Blue Aspen Hike With Brantleys 06OCt20

Kala & I headed out to Dome Rock SWA with Scott & Peggy to attempt to catch the blue aspen phenomenon at sunrise. We did it! If you go, you need a fishing license even though you may not be fishing. Despite hopping from the car at the trailhead (Dome Rock SWA parking), the lone car, in brisk 27° air, we made the 7 mile hike NP. We were shedding layers all morning - as we needed plenty of warmth early - including stocking hats and gloves but by the end were one layer across the team. The blue aspen effect was very cool but we have no full explanation for what causes it ~ I climbed the opposite hill to observe and I posit that it's caused by the just risen sun shining through the evergreens (higher on the hill) and into the aspens. Whatever caused it, it's rare and remote and occurs only early in the AM and is best when the aspens' canopy has changed to fall colors. This area had some really big aspens and we actually also observed some very big, very old Ponderosa pines as well in the Sand Ck valley by which returned to the car. The aspens are still ablaze out here. On the final leg of the hike we crossed Four Mile Ck a couple times and walked alongside it's steep rake of plunge pools on the final climb out - I saw a number of 6"-12" brookies there, which was cool. A really GR8 hike capped by some fine DDH hazy IPAs and lunch at Cerberus - we were served by the Key Master and the head brewer is Zuul.

 

Building The Rodfather Cutthroat ~ A Sage Buster 2020 [drc #3 9' 4 wt 4pc Fast] 15Aug20-04Oct20

I am now upping my buy pricing on rod components and blanks in search of a Sage buster; that is, a fast mid-weight rod able to rival my better factory purchases like the Sage Z Axis or One or X. The blank I've chosen is the CTS Affinity X from New Zealand (arrival took some weeks). I got the 4wt 4pc fast action blank in golden plum. The finished rod is measured as ERN 4.5 and AA 69°.

To mate with the gold plum coloring I chose to fashion a custom grip with some serious cutting and gluing - the likes of which I've never seen and even a grip maker will find it hard to parse exactly how I did it - but I'll disclose it. The top half of the grip is a varying checkerboard of red and beige cork burl and the bottom is a variegated horizontal mix of burnt & regular cork. I cut and glued sections then cut and glued again before mounting on the mandrel for assembly in my grip vise.

I upped the buy price for my reel seat to nickel with a California cocobolo wood insert to best match the rod and grip. I built the reel seat with a removable fighting butt! That move required I trim the hardwood reel insert a bit - no faint heart can be had as one cuts into a nice piece of turned wood. I marked the blank's pieces for modality as usual and turned the custom grip with my favored full wells design, and then mounted all the stuff with epoxy to the butt section of the Sage Buster, careful to align everything. Awesome thus far!

I also upped the buy price to better materials for my stripping guide lined with zirconium as well as the snake guides and tiptop of titanium lightwire. The proof will be in the winding and casting of course but if I can make this combo beat a Sage for "just" $275 in parts and my time and skills, it will be worth it. I chose to wrap the rod with brownish and gold thread. To highlight 18" & 22" marks I used gold; to strengthen ferrules I wrapped the thread in spirals; to highlight the guides I made micro wrappings in gold to start and finish. Here they are before epoxy.

With this build I've taken a new brand name as well, The Rodfather. There are t-shirts but no builders with the name... so now there is. This 9 ft, 4 wt, 4 pc, fast action HM graphite rod with removable fighting butt in plum & gold is the Rodfather Cutthroat ~ SB 2020. It's awesome IMO; it may indeed be the Sage buster as it is light & fast & true and really strong for a 4 weight - plus I made it cool as heck. Proof will be in the field of course. Here shown loaded with the Galvin reel from my Winston 4wt but I'm getting a lighter Redington Rise reel in amber to match best.

In backyard casting, the Rodfather Cutthroat is every bit as powerful as the Sage X, and as accurate too. Sage X system with Hardy reel weighs 9 3/8 oz all in and the Rodfather with Redington will weigh 8 7/8-9 oz all in with fighting butt. Wow... I didn't really expect the power similarity, just hoped. The flex profiles are the "exactly" the same!

UPDATE 28Oct20... Got the Rise and 4 wt Mastery MPX installed. Sweet, light canon.

It's Not Really "Fall" But I'm Back On The PT 02Oct20

Before we left Summit Kala and I were able to catch up with old friends Kathleen Brewer and John Meiners at ORB.

I headed to Pueblo early-ish today as temps are still summer-like and I'm in COS for a few days. Flows are 100cfs, so pretty low, and overnight temps are starting to fall so the water early was cool enough. Bug sign in the AM was wicked with tricos (#24), fall BWOs (#22), and red quill (#20) and there were plenty of smaller fish top feeding. I caught a number of 12"ers like these on RS2s and Purple Reign but I spied a couple of lunkers in a hole and spent a half hour fishing to the biggest one; he was probably 2 feet long. After 20 floats with different depths I finally hooked up... after a torpedo run for the hinterlands I lost him when my bug rig snapped off with him. Nutha day; I know where you live.

Afterward we headed to Brantley's for awesome pulled pork from Scott's Traeger and hazy IPAs from 4 Noses &  Sidecut and Grenache from Herman Story. Matthew was back from Montana!

Brantleys Rock Summit County 24Sep20-26Sep20

Our GR8 friends Scott Brantley & Peggy visited us for a couple days @ the Nest. Of course we rode bikes, drank wine & beer, partied @ ORB and hiked. Scott & I started with an audit of the new Nest Theater - Scott bought a couple CDs right there as he discovered Reina del Cid. We were enjoying the ORB Color Book & In The Steep hazy IPAs.

After some breakfast, recovery time, and coffee from a nice gifted French press and Seattle's Best in the AM, we rode to Keystone and back. The colors were awesome, the rise was gradual but with some unfilled crevices; we were pleased to log the 18 miles despite slightly smoky air.

We chilled in the afternoon, learning about the Gates' Foundation keen efforts in polio, waste treatment and energy. We then enjoyed an Oyster Ridge cab blend with Mexican food that night. We arose whenever we wanted and readied for a climb up Shrine Mtn south of Vail Pass. It was a good, mostly colorless, hike but one which revealed views of some of our key mountain ranges: the Gore Range (bg of cantilever image), 10 Mile Range (bg of DRC in front of Copper), and even Mt Of The Holy Cross (tallest pk in bg of team selfie - hence the name Shrine) near Aspen. We stopped at ORB for some fine beer and Bird Cafe nosh afterward and then took in the great movie of Hamilton on Disney and a spa ride. Great couple days with our world traveler friends who are now "in our family circle."

Browns On The Gore 23Sep20

With the Crusher cracked radiator replaced I let out to Vail Valley to fish the Gore in the PM. Great fall aspen colors along the way and a willing Gore Ck on arrival at the confluence with the Eagle River. I caught a half doz browns 13"-17"; just browns this day, but didn't get many pics as I flipper failed the Hero cam settings I guess. The water is thin and the fish are in holes and hit the #20 DCEZBHWD40 and the one w/o a bead. Fun time with the repaired 2 weight.

Welcome To Fall All - It's Short In The Rockies; Enjoy It 22Sep20

 Color pan from the Nest...

E1 Camper Repairs 16Sep20

I took the day for chores and to repair & update the camper. Stuff failed or broke during the Gunny outing - Yoho was tough on the digs and I wanted to do an electrical update. I've always wanted a defeat switch for the audio head unit as it draws down the battery unnecessarily and shines into the guest bed at night. Done; here are undefeated and defeated images - the battery charge indicator still works - yeah, I'm low. I was gonna call it the "Jim Switch" but he wears night shades so is unfettered with lighting.

Still on electrical we noted that one of the brake/turn lights was out and replaced the good bulb with another good bulb (got plenty now) on the road. At home I investigated and fixed wiring in the camper-to-puller plug and fixed the issue. The reminder is the smidge of red electrical tape showing.

On to plumbing - yech. The drain hose broke off the threaded seating at 25° - not a biggie I'd hoped. Yet, the fail resulted in my needing to replace the entire drain and trap assembly as it was all glued solid. Going to Lowe's for 1.5" ABS tinker toys to fashion a new one is brutal. The new system is shown on the bottom. Unfortunately too I lost the outside metal nut for the drain and had to trim-to-fit a styrene one (which I'll replace with some search time on Amazon for the right part) but it functions.

The equipment box in which I store levelers, gas, chocs, and water & gas lines was found full of water when arriving in Rosy Lane. The gas lines were full of water and needed to be blown out with a compressor. I disassembled all the parts, blew them out and dry and reassembled. Too, I fixed the leak in the box with JBWeld.

I also noted some needs for lubricant and went thorough with silicone spray on the many moving parts in a pop-up.

UPDATE 03Oct20 - I received the right nut to properly reassemble the sink drain on the exterior of the camper and so did. Amazingly this $6 part was hard to find and I had to acquire it online.