ESP Day 4 - Cuts & Brews On The Greybull River 20Jul19

Awesome day on the Greybull River. The drive is not for the faint of heart with 30 miles eastbound from Meeteetse through tons of No Trespassing WYO ranches on the river and oil fields on a rough road to finally to get to Natl Forest land. Given the S Fk of Shoshone is also barely accessible, and was flowing heavily, I chose to to hit the Greybull instead; it’s the 3rd primary rivershed to drain the Absaroka Range near Cody. It was high, but manageable - I could cross in spots - unlike the Shoshone. The Greybull contains only pure strain Yellowstone cutthroats - it has to be one of the best fisheries in the country for this… unadulterated unlike so many others; I am so happy I went. I caught 20 fish on a smallish chubby Chernobyl with a purple peacock herl price nymph and a rainbow warrior 2nd dropper (you can have 3 flies in WYO too). I fished the pockets and slack water all AM with my 4 weight Winston. Then about 1pm a serious stonefly hatch came off up here and I switched to #10 Madam X and Skwalla bugs, just dry, and slayed it for another hour+. I didn’t expect anybody in this remote area but there were 5 other guys or so - they might not have had the fun I was having, noticeably, and I provided my experiential input when asked. What a gr8 day but for the flat I had on the way back to civilization - I changed it in the heat and needed libations to quench - so I headed back into Cody.

Reaching cell service in Cody I noted that the nearest Discount Tire was 162 miles and 5 hours away. Resigned to riding spareless till closer, I committed to a brew tour of Cody micros. There are really only three: WYOld Brewing, Millhouse Pizza and Pat O’Hara. I hit them in that order but chatted up the locals to find the best wood-fired pizza joint. I was in luck as Nick at WYOld had a sister Hannah serving at Trailhead, the pizza joint. I started at WYOld (actually their tap house as the brewery is 50 miles east of Cody in Powell). I was really just tasting and WYOld was the best with a mango hazy IPA and a better red IPA, but these are not Melvin shall we say; I hit Millhouse next and tried a pale - meh, then I tasted a prickly pear IPA at Traihead (guest tap from Montana) and had a truly great margarita pizza; finally I hit the Pat O’Hara and tried another pale - fine but not exceptional. I struck up a conversation with a biker and his mate who returned to Cody after “being dragged to hell” in Clark Co as a kid. Good tour and Cody is a fun town with a Wild West show concerning a messy divorce but they need to work on their beer.