The Whitehall Ledger - Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

With the otter attack fresh in my mind, I was a little leary when I made the decision to float the Madison in Three Forks to Headwaters on Sunday afternoon.

Granted, no one thinks something as out-of-the-blue as an otter attack will happen to them, especially after it just happened less than two weeks ago on a different river. We went, and we half-heartedly joked about it happening to us because "it would be our luck" and then...Moose. Not just one, not just two, but four in the course of a few hours' float trip.

Our first close encounter: we were getting stuck in the brush at the side of...