Color Pan From The Nest 30Sep19

We seem 10 days later as to full fall colors on the aspen and cottonwoods but out in Summit Co we are now in full swing. The high winds are really knocking it down quickly but it is beautiful and comfortable fall weather. Here's a color pan toward Copper Man from the Nest.

Leaf Peepin' In The Gore With Nehls 27Sep19-29Sep19

Carl & Gail Nehls visited the Nest for a WE of leaf peeping and partying. On Friday eve I prepared shrimp Fra Diavlo leaving most of the shells & tails on... whoops - it tasted great but we had to fight the food. We enjoyed introducing them to Code Names where Carl & I won the evening. Great game. ON Sat we headed out to Rock Ck TH in the Gore and hiked out toward Boulder Lk in the Eagles Nest Wild. We caught some great colors but ultimately hiked above most of the aspen so returned early for lunch at Baker's and a hike around the lake. I did challenge "Wingspan" Nehls to navigate a big aspen we encountered and he did.

We dined at our fav spot Aurum in Breck that evening and then brewery-hopped our way home. In so doing we attended LostOberFest at Broken Compass where we drank, listened to tunes, and "nailed it," amongst other fun.

Before we said goodbye, Kala took the team out into the backyard for more color. It wasn't full prep for Carl's trek in Nepal but it was fun and gorgeous. Till next time old friends.

PT Too Warm On Pizza Night But Golf & Tacos - Yeah 24Sep19-25Sep25

I hit the PT late on Tue given my stint in El Paso Co. The flows looked OK at ~400cfs and the daytime temp forecast at mid-70s. Neither told a sufficient story - I caught a number of smallish fish (no worthy pics) but viz was 6" and the water temp was hot - big fish were laying' low. I was the only one out there for a reason. Meh. The only redeeming aspect was that we were both in town for pizza night and to finish season 3 of GLOW. Yeah, low bar.

We followed up with a nice golf outing at King's Deer. Sure we could not hit the broad side of a barn but it was a nice day. I tried two drivers, neither of which worked, to replace my T7 being held hostage in the DTC. Kala & I hit the Brass Tap after though and the Korean pork tacos and brews were very good. Very fine outing with my lady.

Beyond Papilla, Beyond Dank & Beyond Alt-Punk 21Sep19

Papilla are the bumps on your tongue. You have fewer over time so strawberries are replaced by brussels sprouts as fav food. Fewer papilla mean more bitter foods  taste fine, even great. Hops in beer often creates some bitterness... but what can science tell us about how bitter? IBUs (International Bitterness Units) are one measure of how bitter a beers is... lagers may be 10 and IPAs 40, some much higher. This has all been reviewed prior; how do we know which hops though might contribute which flavors and levels of bitterness. The wait is over... such a great chart (who loves data viz?)... look for DDH brews to grab the most of the wicked weed (hops that is - when in ~1540 or so Henry VIII disdained the beer additive and differentiated his house's brew from Germans with underuse).

Some know I like La Cumbre brewery in NNMx. I stopped there prior and enjoy Project Dank from this brewer every spring & fall. Dank is an excellent dank experimental IPA which is rarely available, especially in COS. I bought all Coaltrain had on its release... so it is even rarer for others. Recently La Cumbre added Woodland Paradise (WCIPA) and Sun Fade (NEIPA) - all in pints. All are very good. ABV and IBUs are not marked on cans so who knows - others indicate the hazy is 6.5%/40IBUs and the west coast is 7.1%/65IBUs so as expected; Dank is 7.5%/100IBUs I think... so good.

Plus there's an Australian Alt-Punk lady workin' her way through to me... keen adopted cover versions, bel canto singing, great 1st offer (2017 - "I Love You Like A Brother"), and some angry songrwriting. Meet Alex Lahey if you haven't. For the uninitiated... beware  she's addicting but's been protected as an AUS multi-instrumental national treasure so not so exposed yet in the US.

Alex Lahey Covering My Chemical Romance

Alex Lahey "I Haven't Been Taking Care Of Myself"

Alex Lahey & Band Cover "Torn"

Alex Lahey "Don't Be So Hard On Yourself"

Alex Lahey "Everytyhing's A Weekend"

Romping In the RNMP 17Sep19-19Sep19

Kala & I camped again in Moraine Pk among the bugling elk rut. We were fortunate to have been joined for part of the outing by Jim & Mary and Tom & Leslie. Tuesday we caught the rut with the most chill big bull we've ever encountered. He and his harem were just lazing' in the tall grass for hours - nearish bulls never came to mess with this boy. On Wed we hiked out of Bear Lk to Loch Lk and then to Mill Lk (don't ask). Jim and I caught nice rainbows in Mill Lk and I hooked some fish hiking down Glacier Creek. Jim & Mary stayed for and made us a nice camp dinner joined by a fine BdEdgar Tempranillo. Thu Kala and I fished the Moraine, did some elk watching and headed into town for a nice lunch at Wapiti and cell phone coverage. Great several days in the park.

K2 Visit CO 13Sep19-15Sep19

Karla & Kevin Norsworthy visited us in CO for several days at the tail end of a trip Karla & Kala took to KS. We packed in a number of things like checking the Westfax Brewery, visiting with Matt & Alexa @ Casa Bonita and New Image Brewing, sailing Dillon Rez, partaking of the ABay Oktoberfest with bad polka tunes, hitting Sauce on the Blue and Aurum, checking out the awesome Leadville Natl Mining Museum, and checking fantasy football scoring.

Fall CoWW Outing To The Gunny Basin 06Sep19-11Sep19

Our entire trip was excellent. From the chalk-ladden Arkansas to Kokanee salmon from the Guardrail Hole to trouncing around the East & seeing the Roaring Judy operations to high waters on the Gunnison to the gr8 day on the Lake Fork to fishing the Taylor, all with a bunch of good friends, good meals and good beers, it was a blast. Here's the blow by blow in reverse chronology.

Testing The Taylor C&R 11Sep19
After coffee and breakfast we packed up camp for ride over Cottonwood Pass and onto Colo Spgs. Along the way we stopped below the Taylor dam to fish the (in)famous Taylor Catch & Release section. It got a bit windy with a new cold front but we saw plenty of fish in this special tailwater. Jim had one on and I hooked four but only landed the 10", 12", and 5" rainbows... the pig I had on ran like a deamon downstream and ultimately shook broke my rig off somehow. Grrr. I tried a mole fly and a CDC PMD during the hatches but I got no takers - all my fish were subsurface on the RS2 or purple manhattan midge. No worthy fish pics - just these handsome fishermen.

GR8 Day On The Lake Fork 10Sep19
Yoho and I took the longer trek out the Seay easement section of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison. It was another gorgeous day with little chance of rain or even clouds. While this section is only .5 mile long, it has some fine water, nice fish and it fishes well as a result of the lower pressure due the remoteness, the climb down, and it's size. We saw no one else on the river and had a very successful day catching a number of browns and rainbows on fall baetis as well as top water chubbies. I caught a very nice 18" rainbow and Jim nabbed some stellar browns. We celebrated at High Alpine and grabbed the selfie overlooking the excellent Tributary coffee shop where we often started our days of fishing.

The East Was Vacant 09Sep19
Monday morning we headed to the East River to catch some more running Salmon... part of the river is closed due to the run but some salmon typically have run past the netting and get "holed up" a little beyond the hatchery. Not this time - we trudged miles through the river and willows and ultimately concluded that the hatchery ops this year got almost all the salmon for milking as we saw nothing. We did wander through the hatchery and saw the holding ponds full of salmon. We moved on back to the Guardrail Hole for more browns and salmon before the team separated to head home or to the C&R - or back to camp for Yoho and me. Jim & I fished the lower Taylor briefly on our way back - I caught a few but wading conditions were tough. At Rosy Lane we enjoyed a fine meal and a number of good IPA bombers Jim brought along.

Gunnison River @ Curecanti 08Sep19
We opted for the Neversink and Copper Ranch sections of the Gunnison River on Sunday. Rain was forecast for the afternoon so we packed heavy for the treks around these areas. Water is still running high, mainly from the Taylor, on the Gunnison and wading was a bit tough. We did not have an epic day but caught fish on the surface with chubbies and underneath on golden stones and smaller fall baetis. I caught my first splake in the Gunnison's inner channel! Another great outing in this excellent river basin. We enjoyed beers and brats in the rain before moving down to Copper Ranch. Fishing was a little better there and everyone made it out to the main river channel. Ultimately we dined at the Ole Miner sports bar where some NFL games were on TV and we had very good cheesesteaks.

Salmon Galore 07Sep19
After dropping the camper @ Rosy Lane CG I headed back to the Guardrail Hole of the Gunnison just south of Almont to join the CoWW team. We had a 6-man group and basically took over the hole for the day and had a blast catching a bunch of Kokanee salmon running upstream to the East River from Blue Mesa Rez. We were doing serious shoulder to shoulder combat fishing requiring synchronized roll casting. The man in position "A" typically did best, and that was Matt "The Guide" DeBalski most often - 'cause who'd tell him to move on, till the sun shifted late and Yoho started landing nice fish from the top of the hole. Red/orange anything worked but salmon eggs off heavily weighted line worked best most of the day. What a blast these ill-fated strong fighters are - we caught a bunch like these yet only one lady among them for me. Nick and I managed some browns too. I swam, twice. Greg & Daryle cooked under my canopy at lunch and enjoyed respite from the sun. We ultimately went for more pizza at High Alpine Brewery.

Chalky Arky 06Sep19
Jim and I set out for Greg's Poncha Palace Friday morning but fished Rincon and Chaffe Co line of the Arkansas on the way out SR 50. The river was mostly muddy from rain the night prior and this challenge was exacerbated by a remote storm up Chalk Ck which turned the river chalky white. I managed a brown before we left to dine at Amica's. We all gathered at Greg's for corn bag tourney and brews that night. He also presented me with a keen Colorado cutthroat sticker which now adorns the camper.