CoWW Fish the Ark, Camp Beneath the Sangres, Ride OWF and Enjoy Some Pump Action 30Sep16-02Oct16

The annual fall pilgrimage to upper Big Horn Sheep Canyon of the Arkansas River for some fishing and riding continued in style. On Fri I set up camp beneath the Sangre de Christos (left to right these ~13ers are Galena Peak, Mt Otto, Bushnell Pk & Twin Sisters North) among the fall aspens in Hayden Ck CG (no evidence of the fire near camp but there was some burned patches on the way up to the campground) while Wilks played golf in Salida - Yoho showed about 1:30pm. We shared a beer then headed upstream for some PM fishing at Rincon. I did fine and caught some decent browns on RS2s and rojo headed black zebra midges. We caught up with Wilks there and headed back to camp for excellent gumbo and pumpkin scones from MaryY - the food was great as was the guest "IPA" from 4 Noses - really an award winning imperial pumpkin ale called Pump Action. 

On Saturday we went further upstream and trundled down a cliff with Wilks outfitted. Yoho found a good hole which produced an opening rainbow for me and TWO brown trout for Tom (caught on trailing FBPT). We headed into Salida to have lunch at Amica's (super long wait and strangely only guest beers as they're moving the brewery to out on Rt 50 and didn't reopen yet). We returned sated to the Chaffe Co line CG area to fish and meet up with GL. Both done and we all caught some more browns and a high percentage of rainbows. Yoho got some good top water action. Back at camp around 7pm we prepared roasted chili & chix fajitas (though Tom ate gruel) and tossed back a few ales by Greg's fire. 

Sunday led us to pack up camp, have a nice breakfast of french toast and go fishing! We hit Lone Pine where the river was off color (presumably from Hayden Fire runoff) and none of us caught anything (big change from last year). We wrapped up there and drove up to the Oil Well Flats trail system above Canon City for a great mtn bike ride (7.5mi & 850ft elevation) through high desert. I snagged some cholla spines but else we had a blast climbing up and bombing down through the rocks ~ and enjoyed a great view with GL's leadership.

We capped the day (we thought) with a stop at Royal Gorge Brewery for dinner and to watch the Broncos wallop the Buccaneers. Yet, a funny thing happened as I climbed out of Canon City at 60mph ~ the wheel flew off the camper and we could not find it! We had one hell of a time getting the full size spare on since I lost five lug nuts in the process. The prison guards were spying on us through binoculars through the entire repair. I limped home with again just one lug by the end and spent today getting a wheel back on after finding and buying lug nuts and an appointment for new bearings, drums and studs in 10 days. Sheesh.