Colorado Trip Reports

Fuck Rollins pass, and the new section of Jenny Creek too. That is all.

 

No sir. That's not all.
Did you break?

 

No, Rollins is just the worst, unnecessarily bumpy, potholey piece of dirt in this state. I did haul ass both up and down it and smoothed it out a bit, but it still blows. And the new Jenny section is lame, creek driving was much more fun.

Kingston is still pretty fun though, got the truck in the air pretty good over a water bar on the way down Mammoth Gulch.

 

Oh yeah, that rode is best taken at about 40 on a motorcycle.
Never made it down the old trail in the truck but did it on the bike a couple of times. Not sure how I didn't hydrolock that thing.
Did the new Jenny a couple years ago in the truck. Seemed ok. Super tight though.

 

I went up to fish last year (IIRC) and had forgotten how much it sucked (last time I was up there was for old Jenny Creek, which was awesome as it was overflowing its banks in spots due to the spring runoff [looked it up; it was 2011). I did the same haul-ass approach and still found it miserable, just as you.

Makes you wish for an LT setup and triple bypass shocks...

 

Seriously, I think my truck handles most everything pretty well, but I felt like it was rattling apart on that shit.

 

Ran up Red Elephant Hill for the first time today. I was actually surprised at the size of boulders along a few portions of the trail, but had a blast! Had a quick cellphone photo op on Poser Rock to stretch out the legs.

 

Not Colorado but close enough:

IMG_0732 by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

 

Mmmm....love me a 1st gen.

 

@Madjik_Man You got me hooked on this stuff.

 

Ah... my all time favorite.

Glad you like it.

Great pic too. Myself, I just got back from 5 days of backpacking and 4wheeling camping.

 

Only one pic for now because I'm exhausted.

Did 2 night/3 day backpack on Music Pass. Day hiked up to Upper Sand Creek Lake (11,745'). Then 2 night/2 day camping on Medano Pass and a visit to the Sand Dunes. Great trip.

 

Drove 7 hours, hiked 5 miles and 2.5 hours, fished for 3.5 hours and saw some stuff. It takes a lot of work to get away from people.

Noname lake


Fred the beautifully willing rainbow trout.


I got some much better pictures than this but this one is one shows her camoflouge pretty well.


I can't wait to do it again tomorrow.

 

Great pics. I'd have guessed a brook trout, but I'm a little rusty on the differences.

 

Better than my guess of squiggly slimy fish.

 

Grouse?

 

The spot I found yesterday took a ton of work but it was worth it. I saw a young bull mouse at 12k ft and found a bunch of ptarmigan with babies.

On my very first cast I flung out a large black leach. Very first strip over the shelf and a 4-5 lb now came racing after it. I was not ready and pulled it out if his mouth and he chased it across the shelf 15ft until he saw me. He checked it out two more times the next casts but I couldn't get him. Excitedly I moved on. I didn't catch anything on subsurface flies and gave up after that as the lake started exploding. Running around like a little kid I started tossing a grasshopper pattern. Suddenly an eruption rught next to the shoreline. Did I spook a muskrat or something? I toss my fly there anyway and study the crystal clear water. I look away for cruisers in the deep blue. Then BAAAAM!! I've got a 17" brookie on and I wasn't even watching. I had left net, camera amd everything a few yards back so I settled for enjoying the moment. Next thing you know I'm sight fishing cruisers. Wife's on the other side of the lake with the 2way saying "there jumping like crazy". I catch fish in my way back to her and start laying out line off the shelf. These fish were cruising the surface fast fast. I mean you could see them racing each other for the fly they spotted. I hooked about 7 that came loose with head shakes for some reason. In freaking tense.

Ptarmigan

 

That was my second guess