On June 6th, 2021 I found myself fly fishing on the Missouri River outside of Craig, MT. Now, I don’t believe, nor have I asked, if they meant to set us up, but I received a call from my brother, Chase, that his fiancé and himself were going to be meeting one of his good friends for dinner in Craig that night. This friend was Payton Netz. Since Payton and Chase had been friends for many years, we had crossed paths on many occasions, but we never really knew each other. Well, funny enough, both Payton and I arrived at where we were going to eat dinner before Chase and Alli. Payton was unaware that I was going to be joining them that night. I saw her and attempted to wave at her, ya know, to be friendly, she quickly dropped her head and stormed off like she just saw a ghost, or a creep, or whatever.

Soon, Chase and Alli showed up and the 4 of us had a nice dinner with good conversation. It was one of those moments that ended up putting myself and Payton in a figurative rocket ship headed God knows where. Within the next week we began exchanging text messages, leading up to Chase and Alli’s wedding a month later. We agreed to be each other’s plus one to their wedding, as both of us were in their wedding. It was a hell of a weekend celebrating Chase and Alli, along with getting to know one another a little bit better.

On the 2 ½ hour drive home from the wedding, Payton asked me if we wanted to try “this”. Now, Payton was heading within the next month to San Luis Obispo, California to follow closely in her Father’s footsteps in being a Sales Rep for Jostens, while I was headed to NW Montana to be a hunting guide. Headed opposite directions in life, not to state the obvious making us exact 1,252 miles apart. Somehow, someway, through spending time together, and me getting well acquainted with her family at their annual 4th of July party, we came together and took a shot in the dark on each other. I don’t think either of us knew when we were officially dating, but I’m not much of a planner. Most of our communication for months was via text, with phone calls and facetime whenever we had time for it. In the first year we spent one week in California together in October, a couple weeks over Christmas in Montana, then the month of March in California.

When the spring bear guiding season ended in June 2022, we set out on just spending our summer together in Montana, we bought a raft and spent most of our days with our 2 dogs floating and fishing. I can’t speak for her, but that’s when I knew we were meant to be together. We balanced life apart for the better of a year, and then another year. As I write this we are about to embark on another 3 months apart (ya know, hunting season). Damn lucky to have someone who supports my “wild side”. If you know anything about me, you know there are two parts to my personality- I love to hunt and I tend to “fly by the seat of my pants”.

I ended up buying a ring for Payton in early December, 2022 because it sounded like a great idea. 5 months later it showed up and a few people were bound to get a short notice of what was happening. I’m thankful those “certain” people were willing to give me the green light, and on July 2, 2023, I asked Loop to marry me. I think I caught just about everyone with their pants down in that move, as I “fly by the seat of my pants”. Welcome to what you have to deal with the rest of your life Payton, hope you like surprises. Wouldn’t change it for the world.