Summit Fun In The Sun ~ Encouraged Kala To The Nest 04Jun26-07Jun26

Kala and I headed to Summit for some days out of the heat along the Front Range. We planned some events and had a great times with Matt visits, the Vail Mtn Games, beers @ ORB, hiking the Eagles Nest Wilderness, watching F1 @ Monaco, and fishing 10 Mile Ck. Our backyard...

Wed 03Jun26-Thu 04Jun26 ~ Visiting Matt In Den  & Hiking "Kala's Trail"... we stopped in the DTC to visit TK on the way. Mostly "hi" and "bye" but we would see him again on the other end. All's well in the tough coding world. We decided to hike on Thu and defer our visit to Vail to Friday. We did a 5 mile loop in the White River NF and Eagle's Nest Wild in our backyard. It was nice being out hiking the wild with Kala again ~ knees did not fail and hip flexor stayed sane. Dillon Rez is very low and will not fill ~ Frisco even closed their marina for this season. I tried to find a way to hike all the way down to ORB but we decided to drive. We stopped at the new Tiki Bar (new operator Steep) at Dillon Marina to check it out - nice and there's a stage now for live music and Steep's beers are approved.

Fri 05Jun26 ~ The Vail Mountain Games... With the weak snowpack the runoff into Gore Ck did not swell the stream enough to host the water sports (which were moved to Glenwood Spgs on the Colorado). Still the games are fun and we especially like seeing the dog events. Big Air champion was a greyhound named Mayhem and Dueling Dogs champ was a black lab named Ace, nosing out a golden named Brianna. We heard a bit of music just walking around the games but chose against seeing bands at the Ford Amp this time. I did catch Kala checking some math with Rocky (Hail Mary reference) during our visit.

Sat 06Jun26 ~ Monaco GP Qualifying & Race... One of the best hours in motorsport is the qualifying for Monaco. This is a tight track with tons of turns and walls in your face... so, there are few passing opportunities during the grand prix, placing a premium on quali position. The pole sitter at Monaco wins the race 70% of the time. It was very exciting to watch on the NestMT, though Apple has added plenty of advertising over prior F1 channel viewing pleasure. Max threw down a blistering lap late in the final qualifying session but Kimi bested him by 4msec to take pole. I slept through the early race on Sunday but was regaled of it's many penalties and race car failures. Kimi basically went wire-to-wire from pole. My un-rebuilt team fell from 2nd to nearly last in Alpine Rippers F1 fantasy league.

Sat 06Jun26 ~ Fishing 10 Mile Ck... My back was oddly blown yesterday but the hot tub really helped so I chose to head out to fish 10Mile Ck during this odd flowing (~100cfs) spring this afternoon. I hit the Copper Mtn area of the stream then went downstream to the Officer's Gulch area. I had a decent outing and caught a number of 10" browns and a couple of similarly-sized rainbows, it was a decent double handled well on the Rodfather True 3 v2. I was all sub-surface but a decent brown hit my bobber. Best flies on the day were the oil can Perdigon, the Wired Ice caddis, and the MHFBPT. 

Sun 07Jun26 ~ Visit With Matt... After the Monaco GP we packed up and cleaned up and headed down to the Front Range. We made seared tuna steaks with salad for us at Matt's place on Hampden, and he provided spicy quinoa! I finally scored my Cars & Canyons sticker for the FlyBox and adorned it.

Back In Big Horn Sheep Canyon ~ Quick But Good Day Double 28May26

Though foggy in the Springs it was nice past Canon City on the Ark in BHSC. I was slowed a smidge to 10:15am by construction but got a couple of good hours in @ Pinnacle Rock today. The river was off color from recent rains but I caught a half doz fish by noon with 13"-14" browns and 15"-16" rainbows/cutbows. Every fly worked: MHFBPT, oil can Perdigon, red squirmy worm, and rainbow warrior. I tied on the rainbow warrior due to the low visibility; I tied on the squirmy 'cause of recent rains. The fish are smaller now here at Pinnacle Rock but at least the fishery is back from the Hayden fire.

CoWWBoyz Crush The Colorado River Basin ~ It's Haine-aRADo Time 17May26-22May26

The Front Range CoWWBoyz blew off the So Platte as the drain of Antero troubled our vibe and my  campsite in 11 Mile Canyon. I canceled my rez for modest return. We went up-mountain and never rested at the Nest. These 5 days of Haine-a-RADo had many moments and bad decisions.

Day 1 [17May26)] Arriving In Summit & Blue In Town ~ Not Much Now 17May26... I grabbed RH in The Crusher  from DIA and we ripped out I70 to Clear Ck where we donned gear in significant hail. Uh - Tommynocker instead. Then we ripped the tunnel to Summit (ahhh) later and ventured the Blue in town... most fish are gone! I landed a couple of 6" browns instead of greater truths. Uh, let's go local @ Angry James then grab the next CoWWBoy at ORB - Yoho! We sucked fishing but rested well @ alpine, after some tunes and brews.

Day 2 [18May26] Arkansas Headwaters ~ Decent Fish & Big Snow... Greg caught up with us at Kobe. We outfitted for rain and took on 30 min of heavy snow instead. Fine. We all caught a bunch of German browns and a few 'bows on the headwaters of the mighty Arkansas. We headed back to Summit for pizza & pasta dinner at Sauce, capped by an evening of competitive tunes on the Nest Music Theater. 

Day 3 [19May26] Colorado @ Pumphouse ~ There's Something In The Water... We dined well at Mtn Lion before being rerouted through Heeney due to a tractor trailer crash on 9. We finally headed out Trough Rd to the Pumphouse section of the Colorado River on a variable weather day. We headed upstream from Pumphouse to the tail end of the Gore Canyon to begin. Unfortunately I'd forgotten my net and had to hike back down to the car ~ I did not hike back up but went downstream to fish along the campgrounds and boat ramps. Mostly I hiked alone this day as a result of my eff-up. We all caught and lost some nice browns around structures; the best was actually right around the boat ramps. Stones, caddis larva, and BWO nymphs all worked but best were the mayflies. Mr Haine was a particularly adept fisherman on the Colorado and Greg scored with streamers as well. 

Day 4 [20May26] Gore Ck @ Mouth & Dog Pk ~  Some Doubles... After a good Sunshine Cafe breakfast we jumped Vail Pass into Eagle Co to fish the Gore. We also said goodby to Yoho, who left in the AM for a golf match. We started at the mouth with the Eagle River and fished upstream for 3/4 mile. 160cfs flows were high on the Gore for fishing and the willows & wind were a further issue, but we got it done. I did catch a number of fish, including a double on this pass, most on the BHDCEZWD40 ~ everybody caught some. Since we were in the area, we stopped at VBC for a beer a bit of pizza. 

After VBC we headed upstream a bit to the dog park. There were lots of dogs and fishing slowed a bit but still yielded fish. Another good day on the water. But also another day without bigger fish. We hit ORB and ordered take-out from Summit Thai on the way back to the Nest. We said 'see ya' to Greg as he was heading home in the AM. 

Day 5 [21May26] Blue River @ Jurassic Pk & N Of Town ~ The Blue Sucked... We knew it was weak in town at low flows but the same stable 70cfs below Green Mtn Rez dam should be decent. I didn't verify the flows before we left however. Unfortunately water authorities took this day to really ramp flows out of Green Mtn rez, which is already down 40 ft from full. Grrr... the Blue tailwater sucked this day and was gusty and cool. I caught one medium brown on the Perdigon and the descent to the river was tough.

We hiked back to the car to try another section of the Blue north of town... it was not any better there. We had decent nosh back in Silverthorne at the Eclectic. 

Day 6 [22May26] Arkansas River @ Pueblo Tailwater ~ Bigs In The Bag... With the balance of decent fishing spots in Summit Co flowing very low or very high, we packed up early and headed to Pueblo to fish the PT. We simply grabbed Subway breakfast on the way to Nature Center. We were looking too for some bigger fish to fight ~ I found them and caught a 17.5"er, an 19"er, and a 20"er among my bounty. The Perdigon and squirmy worm were most effective. It was much nicer weather than we withstood recently.

This whole week was a great outing with great friends.