Fishing The Arkansas River Headwaters 29Jul20

I hit the headwaters of the Arkansas River just south of Leadville and after the Twin Lks effluent joins the Ark. It's Hayden Meadows and it was pretty crowded with a dozen cars by just 9 am. The lot also serves the ponds/lakes in the area too though. I hiked downstream ~1/2mi and fished back to the car with flows @ 175cfs. The day seemed perfect but it was very windy, turning many people back. Plus, I forgot my rod vault key so had to assemble something from inside the car - I chose the GLoomis 7'9" 3wt but it was way too light to fire well into the wind (which was in my face the entire outing) as the wind was ripping down valley. Nonetheless, I made it work: I caught a half doz fish or so like this 15"er, but lost the biggest one after about 3 seconds "on." These browns were hitting the top fly, a peacock chubby #14, or the dropper squirmy ObiWan worm, but not the GRHE. I figured with recent rains the aquatic worms would be dislodged and my sense of it seemed to bear out. Very nice outing with Mt Elbert and Mt Massive overlooking my efforts. I left at noon given the wind and mounting storm threat.

What's In Your Backpack? 27Jul20

Given our recent trip I wanted to review contents of my 45# (yea - too much, but it was only a ~2 mile climb) backpack. I made a spreadsheet to do the in/out tradeoffs among items to carry and for this trip we were largely "solo" and didn't share tents or gear so I was on the heavy side of normal. First is my food with cook kit & extra gas and the bear canister (a freaking 2# adder!)...

Next up are my clothes (including a poly puff, raincoat & rainpants) and most vital fishing gear. I actually took two setups into RMNP, a full 5 wt rod & reel and a tenkara kit, and a butt pack filled with fishing stuff (ultimately I left the net behind, but could've used it at Thunder Lk)...

Here's the 2# Nemo tent, loved it, mattress pad, pillow, and my luxury 13oz Helinox chair, loved it too. I used a 1# Enlightened Equipment sleeping blanket rather than a full sleeping bag - the weather allowed it and it packs down to about the size a a pint of beer...

I used 2.2# hikers on the trails and crocs @ camp and always had toiletries, TP and trowel handy...

Some heavier stuff included my 1# pack-in-a-pack (actually my winter ski mountaineering one) for roaming from camp with hydration and extra clothes, a largish medical kit (Kala & I are now trained wilderness 1st responders), a knee brace, an emergency blanket/shelter, and an extensive repair kit including headlamp, camera and swiss army knife.

Finally I carried a 3 day USB charger battery for my phone (leaving the solar system at home) as I had all the maps and navigation stuff loaded on it,  a satellite communicator, a water filtering pump and transport bladder, and, of course the backpack itself which had bear bell, compass/thermometer & whistle attached and 3L water in hydration bladder...

For our next outing I'll cut fishing stuff to just Tenkara-based; I will trim out some of the repair items and drop the camera; I may switch to gravity fed water filtration; I may leave out rain pants and the bear canister; I will cut back on food but I will add a pan to cook fish (otherwise it is hard to so do without a fire).

Wild Basin Pack & Peak & Fish Trip 24Jul20-26Jul20

Awesome, 'cept for some weather. Tom Wilke (our leader), Tom Resman (the summit mate), Greg Lehmann (master cutthroater) and I backpacked in to the Wild Basin section of RMNP Friday. We had a blast toting our gear just ~2mi to our Hole-In-The-Wall backcountry campsite. We were alone together there thanks to efforts by Wilks to score the permit earlier in the year. Here we are after fully convened with Greg's arrival at the site and a map of some objectives.

We had a good but early night around the stoves (no campfires here!). But it all started with the Toms and Dave arriving earlier for the climb into HitW along Sandbeach trail. We had permits for overnight parking, thanks to Wilks, right at the trailhead - and the one man tents were socially distanced and bear can appointed as required.

The Toms were climbing Mt Meeker (13.9Kft) and Dave & Greg were headed off-trail for fishing @ Thunder Lk. Both aggressive trips were successful but drenched with rain. Lehmann and I hatched a plan to go off-trail after reaching the west end of Sandbeach Lk via trail direct from our campsite. We did so descending 800ft over 2 miles down two cliffs, through forest and over deadfall, and skirting two swamplands near Twin Lks to acquire the Wild Basin trail. Sandbeach Lk looked promising for cuts and had many nice campsites and people - we moved on; the bushwhack was done with skill and route-finding but the down angle left us concerned for it as a return route; Twin Lk One was choked with lily pads and looked barren while Twin Lk Two was larger and looked fruitful but - we moved on. Once on Wild Basin trail we anticipated our objective below the fierce mountain valley we were ascending.

After ~9mi of climbing, bushwhacking, and otherwise we arrived at Thunder Lk. We confirmed the claims it being a good cutthroat lake with Colorado cuts and more classic cuts caught in abundance. We met a flyfishermen who said "fish the inlet with #22 BWO dries" so we went there first (but fished real bugs) and were greeted aplenty with golden-colored CO cuts. Greg schooled me in fishing with a couple dozen on the day, on 2 different rod setups, while I mustered about a half doz or more. The inlet carried the golden cuts and the deep side of the lake (no pics) carried the more silvery, less spotted  cuts. Peacock olive chubby #14 ruled for me and Greg did well subsurface with BHFBPT soft-hackle. A great day, even in the rain, but after 3.5hrs we needed to head back to camp - chance for more exciting debates on how to fix the country!

We took the long way back to our campsite (to avoid the off-trail climb) which required returning to the RMNP entrance and the start of Sandbeach trail again. Our hike ultimately was 17mi with 3Kft of vert and a 1.5mi car ride (thank goodness good citizen) down the Wild Basin road. The Mt Meeker seekers did well moving up Sandbeach trail then up Hunter's Ck drainage past the Dragon's Egg rock and up that couloir to Mt Meeker summit. 12 miles with 4.7Kft of vert including plenty of talus scrambling and the same soaker on the slog back to camp. Well done boys.

We all slept well that evening - or we think so as Resman left for Crested Butte Sat night. Greg and I departed Sun AM and sheepishly left Wilks to climb alone. Fortunately for all it was a good day with the forecast rain holding off.

Hiking Shrine, Biking Boulder, July Tastes Of ORB, And Some New Views 18Jul20-21Jul20

Kala and I hiked Shrine Mtn out of Vail Pass in some glorious wildflowers on Saturday. It was great being out on this fun trail but given the weekend there were way too many folks, and too many without masks, especially on the tighter trail sections. We enjoyed the views of fields of wildflowers, Mt Of The Holy Cross (from afar), the weird rocks above Vail Pass and spectacular views of the 10 Mile Range and the Gore Range.

Earlier I'd grabbed July's Summit Club offer from ORB and chose their Nature's Therapy - as typical from Outer Range, another fine hazy IPA - this one with piney overnotes.

On Monday we clambered down to the Front Range for a ride and lunch in Boulder with our besties the Wilkes. We rolled down alongside Boulder Ck where I actually caught some locals fly fishing this good looking stream. We biked through a number residential and industrial sections of Boulder farther east than I knew Boulder ran. We ate downtown and while verbally accosted by a local mental patient for a bit, all was a blast and the ride & food were good.

Kala & I scored new "computer glasses" from Gunnar. We got the 65% amber gamer glasses in Vayper styling. They fit us decently and now we have blue blockers for our longer stints in front of screens. Kala looks better than me but all I have is a pic of me so far - they are headphone compatible.

Just A 2Wt On The Gore & Eagle 19Jul20

Sure it was a Sunday but sheesh, there were three cars (we all arrived at the same time @ 9am) at the mouth of the Gore. I "let" the others guys head down first and they passed up the final runs of the Gore before it hits the Eagle. I fished that and caught some smallish browns on an olive chubby top fly. I was using the keen 2 wt drc #1 I built - pretty fun, especially landing stuff. I got within ~20 yards downstream of one of the other guys and he said I was about to fish in his water - well, that's how I interpreted his "yo" and "massive arm expansions;" downstream mind you. I skipped over him by plenty of space and fished some more with less luck and then a family moved in right below me. I left for the Eagle.

The Eagle was not crowded where I went - basically just across from the Holy Cross TH right downstream from Minturn. Fishing was better too, I caught a gob more ~10-12" browns like these. Unfortunately the 2 wt betrayed me on the nice 16" rainbow I had on... she threw the hook and went broadside downstream from me  - too much for the weapon to handle, or poor handling by the operator. The Eagle is a nice freestone at the right flows. Most fish were on an royal chubby #12 but some on the PMD FBPT or EZ WD40.

For lunch I brown-bagged it but stopped at VBC to try their latest hazy - Beautiful Chaos.

I caught some more smallish browns on the Gore at the West Vail exist and then headed back to watch the Outlaws. They are 2-0, both large margin wins so I think they are among the top 3 teams.

Wildflowers In My Backyard 17Jul20

Wow the flowers are poppin' in the alpine. Here are just some from my backyard in Summit. Common Yarrow...

Looks like aster but I think its really Aspen Fleabane...

Dwarf Rocky Mtn Goldenrod...

Tall Rocky Mtn On-Sided Penstemon (this is the most prevalent by far)...

Ramtilla (or possibly Showy Goldeneye)...

Fireweed...

Oxeye Daisy...

Common Harebell...

Colorado Columbine...