Every year one of my favorite days is the first hint of fall that hits town. You know the kind. The first cool, overcast day after a long heat wave. The smell of rain is in the air. The smoke clears off and you can actually see the mountains again.
That day is today. As you can see from this somewhat blurry picture I took this morning, the low clouds on the mountains almost look like fall.
Here in Bozeman, it’s been in the high 80s or low 90s for what seems like months. Sure, for a couple weeks we would get the typical summer afternoon showers, but it was still hot and smoky. Everyone in town is looking forward to the end of summer. Anyone who lives and works in a tourist town will tell you, you reach a point where you just want it to end. True, in a college town the waves of out of staters never really stop, but still.
Fall is my personal favorite season of the year. The leaves turn beautiful colors, the big browns chase down streamers with abandon, the fall mayfly hatches are legendary. Add to all that the fact that it’s hunting season and you have heaven on earth. (Only two weeks and two days until upland game bird season begins!)
The weather in the fall is what really does it for me. After a long hot, smoky summer, the air turns crisp and chilly. You can dig through the closet and pull out your jackets and coats again. The cloudy, drizzly days are the best. The ones that most people would call miserable. I have many fond memories of swinging soft hackles on the Firehole with Dad in weather like that. For the record, Cup of Noodles does taste better when eaten by the riverside on those drizzly days. Try it sometime.
Fall is the reason I love it here. And the reason I came back. I know it’s still a long ways off, but after today it seems a lot closer than it did.
I better tie some soft hackles.
