Bear Paw Outfitters

I take no pleasure in writing negative reviews, but believe it’s necessary to do so in this case. I regularly travel to Montana where I go fly fishing and packing with family and friends. I have never had a negative experience with a professional guide or pack service – until now. This was, hands down, the very worst outfit I have ever dealt with. From the beginning, our guide and his staff were difficult: they were late in returning phone calls, and generally unhelpful (if not curt) when providing information. When I asked if they would furnish us with any fishing assistance, our guide announced, “I hate fishing.” It set the tone, and we should have canceled since it was a harbinger of things to come. On the day of our trip, our guide was late. When he finally showed up, he was generally terse and didn’t even introduce himself. (My girlfriend and I nicknamed him “untitled.”) He then began briefing us about our trip by first telling us how we better follow his instructions or we could, “end up in a courtroom.” Next, he discussed how women typically form poor riding habits, and has to often scold them. It was completely rude and unnecessary, and it had an effect on the overall tenor of the afternoon: our party was far more hushed than other pack trips that I’ve been on. What do you expect when you begin the day by barking at your clients? Our guide never engaged us; he didn’t have a single funny or friendly thing to say throughout the day, and was often talking on his cell phone. Not nice. And he rarely helped us as we were riding; there was no effort to provide breaks for those who needed them, he seldom adjusted saddles for clients (some of the riders were in extreme discomfort), and was again scolding people in our party in a way that was really uncalled for, etc. When we finally reached our destination at Slough Creek, we were ordered to return to saddle up in a few short hours. So, even though our guide was late, he was ultimately shortchanging us by cutting into our fishing time – the main purpose of our trip. There were other things that made this a negative, but no need to lump it on. The pack trip we had last year through a different outfitting company couldn’t have been more different. During that time we had a very kind, fun, and accommodating guide who made our pack/fishing trip one of the most wonderful, memorable experiences we ever had. This year’s trip with this outfitting crew sadly was not. It was a shame that we paid a very expensive fee for this kind of vacation experience. And it’s puzzling that this outfitter is still in business since they seemed so dour about their work (it’s packing in Yellowstone – this is not working in the salt mines, folks!). Rest assured, there are plenty of other outfitters to choose from…