Challenges and Someone is looking out for us!

We don't know if it's our organization, or lack thereof, or our brains (especially mine) are in full disengagement mode, or we're just having so much fun that we are losing focus, but we have had some anxious moments. Here are some examples: After we ordered the famous green chile chesseburger at The Sportsman, as we were talking, we realized that Charlcie did not have her sunglasses and I remembered I left the locking pin to the cargo hauler on the back bumper of the truck. Charlcie thought she might have dropped her sunglasses in the camp parking area and feared we had run over them. I knew that a trip across a couple of miles of bumpy dirt road had flipped the locking pin off the back bumper. We were a little bummed at the moment. But on the trip back to the campsite, we recovered the pin from the middle of the road. We found Charlcie's sunglasses under the hammock. Relief! The next day, my first day on the San Juan, my mind was certainly not tuned in to anything other than fishing. As I said, the trip from the parking area requires some work and takes about 30 minutes to reach the river. When Charlcie picked me up after about 3 hours, as I was loading my stuff in the truck I decided I wanted to show her the fish picture - only to discover that my camera was missing. I instantly remembered where I had left it, so I made the round-trip back to retrieve it. This old body was really worn out after that ordeal but very lucky to have the camera back. And that's not all! Charlcie had placed my very expensive fly rod on the luggage rack and we forgot to stow it IN the truck. I realized it some 10 miles later as we reached the entrance to the campground. Since the roads contain some very large potholes, which we managed to visit, I was absolutely sick knowing that there was no way the rod was still on top of the truck. Charlcie stopped the truck so I could check and amazingly the rod was still there. We're convinced even more now that this journey was meant to be - in spite of our old and crazy moments, someone is taking care of us!

Finally get to fish the famous San Juan River!

June 23, 2010 Finally get to fish the San Juan River this morning. Touted as one of the top fly-fishing destinations in the country, and I was soon to find out its reputation is befitting. Large numbers of quality fish, both in terms of size and beauty – and even I could catch them! In fact, on my first cast, hooked a very large fish, only to have the fly break off after a couple of minutes. On the very next cast, a 12” brown trout. All other fish caught on this gorgeous river were rainbow trout and none under 14”. Thanks to Michael and Todd at McLellan’s Fly Shop in Fayetteville for their advice and fly recommendations. I fished the Upper Flats area, which the lady at Abe’s recommended as the hottest wade-in spot. It takes some doing to get from the parking area to the river and back and is a little spooky on the first attempt. A hike down a steep embankment on a switchback trail, through some marsh, into tunnels of willow thickets on a watery trail, and trudge through a hundred yards of muck and then I’m in the river. For a first-timer, it was like negotiating a claustrophobic maze. Charlcie had planned to carry a chair, book, and camera to join me for the morning, but after seeing the challenge ahead, decided to retreat to the campsite to enjoy the hammock and some alone time. The pictures of the fish aren’t very good quality as I tried to minimize their time out of the water while I grabbed the camera to take the picture with one hand. The vivid colors are not captured in the images. In the afternoon we made a trip to Farmington, NM to gather some needed supplies. To us, a rather unremarkable town, but sporting the largest new Wal-Mart we have ever witnessed, and with prices much lower than we had been seeing out here.

To Navajo Lake State Park/San Juan River

June 22, 2010 I fished for about an hour in the Rio Chama that runs behind our motel, the Riverbend Lodge. Caught one fish, but added another stream to the list I have fished. Meanwhile, Charlcie was stalking a magpie - they omnipresent in these parts, but difficult to get near. After a traditional pancake breakfast at the Elkhorn Café (taking a break from the green chiles!) we headed for Navajo Lake State Park in far northwestern New Mexico. This is high dessert country and Navajo Lake is truly an oasis. The lake is beautiful and the San Juan River tailwater below it is known as one of the top fly-fishing destinations in the country. Notice all the houseboats anchored in uniform lines out into the lake - apparently the owners leave them there and are ferried out to their boats when they visit. For the next two nights, we camped at the Cottonwood Campground, the only one of several that has trees. After setting up camp, we took a short hike along the river and then headed to The Sportsman to share one of their famous green chile cheeseburgers (can’t get away from those green chiles!) There are two institutions in this part of the country, The Sportsman and Abe’s, and they are famous with fly-fishers. They, along with other establishments around here, are like mini Wal-Marts – they carry a little of everything. Some groceries, a restaurant or café, some hardware, some hunting and fishing supplies, and in the case of Abe’s, gas for your car, RV camping sites, and a motel. They’ve been around for over 50 years and still going.

Posted Pictures

The pictures posted are in reverse chronological order. I upload them in order and it stacks them most current to oldest. I am going to try to organize so that I put in reverse order and you are viewing in proper sequence. I will do this so your experience in reading the blog will be more fulfilling and possibly result in a life-changing experience. This is fun, but is cutting into my fishing time. Hope you are enjoying it, we are having a good time putting it together. We will get better as we go along.

To Chama, NM for the first day of summer

June 21, 2010 First day of summer! Coolest morning of our trip! We were able to break camp in about 45 minutes and head toward our destination for the day, Chama, NM. We stopped at Michael’s Kitchen in Taos for a breakfast with local flavor – which requires chili or green chile sauce on virtually everything, including the hash browns. Needless to say, by eating this breakfast, we avoided having to take any over-the-counter or prescription remedies to keep our sinuses in check – we have been in 7 to 8 thousand feet in altitude for the last 5 days, and will stay in that range for most of our trip. There are too many galleries in Taos to begin to think about visiting – we had to move on due to space and budgetary constraints. On the way out of Taos, we came upon the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, which was an unexpected treat – we didn’t realize we were going to drive over it and were very glad we did. The most unique residential development (or commune) we have ever seen appeared in the desert outside of Taos. Called Earthship, the area consisted of many different residences and a visitor center, all containing banks of solar panels, and fashioned into adobe spaceships that were neither gaudy nor too bizarre, in fact they were very appealing. We regret that we didn’t stop to photograph them for your viewing pleasure. Most of our travel today was up and over mountains in the Carson National Forest and we had to stop to photograph the wildflowers, the most imposing was a huge patch of wild iris, that were fronted by some plants that were also very attractive. The pictures won’t do them justice, but we had to return back up the mountain to capture them on the little digital thingy. We are going to make every effort to take our meals, when we dine out, from local establishments, to further enhance our appreciation of the places we visit. We are getting a late start in doing it, but we are also going to include a picture of each one. Tonight, we had dinner at High Mountain Restaurant and Saloon. Another one of those great places out here that cater to an eclectic clientele of real cowboys, fake cowboys, geeky tourists, local legends, local characters, professional types, and of course, the ever cool fly-fishers. Keeping with the local cuisine, we had some kind of New Mexican special dish that was smothered with the green chile sauce. Very tasty, very medicinal, and not too rough on the system, at least in the short-term. Another great finish to this meal: dishes of FX O’Reilly microcreamery ultra premium ice cream, Black Raspberry for me, Expresso Toffee for the lady. OMG! And here’s something really cool; the saloon was filled with the aforementioned mixture of characters, all of which were tuned in to a World Cup telecast on the big screen. First the world, then the US of A!

Hike on Clear Creek: Cimarron Canyon

June 20, 2010 The only thing that could have made this Father’s Day any better would have been to have our son and our fathers along for the ride. We know they would enjoy immensely. But the day started out perfectly with a call from Ben. And we were able to call our Dads too! We are getting organized and about have the camping routine down. We are getting very good at brewing the morning coffee in our Coleman percolator, and juggling a couple of menu items on our one-burner Coleman propane stove – although we’ve decided to probably expedite the process by buying one more one-burner. Who would think that a fried egg sandwich, fresh carrots, and a Little Debbie snack would be such a taste treat – but when done in the outdoors, it is hard to beat. Couscous w/chicken, Vienna sausage and saltines, some fruit, and we’re there. We went on an approximately 2-mile hike on Clear Creek trail. You have to remember that many others hike this trail so you can not think too much about rattlesnakes, bears, mountain lions, etc. This is a heavily forested area of conifers and aspen that pretty much encompass the trail and many downed trees to avoid. The beauty is enhanced by a little stream that runs beside the trail. Of course, I had to take my fly-rod after encouraged by the park ranger. It was a challenge to maneuver a nine-foot rod through all the brush and to avoid snags on all the limbs in the stream – for the opportunity to catch a 6-inch fish. However, these are wild fish that are so beautiful and have unbelievable survival skills to manage in their little, dangerous world. I lost several flies, but it was worth it to catch one fish.

To Red River and Back

June 19, 2010 We took a journey up to Red River, NM, which is a ski town northwest of where we are camping. It is bordered by the Carson National Forest, another one of those areas with spectacular scenery around every corner. We spent most of the afternoon in Red River, opting not to partake of the touristy activities, but rather at the Chamber of Commerce info center, which offered free Wi-Fi. We caught up on email, updated the blog, and enjoyed visiting and getting to know Katie, the very affable college student in charge of the information desk. We also observed our first clouds in three days, albeit just a few wispy, fast-moving puffs. Back at camp, I had another humbling experience trying to outsmart the very spooky trout that reside in this small, clear, mountain stream - made more difficult by incessant winds, persistent biting flies, and all kinds of hook-snagging brush, etc. But hey, this is the only way to improve my game! I was thrilled however that I identified a caddis hatch, tied on the correct fly, made the perfect cast to a rising fish that I had targeted, managed a perfect drift, and watched the fish slam the fly! Success? Not totally – in my excitement, I struck prematurely and was once more outsmarted by a prey with a pecan-sized brain.