Brantleys Visit Summit 02Oct23-06Oct23

After returning from their family trip to Tanzania, Scott & Peg joined us in Summit Co for some days of stuff & things in the mountains. Kala scored us a great meal of rubbed salmon and arugula salad on Mon night, and then we rested. Tue was a much wetter and colder day than recent, including snowfall. Despite the conditions we did view the colors from the deck. But then, we watched the keen mini-series Drops Of God on Apple+. It was a good story of enologists vying for inheriting the most valuable wine cellar in the world... it was in French, Japanese, and English so subtitles are vital but hearing the dialogue in original languages is a plus. Good characters, good screenplay, good acting. Dave made Dave's egg and a round of appetizers and "we" cracked a nice bottle of Edgar's 2014 barrel-age tempranillo. 

I made French toast and we finished the series binge ~ then pursued a travel day. We went up past Montezuma along the Snake River and then back down to Peru Ck and up toward Argentine Pass. Nice.

I'd read of the chef Robbie Reyes @ Breckenridge Distillery Restaurant winning best of CO for a corn uchepo dish, we booked a dinner and it was excellent. Not just the uchepo but the entire meal of Peruvian-slanted dishes. Wow.

Thursday we arose to improved weather and headed to Leadville to ride the mining loop there... it's the Mineral Belt Trail and we had a great time on the 12 mile and 750' gain & decent through Leadville and surrounding mining remnants. We caught plenty of views and color on this fun track. Of course we had great tacos at the food truck too but were unfortunately turned away from Two Mile Brewing at 2:30pm (due to their opening @ 3).

After a nice ride and tacos, Kala led us to a new monument to the many Irish who died in harsh conditions in Lake Co; they had come to Leadville to mine silver when the famine hit their island. We found all 3 Irish names in Kala's close heritage: Ryan, Murphy, and Halloran.

Peg liked the ride yesterday so much she wanted to go again; she can't walk but she sure can ride. We headed over to Frisco to do the ride to Copper Mtn on the rec path. It was chilly in the shade but we were pumping up the 10 Mile Ck grade so were going aerobic. The aspen colors are waning but there's still a smidge present. At the turn to head back down I checked out the creek and saw a couple of decent browns sunning themselves and looking for nosh... no gear on board though.

Once down and back at the cars we said our "good byes" and vowed to do it again ~ maybe with snow on the ground. Good week with our friends.

Riding The Lake; City Park Golfing; Bad Fishing On Bill's 30Sep23-02Oct23

Kala & I rode the lake rec path to the top of the ridge toward Breck. Good day but a breeze kept us busy cutting through on the way out and dusted with leaves on the return. Nice 18 mile outing with 600 ft of vert. I got a pan of our home hill, Buffalo Mtn, and the lake, in fall colors.

We caught another round of golf with Matt at the keen Denver City Park course. Our 2pm tee time had us playing 18 at sunset. Great view of the Denver skyline.

I fished William's Fork today and didn't even get a strike. This outcome is rare indeed. Sure there were a dozen cars in the lot, and sure I arrived late on the water @ 11:15am, and sure there were high gusty winds in the afternoon, and sure the wind blew a myriad of cottonwood leaves into the water messin' with the fish eyesight, and sure the flows were high at 225cfs but c'mon man, nothing worked. I left early. That's the confluence of the William's Fk with the Colorado.

Brantley's are inbound for some days in Summit. I wish the weather was gonna be better.

Fall On The Arkansas Headwaters ~ All Brownies 29Sep23

I hopped over Fremont Pass into Lake Co and fished the headwaters of the Arkansas River south of Leadville today. It was another great day in the mountains and I chose to wet wade again. It was cold "early" @ 10:45am ~ I began at the first bridge crossing and fished up from there. I caught a couple small German browns but persisted with my rig of purple chubby (no action), tung head FBPT, and RS2. Yeah that's Mt Elbert & Mt Massive overseeing my efforts. Subsurface got some action but I didn't go too far, as a kid from Oregon (I learned back at the car) jumped right in front of me; I headed back to find another spot.

My next pull off was at Hayden Meadows where again I started alone. I hiked down 1/2 mile and fished back up to the car. The water was more comfortable and had more holding spots. The Rodfather Endless Wisdom tossed the same rig well ~45ft, even as the wind began to blow. Fortunately it was blowing upstream. I did better here with another half doz browns ~ mostly on the BHFBPT but some on a green copper john and more on the RS2. No surface action or bug sign at all today.

It takes me less than an hour to roll down to the Ark HW... not too bad. The fish are not very big here but it's fun; one has to chose a light rig to match the bounty. Evidence on this high up part of the Arkansas suggests the browns are still in good shape here, vs some other CO rivers or sections. Colors are popping in Lake Co too.

So Long A Cafe & Up To Buffalo Cabin 28Sep23

Kala & I headed to say "so long" to Arapaho Cafe this morning... Oct 15th will bring the closing of a classic in Summit County. This just after we said goodbye to Baker's. Grrr. Back at the Nest the continuing aspen blaze moved us to head out and hike.

We headed up the Royal Buffalo Spur through the burn zone into the Eagles Nest Wilderness on a 4.4 mile and 777 ft elevation jaunt to the Buffalo Mtn Cabin. Warm but gorgeous for late Sep; it was strangely still air.

With Endless Wisdom I Wet Waded Gore Ck 27Sep23

That's a rod, the Rodfather Endless Wisdom (RFEW) 8'6" 3wt. I wet waded the Gore at the West Vail frontage end and the dawg park today, toting the RFEW. I think it was my first field use of this purple weapon. It's lighter and slower than my main 3 wt so I needed to slow my casting ~ it was great once I dialed in. Gore Ck is very thin right now at the end of the season though there was plenty of tiny bug sign on arrival at ~10:30am. The pass in each section yielded mostly modest browns; they were fooled by a purple chubby, a rainbow warrior, and a black DCEZWD40 (with and without black nickel beadhead). The latter took most of the fish; I landed over a half doz on the day but just one rainbow... far from epic but I was alone.

The aspen colors in Vail, as they are in Summit, are at the peak right now. I even caught a strange shot over a nearby playground. However, there was a 30min neck down to one lane at Copper when returning to the Nest.

Matt's still playin' golf near sunsets and he caught this cool pic of Denver while finishing at Denver City Pk GC.