Silvertip Ranch 2019

FVTU Helps with Annual VSP Trip

Earlier this month FVTU Veterans Service Partnership Coordinators Jim and Jo Borowski, along with three other volunteer guide/companions, took five veterans and their spouses into Silvertip Ranch, north of Yellowstone National Park.  Located on the uppermost reaches of Slough Creek, Silvertip is a privately owned ranch built back in the 1920’s.  The owners have generously made the ranch available to the VSP every year since 2013.  The annual couples week gives veterans and their spouses an introduction to the therapeutic experience of fly fishing on one of the west’s most famous trout streams.

Access to Silvertip Ranch is via a two mile hike followed by a ten mile ride in horse drawn wagons.  Once settled in, the couples attend a “Fly Fishing 101” session where they learn the basics of fly casting.  Each subsequent day a couple is teamed with a volunteer guide/companion who works with them on knot tying, reading the water, insect identification, and fly selection, as well as other things related to the sport.  Couples hike to different stretches of Slough Creek each day and loaner gear is provided to each participant. The couples are challenged a little more every day in the hopes that by the end of the week they’ll feel self sufficient enough that they can continue fly fishing on their own when they get home.  Couples are chosen based on nominations received from local TU chapters.

Well off the grid, Silvertip Ranch provides an excellent environment in which to relax and take full advantage of the therapeutic and healing influence of time spent on a trout stream.  The quiet solitude and pastoral setting are perfect for helping to re-center oneself and focus on the positive things in life (like each other) and letting your problems drift away with the current.

TU VSP serves all veterans from all wars and being disabled or having an injury is not a requirement for participation in VSP programs.   This year’s Silvertip group had veterans ranging from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

Jim and Jo have over ten years of experience helping veterans to fly fish and were 2018 recipients of a TU Distinguished Service Award for their work with the VSP and other organizations dedicated to helping out veterans through fly fishing. This was their seventh trip into Silvertip.