as if the place was untouched, filled with fish and unencumbered with the trappings of man. Of course, that was not true even in Mcleans time because the area had been timbered, ranched and mined to near exhaustion even in 1920s but there may have been enclaves. Still, for us it was a romantic spot filled with visions of another time.

We pulled of into an official access point and hiked down to the river---this spot certainly looked like the spot where his brother was found naked with the hussy, but then I have a good imagination---for naked women you say. No, for fishing water---with naked women.

I wadded into the stream and cast with great grace every imaginable fly I could think of and to my surprise never raised a single fish. I was as if they were gone, departed, disappointed, to some other section maybe where there had not been so many fisherman dreaming of Norman. For some reason I never took a picture at all. Was it that a simple over site or a act of sadness?

The picture is the Rogue River in Oregon. They are similar---in too many ways.