Saturday, January 31, 2009

We had to go down and get Bodhi some food and we grabbed a new toy while we were at it. This one's an Octopus. He seems to really like it. Or at least he did until we gave him another treat.



These are hooves from some type of animal (cow I think) and they are packed full of some peanut butter/starch/molasses mixture. It looks just like the stuff that's in a Resses peanut butter cup. I tried to get Heather to taste it before we gave them to the dogs but she wouldn't. These things are pretty big.





Dharma destroys all toys in a hurry. She tears this bone into shards and he stands by and waits until pieces become available and then....he eats them. Tomorrow he will poop the ones out that he swallows before I get to him.


First kill

Bodhi and Dharma have tag teamed innocent stuffed animals before but Bodhi took his first independent kill this morning. He successfully ripped all the stuffing out of his favorite stuffed animal that's shaped like a little pig. The poor animal has been legless for weeks now but he wasn't able to get the body open until this morning. Now it's just a pig skin cloth. After he was satisfied with his work I noticed his new big dog goatee.

Friday, January 30, 2009

SPOT

I need to get another one before I start this years CTR. They normally sell for 150 but there's a rebate going on now for 50. I haven't been able to find the rebate coupon anywhere but I got an email from REI telling me about it. It's a really nice piece of equipment. If you want one....now would be a good time to get one. I'll put up a link for the coupon if/when I find one.

Mountain lion



So the word on the street is that there's been a mountain lion spotted numerous times around town here. I've been keeping my eyes on full alert but I know the odds of a visual are not in my favor. I would give up all the hair on my head to see one under the right circumstances but I know people that spend just as much time in the outdoors as I do and have lived in kitty country all their lives and never seen one. Although...I don't trust that logic all too much. I know one of those same people that had never seen a bear until recently and I actually think I see a decent number of those each year.


If I could work for the department of wildlife and be gauranteed a solid job with about as much pay as I get as a teacher, it'd be damned tempting to quit. I'm fascinated with wildlife. We see more bear activity in the city during those times when they are hungrier (spring and fall). The rest of the time, they generally stay away from the city (unless they're eating shrimp and oysters from my neighbors front lawn???!!!). There are cats around here all the time. Yet, we don't generally see them. The deer population (main food source) has not declined. What causes a cat to roam into town...during the day...routinely? What's the change that causes that? This picture is from a trail camera used by hunters that are scouting an area and want to get an idea of what kind of traffic is moving through the area at night. It's pretty cool.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My buddy Adam 12 put me on this website. I haven't been able to stop perusing it and all the fine Vanagons that are on it. If you dig Vans, check it out. If you don't, go make a sandwich.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Looking stupid

Yesterday I bought one of those Bluetooth ear pieces for my phone. I think I look really stupid with it on but my phone is one of the darn touch screens and I end up hanging up on people all the time because my ear touches the screen. I thought I'd try one and it seems to work pretty well. That's all for that.

Vanagons on the horizon

I'm still waiting to hear back from the owner of this beautiful canary yellow specimen that is waiting up in Littleton for me. This is not a Westie but it does posess many of the Westie options on the inside that woul dallow me to take up semi-permanent residence inside. The sign says it all.


Heather actually likes this one the best so far.

This is the one I made kind of a late night call on last night. I spoke with a woman about it. I wasn't afraid to put the charm on her. Not sure if it was a deal breaker. She said she'd let me know. From the sound of it, I gathered that it might not be hers or that she needed to check with someone else. She may be getting an unsuspecting call back later on today when Heather makes a run for the Safeway. This is actually what I want. This is an 89 Carat Weekender. These had the bigger bumpers, slightly lower suspension, and 5 spoke wheels. Inside it has the queen size bed, a fold up table and the chairs directly behind the drivers/passengers chairs are situated such that face the rear. Oh dear lord I hope she calls me.

This is one I've been watching for about a month now. It's actually at the bottom of the mountain as you're heading to Colorado Springs. The owner has apparently decided to not get it repaired so this shop is trying to sell it for him. It has low compression in the #1 cylinder. I suspect that this one is suffering from the all too common Vanagon blown head gasket. This would necessitate close to $1000 and a bit of time to pull the motor and do a rebuild on. I spit on it though...as the owner is not interested in a trade for a Jeep that has perfectly good compression.


I have received half a dozen emails today from as far away as San Francisco telling me a stern no. Blast!!! The glory WILL be mine!!!

Frat boy

I was never in a fraternity but when I think about movies that have portrayed fraternities (Revenge of the Nerds, Old School, Animal Houseetc.) I can't help but look at Bodhi and smile. He's just like the characters in those movies. Sometimes when he drinks water, he just gulps it down like he's chugging cheap beer. Then afterwards...he'll heave some of it up on the floor or couch or whatever and just go on about his business...sometimes laying in it. He scratches himself in places that only he can/would be willing to reach. He farts and they smell like he pulled an all nighter drinking Pabst and eating Taco Bell. Truly he's disgusting. He also has this thing that he really likes to do that I find rather strange. He enjoys cleaning ears with his tongue. He licks out the inside of Dharma's ears. She loves it. He'll spend upwards of 10 minutes on one ear. Yesterday I'm driving and he's up on the center console cleaning out my right ear. It was kinda nice. I think if I were to close my eyes, it might be kinda hot. But...that would be weird then wouldn't it?

Saturday, January 24, 2009

This is what I'm talking about!

I'm not real crazy about the camo paint but I wouldn't necessarily change it either. It's nicely done. What I do like is the attention to detail on the wheels. I believe those are off an RS4 (not exactly sure...I can't tell if those are deep dish or not) so there was a bit of work to get them to fit. Regardless...they're the beez kneez. I would full on live in this thing. Lord knows how many fly rods and bikes I could fit in there and STILL sleep like a king. Eventually...if I kept it long enough...I could think about doing a...Subaru conversion. Heather would be absolutely thrilled!!!


Come on people!!!!!!!

The search for a pimpin' Vanagon continues. I have come to the realization that I am not going to find a Westie. That's fine. I'm graceful in defeat. However...I just spoke with a woman in Colorado Springs that has a sweet Weekender. When I asked if she wanted to trade for a super killer Jeep, she said, "Mehhhhbehhhhh". She's gonna let me know tomorrow. I also have emails out to 2 owners in Montana (ones a Syncro which I don't know that I'd want and the other's an 84 with a new motor, trans and clutch). I also tracked down a stellar van in Boulder City, Nevada and left a message with them. When I say that I've got the feelers out there, you can be 100% sure that they're out there.

Water!!

The boil order has been officially lifted! Good thing too because the dishes were piling up in the sink and we didn't know what do. What a pain.

Other things worth noting:
1. Grad school has begun again. I'm in the home stretch though as fas as classes left to take but I don't feel any smarter.

2. Training is going exceptionally well but I shall continue to hide the details of exactly what goes on in the lab unless you're someone that is on a need to know basis.

3. The tongue is feeling much better today and I should be able to get the stitches out sometime this week. Shouldn't I have gotten a discount on those "services"?

4. I got Bodhi a new/bigger crate 2 days ago that should handle his "girth/fatness" and it broke last night. I think he was throwing his weight around so I gottsta return that today for a Huskier model.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

power tools and soft tissue

This aint pretty. The stitches are actually further back. I could tell the dentist felt horrible about the deal. I probably could have made a big issue out of it but I felt bad for the guy. He certainly didn't mean it and he and the rest of his staff know that I am scared of coming there and they always do whatever they can to make things as smooth as possible and I really appreciate it.

Incidentally, the crown procedure was actually interesting (minus the trauma). He's got this computer that takes an image of the tooth in question. It gets sent to a PC where he manipulates it and that, in turn, gets sent to a machine that looks a lot like a lathe really. A small block of porcelain is put in (bout the size of a sugar cube) and it essentially gets CNC'd right there in house. It took 6 minutes and 13 seconds to make the partial crown. I asked for gold but all he had was white. How lame.


An eventful day

1. The higher ups in the school district decided to go with the 2 hour delay today but waited until lunch time to announce that no water should be consumed. They quickly shut off all water fountains but this was after they served lunch and probably cooked with the potentially contaminated water. The city was in the midst of testing the water for anything dangerous. Just before the end of the day, a mandatory boil order was put into place by the city and then school was cancelled for tomorrow as the city won't know whether the water is safe or not. I wonder what the ramifications could be if, in fact, students get sick. Seems like it might have been a safer call to just cancel school today as well.

2. I stopped by the dentist to have him install a crown. I'm not gonna go into details here and, well....you're welcome. The dentist was using a tool that looked a lot like a Dremmel with a cut off wheel on it. In short...it slipped and...got caught up under my tongue. It was good enough for some stitches and he had to take care of that before he could address the tooth as it was bleeding too much to work. Good times at the dentist. So now the pain is in full effect. Perhaps I'll post a pic if it comes out. Might be hard to get a shot of.

3. I had 2 interesting trade offers today for my Jeep. One was an early Willys flat fender Jeep. Very tempting as they can be really cool but kind of impractical. The other was a 75 VW camper. That one I actually thought about for a while but I think I'm gonna pass. It's a little older than what I'm looking for. I'm sure it's in need of a head gasket at least.

Agua???

Got up last night to do my nightly pee and the toilet wouldn't flush. I assumed the chain thing had fallen off and said to myself, "Self....there's no way I'm sticking my hand in that tank right now." It's never been a problem before though and usually when that's happened for me it's been from a repeat offender toilet. I went to turn the faucet on....notta. So now we're thinking...great...the city put the boot on our water lines. Now I'm 77% better about finances than I used to be when I was younger (I was not stranger to the term "reconnection fee") but the Misses handles the purse strings. If I were single I'd just head on in to work and chalk it up to my badness. Bills are all up to date though so it's not that. I decided to head over to the neighbors (it's their vacation home so they're never there). No spigget!!! I've never seen a house with no spigget. Just now I decided to head over to our other neighbors house...she's got no water too. So...bottom line...we're on a 2 hour delay from school cuz the town's got no water. When asked if this will be fixed anytime soon, Magic 8 Ball says, "Surely you're joking". I'm gonna melt some snow...my pups are thirsty and coffee would be splendid.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Bloody dentists

I really have nothing against them personally but I'd rather not set foot in their establishments. I brush 3 times a day and I floss even after drinking water. I have floss in both vehicles, my fishing vest, my desk, and even some jackets. I go through that stuff like a dope fiend on crack. Still...I have horrible teeth. The dentist loves when I walk in the door cuz I keep the lights on. I tell myself it's genetics. So in the past year and a half I've had some major filling work despite my agressiveness in the brushing department. I'm talking major work. When I think about what I saw in that mirror I am reminded of the deepest quarries known to mankind. Cavernous holes. Truly the stuff that horror movies are made of. Anyway...the good dentist (who's actually a really nice guy and always treats me like royalty cuz he knows I'm terrified to be there) told me about a year and a half ago that I was going to need to get crowns on all the teeth he worked on as so much of the teeth had to be removed during my visit. I swear I thought he was digging for the motherload. Being the idiot I am, I decided that the filling work he did was spot on and that there was no need to delve any further into the crown department. My luck ran out today. One of those bad boys cracked. I sat at my desk sweating. Finally I made the call. Of course he asked if I wanted to cruise on over today but I wanna have one more crown free night. I'm doing it up Clint Eastwood style tonight and enjoying a bit of Jim Bean. I go in tomorrow for him to mock me. I'm emarassed to say that I need not one crown but.........wait for it.........FOUR!! Before insurance, crowns run like 950 bones. That's just for porcelain too. If I want gold it's gonna run me triple that. So...I'm hoping that he doesn't have to re-do all the work he did over a year ago before the crown can go on but I aint holding my breath. I'm expecting a shot and I hate those. Years ago I used to say if I could change anything about my appearance it'd be my thinning hair. As I've gotten older I really don't give a crap about my hair anymore. I think I'd rather have good teeth. Instead I got neither.

Monday, January 19, 2009

I've kinda gone off on a vehicle tangent here tonight but that's ok. I'm a huge fan of the older Cruisers (mostly the FJ40) but the FJ55 is what I'd rather own. Heather and I have looked at loads of these and had the talk more times than I count about getting one and starting in on a resto. It's something we both would like to do together one day. Unlike any other gal I've been with, Heather is not afraid to get out in the garage and turn a wrench. She doesn't necessarily know how but she listens and will do the job after it's explained and she wont cry about breaking a nail or getting dirty. I have tons of pics of project rigs. This is a pig that a shop up in Denver was doing for a customer and cutting no corners on. This one makes me excited. I could go on for days about the mods it's got but I'll spare you.


Radillac

I actually saw this one evening during the summer down in Colorado Springs. I had to pull a u turn and check it out. It's a Cadillac with a lot of fabrication. I don't know what the axles are out of or teh trans and transfer case but it's pretty cool. The leaf spring shackles and what looks like frame extension look a bit scary but not as bad as those ghetto lift blocks. I'm sure it suffers from loads of axle wrap but I'd still drive it. Yes...the plate does say "radillac".


Wanna trade??


So I've had my Jeep for almost 6 years now I think. Knock on wood...it's been the best vehicle I've ever owned. I've always been a fan of the VW Vanagon though. Particularly the Westfalia model. So I put an ad on Craigslist and a few off-road forums looking for a trade. If I can't find a nice Vanagon, I'd be interested in discussing a trade for a stock 97 and up Cherokee. Anything I trade for has gotta be clean. I am incredibly anal about maintenance on my Jeep and keeping it clean and free of squeaks/vibes/leaks. It's got a decent list of mods that I have carefully done. It's got 5.5" of lift, 33" tires and a good list of Rubicon Express parts. I'll understand if a Van has some age related damage but I'm not interested in getting into someone's hackfest. If you know of someone with a Vanagon or a nice stocker...send em my way. In 24 hours, I've already had half a dozen offers but nothing I'm interested in. I'm super picky and OCD. Just wanna see what's out there.

Birfday

Today I am 36. That's one more year of experience I've got on the rest of the suckers out there in life. Well...at least over the ones that are younger than me. I'm still screwed compared to all those that are older than me. The day was pretty uneventful but I'm not one to call for an all out celebration on a birthday. Heather and I went to dinner last night and on the way back up the mountain her Jeep had a little hiccup. The power surged and the volt meter registered 19 volts. Such an over achiever. Things were going haywire so I had to trouble shoot that today. Looks like it's all taken care of. I also did some preventitive maintenance on my Jeep. Then we took the dogs for a long walk on an unusually warm day. It's supposed to be almost 60 for the next few days. My hand still hurts so I decided to not ride again today but I'm hoping to tomorrow. Bodhi just peed on the floor. I cleaned it up and not 5 minutes later, he peed in the same spot. He's such a jerk. Heather gets frustrated at me on my birthday because I never want anything for a gift and I don't really care for a special meal. My life is pretty good and I'm happy with it. Although I would be thrilled if Bodhi would do his thing outside.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

I love it when....

ya call me Big Poppa....throw your hands in the air if yous a true playa....I see some ladies tonight that should be having my baby...baby.


Notorious

Heather and I went and saw Notorious tonight and then went to dinner. I liked it. The guy that played Biggie was spot on and the film was pretty accurate (from what I know). It was cool to see Chris Wallace Jr. (Biggies son) play the part of his father as a kid.
I was awake most of the night because of the hand so I couldn't help but think about the race. It saddens me to say that I don't think the Alma is the best choice for this type of event. I simply have to have wider tires. Being that Orbea just didn't allow for much room around the chain stays (and that I'm not keen on tires rubbing the carbon) I'm gonna have to come up with something else. So....the planning begins. Muwahahahahaha!!

The hand is a beautiful shade of purple today so I might not be able to make the next race at night. But the one after that is a relay event on North America's highest golf course and it sounds like fun. I just need to find someone else dumb enough to partner up with.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Leadville Winter Race #1

I always get the pictures in reverse order. I went to this race not knowing what to expect at all. The CTR was my first and only mtb race in Colorado. It never occured to me how much snow there would be at this race. I've been to Leadville many times too so I should know better. I think 30 racers showed for this. Even after warming up, I guess I figured there'd be some hardpack singletrack. Not so much. I must say, this was probably the most fun I've had riding a bike. I couldn't stop laughing. The snow was very deep but everyone said it was better than last year. It was like riding in 6" of sand for 8 miles (we probably spent 4 miles on the snowy roads). Some of the course was snow covered roads and the rest was snowmobile trails. If you got outta the rut for a split second, you were over the bars and in feet of snow. The altitude was killer. I think we climbed 1500' or so and I felt it. Even the flat snowmobile trails were tough to ride because it just took so much to keep everything together. We finally hit a road section that wasn't a climb and I let er rip. I was making up killer time until I saw a volunteer flagging racers to make a hard left back onto a snowmobile trail. I saw him with probably 30 yards to go and knew there was no way I was getting things shut down in time. Everyone I passed caught up by the time I got turned around. We all laughed. We rode past some killer old mines throughout the course. With about 4 miles to go, I took a fall. I took many falls during the race but they were such soft landings it was no big deal . This time, I hit a rock with my left hand and knew it was trouble. I took my glove off and thought for sure I had broken something. I sat there for a bit before starting again. We skipped the awards/beer ceremony so that I could get back to Woodland and get some x rays done. Luckily they were fine. My hand is huge and throbbing. Doc says it's just real bad soft tissue damage but I can't even zip a coat. Thanks to Cycles of Life for putting on such a fun race. I guess when you live in Leadville and want to ride, you ride in snow. Some of those guys sure were fast and a lot of them sure had some wide rimes/tires. Congrats to Chris Plesko who showed up fashionably late and put in a strong ride on his Surly Pugsley for the win. The things got like 4" wide tires. I'm pretty sure I eeked out a top 10 but we'll see once the rsults get posted.

Finished.


This was a few hundred yards into the race. I had 3rd wheel but bobbled up a short little climb and had to dismount and lost 3 palces.








The scenery was amazing. Hopefully, my hand will be ok for the next race which is at night.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Dinner...not so much

I'm gonna be vague here. We stopped in a restaurant up here in Woodland for a bite to eat (we never do this cuz there just aint much up here). As we were at the front going over the menu, I happened to notice 2 employees (1 was a manager) chatting by the cash register. However weird, I happened to glance over at the exact moment when one of them (not the manager) had a.........line of spiddle come out of his mouth that made me wonder if he had just come from the dentist. It was unreal. Time froze and it fell out of the mouth. I thikn it skimmed the chin during the fall. It landed on the keyboard. In slow motion he started to to look up at me as he was wiping his chin and I turned and ran home. If you live in tha Dub P and wanna know where this happened....ask.

This has actually been happening a bit lately.


Sunday, January 11, 2009

Friends

Pablo is a dear friend that is the reason I decided to become a teacher at a residential facility right after I graduated college. I remember the first time I did an observation on his classroom. Each classroom had little booths that you could sit in and watch the class through a one way mirror and here what was going on over a speaker. I spent hours watching. The amount of control he had over his students that were fresh from juvenile or area mental psych wards was impressive and I knew I wanted to be a teacher in that type of environment. I picked up many of my classroom management techniques from him and still use them now in a public school setting. He's always been there for me even after I left the facility and I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to perform our ceremony but him.

He recently proposed to his beautiful girlfriend Catina and she said yes. They will be getting married sometime this July in St. Louis. Congratulations to both of you.



My good friend Rob and I met while teaching together at a middle school in House Springs, Missouri. I had just quit from my job at the residential facility. It was the most rewarding job I've ever had and sadly, the most emotionally damaging. I taught there and part of the job was to expect to get hurt both physically and mentally. My classroom was the most violent one and it was in the basement of a locked down unit. Sometimes, I'd get jumped and just have to hope that someone upstairs was watching the cameras and on their way down to help me out. In the closing months that I was there, it became very dangerous. I knew I had to get out so I quit. I was unemployed for 4 months and would have loved to make a career change to anything else. I hated teaching at the time and had no desire to step back into a classroom. I was the teacher that walked in with his head down, not shaved, shirt untucked, lookin' a wreck from the night before. I was all kinds of unhealthy and the least of it being my mental game. I took the job out of necessity though and met a guy down the hall that would bring out the best in me and my teaching. I love being a teacher now and I definitely owe the fact that I still have a classroom to you Rob. If we hadn't met, I would be doing anything but this and I'm sure I'd be single.

Rob and his lovely wife Shannon were married just before Thanksgiving this year. I wasn't able to make the ceremony but I wish you both the best and I'm happy you found each other. You both deserve good things.

Random dog photos

Front teeth are falling out at will now and teething is in full effect.



He likes to do this one where he acts as a neck warmer a lot. He also likes to burrow down in behind the couch cushions and let out muffled barks.


He's way more headstrong than Dharma ever was. I can correct him 80 times in a row and get nothing but a look of frustration. Yesterday I walked him for over an hour around town and towards the end...he finally started getting the heel command. We were easily upwards of 500 corrections for that one alone. It's like my own personal Groundhog Day. He is requiring triple the patience that she did. But I really think he's gonna like water and the outdoors so I'm hoping he'll be the one to go hiking, camping, fishing with me. Dharma gets cold, I have to carry her across streams deep enough to touch her belly, she hates snow. The baby gate is to keep fatso from eating not only his food but Dharma's food as well. We're now approaching 40 pounds and are still shy of 5 months.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Hanging out

I know this sounds terrible but...do you ever laugh when you see someone fall down? I find it to be hysterical. Usually the person will fight the fall as long as possible but that only makes the show better. When they finally hit the deck they generally spring up and look around to see if anyone saw the mishap. Don't get me wrong...I took a tumble off some ice covered steps when I lived in St. Louis. I was on my way to a job interview and I landed flat on my back. Papers and resume came fluttering down. I didn't even know what hit me. Dazed, I got up, both hands bleeding, and saw my neighbor staring at me. It had to be funny. Obviously if someone truly gets hurt, it takes some of the buzz out of it. However, when there are no injuries...it's game on.

I have been laughing about this for days now and I can't stop. Some of you may have already seen this but others may not have. Apparently this guy fell out of a chairlift at Vail and he got all hung up. He winds up upside down as the lift is carrying him away. Now that's pretty embarassing already but it gets better. Somehow...in the midst of the tumble, he must have snagged his pants. So his pants came down....errrr....up. In addition to the pants...his underpants also got caught up. So this guy's dangling upside down with his pants and underpants around his ankles and his hardware......hanging. He hangs upside down for 7-15 minutes before the lift is reversed and he is brought back down and tended to. During this entire time...the guys kid is sitting in the chairlift watching it all.

Some photographer that works for a subcontractor to Vail was taking pics of it all. The photog has already been fired from Sharpshooter and I'm sure there's a lawsuit coming. I don't know why I find this to be som humurous but I do. I've been called a jerk and worse before and I know I can be one. It's still damn funny to me. How the pants AND underpants came off is beyond me. It almost defies the laws of physics. Did he suffer from frostbite? Regardless....he looks to be ass out for now. The Rocky Mountain News didn't have any pics of the incident but you can find them here.

If the story or my finding it funny offends you....I'm not sure what to tell ya.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Dog in box

It's been a rough day for Bodhi. He's not made very good choices. He started the day off with 2 poops outside before 6:30 which was a good sign. Then at about 6:40, the unmistakable smell of atomic dog poop permeated the upstairs and the nostrils. I told Heather to follow her nose. It always knows. It took her back to his favorite place...the closet. It appears that I left my side open...again. He passed over all of my shoes and then proceeded to drop a load in one of Heather's shoes. Let's just say the consistency this morning was a tad softer than soft serve.

Since we got home he has had more ten minute time outs than I can count and they are having zero effect. He goes into the penalty box like a champ and comes back out locked and loaded. Does this look like a dog that is upset about some time think about what he's done?


I spoke with 2 other pitbull owners today that have pups that are slightly (a few weeks) older than the Bodhisattva. They were stunned that their dogs are how old they are and how much they already weigh. They shut up proper-like when I told them that fatso was, in fact, younger than their dogs AND weighed MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He can't even lay on a step and chew on a damn toy without having a leg run down to the other step like some primordial ooze.

Friday, January 2, 2009

More pics from my favorite place. Befor I started riding again, I would spend the entire day here, every day, in the summer catching fish, napping in the wild grass, walking around, or taking pics.







Beautiful day to be out on the water today but anytime in January is tough around here. Temps were in the mid 50's probably. This stretch of water was about as crowded as I've ever seen it in 4 years....even in summer. Dudes were gettin' trucked in. Surprisingly, my favorite section is pretty much the first one you get to after a short hike and there was a slot open so my buddy Scott and I set up shop. January is tough because the flows are low (about 60 cfs today). When the flows are low, there's less spots for the fish to hide and so they tend to be a bit more spooky. The other bad thing about winter is that the deeper pools that the fish generally congegrate in move slow and so the fish get a long look at your stuff so it better be good. Flies better be spot on with regard to color and size, tippet should be invisible, and sometimes even the lead shot causes lockjaw. Your expectations have to be in check during winter too. Half a dozen fish is success and they probably wont be large but this particular section of the river (my favorite) has some bruisers in it (20-24" is not uncommon to sight fish to in the summer).

This is a little pool that usually holds a few nice fish in it but Scott struck out there.


This is my favorite spot. It's a run about 100 yards long that has some deeper pools in it and a few riffles and boulders. During the summer when the flows are in the 200's, the bigger trout move in and you can just see a silhouette on the gravely bottom as it darts back and forth feeding. Every summer but this past one, I usually spend the eveings here destroying things. I got into this smaller brown after making at least 200 drifts to it. In all I hooked into 4 or 5 browns and bows in this area but never managed to get one in the net.