East Bound and Down

Took a drive east with the intent to fish the stream the up a few miles then get out, catch the trail and hike the rest of the way to the lake. i got to the trail head at about 9am and there had to be over a 100 cars there, no exaggeration. the stream fished as expected with mostly 6-9 inch cutties with a few smaller and a few bigger ones in the mix. my biggest cuttie to hand was about 12-13 inches. i will take small fish all day if it takes me to the mountains. at whatever point i got out of the stream and hiked the trail the rest of the way to the lake. the lake was definately nothing to look at.it was just a lake in a field surrounded by trees. no mountian views on this one. kind of disappointing but thats ok cause the lake has some decent fish in it. i left the lake at 5:15 pm and with a couple of wildlife distractions on the way out it took me about an hour and a half to get the 4 miles out. by wildlife distractions i mean a couple of muley bucks chillin right off the trail and no paying me a whole lot of interest so i was able to grab my camera and get fairly close to them for some shots. after i was done playing with them, i was walking the trail, not paying attention until out of my peripherals i caught movement. it was a moose calf. obviously my first thought was oh shit, where is momma. i found her and she was defiantely checking me out. she was about 30 yards away from me. i slowly started to back up and tried to take a wide angle around them but of course the calf started walking in my direction. so i backed off again and luckily for me momma got away from the trail and ran to her calf. at this point to other hikers on their way out were held up with me for a few minutes until it was clear. i did see plenty of people hiking the trail while i was fishing the creek but nobody on the creek and only a few on the lake. most people mustve hiked further back into the wilderness. also while i was fishing the lake i had a nice bull moose wander in to cool off and get a drink.  only 7 1/2 miles logged but i sure felt it the next day.