The Fabled Unicorn??

So today I heard what I believed to be a very long tale. It involved rainbow trout in the 22" range living in some seriously skinny water in a creek down in Manitou Springs (Fountain Creek). Immediately I bent an ear. Anytime you can hook into something that big in ribbon water, its guaranteed fun. I was more than skeptical. I do know that the city and Trout Unlimited have talked about trying to restore that particular watershed. However, there are so many homeless people living along that creek and I know that defecation, and pollution are a huge concern. I can't imagine investing the dough for trout when keeping it clean would be impossible. But...I know both of these guys and their respectable guides. It was kinda like overhearing someone talk about a sure thing at the track. You don't ask questions. You just grab money and get to the OTB. So...I had an errand to run down the mountain after school anyways so I decided to check it out. I knew precisely where they were talking about. I went there, parked and started walking the creek. I didn't see anything and spotting even an 18" sucker in a small creek can be done at midnight. Granted, there was some shelves of ice along both banks but I also banged around on them a lot to try and see if anything came out. Notta.

Personally, that area doesn't hold a candle to the water I usually target but something new is always cool. I'm calling BS.

Holy strong wind...

The wind was unreal last night. It woke us all up and the dogs (especially Bodhi) were on high alert. The chairs on the deck were piled up. The bird feeders fell down. When we got up this morning we saw this:

The wind blew down this big pine. It's about 2 feet in diameter.

Pretty impressive really and I'm happy it didn't land on my van.

This is Bear Creek as it runs right past the deck of a cabin we stayed at in Evergreen when we got married. Excellent hopper fishing all day long (damn near caused me to be late to the ceremony) and the sound at night while we sat around enjoying the company of old friends couldn't be beat. My buddy Scott and I are gonna head out on Saturday to hit some bigger water somewhere as places like this are frozen over. Can't wait.

Mountain Lions

I just got back from scouting for the elusive yet elegant mountain lion. There have been numerous sightings of the fabled creature just down the hill from us. In fact, on the news last night was a tragic story of a family that lost their dog to a cub. Apparently, the family heard the dog barking and looked out to see it running along the fence line. Minutes later it yelped loudly and when they looked out again, it was being carried off in the mouth of a cub as momma proudly watched. Now....more sympathetic for the dog I can't be but perhaps worse is the fact that the kids watched the entire thing. However, I would love to see a mountain lion. Tonight I drove around slowly on the western side of Green Mountain Falls and Cascade and got nothin' to show for the effort except less gas. Perhaps I should have tied on a T-Bone to the bumper?

Again...my thoughts drift back to 4 things: Bodhi, a large bottle of Sweet Baby Rays Honey BBQ Sauce, a sturdy rope, and a camera. Wait add 2 more things. I need a chair to sit in and I might as well have a cold beer while I'm waiting.

I keeeeed.

Today....

I am 37. The day was pretty uneventful really. I had to work but we didn't have any students at school. Just meetings. Anyways...my email was blowing up today from all of the notifications of people that had left messages on my Facebook. Yes...I have a Facebook. But...as some of you now know...there's not much there. In fact, there's not even a picture of me. There's even less information about me. Facebook scares me. I originally registered there just to look at a friends page. I don't go there at all, although I may have to so I can say thank you for those old friends that took the time to wish me a good day. Hope you are all well. Thanks everyone. It seems like a neat concept but I don't have enough time right now to do that and this thing.

Regardless of it being my birthday, my grad school classes started again today. Pretty happy about that. I have only 1 hour this semester and that's writing my thesis paper. This should be the last course I take but I kinda had a little mishap (I totally forgot about a class I was registered in for last summer until it was 4 weeks into it) so I'll be taking that course this summer.

#1

Only some of you will appreciate this and that's totally cool. If the Ross Evolution reel isn't the best selling reel in the USA, it's damn close. Those bastards at Ross have re-engineered the reel for 2010. This is it. It is sexy but I think I like mine better. The drag on these reels are a thing of beauty and it truly makes a difference. I'll never forget the first fish I got into with this reel. It was a Snake River Cutt and the difference was night and day. Ross uses Delrin in their drag systems (just in case you were wondering).

One of the things that make the mountains so interesting to me is the old mining relics that can be found up in the hills. Today it was supposed to be 50 here in town so for some strange reason, I decided to start my ride over near the old towns of Victor and Cripple Creek. Both of these were mining towns and there's some cool stuff to see over there (the casinos are not one of them). I started my ride just past Horsethief Park and rode to Gold Camp Road. I guess everyone was in a big hurry to get their drink/gamble on because some folks were driving insane. Exactly 2 miles after getting on Gold Camp, you come to this nice little fixxer upper. I don't think it's all that old. It wouldn't take much to get this baby polished up. I could easily live here although I would be single.

It already has the most important part inside. A small fridge. Unfortunately, someone decided to shoot it. Someone wrote this message on the front of it and for a second I thought I was gonna get a free beer. But...it was empty. TK....you always say you hate the cold but....now we know the truth (ya gotta look closely at the signature).

I could sit here all day long and drink coffee (or beer) and be quite content.

This is what I rode on for 4 hours.

It is so nice to get butt naked in a warm van with comfy seats. Obviously I was not quite naked here.