Eagle Nest Lodge

6-9-07 HARDIN, MONTANA: We arrived in the late afternoon after two flights, Newark-to-Denver and Denver-to-Billings, and a car ride to Hardin on I-90 at the fish camp on the Big Horn River. It is rustic, but not old. Eight of the ten guests are in our party. Tomorrow is the first day of fly fishing for Jon and me, ever. We did have a lesson in casting out on the lawn. Everybody else seems to be an old hand. I’m counting on beginner’s luck.

Eastern Montana, despite its name, is the plains. The land is grassy and flat-to-rolling. Where there is any pitch to the terrain, river erosion has exposed sandstone beds.