Wildcat Canyon 30May14

Nick and I took a trip to Wildcat canyon via Metberry Gulch. It requires a pretty good 4x4 to get in there. I was in 4 low for most of the drive as there are several pretty good obstacles to get over. Took us about an hour after leaving pavement shortly past Divide CO to get down to the So Platte. The views on the drive in are incredible most of the drive is in the Hayman burn area, but boy is it greening up.

The water was running pretty high and was off color. Probably due to recent rains and some run-off, so I wasnt expecting an epic fishing day, but we managed to net a half dozen 10-12 inch browns and I caught one nice rainbow before the rain really started. I did well on a BH Hares Ear and Nick caught his on a rather large BHPT.

We had to hide out under a rock for about 30 minutes as the rain/hail/lightning chased us off the river, and pretty much ended our day early in the afternoon, but its an amazing canyon. Looks much like Cheesman/11 mile canyons but much bigger vistas, plus the burned trees give it a surreal feel.
Plus you really feel like you are in the wilderness, barely any sign of another person and we only saw one other family in a Jeep on the road.

Mountain Wind 30May14

Well I did it... I found a 25 year old sailboat I like in decent condition. Rather than Majorca, Kingston, or Miami, it was thankfully somewhat nearby. We now have a 23.5 foot racer/cruiser; it's a Beneteau First 235 with wing keel designed by Finot group. For such a small boat it has all the fittings of a cruiser like stove, sink, ice cabinet, marine head, chart table, nice cabin, double sleeping birth and more. But it's also a high performance design with a great polar chart (a chart showing theoretical relative speed at each heading of wind). There were only 450 of them made and many are in Europe so finding it (and seeing it's good operating condition) is great fortune. The interior and trimmings will need some TLC but that's expected for this age. It's well named Mon Ami now but that'll likely change to Mountain Wind or GR8 Wind or something. The trailer was a bit of a surprise though, the prior owner had fused the surge brake system so the trailer was without brakes. This would not be the ticket for descending the pass so I'm having brakes installed and will tow it to Dillon later. Woohoo.

Grape Creek Outing 25May14

Half the CoWW went to the Bear Gulch access of Grape Creek and slayed it. We had 40 fish days in decent weather (though there was a spate of sprinkle in the PM). We hiked downstream from parking for an hour before we started fishing - though we did assess later we didn't need to go in that far at all... we actually had to hike back out for 20 min at the end of the day since we didn't fish but 2/3 of the creek back upstream by 4pm and the fishing was consistent and good the whole way. We basically saw no one on the stream all day though there were 2 cars in parking on arrival and 2 different cars when we returned. Every pocket and hole held good fish. We used giant #8 green stimulators and BH droppers all day and had most of the action top water. This tributary of the Arki fishes like the Arki. The creek was a bit off color with low visibility from rains and it was higher than I've fished it before... no fish were rising, except to our flies and while we were a bit worried during the hike in, that soon abated. 85% of the fish were ~12" browns and the rest were generally larger rainbows... we had some smaller, some larger, some oranger, some golder, etc. but in general I was exhausted pulling the 12-13" brown guys off my line... at times I even hoped for remote releases and there were plenty of those too. I got the chance to wield my new GLoomis GLX #3 Whisper Creek... it was great rod for this stream though I could've presented a #24 gnat with it and the #8 stimi was a smidge clunky. A fox came down to drink nearby too. We capped off the "many fish" day with a stop at Green Man Taproom for a variety of good IPAs... a worthwhile stop where we talked with the Slovak woman owner and her pro runner bar maid.

Sexagenarians Enjoy Snowy Jacuzzi for Mom's Day 11May14

Happy Mom's Day Kala! We enjoyed a jacuzzi with ~2" of snow on the ground at home in Colo Spgs with blustery conditions, and it is still falling. Springtime in the Rockies is sometimes whack... but it's so cool. Mom's Day is always whack... and it's so cool.