Shell Shocked

 

The plan was to take my day off and do as much work as I could on the house. I started early hanging blinds, mounting hand rails, and donating fixtures to the Habitat For Humanity Restore. I was on a roll and about to dive into hanging the closet doors for the master bedroom when the phone rang. It was the Trout Shop calling to see if I could do an evening float with a guy coming down from Great Falls.

 

At 3:30 in the afternoon, I felt good about the progress I made on the house and figured I'd saved myself a thousand bucks or more plus, I'd now be making a few extra hundred dollars. I also thought of saying know and risking the possibility of falling off the shop's radar so I cleaned up all the paint and tools, grabbed a few snacks and jumped in the truck to head up to the river.

 

The fishing was decent and the client was a really good guy so I was definitely feeling good about the decision, all be it, extremely tired. We pulled out just after sundown, which made the fishing a little tough because you couldn't see the flies. The beavers were out as well and they can really scare the crap out of you when you're so fixed on a fly floating on the water that you don't see them until you're literally 3 feet away and they slap their tails...first big scare of the night.

 

We headed back to Craig as it was getting really dark and were on the road for just a few minutes when I noticed a truck coming fast from behind us. I looked over my left shoulder to see where he was and then brought my view back in front and as I did, I caught a glimpse of the deer's head just inches from the corner of my windshield on the passenger's side.

 

"Thump!"

 

And, "Oh shit!" from my client was all I heard and the truck jumped up and then the trailer and boat bounced off the road and swung a little back and forth.

 

It happened so fast I didn't have time to react and we kept rolling down the road without slowing down. The truck felt fine and I didn't notice anything different with how the trail felt but I figured I'd better pull over and check things out before going on. I was thinking worst. It sounded like the deer went right down the side of the truck and then rolled under they trailer. 

 

 

What you see in the picture is literally all the damage done to either my trailer or my truck with the exception of maybe the plastic mud-flap/fender being cracked. I'm going to have my alignment checked as well but all in all, came out pretty much unscathed. I can't say the same for the deer. I fished he same stretch the next day and noticed a crew cleaning up the mess. All I saw was a huge blood smear on the pavement. I don't think it felt any pain.

 

Keep 'em where they live...