S&A Visit CO #2, And T&L, Hit The Nest 25Jul21-29Jul21

The hits just kept on coming. Kicking off #2, we and S&A rode the lake and enjoyed the Rocky Mtn Youth Sailing Championships where locals dominated. We checked the boat but didn't sail ~ but we did score at Tiki Bar and a very nice day.

T&L Wilke arrived on Sun and we dined on fish tacos with spicy mango salsa. While the boys golfed at Breck with Alex Daggs, a visitor from Seattle, the ladies hiked. We then hit Sauce On The Blue for good Italian and a hike along the Blue River where we observed the big trout.

Of course we drank plenty of great French & US wines over these days - which made early rising for hitting the trail tougher. Yet, after Tom's pacing at the Nest the boys trekked out Mayflower Gulch then up to Gold Hill ridgeline and bushwhacked back to the car. The ladies enjoyed cutthroat mahjong. A great few days with our great friends.

Check The Flows! 28Jul21

I didn't even follow my own mantra of "check the flows" before departing for the Jurassic section of the Blue. There were multiple cars in the lot on arrival but come to find out they were sport rafters and kayakers as the flows were bumped up to ~700cfs (I don't like fishing here >500cfs). So, this made the river much less accessible to me as I was not about to wade to target known lies, much less cross it. I guess downstream Colorado drought emergencies are demanding more water as key reservoirs of Williams Fk and the Green Mtn are being drained to get the Colorado to about ~1200cfs (it was ~400cfs). Short term solution for sure unless we get a big snow year coming up. I did observe green drakes coming off at noon but no rises in otherwise prime dry fly water. My drake nymph did take some fish as did a weighted PMD and the Purple May Reign. I fished from the bank backhand only and I stayed just 2.5hrs on a very hot day but did manage a number of decent 16" browns like these...

Steve & Anne Visit Colorado #1 21Jul21-24Jul21

Old and dear friends, Steve & Anne Gordon, fled the desert heat and visited us in Colorado. We've had a blast thus far hiking the White River NF, auditing music & comedy, debating the state of affairs in the US, playing golf with Yoho @ Flying Horse, dining fine @ Ambli, christening Brian Wilke's new brewery Comet Brews (we even met up with Aidan, Mikyo and Ross & Kat), and otherwise enjoying catching up. Along the way we've drunk many bottle of fine wine. Great start.

Copper & Back With Kala 20Jul21

Kala and I rode the 25 miles to Copper and back pretty swiftly. Do we go on over Fremont Pass ~ nope; do we go on over Vail Pass ~ nope. We hit Angry James for lunch and beer after. Fabulous day among plenty of eBikers.

Fun With One Weight On 10 Mile 19Jul21

I made a mid-day trip to Copper and Officer's Gulch sections of 10 Mile Ck today. I loaded the Rodfather SB1, an 8' 1wt for the smaller fish of this stream, with a small chubby. I did well on the topwater but strangely nothing dropper nymphing. I did see and 18"er but couldn't get her to bite. Not many pics with a weak battery. I ate at 10 Barrel in Copper Mtn but it was not very good and was very expensive ~ $30 for a beer and simple burger. There was a 7% added tax from Copper Resorts on top of CO and local - WTF.

The Arkansas River Headwaters 16Jul21

I changed my plan to "work" at the Nest and let out for the Ark HW late. I arrived after 45min at Kobe and was lucky to secure a parking spot - holy shit there were a lot of folks. I thought I explained to all that I needed everyone to return to work and leave the THs and rivers to retired and vaccinated folks. Maybe they were, but still. I sought clear water so unusually went upstream toward the ponds & highway to start. I did nothing on the top Chubby but did well on the caddis larvae and very well on the Purple May Reign. Mostly the prevalent 14" German browns but one rainbow. I did see massive mayflies at noon - might be drakes as this is apt territory for the that, else red quill - I didn't load either. I was quick about my business given the crowd and headed out at 1pm under gathering skies. Images are one-handers as I forgot my vest-cam and cam-card and had to tote the iPhone. I also was empty of bug juice - nice for the mosquitoes here. Unfortunately Periodic Brewing in Leadville is closed forever so I jumped Fremont Pass back to Summit in sprinkles and hit ORB for lunch.

Tiny Triple But The Twenty Took Off 15Jul21

I headed back to the Gore mouth area today and scored a tiny triple of brown, rainbow and cutthroat - tiny 'cause the rainbow and cutty were not large. I mostly caught browns today - and a number of them were pretty nice but the ace was a 20"er that unfortunately took my rig after 5 minutes and 100 feet downstream on the fight. The Rodfather 3wt is perfect for the Gore ~ except maybe when a 20" brown is on (but I have landed plenty larger in 11 Mile Canyon). The water was just a tinge off from last night's rains but the fishing was still good @ ~60cfs. Lots of caddis and the caddis larva did the primary damage but black ice played a decent role today. I left about 1:30pm for VBC as the water was warming, and I was hungry. I used the Basecamp @ VBC. A fine outing in Vail Valley.

Lake Ride And Angry James 14Jul21

Sure it was raining at 9am but the forecast showed a slot of goodness 11am-3pm so Kala and I readied the bike steeds and hit the Summit CO bike path. We rode well till ~1:30pm and then headed to Angry James for a beer. It's excellent and right at home. We enjoyed Send 'Er hazy IPA and Citra lager; we enjoyed meeting Scott of Chatam, NJ & Wake Forest, the decathlete and sustainability dude working on Wednesdays there. Cultivate, the in house food vendor has upped her game considerably - we really like the fresh carnitas, cabbage and jalapenos tacos.

Steep & Syndicate And Dacus Drop 13Jul21

Kala & I tried some newish Summit Co breweries today. We ran to the marina on an errand, passing a huge queue for the String Cheese Incident show at the amphitheater, then continued on to the new (Dec20) Keystone brewery Steep. We met the owner and her daughter and Molly the bartender in an largely unfilled but cool space. We tasted all the IPAs and more ~ tasty but not killer.

It's pizza Tuesday and we missed some so we hit our fav Summit Co pizzeria, Last Chance, for pickup. While we were there we stopped at the Craft house next door to talk to Tristan and have a Syndicate brew. Syndicate is a keg distribution only brewer from Silverthorne, operating from a storage space next to Lowe's. Good stuff, when you can find it. I may add them to the bikery route if I can get a place assured to serve it.

Since the spa repair from Heavenly worked great today, and the refill was up to temperature, Kala and I did enjoy a soak in the sprinkles. I then went to audit the latest album drop from Lucy Dacus (of the Virginia Repertoire and boygenius), Home Video, June 2021. It's good and bittersweet as usual from this singer/songwriter. Here are a few of the live videos, and official vids as there aren't many live yet, with songs from the album, her 3rd. Be aware though, she often writes to make you cry.

Brando on Kimmel Jun21

Hot & Heavy on Colbert Jun21

VBS (Official) May21

Please Stay (Official Audio) Jun21

Gobs On The Gore 12Jul21

I took my first outing of the season on Gore Ck in Eagle Co today. Nice day though smoky - flows were down to ~60cfs ~ nearly perfect I sense. One other guy was ahead of me initially at the mouth of the Gore near Minturn but I caught up to him and he headed to the Eagle. I caught a gob of ~15" browns and rainbows on a small light colored Chubby Chernobyl, green caddis larva and black DCEZWD40, beaded and non-beaded. There was some bug-sign with midges, BWOs, red quills and lots of caddis. I sense the fish hitting the top fly (10%) were thinking caddis. I could've switched to a smaller caddis dry and raised more but I stayed the course and it worked very well.

Of course I lunched on Rocky Tacos and beer from VBC. They've added a nice covered (could be enclosed in winter) area called VBC Basecamp.

After lunch I moved upstream to the dawg park just west of the West Vail exit on the frontage road. I continued to succeed with the same rig. It was all tossed via the 9' 3wt Rodfather Brookie.

A good day was followed with a smidge of work around the Nest then fine totties on the verranda with Kala. I've "perfected" a tasty new cocktail, the Cassis Sour: in a tall pint glass squeeze juice of one whole lemon; match that volume with Creme de Cassis; sweeten with 1 tbsp of Rock Candy Syrup, match that entire volume with Breck Bourbon; stir; fill 3/4 full with ice; top with Club Soda and integrate mixture slowly with spoon. Yummy and this can really drive any sweet liquor into a tasty summer sour (Chambord, Midori, Gran Marnier, etc.) but the berry ones seem best to me.