I got back to Lake City from Gunnison Gorge around 2 a.m. and spent the next day around the cabin recovering and gearing up for another trip--this time to the Durango area to fish the San Juan River and Navajo Lake (both in northern New Mexico). I spent an afternoon and two more (almost full) days on the San Juan and landed 47 rainbows, including a handful of 19-inchers, a 20-incher, and a 21-incher. After hiking down into, through, and up out of the Gunnison Gorge multiple times, I was thankful for to have just a 10 minute walk from my car to the bank of the San Juan.
Uncompahgre and Co. from Windy Point Overlook on my way to Durango
San Juan River
San Juan River at dusk on my way back to Lake City
As a change of pace, I also went fishing for smallmouth bass on Navajo Lake with my uncle. We landed more than 30 fish despite windy conditions.
Navajo Lake
Dear Triton Boats, please send me a boat of my own
I didn't get any good fish pictures, but I have a few short clips from my GoPro that show the river, the lake, and some fish being released. The next video will be my attempt at rafting--that is one you will want to check out.
After getting back from A-Basin, I geared up for another adventure--this time a trip to the Gunnison Gorge and the lower portion of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The Gunnison River is famous for intense hatches of giant stoneflies. The trout go crazy eating these bugs, and I timed my trip to hit the hatch at its peak.
The drive from Montrose to Gunnison Gorge
Chukar Road--it got much rougher than this as you got closer to the trailhead.
Chukar Trail dropping into the Gorge
Gunnison Gorge from the end of the Chukar Trail. This is the launch point for all the commercial float trips through the Gorge--definitely on my bucket list.
I got to the river around noon, and there were giant stoneflies, like this one, all over the bushes and trees in the Gorge. Generally the fish only feed on these monster bugs early in the morning and late in the evening, but there were still some fish rising when I started upstream.
I worked my way a couple miles upstream (a little past this point) before getting cliffed out in the lower part of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
A big stonefly crawls along my fly rod.
Another stonefly wanders around my net. These guys are clumsy when they start flying around; several smacked into my head, which felt like getting hit by a snowball.
After my first afternoon and evening on the river, I hiked back up the trail and slept in the truck. I was up before 6 a.m. to make sure I was down the trail and upstream to the best stretch of water by 7 a.m. Over the course of the day, I landed 14 fish, with all except one being hefty browns in the 15-17 inch range. Most of those fish were taking being stonefly patterns off the surface. I did land one big rainbow on a stonefly nymph, but I didn't land any monsters.
A dedicated group of anglers walked their rafts upstream through some rapids to be able to reach deep holes along the cliff walls that fishermen wading the river (e.g., me) couldn't reach.
I shot some video of a couple of spots on the river and a couple of fish, including my 19-inch rainbow. You can see in some of the shots along the river white spots flying around that look like small birds--those are the stoneflies. This stretch of the Gunnison Gorge and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison was right up there with the prettiest places I have ever fished. This is another HD video, so make sure you choose that option on YouTube and give it enough time to load.
After a day of getting repacked in Lake City, I got up early and drove to Arapahoe Basin for closing weekend of the ski season.
North of Salida, Colorado
Breckenridge looked like it still had good snow
And it snowed on me off and on all day at A-Basin (June 7th, mind you)
You can see Breckenridge in the distance and Keystone one ridge over
That's Lake Dillon down in the valley below Keystone.
Panoramic view from the top of A-Basin
After skiing on Friday I got on the Blue River in Silverthorne for an hour or so and caught my first fish of the trip--a 17-inch rainbow. Then I headed toward Breckenridge to "camp" (read: sleep in the back of my truck) along the Swan River. Dinner was meager at best, and it was below freezing that night, but the view in the morning was worth it.
The view from just up river of my campsite.
The escape vehicle, complete with a sweet camper top, at "the Beach"--the A-Basin parking lot.
The East Wall.
On Saturday, quite a crowd gathered to watch people ski across a pond that was forming as the snow melted. The pond was a few feet deep, but that was more than enough for people to end up completely underwater. A photographer from the Denver Post was on hand to document the action and got some good shots, including one of me shooting video on a GoPro camera. My video from the weekend, including me crossing the pond, is at the end of this post, but also check out some more pictures from the Denver Post A-Basin Slideshow.
Skier crossing the pond. Photo from Denver Post.
Skier failing to cross the pond. Photo from Denver Post.
Epic failure on the pond. That water is barely above freezing. Photo from Denver Post.
More disaster on the pond. Photo from Denver Post.
That's me taking in the scene at the pond before I tried it myself. Hopefully this wasn't my 15 minutes of fame. Photo from Denver Post.
The drive back to Lake City took me through Leadville and past some snow-capped fourteeners.
I took the long way over Cottonwood Pass to see some new mountains and get in some fishing on the Taylor River on the way back. On this side of the pass the snow was so high that this was the best picture I could get despite standing on a boulder and holding my camera up over my head.
The view from Cottonwood Pass toward Taylor Reservoir.
Cottonwood Pass
Taylor Reservoir
The Taylor River roaring through the Taylor Reservoir dam. The Taylor Reservoir has mysis shrimp that get sucked through the spillway and into the river. The trout in the river then eat all those shrimp and take on a redish hue (and get big and fat) as a result. I had a couple of hours that evening on the river and landed about 10 fish, but none of them were especially picture worthy.
The trip to A-Basin was well worth the drive, and it gave me a chance to play around with my new GoPro camera. The footage was at least originally HD, but I may not have uploaded it in the best format. I recommend watching it on YouTube, choosing the highest quality (bottom right), and giving it a while to load before trying to watch it. It includes elements of the following: pond skiing, random people falling, tiny jumps, cheesy slow motion, and me wiping out, as well as dynamite, pole vaulting, and hang gliding.
