Howdy all! Craig here. Lived in Colorado for 15 years until last spring when I moved out to Nebraska for the next 2 years to finihs up college and work at Cabela's. Went out to my home state of Colorado for the last 5 days and have an actual report to give and am quite pumped. The report is not solely fishing based but I know how much you all enjoy a good story and I am not too shy so I got one to share. Drove from Kearney Nebraska on Thursday 6/30 all the way to Leadville. Ate filet at Quincy's and stayed at the Delaware hotel thursday night with a friend of mine. She is a few years younger than me and is just a super great woman and we are just really good friends at this stage. We wanted to go on vacation together and I wanted to show her the fine state of Colorado. Friday morning I took her on her first ever hike. We went up to the Holly Cross wilderness area just north west of Leadville. 1 1/2 mile hike into some lakes that I have loved since a boy. We hiked free hiked up a ridge and checked out the view. Fished my favorite lake up there for about 20 minutes and caught two of the nicest brookies I have ever seen come out of this little tiny lake. Both about 12 inches and super fat. No world record, but for a 4 acre lake that is 6-8 foot deep at best, it was super rad. I let her reel the second fish in and it was the first fish she had ever been involved in. She was glowing from ear to ear and thought it was super georgeous. I made us BLT sandwiches out there for lunch with some gatorade and zebra cakes. She felt like the queen I think she is and nothing is better than a fresh cooked BLT in the middle of nowhere for your first outdoor experience. She did so well and had so much fun that I took her on Sunday up to Rolliinsville and up past the Moffat tunnel and up to Yankee Doodle Lake. Had intentions to make it to the Forest Lake trail head and hike into some cool lakes but the road was snowed in. So we back tracked a few miles and parked at the exit stream of Jenny lake and free hiked up the 2/3 of a mile or so up to the lake. The stocker rainbows are thick up there but we did not fish due to the nasty lightning that was on the way. This lake is right at timberline offering no protection. So we descended down to the truck and back down to South Boulder creek at the tunnel and went for a hike up the valley a little ways. It snowed on us up at Jenny lake and rained on us down on the creek and she was nothing but a trooper having fun and soaking up the beautiful green and geourgous views. Got back to the truck and drove over the new Central City parkway road that cuts off the mess between Kermits chili on Hwy 6 and Blackhawk. Soaked in the Indian Springs hot pool for two hours before calling it a night. Capped the 6 day vaca off with a whitewater rafting trip down the Upper Arkansas river out by Granite which is south of Leadville. An excellent one day trip for the two of us on the Numbers section. The trip was through AVA and was a full day of class III and IV rapids. What a hoot and a half. Finished the night off with the Rockies game and a firework show to boot and am back in Nebraska at work as we speak. Not the exact fishing report that one would expect, but to my fellow Colorado brothren, you know I had a real good time. Woop Woop and tight lines!
Craig
Craig
