We got together with Jim & Mary in Denver for a packed set of events over a couple days, and a gracious stay at their keen downtown condo. First up was Meow Wolf, a very cool mixed media permanent art installation. It was amazing - 147 funky artists' installations among an integrated maze-like gallery. The land used for the building would otherwise be a waste beneath roadway ramps so even that was cool. We had a blast. Highly recommended.
Wow what a cool and easy bike ride. DD turned me on to this and I convinced Kala she'd kill it and enjoy it ~ mission accomplished on both. The Mineral Belt is a loop trail just south of and through Leadville, CO. It is an excellent 11.8mi with just 760ft vert ride through a cool town, past mining remnants, with killers views of Elbert and Massive, and through a largely (beetle kill) in-tact evergreen forest. It was a blast. I rode the CroMo Magic Carpet Ride I built for just this kindof thing. It was sparsely ridden, though eBikes aplenty were there, and smooth as I've ever seen ~ great job Lake County! Afterward we hit the Visitor Center so Kala could prep for the pending "Cousins Weekend" she's hosting on LDWE... and we went to Matchless Mine to gather G2 as well. The weather was great and I treated Kala to outside dining at the (acknowledged) awesome taco truck in Leadville - La Mina Tacos & Mariscos - I know it from fishing the headwaters - she loved it and I believe it is some of the best I've had. Out of baja shrimp today but chef prepared killer chix tacos at $3 each! Highly recoomend the trail and the tacos. Chron...
I remeasured the frequency response in the Nest Office (with REW); this is a tough room to achieve hifi (w/o headphones), with just modest NHT speakers. I can make it as good as it can get by exploiting the miniDSP 2x4HD that I didn't use in the NestT. Once I had the raw SPL response curve I used REW to generate a set of parametric equalization filters (PEQs) that would adjust the raw to closer to my house curve. Fortunately REW directly exports a filter format file importable by the 2x4HD DSP. All is right now for tying flies while listening to tunes. A sub would be nice, as you can see.
The rains came hard in Summit for the last two days and most of the creeks and freestones swelled and stained. I noted Williams Fk, while high at ~225cfs, would be doable and was fairly unaffected by the rain. I headed up to Grand Co for my first outing to Bill's this season (it had either been too low or too high thus far). Unfortunately repaving forced single lane traffic along Green Mtn rez on the way out (note to self, go through Heeney on the way back). Arriving a smidge later than hoped I was greeted by lots of folks with the same knowledge at the trailhead. Some set out together on the 30 min hike to the river. Despite the flows I decided to wet wade and it felt fine. I was wielding the Rodfather Diamond Blaze, an ultralight 8.5' 4wt which is very target savvy. I made my way to the mouth of the WFk with the Colorado as I wanted to make a full pass from there to (nearly) the dam on this fine but short tailwater. Unfortunately after only 30 minutes the tip snapped off as I was moving through bushes streamside - I don't really know what happened; I just heard a snap. Grrr... I've already written Mudhole/MHX to see if I can get a new tip section for this $150 blank; extras were not offered upon initial purchase. I hiked out to the car and decided against rearming and rehiking - I headed back to the Nest.
It rained hard again yesterday and today out here in Summit Co. Weather was gonna start at 2pm today so my plan to get to Williams Fk was kindof thwarted. I headed to the Gore instead which is getting lower and warmer with every day. Fishing was meh but I did catch a "tiny triple" of brown, 'bow and cutty. All fish were ~12"-14", so unlike my last outing here. Caddis larva worked but the real winner was a #20 black ice, especially during the mid-day BWO hatch; only one brown took the chubby. One other fish ran hard and broke off on a rock covered in plant-life and; he stole my black ice and I don't know it's real size as I never saw him. No pictures of anything today as I put the Hero cam in the holder backwards and only have the sky, sun, stream and trees behind me to show for my documentation efforts.
Kala and I headed up the great new recreation path extension from Wheeler Flats (near Copper) to part way up toward Freemont Pass today. This is an excellent start toward Freemont along the 10 Mile Ck grade. The wildflowers are still popping everywhere in Summit and the day was beautiful 70°. At the current extent of the path there is a spectacular new bridge over the creek and over Rt 91 at the Climax entrance. There's quite a lot left to complete the path to Freemont Pass but the new 3.3 mi section is a relatively easy grade (~650ft vert) the entire way and feels much more remote than it is. We just did 10 miles, not knowing yet the difficulty ~ this is a good addition when riding to Copper and not wanting the full Vail Pass experience. We had fun and closed out with lunch at Dillon Dam, during which a driving rain appeared early so our timing was awesome.
