Visiting Friends & Family In NorCal 04Dec21-10Dec21

Kala & I broke out to NorCal to visit great and old friends and family. Yep, this is plane travel and seeing plenty of folks in new unknown spots. The plane ride to SFO was fine but that UA cancelled our flight on the day of and I had to rebook later in the day ~ that resulted in our moving from Eco+ to the back bathroom. We first went to Mtn View to stay with Ed & Laurie and visit with Bill Goodman. We hiked the Bay Wetlands and saw many cool varied ducks and tasted great red snapper and poppy seed dessert @ E&L's keen bungalow. We did an "architecture hike" around MV to observe the huge Google investment in the area, a dichotomy of housing approaches in increasing density, and otherwise fill the lungs with NorCal air and smells. A blast of a visit.

Off to Napa we rode, to visit our good friends Mike & Betsy and our good friend, their kid, Lisa and her kids. Betsy had some recent setbacks and we saw her in a nursing facility helping her convalesce from cellulitis in her right foot. She was pretty well and Mike and young Lisa & kids were good but concerned for Betsy/Mom/Grandma. Lisa is a 5th grade teacher in a Napa grade school that Mazi attends. Her 11 mo old Obi is a beast and tended daily in daycare while Lisa is @ work. The boys are keen and Lisa is coping well and gorgeous as always. Be well Kerr-Jordans.

The last leg of the NorCal swing was to see my cousins Ken & Steph Pardee (and their friends and peeps) in Berkeley. We did that. We enjoyed "evening around the fire with Ken" at his house Wed night with too many beers (stoked by Ken's friends Amy & Andy of FICO - no pic @ night and a pre-load at the good Fieldwork brewery), then caught up with Steph for Mex lunch on Thu after a climb up the steep hill in Berkeley. We chilled on Thu evening with some of Ken's golfing buddies, Frank and Jerry, from Berkeley CC (Mira Vista).

 

Fri we headed to meet Wendy Kesser, Ken's girlfriend, in the city for Fri lunch. She has a gorgeous home high above SF in the Sea Cliff area. Nice home, great lady and a good time regaling with her. We look forward to some more of that.

 

We've had a great update on all the Pardees and derivatives even including a zoom with Uncle Steve, now 92, back in NJ. And we learned of Ruth's baby Mills, making Uncle Steve a great grandad! All awesome after a couple of years sitting out. Another shot with Ken & I on his brand new Tesla before we headed back to CO.

Smalls On Shock Day @ PT 02Dec21

The weather was again over 70°, so gorgeous. The flows were ~70cfs but water was turbid. I hit the water @ Nature Center ~10am and hiking in noticed the CO Parks & Wildlife trailering trucks again... that means shocking for fish inventory. It also means weak fishing if one is near the team. I caught some, all small, at the weirs above the farm but as the shockers came I skedaddled downstream. Decent #22 BWO hatch at 11am. The state was "landing" plenty of big ones with lots of hoots & hollers. The RFT5 was fine but my fishing "luck" was not epic, 'cept bein' out on the river again. Kinda crowded but we were all fooled by CPW.

Thanksgiving Week 25Nov21-30Nov21

Well we have a lot to be thankful for but I'll shorten the list here to being able to hang with Matt & Alexa for Thanksgiving. We dined a lot, drank a little, gamed twice (they brought a fun new game gift for us called Splendor!), streamed comics and tunes a smidge, and otherwise solved world problems. We even ventured to Mtn Lion for green chili sauce Friday morning. Very thankful time.

Kala and I stayed in Summit despite, or perhaps as a result of, the 60° days. We enjoyed the walks, the weekend's football games, some good movies (Passing, Mad Women's Ball, others) and did some housework.

Kala and I also hit Outer Range to spend the Golden Ticket. What a blast with beers, Bird Cafe, and a cool sunset. We even capped the night with Trivia (the oldest team by far) as team KaDa.

Pre-TGiving Runs With Sheldon 24Nov21

I was fortunate to catch some Thanksgiving eve runs with Dave Sheldon today. We chose Keystone for all the reasons early season. We arrived at 8:30am at the lift and the lines were not bad but we still took singles and got separated. We had a great time grabbing vert, including a massive opening of Spring Dancer, heh heh. It snowed all morning on us a was a bit colder than expected without the sun. Field trial of the Native DropZone goggles was very successful ~  they fit my narrow head; they didn't fog up in likely conditions; the green lighter lens was perfect for a snowy day; and the big edge-to-edge rounded lens yielded a great field of view. I rode with several families from Missouri, Georgia and Florida, all of which bought Epic Pass Local for everyone just for the Thanksgiving trip - Vail sure does their price elasticity of demand testing well. Skiing with Dave was a great time but ultimately became a dodge-ski as the few open runs became pretty crowded. I bailed about noon and headed to the new Steep spot and enjoyed a beer and pizza. As I passed the lift tix office I observed a 1/4 mile long line across the bridge back into the village to retrieve/buy tickets - sheesh! Noted at Steep was that the taps included many alt Summit brews as Steep's smallish brewing site (they just expanded) couldn't keep pace with demand generated in the new spot; good for them. Pizza is acceptable but bready.

Rod & Ride In Pueblo And Ute & Trinity With Yoho 17Nov21 & 19Nov21

Jim and I took an afternoon roll around Ute and the Rise continues to climb as needed. It was a nice afternoon and plenty of folks were out on the trails. We took the extension toward and back from the frontage road so scored plenty of pedal hits; I even scored another bar blast but didn't go down. Ute is cool and we did a nice ~7.5 miler but it's far from flowy in most spots. We capped with some brews at Trinity. Neither of us had been there in years so it was pretty fun, but Jim didn't have his wallet.

Today I went to Pueblo to try the PT. It was a nice 70° again and the flows were stable at 73cfs but the turbidity is still there. I arrived at 9:15am and did get my new Nature Center annual membership, just $25 for a senior, so that's 5 outings and I likely do more than 10. The guides beat me to the farm and the weir above it so I dropped into weir #3 above NC parking and did some damage - but not as big today as prior or elsewhere. I did finally get to move to the nice weir above the farm and hooked a nice brown TWICE but did not close... grrr. There was a decent late am BWO hatch and then grey midge activity if you are scoring. The rod bend is just a hookup of a big boy before breakoff.

After lunch I hit the Pueblo Lk SP trails for a 13 miler with the Rise on Profile 2. It's not a trail demanding that profile but I just hadn't tried it yet. I spent almost the entire ride in eco (lowest) mode so who knows really but none of the trail was an issue and I flew it at over 10mph on average. So yeah - it works - the Rise is a hoot and it's getting me back out there. I did have a major pedal strike on a rock I did not see right at the end. It stopped me dead and threw me off the bike but for just a bruised palm. Phew.

Another Nice CoWW Outing On The PT 15Nov21

Jim, Andy, Greg and I stole south and east to the PT again today. A Greg sighting on the Front Range is rare and awesome. Flows were reduced by half to just 69cfs today - which kindof dampened fishing as the big ones were seeking new lies. On top of that, the river is still stained and the CO Fish & Game were out shocking to take inventory. Nonetheless, much was done with tiny dries catching mostly tiny fish. I stayed the course nymphing (with RS2, Jimi's Ax and Blood Midge) and did manage some larger fish including this nicer 18"er during a modest fall BWO hatch. Weather remains spectacular. The RFT5 with Evo LTX was a blast. Another fun outing with fishing buddies but we did depart early with the modest performance.

GR8 Day On The PT And Fishing Was Decent 10Nov21

Jim, Andy and I hit the Pueblo tailwater of the Ark today on somewhat of a recon effort. We arrived about 9:30am and while it was windy, it was warmish ~60°+. We did the Nature Center in the AM and moved up to the Valco Ponds SP area for afternoon. Morning was decent with many fish caught on all manner of bugs. For me the silver surfer, blax ice and blood midge fooled the most cutbows but the team was tossing the kitchen sink and it all seemed to work. The flows were good at ~125cfs but the water is still stained green and full of fallen leaves which we often snagged. I caught a number of 15"-18" fish and Yoho caught a nice one farming the bank area above the 3rd, and biggest, weir. Andy hooked many but landed fewer. We had a blast and closed with a nice dinner at Cerberus.

Today was the first field trial for the RFT5. Simply put: "it's spectacular." It was light in the hand all day as hoped, and it was smooth and dreamy to cast with accuracy. The mated Ross Evo LTX was gorgeous, with a great drag system to slow even my biggest fish and retrieved quickly and smoothly. The RFT5 system is a blast and will surely be my go to 5 weight.