Vail Mountain Games 11Jun22

Kala & I hopped the pass into Eagle County to take in the Vail Mtn Games again this year together. It was a great day with the Gore Ck raging from snow melt, sunny 80° skies and plenty to enjoy ~ except for the parking which was crowded on the way in and flummoxed us a bit on the way out. We first saw the SUP Sprint on Gore Ck ~ this is a 4 mile & ~45min downstream trundle on the wicked Gore, which was flowing at 700cfs today from snow melt - that why the games are always on the 2nd WE in June. I was very cool - I'd be dead if a "sprint" was 45 minutes - here's a pass even with staggered starts. The athletes were gassed by the time they reached us 100 yds from the finish; while we saw no biffs I spoke to a lady who'd paddled earlier hoping for a clean run, but admitted she was drenched.

Next up was a trip over to Golden Pk at The Hangout where Jam In The Van studios was offering music all day. I've often played their stuff within the van-mobile-studio on YouTube but here most artists did an inside gig and then did an outside show. We stayed quite a while for the excellent Golden, Colorado bluegrass band Rapidgrass. They offered great stuff including a song of rolling down the river wherein they mention many of our great rivers and their attributes... this and so many other Colorado references shined fine. They were excellent and the pro outside sound was stellar.

After Rapidgrass I intended to lead us the Dock Dogs but we didn't get there as we detoured to check out a new offroad camper with which I am enamored but had never seen in person. My popup is awesome but Wyoming taught me to like hard-sided stuff in the wind. And, I'm not inclined to give up rugged & off-road. We stopped in an appreciated much but noticed some cons in the Black Series HQ12. I was worried about the double bed for 2 (which was fine) but left concerned about storage capacity for onboard stuff. Solve storage and it is very cool; though it's a smidge expensive for all Chinese appliances.

We missed the dogs but made it to the fly casting session @ International Bridge. This is casting target shooting from the bridge @ a series of 5 targets around and in the stream. 15 guys (cut from 47 apps) and 5 ladies (cut from 17) took their 3 shots at each of the 5 targets in a previously unknown to them order. I'd seen it before with some feelings of "hey, I could do this;" this was hard in the wind as the best of the best scored somewhat infrequently or no more than 50% of the time. It was very cool but I heard "standard manufactured rods" were required so I think a tuned Rodfather might be banned... plus someone should've mentioned my fatback neck might be burned from our vantage. Anyway it was a blast seeing so many varying casting styles with none so much more effective than another - though some looked harder to dial in well. Long shots were always single- or double-haul shots. There were lots of Colorado folks in the finals.

It was time for "lunch" and we hit the typically delicious Mountain Standard with a walk-in accommodated immediately; my attempt to get a rez early in the day was useless. It was very good again, but expensive. No pic. After "lunch" we trundled over to The Hangout again but a rap duo didn't move us. We went back to Vail Village and caught the finals of freestyle kayaking, right at the same International Bridge main water feature show hole. Spectacular event with a relative noob lady in the final 5, Colorado rock star Katie Kayak wowing all with her moves and strength, and 12 time winner (pink daisy hat) Emily Jackson (yeah, her dad is Jackson kayaks) down 400 points going into her final run. Emily won but 400... we didn't stay for the men.

We were off to the finals of the North American Cup finals at Vail; on the way we caught the Mud Run in progress ~ it was a hoot with many folks doused with mud from many obstacles along the 5K course @ 8.5K ft elevation. We were fortunate to meet an 11 yr old athlete pre-run at the SUP Sprint (watching her dad) after placing 3rd in the 5K run earlier.

For wall climbing we saw the elite class (pro) athletes compete on 4 problems on a well-tuned wall. The finals of these events are different in that prior rounds were climbed blind... for the finals all of the 10 top finalists, 5 ladies & 5 men, reviewed the routes for several minutes TOGETHER before coming out to attack the routes. It was really exciting with massive skills displayed in both boys & girls at the elite level - FYI, there wasn't a single 30+ year old at this level. No lady topped out their problem #1 - closest was the top qualifier who missed the final dynamic move. 3 of 5 men bested their first route. Mountain Plaza was simply a great venue and the vibe was all "all climber" and all respect for this final.

Yeah, never made it to Dock Dogs this day ~ though every 30 seconds we saw ~5 dogs so, no want from the pet-realm. Some slept on me; some licked me; we petted some; surprisingly no one really fought. Great day in Eagle Co.

Into The Eagle's Nest Wild 10Jun22

Kala arrived today in Summit and we decided to skip the Grace Potter concert and take a hike instead. We climbed ~3mi into the EN Wilderness via the North 10 Mile Ck Canyon. It was a gorgeous day and a great outing. We encountered some folks but little mud on the trail proper. There were very few wildflowers out yet. The N 10 MIle Ck was raging from snowmelt; very cool. Ultimately we were turned around by a stream crossing too aggressive and made our way back to the car at I70. It was only several miles to ORB for a beer and Brid bowls so that's a nice capper. Too, she too affirmed the comfort of the Octane seats as we caught a decent movie too.

Nest Theater Part Twenty ~ Octane Theater Seating 09Jun22

We're keeping the economy going. We recently bought, received, and installed 3 seat straight theater seating for the Nest Theater. We chose the leather Octane XS950 Diesel in black. I think Octane is a Colorado company. Our width is limited in the theater room at the Nest so we went smaller ~ they are in no way small however. I preferred narrow, but tallish seat backs and these were nice. All electric recliners situated for great listening. Beer cupholders and a number of accessory trays and even a wine glass holder make it all user friendly. The cushiness, lumbar and headrests are nice. I found very clever storage for the accessories in a kitchen cabinet. Toting these beasts into the Nest was challenging though ~ of course I rejected "white glove service" when I knew I could do it myself for free. I trialed long term sitting yesterday for some tunes and binging and I approve. I'd have "preferred" 4 seats but our space is too narrow; Kala of course points out that with 4 there would be no righteous center seat for me so, yeah, there was that consideration.

Update 20Jun22 - I installed a nice cable channel to run power to the seats more safely.

Nest Theater Update On Vinyl Audio Path ~ Tone Control Experiment Failed 07Jun22

As reported in the Compare Tracks entry, going Back To Vinyl has not been up to snuff. I needed to: 1) tame/equalize some of the low-end and 1KHz-2.5KHz shout in the DRC BLHs, and 2) get the subwoofer online in the phono audio path. Enter the Schitt Lokius 6 band analog equalizer ($300, I know - why not the 7 harmonics?). Connection-wise I come out of the Tube Box DS2 phono pre-amp directly into the unbalanced inputs on the Lokius, and from Lokius line out to the subwoofer with one set of outputs and line out to the 300B SET amp with the other set (they are independent and both live). The Lokius is a pretty simple tone control but very quiet to adjust my speakers' frequency responses just a skosh, and the two outputs allow me to bring the sub online. I got it in matte black to match the rest of the NestT gear. A parametric equalizer would've been better but I couldn't find one I really liked as much in the kit as the Schitt as they are mostly rack-mounted pro looking, and often single channel (so I'd need two) and expensive. The Lokius can take its small place in the rack perfectly IMO.

To set the tone control effect properly I measured with full frequency sweeps using REW with everything driven. I used my Topping D10s DAC to get the macOS digital fiber out (carrying the sweep signal) into the analog path just before the Lokius. I narrowed in on the flatter frequency response I sought (my house curve) iteratively. I prefer to attenuate/reduce louder than desired frequencies (rather than boost quiet ones) ~ this scheme better limits introduction of distortions. Results were not encouraging ~ below are the final before/defeated and after/engaged responses using the Lokius. For the NestT the Lokius is set with approximately (each band has +/- 12 dB) 20Hz @ -4dB, 120Hz @ -3dB, 400Hz @ 0dB, 2kHz @ -12dB, 6kHz @ -1dB, 16kHz @ 0dB. I could not get sufficient improvement with the Lokius no matter how much I futzed with it; I don't completely know why the adjustments had as little effect as they did (except at the low end). The Lokius is going back and my pursuit of sonic glory for the phono path continues.

For grins though I also show just the 20-200Hz bass area response to highlight the big improvement made in getting the subwoofer online. I included a view of the high end improvement from the super-tweeters as well, not as pronounced but evident.

Tone control is not a very audiophile thing to do; I guess I just want the best sound from my setup. Some might be lured into constantly adjusting tone controls to account for variances among different pieces of vinyl, not me, it's up to me to get the system/speakers to sound great; it's up to musicians and producers to get the vinyl right. Despite the measured fail, I did a listening test on the tone-adjusted speaker setup sound playing vinyl LPs? Reina del Cid’s Morse Code sounded about the same as pre-Lokius. Meh, but not her fault.

UPDATE 12Jun22 - Watch Your Schiit... I was charged a 15% restocking fee on the $300 Lokius (after a 3 week delay to receive it). This policy was not clear to me upon purchase or in emails sent to me about the purchase. Even as a long term and very good Schiit customer, this happened, and I am pissed.

11Mile 'Bows On The Run 06Jun22

I headed to Summit "the back way" to receive some shipments of furniture there and took the chance to fish in 11 Mile Canyon again. Flows are fine but wow what a difference a week makes as to crowds. All the campgrounds are open and otherwise fishermen are also all over the place here (nice, well behaved tailwaters during spring runoff are popular and this one is close to population). There were >60 cars parked on the road turnouts plus the full CGs. Anyway, caught some 16" fish but nothing big this outing ~ I even show one here from the "show hole" next to the last CG. The new Rodfather Diamond Blaze handled the water and tasks again perfectly. Smaller mayflies were the ticket for me but the big ones must've just chuckled. Sure I stopped at ORB on the way to the Nest.

I scored some very tasty "The Approach" for the June allotment. And then later I stumbled upon another very good IPA, which mated perfectly to the first, even in name. "Back Down The Hill" is a collaboration of two of my favorite CO brewers: ORB & Weldworks ~ there was nothing not to like about this sweeter DIPA.

CoWW Boyz Awards #2 03Jun22

Hey, the 2nd award ceremony for the coveted CoWW bracelets was lightly, but sufficiently, attended by Matt & Daryle and me at Red Leg. Matt was awarded as many bracelets as I held and Andy already rendered "big fish" black to him earlier. Jim needs to convey but he's in Iceland. The vibe at Red Leg was awesome with a keen funk band leading us through the paces. It was great seeing the DeBalskis and kibitzing about happs ~ and we enjoyed green chili cheese-steaks from the truck and raised a glass to Y. We tested some Rodfather rods in the field ~ folks love the RFT5 and wanted the new RFDB (which landed the big fish of the day this morning). Daryle unveiled an Alaska bush plane plan and introducing my 23.5"er from this morning moved Matt to suggest he'd best that "tomorrow." GR8 outing but we need more in the troupe.

Oh yeah... winning fish...

Big Fish Day On So Platte Before The Storm 03Jun22

I headed to 11 Mile Canyon today and chose to fish at the double tunnel section as I'd not been there this season. There were only 17 cars on the way to the tunnels so not too crowded and flows have come down to a decent 150cfs. The morning had nice 58° temps and only modest wind. I hiked down the road to 100 yards below the tunnels and fished back to car parked 100 yards above the tunnels. I didn't do much early but about 11am things started to happen; I saw a few mayflies and started catching fish on those imitations. The best was the olive Cheesmen Emerger, which fooled a nice 23.5" CutBow, but Black Ice and RS2 played as well. I caught other small browns and modest cutbows as well but had to scramble out of the canyon as a storm blew in quickly at noon and dumped rain & sleet on my on my way home. Brief but good day in 11 Mile Canyon which netted the Rodfather Diamond Blaze some experience. It worked well with the Ross LT 1.5 and SA Mastery MPX 4 (half a line weight heavy) line. It fought the largish lady bow effectively, even through my failed first netting attempt.