Alone In Grizzly Bear Country Poem by Kim Barney

Camp Loll is a boy scout camp located in Wyoming, one mile south of the Yellowstone Park boundary and four miles north of Grand Teton National Park. Its location on the one and one-half mile long Lake of the Woods is one of the most beautiful in the American wilderness.
Years ago, as an adult leader, I spent about a week at Camp Loll with one (or both?) of my sons.
One day, a hike was planned to Union Falls, a distance of eight miles each way, or a total of 16 miles. In doing so, we would be crossing over the boundary into Yellowstone National Park.
I took a fishing pole along, and I was the only person who did. Since I did not plan on keeping any fish, I took a pair of pliers and mashed the barbs down on one of my spinners, so that the fish could be released more easily.
Every little stream that we crossed yielded one or two fish, mostly beautiful brook trout or cutthroat trout.
Just before we got to the falls we came to a lovely pool where two streams joined together. I thought that looked like the perfect place to fish, but in order to get my spinner in the right spot, I had to wade out into the stream a little way.
The water was freezing cold, but it was worth it. I caught 22 fish in that one hole, making my total of 36 fish caught and released that day.
I quit fishing and hiked the rest of the way up to the falls, where I discovered that there was a stream of HOT water. It was not too hot to stand in, but it was too hot for fish to live. THEN I realized that this was the same stream that had joined the other down below, and that I could have been standing in hot water instead of freezing cold water, and still fished that same pool!
My legs started hurting badly from standing in the cold water for so long. Little did I know that I would soon be diagnosed with osteoarthritis.
The troop headed back to camp, but my legs hurt too badly to keep up. Soon I had lagged far behind.
I got to thinking about how here I was all alone in grizzly bear country, and I probably smelled like a fish!
After a while, I saw a person approaching, dressed all in green and wearing a backpack.
I don't know how it is today, but back in those days you needed a permit to fish in Yellowstone Park. The permit cost nothing, but you had to stop at a ranger station or other park building and get a permit before you could fish.
We had not passed any ranger stations on the way into the park.
When he got close enough, I asked him if he was a park ranger, and he replied affirmatively.
I said 'Would you happen to have a fishing permit in your backpack? '
He said, 'Why, I believe I do! '
After he had handed me the permit, he mentioned, 'You know, it's catch and release only in here.'
I said, 'I know. I've already caught and released 36 of 'em.'
His face showed his astonishment as he exclaimed: 'Oh! '
Then I added, 'But I feel a lot better now that I have a permit! '
He had a good laugh at that and did not issue a citation.