GR8 To Be Back 16Aug19

WYO and Gunny are cool for sure but back on the Front Range and in Summit is better. Kala & I headed to the Nest for the music and vibe and I hit 11 Mile section of So Platte on the way. Sure it was mid-day and the top section was mobbed - so I dropped back to the tunnels section, but it's 11 Mile Canyon and flows were 200cfs and the river had structure. No big boys really but many fish on Rainbow Warrior (due to PMD hatch IMO), PMD variant of BHPT, and purple Manhattan midge variant. These included a number of cutbows with the nicest ~16" and a brown of ~14". Too this is despite some young spinner boys up-holing me just as I entered... I stayed behind and caught the fish they didn't step on - to their chagrin. There was good PMD sign and then a midge hatch.

And then on the way to Silverthorne I stopped at ORB and tasted several great beers on tap & in cans and Smithereens was the best. And by best I mean better than nearly ever beer ever made, except others from ORB - so good.

Awesome Outings In Crested Butte 11Aug19-14Aug19

Irwin Lake Campground - Kala & I headed to Crusty Butt with Scott & Peg for some hiking and chillin'. We scored a keen site @ Lk Irwin CG among the jungle of wildflowers at 10.5KFt. Awesome mountains and people all around... we set up camp and I caught a bunch of stocker rainbows on the lake before heading down to meet some folks for pizza at Secret Stash. We saw a strange ridge-hugging cloud leaving Salida on the way.

Gunsight Mtn Bike Trail - After local brews @ the Stash, sleeping was easy. We arose for breakfast and to meet Ted, a local retired doc, to hike Lupine & Gunsight Connector above Slate River. Local mountain biking is very good and this was one such trail. It was a nice 5 miler with 1KFt of vert through one of the biggest aspen groves I've ever encountered. Later I learned, and drove through, the largest aspen grove in the world - perhaps it is even the largest living organism in the world - unless there's some fungus in Michigan with that distinction.

That afternoon we went to Mt Crested Butte and then on up toward Schoenfeld Pass. We dined near columbines in colors I'd never seen - must be genetic manipulations  We reached the snow plug covering the road about 2 miles below the pass and several miles above Gothic along the headwaters of the East River beneath the Ruby Range. I saw guided fishermen on the headwaters but did not wet a line.

Anthracite Ck In The Raggeds Wild - On Tuesday I chose the hike and selected a jaunt into the Raggeds Wilderness. The trail followed Anthracite Ck, which I fished of course, for 4.7 miles to the confluence with Ruby Anthracite. I had hoped to fish both streams but at the confluence we were several hundred feet above the water so I called it and we turned around. This is a very remote section with heavily overgrown trail and lush ferns and other vegetation, but a rockfall had left a couple huge boulders right on the trail and we encountered some feds drilling holes for later dynamiting the rocks - who knows what will really happed. I caught a half dozen of browns and rainbows but all pretty small (I didn't take some pics as I was mid-stream and didn't want to loose another iPhone) on purple or green chubbies or my peacock prince dropper. I was flinging the 1 weight so expected this result. On the occasions I hooked into much larger - I had some remote releases. The trail was like a jungle and delivered ticks on all but me - perhaps because I wore the Chota waders. This was a gorgeous place in a deep canyon with cliffs overhanging us 2KFt up, on the other side of the stream! I ate the raspberries but others didn't - it felt as if there'd be a bear around each bend, but there was not. So cool.

Scarp Ridge - On Wed AM we hiked up to the Scarp near the campground - 10.5K up to 12.2K over 2.4 miles. This is one of the most spectacular 5 mile hikes on which I've ever been. The wildflowers, old mines, the Ruby Range and all the Elks surrounded us. As we summited above Oh-Be-Joyful basin and Peerler Basin 2,000 feet below we could see Mt Crested Butte (and got great cell service for the 1st time in days) and even Aspen's 14ers of Snowmass and Maroon in the distance! Spectacular God's country. While atop the Scarp the wind came up and I actually lost my hat 12 ft down a 2,000 ft cliff. - I tried a little but nah, not worth it. Many of the cirques remain choked with snow in the <13Kft high Elks and the resulting waterfalls are amazing. These will not clear before snow falls again and we may have glacial holdovers - I was reminded of the cold Gunnison Co can hold in winter as we passed a snowblower parked atop the roof of a Natl Forest building!

Lumineers @ Mission Ballroom 07Aug19

Scott Kaiser, Mary & Jim Yohanan and I took in the new Mission Ballroom's opening night Lumineers show! We ate first at the tasty Fish 'n' Beer nearby. We were really hoping for great sound at the show given the recent buildout but the 6,000 capacity arena didn't fully deliver. We caught the opening act up in the concrete seats and could not really hear well at all - boomy and muddled up there. We went down to the floor and stood right in front of the mixing booth and it was much better, but still not great. The Lumineers were very good and played a full slate. The pic of the whole arena did not come out well, but it is very large. Really fun time despite some sound issues.

Bluegrass & Beer Fest And More 02Aug19 - 05Aug19

We had a bunch of friends to the Nest to party, hike, celebrate Yoho's birthday, and hit the Keystone Bluegrass & Beer festival. Fri night got stuff kicked off as folks rolled in; some grillwork, Jim's cake and a number of great wines as well as Pliny were well enjoyed with Tom & Leslie, Scott & Peg, Jim & Mary and us. We walked a bit before the festival on Sat and then joined Brock & Anna near the beer tents. Throughout the day we drank a number of fine beers including a winner for me at Great Divide, the Double Hazy 25th Anniversary, and heard a lot of great music on three stages.

Ground Score

Sugar & The Mint

Local Folk

The Mighty Pines

Lindsay Lou

Returning to the Nest, Kala led a team in preparing a great meal of salmon & salad. Day two of the festival was a bit in the rain but we'd preceded it with a nice hike on the new trail system around Salt Lick, directly west of Wildernest. Then it was off for tunes and brews again. We dined @ Aurum. Woohoo.

Woodbelly

Peter Rowan & Dirty Kitchen

Brantley's stayed through most of Monday and we nabbed a great sail about the Dillon Rez and nice lunch at A Cafe before eyes wetted as we said goodbye to Scott & Peg. Not really, we'll see them soon again, and we know Scooter scored 4 bottles of Pliny! Then, while we were out felling trees dyeing of drawrf mistletoe and creating a huge slash pile, I saw this cool yellow flower.