That's what I said to myself this weekend when I got a crazy idea in my head. I had pondered the idea of throwing my camping gear in the truck and driving down to the only place in Colorado where I have had excellent luck fishing. The place I'm talking about is the Crystal River which is near Redstone, CO south of Carbondale, CO (home of Northface co.) At first I had doubts. What is the weather going to be like? Is it going to be worth the three hour drive just for an overnight trip? I checked the weather and it was supposed to be totally sunny with highs in the low 80's and zero chance of rain. So I said "fk it I'm heading down. I was on my second hole when I realized I made the right decision. Bamm! a hungry brown trout gobbled up my lure and I thought "ok, maybe this is the only fish I get this weekend but will I be able to catch more than one.?" As the trip continued my doubts vanished with each hungry fish attacking my lures on just about every cast. Here's a picture of that first brown.
About and hour later I landed two little rainbow trout. By this time I was thinking "if I catch any more fish I'm going to have to put more ice in the cooler." So I drove back to Carbondale for some supplies and it was also getting pretty hot and I wanted to cool off "hmmmff... low 80's huh, feels more like 97 to me." So I thought I would kill some time and cool down by slamming a Gatorade and making a few phone calls from the shade of a bench outside the store. After I made a few calls the sun was starting to go down. I decided to try a few more places on the river and then find a place to 'car camp' overnight. The last few holes I tried at the end of the day were not so hot and thought 3 fish in one day is not too shabby (especially since the last time I caught three fish in one day in Colorado was the year 2002). It was time to get some dinner and set up camp since the sun was starting to drop below the mountains. I tried setting up my tent only to find out that the elastic cord that holds the tent poles together completely lost its elasticity. "Hmm... ok no tent that sucks... well it's a good thing that the weather prediction had zero chance of rain because I'll be sleeping under the stars tonight."
So I felt like I was really roughing it, I mean who needs a tent anyway. So much so that I thought about how I would describe my "roughing it" setup in terms of everyday living. For instance here is a picture of my "roughing it" kitchen.
Here is a picture of my "roughing it" dining room and kitchen table and refrigerator.
When your "roughing it" rooms can be magically transformed to suit another purpose. For example, my dining room can change into the bedroom, presto change-o!
"Roughing it" can be achieved by finding out that some of your stuff doesn't work (like a tent) but your "roughing it" can be enhanced by forgetting items like eating utensils. So I had warmed up some jambalaya and realized I forgot a spoon. So I slurped down the juice and the solid pieces I ate with some makeshift chopsticks that I whittled out of sapling branches. Hey! it worked!
So after putting stuff away I crawled into my sleeping bag and then I thought "oh no I have to take a whiz." In a tent I hate this because you have to get out of your sleeping bag, unzip the door on your tent, slip on shoes or brave walking barefoot and hoping to not step on anything sharp. However, when sleeping in the back of your truck you can crawl out of your bag stand up and pee off the side without stepping on the ground. I should mention that one should not do this if there is a strong wind blowing in your face. I was lucky and there was no wind at all. The stars were beautiful and it is kinda neat to go to sleep by counting shooting stars but it was pretty cold.
The next day of fishing was awesome and in one and a half hours I caught two monster browns and a little rainbow, I figured that 3 fish was good enough and that I would try one more hole on the way back to Golden. The last place I tried to fish apparently had a natural hot spring. It was pretty random to smell the slight hint of sulphur and see steam coming off of a trickle of water coming out of the side of the riverbank. I tested the water with my finger and it wasn't scalding but was hotter than I like my shower. If I go down there again (probably next summer) I'll pack swim trunks and go for a dip.
4 comments:
Best fishing trips are the imprompto trips, even if you did forget a few things. Phillip said he missed the fishing this year. Jelouse of your fish. Did you take your gold pan?
That is pretty awesome, great pictures in all your postings. Man I miss fishing, sometimes!
Grandma, I didn't bring my pan but maybe I should have. One drainage over from the Crystal is the Frying Pan/Roaring Fork river drainage. This is where the Aspen mining boom had its run. I'm sure there could be some good stuff in there. I'm not sure about the Crystal though, it's drainage has a history of coal mining and a marble quarry. Is it possible to have gold and coal/marble in the same area?
Bill, yeah I know what you mean. When I was in Toledo, OH I tried to do some fishing. Out there fishing would go as follows: drive 40 minutes to the fishing spot, set down cooler and use it as a chair, crack open beer, cast a worm out and sink it to the bottom of the slow moving brown colored water, wait, sip beer, wait, sip beer, wait wait wait, finish beer and grab another beer, wait. After 3 hours of "fishing" you may be lucky and land a 8 inch catfish. I'm glad to be back west and be fishing trout in fast moving clear rivers.
pretty fish jake! you should have given yourself a "no roughing it guaranty", then you definitely would have been fully prepared for your trip. glad you made the most of it! :)
Post a Comment