Duh! Yeh! We're in the Rockies

I had no real plan for Friday.  I packed up and set out with my atlas.  My cousin lives in Estes park and although she was out of town she really thought it would be worth checking out.  It's also had a nice river to potentially fish!   

I got into Fort Collins then headed west up the canyon towards Estes park.  This canyon contains the big Thompson river and was one of the areas decimated by the floods they had last year.  It was a fairly tight canyon with tall and steep walls.   This area was littered with small cabins lining the banks of the big Thompson.  The amount of destruction caused by the floods was terrifying.  Houses were just flattened.  Some lifted off the ground, only to be found somewhere down stream.  Many of them were literally cut in half.  You could see couches and kitchens perfectly from the road.  You really get to soak it all in because there is still major road construction and stream renovation going on, pretty slow moving.  

Enough with the despressing stuff...  I emerged out of the canyon and into Estes park, with an incredible view of Rocky Mountain national park.   It was warm and not a cloud in the sky.  I found the outflow of the resevoir and decided to fish.  This was a Friday morning and a completely different fishing scene then I was used to...  The river was packed!!!  People were fishing almost on top of each other.   So I slithered my way into a small spot and went to work.   Multiple fish hitting the surface and I had been watching people catch fish that were  three feet in front on them.  It wasn't long until I hooked into some beautiful fish! 

Unfortunately this floppy fish pic is the only one I got.  But very healthy rainbows for days!! 

The one spot my cousin said I needed to see was the Stanley hotel.   This hotel was the inspiration for Stephen kings "The Shinning".  It was also were it was filmed. Apparently King and his wife stayed in the hotel, which was already at that time known for some ghostly happenings, and saw things out of the ordinary then wrote the book.   The other truly legendary work of art that was partly filmed there was Dumb and Dumber!   The scenes that were shot there can be seen here. 

And I got a pic with this gem, which is still in the same location as when the movie was shot. 

WE LANDED ON THE MOON!!!!

The hotel itself was a magnificent place and mostly originally.  I imagine the grand hotels, during the early days of my home town looked very similar inside and out. 

It had an ok view.  

I took rt7 through the mountains south, into boulder.  From there I hopped on the highway and headed through the construction and traffic nightmare of Denver.  I immediately missed the mountains.   I set my sites on a place called deckers on the south platte river.

A very tight winding road finally leads you to banks, seeing the river made the drive seem totally worth it.  

As the day was winding down, I decided it was more important to find a campsite then to fish right away.  I drove past three, the first empty but no wind protection, second was full of a large Mexican family reunion with a sectioned off crowd of very terrifying teenage rednecks who insisted I stayed and partied, the third was right on the banks of the river with plenty of trees in a deep ravine.   I picked the latter. 

Painfully I had to pay a site fee since the camp steward drove around right after I arrived.   It was worth it in the long run though, my neighbors for the evening were a bunch of folk my age from Denver who wanted out of the city for the weekend.   They kindly invited me down for dinner and we drank around the campfire til the wood ran out and copious amounts of alcohol were consumed.   

The next morning I woke up early, somehow, and set out to fish.  Already at 8am the river was packing up with fishermen and ladies.  I couldn't believe how many people were fly fishing.  It was like musical chairs, everyone moving to the next whole at the same time.  By about 10 I'd had enough.  I caught one nice brown and headed back.  I returned to the smell of pancakes that my neighbors had been cooking.  They insisted I come down and indulge with them in exchange for some fly fishing lessons, I happily agreed.   I strung up another rod and took a few of them down to the banks for a fly fishing crash course.   Most of them got a hang of casting fairly quickly.   But before any catching took place, check out time arrived.  I said my goodbyes and headed south towards forest park.  

Around the fire the night before there was talk of a big storm coming.  One with colds temps and potentially quite a bit of snow. So I wanted to get on my way south to see if I could juke around it.  

The next destination was a place called 11 mile canyon. This is east of gunnison co, about the same lattitude.  On the way in I decided to stop at a little convience store and get some beer.  While in there I saw a computer set up to get your fishing license online.  For some reason I just had a feeling it would be a good idea to get one, so I did, it was a lucky decision. 

I have to give a big shout out to western rivers fly shop back in Utah.  I brought in my atlas one day, telling the guys my proposed route and seeing if they had any suggestions.   They circled on my atlas some of the most beautiful trout streams I have ever seen.  11 mile canyon was one of those.  Clear green water, huge boulders all along the banks, and plenty of eating fish!   Not mention some really cool rock tunnels! 

And a double one 

I stopped a few places and fished on the way up, with pretty good luck on a dry dropper. 

I stopped near the dam and while I was fishing guess who pulls up...  Colorado game warden!   He came up to me and asked how I was doing, I told him great and about how amazing the area was.  He abruptly asked for my fishing license. With a huge shit eating grin I presented my license.   This was the first time in my life I had been asked to show a fishing license and it just so happened to be one of the extremely few times I actually had one!  He was very friendly after and he gave me directions to a place I could primitive camp as well direction to colorados "dream stream" which I will be hitting tomorrow!  

I found a nice little spot off the beaten path and made camp.  I still had a bit of day light left so I decided to clean my .22 and shoot some cans.   Just as much fun as when I was ten. 

 After a few shots I finally hit the pop top bullseye.  

That's all for now.  Hittin the dream stream tomorrow!!

Wild West

When I looked out my tent Wednesday morning, the skies were clear and flaming  gorge resevoir was dead calm.   I had spent the night before reading a trout unlimited magizine lucky lisle gave to me.  It had an article in it about a place in Wyoming called little mountain.  It contained a very small stream, about 3 feet wide, which held native cutthroats.  This was a random place for these fish since it was a high desert and water was scarce.  It just so happens that it was on route to my next destination, green river wyoming. 

My first new state on the trip!!  I drove north on rt191 and saw the towering land mass called little mountain. The area was much larger than it's name led on to believe.   I drove down dirt roads and searched for the small stream but all I found was dried up creek beds.  I'm sure some locals knew where to find it and would most likely keep it's location hidden to the grave.  

So on I went. Rt191 climbs up extremely high on a ridge line where you had a 360 degree of everything, or nothing depending on what you were looking for. Seventy miles to route 80, seventy miles of absolutely nothing but rocks and sage brush.   

Since my mission to find the small stream failed I decided to hit the laundry mat.  I had forgotten how exspensive those places were!   Afterwards I met up with my friend Kate who I had met in salt lake but was originally from rock springs wyoming.  Her brother joe now resides in green river and had offered up a roof over my head for the night and to take me fishing on the gorge.  

We left around three and got to a secret spot down a long dirt road he had fished many times before, that produces a plethora of meaty rainbows.  By this time the wyoming winds had really kicked up and we decided fly rods were not going to cut it so we broke out some spinning rods, his secret lures, and headed to the bank.  The shore line was very loose rock and you could tell by the water coloring that it dropped sharply at the bank to a depth of about fifty feet.  Joes instructions were to cast it out far, let it sink for a few seconds then slowly twitch in... I hooked into a beautiful deep purple rainbow on the first cast!!

After that the hits kept coming! 

I think we caught about twenty fish total.  All big healthy rainbows.  Oh and it was a treat to have "real" beer again!  

We left at Sundown to head back to joes where Kate and joes girlfriend Ashley had prepared a wild game feast.  Featuring cuts from joes deer and moose he shot this year.  It was by far the best game meat I have ever tasted.  Accompanied by cauliflower, potatoes, joes secret sauce(he has got a lot of secret things), and finished with an ice cream sandy.  I got to sleep on an air mattress as well!!  Great food and wonderful hospitality, thank you Joe, Ashley, and Kate! 

I left in the AM intent on hitting the north platte river south east of Rawlins wyoming.  I had heard good things about this stretch and fish with in it.  The ride east on rt80 was fast and easy.  I had about a twenty five mile an hour tail wind that resulted in some fantastic MPGs.  But then I turned south and was slammed with wind.   I arrived at a little town on the platte with a familiar name to it. 

They also had a hot spring!!  What are the chances??  In the town I stopped at a local fly shop to see how the river was. It was completely blown out from the past two day thaw.   I was given some recommendations on where to fish/camp and set off south.  

Unfortunately every spot I stopped at was extremely windy and very murky from run off.  Then it started to rain/snow...  I knew my spell of great weather couldn't go on forever!   So I kept trucking south hoping for a break in the weather or Atleast a sheltered place to camp.  No luck.  I ended up only being a few miles from the Colorado border, so I dove in!  

I opted to head east towards Fort Collins in search of less rain and snow.  

It was a bit different scenery.  I was driving through Roosevelt national forest. This sent me over 10,276' Cameron pass then down the mountain on the other side.  

I was following the Poudre river down and stopped multiple times to check out the water and fish situation.  It was quite a few miles before I got below the snow line and I starting searching for a place to camp.  For a state that prides itself on being so liberal and albeit hippy in the eyes of the rest of the country,  it sure has a lot of "No" signs.   Trying to find a primitive camp spot with in this national forest proved to be very difficult.  The scenery made up for my frustration.  Steep canyon walls following a stellar river that reminded me of the Ellis river in New Hampshire where my grandma lived. 

I stopped and talked to a hiker who said there was one camp area open a few miles down the road that was open.  I'm not sure if some one broke the locks or it was actually open but I passed about ten other sites with the gates closed, so I pulled in and set up camp.  After the tent was up I put on waders and hit the river which was right next to my truck.  All this after I tapped into an old friend from back east who I found in a cooler in Wyoming... 

I did not see any fish at all. I walked the river a bit, checking rocks to see what kind of creepy crawlies were lurking, and decided on a dry dropper.  The combo work and I hooked into this furotious little guy. 

I caught a few more little fish then headed back to my camp.  The winds died down, I made food, and relaxed with some blue heavys.  

Headed to the green

Tuesday morning was clear and sunny.  A trend I have been experiencing that I truly hope continues.  I closed up shop at the site and headed back down to jones hole to get some morning fishing in.  I stopped into the hatchery and talked to one of the seasonal workers who lived there.   He was from vernal but said he hadn't fished this gem of a creek in a year and he lived there!   We talked about some fishing destinations he recommended in Colorado and New Mexico.  I urged him to string up his rod and hit the river!   That is what I did promptly after.  

Plenty of stellar fish all hitting the surface.   I had on an elk hair caddis and the fish couldn't resist!  This river had pretty thick foliage all the way up and down and I caught almost as many fish as trees.  Just before I left and right after losing a fly in the trees I decided to tie on a fly that I tied before I left.  This fly really didn't look like much of any thing specific but it was sort of buggy.  The second rock I casted behind I got a hit and pulled a fish in.  The first ever fish I had caught on my own tied fly.   A special fish on an amazing stretch of water that I will never forget. 

I found a way to get from my current quardanants to rt191 and then onto the green without back tracking.  Albeit lots of dirty, muddy roads but it was worth the scenery.   I saw wildlife everywhere in the forms of rabbits, deer, and lots of pronghorns.   

Jones hole drained me of a lot of fly gear and I stopped at a fly shop/convience store right before the dam.  There I met lucky Lisle, a fly fishing drift guide of the green who operated out of the shop. We exchanged quite a few fish stories and he was taken back by the rivers I had visited while in Utah and on the trip thus far.  After I paid for the most exspensive flys and beer on the planet, I said my good byes to lisle and the staff and lisle offered me a trip "off the meter" if I ever returned.   I headed down to little hole at the beginning of section B of the Green River. 

This was a biggggg river!  I was told you could wade fish it up and down from the boat ramps at little hole.  I saw some fish rising and multiple BWOs flying around.  I couldn't coerxt any of the fish to take the imitation.   It was very intimidating seeing the size of the river and the amount of places fish could be.   While by the ramps a hawk dove into the water about twenty yards in front of me, emerging from the water with a 15" brown trout in its claws, quite the site.  Along the way I also saw some familiar back east friends, blue herons! 

I decided to head up stream and around the bend to explore the river as much as I could before sunset.  The water was super clear and when the wind would calm down I could see fish all along the banks not feeding on the surface.  So I strung up a dry dropper rig with a stimulator and one of Lisa's little red riding hood nymphs.  I hooked into a nice size rainbow on the dropper right off the bat.  

And another.. And one more.  Then to my suprise a brown on my top fly.  Stimulators are my favorite flys and it felt great to get a fish on one again.  Summer is coming!  

I hiked about a mile upstream, fishing a bit, mainly watching the drift boats go by that some day I will try.  On the way back I spotted a nice size brown feeding in the shallows, one cast about five feet in front of him got a bite! 

I headed back to the truck and started my search for a place to camp.  There was one campground in the area and strictly enforced no primitive camping.  I was not about to pay $15 to park my truck so I headed north on 191.   I found a pull off called jug hallow.  It was a few mile dirt road that led right to the banks of flaming gorge reservoir.  I drove around for a bit til I found a nice spot out of the wind and made camp.  

I tried fishing a bit but shore fishing just isn't my thing.  Too used to having a boat at my disposal, spoiled I know.  So I made some food and watched the sunset.  

The warmest night thus far.  Didn't even need thermals on!!  Next I am into the town of Green River in Wyoming to see some salt lake friends who live there. 

Eastern Utah

I awoke Monday morning to a wee bit of frost, not to my surprise the tent stayed relatively warm!  I decided to suit up and hit the river for an hour before I departed.  A few more fish were to be had but it was time to ramble on. 

I travelled a dirt road that followed the strawberry river from the pinnacles all the way to starvation resevoir.   At this point I was torn between heading straight to section b of the green river or head to a spot in far north eastern Utah.    I opted for the latter... And I did not choose poorly!  

On the way to this spot you head high up on large plateau from where you can see clear into the uintas.  It was a bit cold and desolate atop this plateau and I did fear it might be a cold night.  A 10% grade sign signaled the dive into the canyon where the spot was hidden.   What a magnificent canyon it was.  Here is a view from the top. 

After quite a few miles of descending you reach the end of the road, a national fish hatchery, set at the spring that feeds the creek.  I arrived around one, put on my waders, and set out to hike down the canyon to find some fish.    There was a plethora.  It was a small stream enormous cliff walks everywhere you looked.  The water was super clear and it only took about ten seconds for me to spot fish.  And they were big!   Nice size rainbows filled every eddy and rock tail.  All were hitting the surface and after about 3 casts I hooked in my first bow. 

Beautiful fish every where I looked!   I would toss a fly behind a rock and BAM, fish on!!  I fished for a few hours until the sun was long disappeared behind the canyon walls then headed up to find a place to camp.   There is a great primitive camp site ten feet in front of the no camping sign so I dove in.  

My first fire of the trip, wood compliments of the previous dwellers.  Nothing like a beer and warm sphagettios roasting on an open fire!  The night was calm and the whole area silent.  Just a few rabbits running around.   I climbed into my tent and spent the night reading max brooks Zombie Survival guide and fiddling around with the wind up am/fm/weather radio mom got me for Christmas.  The canyon walls prohibited any sane type of broadcast and the only chatter on the small green box that I could find was the Glenn beck show on fox radio...  So I went back to reading in silence.  

My posts will most likely all be a day late. So far I have been out of service a lot.  So tomorrow I plan on posting about today's adventure, just to keep ya on your toes here is a teaser. 

Wow big surprise Scott, you are at another river...

Head out on the highway

Enough putting it off... I departed!  Spent most of the gloomy Sunday travelling around salt lake saying my good byes.  It was a bleak afare since I had such a stellar time here in Utah.  Many adventures and great friends to boot!!  But now it was time for the next chapter.  

I had a late start because my first stop was only two hours away, a place called the strawberry pinnacles.  Lisa, mark, and I had camped in this area last fall. A beautiful and desolate canyon holding within it the strawberry river.

Last time we were here we caught few fish but the scenery and solidarity was worth it.  I arrived at a spot farther up stream then I had been before and set up camp for the first time. 

I have gotten the tent sent up on lock down and it only took about ten minutes to be all said and done.  

The river is right next to my camp and the sound of the rushing water got me giddy, so I promptly set up my blue halo rod and threw on my waders.  Not a thing hitting the surface so I tossed in a wooly bugger.  I promptly got a huge hit and fish on!! Unfortunately I had very light tippet and after about 30 seconds I lost the fish.    After that I went to a dry dropper with a custom version of Lisas' own little red riding hood in brown.  After a few casts I had a fish landed!  Things are looking up! 

With in 30 minutes I had 5 fish landed!  

This river holds some beautiful browns.  All mine were around 16".  

Around seven the sun had disappeared behind the canyon walls I decided to call it for the day.   I walked back to the truck and cracked open a beer.  

Here is a view of my living room for the next few weeks.   Not a bad setup. 

So the first day is officially in the books!  Spirits are high!  Next stop, who knows. 

The first mini trip

I had mentioned to my fishing buddy Lisa that I wanted to take a few short trips before I left for the big trek cross country.  So when I received a message from her asking if I wanted to hit up joes valley this weekend for some fishing and maybe some climbing, I said yes without hesitation.  Up to this point I still had not slept in the truck top penthouse suite yet and was eager to see how well it worked in the field.  Not to mention exploring a new river!

Our destination was an area called Joes valley.  It is about 2.5 hours from Salt Lake City and pretty close to the center of the state.  This place is world renown for it's plethora of bouldering problems.  Bouldering is a type of rock climbing with no ropes or harness on shorter accents.  I talked to my buddy Tim, who is a huge climber, about where to camp and what to expect and he have me all the info I needed along with a tip to find some amazing homemade donuts along the way.   The weather was looking great with mild temps and blue skies!  Left Friday morning and arrived around 10:30 and proceeded to jump right on the river to catch some fish.  

As soon as we got there I realized why it was a climbers paradise.  Every where in the fairly narrow canyon were huge boulders that had fallen and rolled down the canyon side.  Most were very cube shaped and the right height for bouldering. 

The river itself was very low and I had heard from multiple sources the fishing would be terrible... With in the first 5 minutes Lisa hooked into a little brown on a dry fly and myself soon after.  It was going to be a good trip!  

This river was absolutely beautiful!  Clear blueish green water, with huge boulders along the shore creating nice deep pools that you could see to the bottom.  It was more of a site fishing adventure. The fish were fairly skiddish and the large boulders created great cover to sneak right up on the them. 

We really didn't see many large fish, most were 8-14", but there were plenty and they had no qualms about hitting medium size dries on the surface!  After nymphing all winter, this was a welcome change of fishing technique!  

I met a kid on the river checking out some bouldering problems who had been travelling to different climbing spots from Texas.  He said we could camp near him if we wanted and so we did.  

After leveling the truck a bit in our spot I threw the tent up with out any hiccups and made camp.  

It was a bit windy so we used the tree in the left side of the pic, to make a bit of a shelter with a tarp and the tent cover to cook and have a fire.  Our new friend Zach came over after dinner and we bummed it around the camp fire with some booze hearing each other's stories.  He had been travelling alone the past 2 months and his travels gave me a positive mental boost about my upcoming trip.   I aspire to be in the same situation as him; meeting new people, while sharing a fire, stories, and spirits. 

I think it was just around freezing that night but the wind was howling.  I quickly realized that the eyelets on the corners of the tents fly were there for a reason, with the wind the fly was flapping around quite a bit and made a horrible racket.   I got my head lamp on and in the middle night cut four pieces of para cord to tie down the eyelets to different parts of the truck. The tent works great, vents on the ceiling prevent moisture build up and there was enough room theoretically to fit 3 full size adults in there.  A bit over kill for just my self but I roll around a lot so I think I will be very content. 

The next morning we packed up the tent and the site and hit the river.  We decided to start farther up river to fish as much as we could of it in the 2 days we were there. 

There were farless bouldering up river and therefore way less people.  This was very evident in the behavior of the fish.  They were drastically more skiddish than down stream.   Now we really needed to sneak around and most holes only produced 2 fish before the rest got wise and hid away.  Nonetheless we caught a lot of fish!  Some on pretty large foam flies, like a summer day! 

Lots of stellar fish with fantastic scenery! 

Bottom line; great first trip with the new camping setup, amazing fishing, and the truck performed flawlessly.   I am really getting stoked for my departure! 

Feel free to check out Lisa's blog as well www.flyfishingruinedher.com !