once more into the breach

Well looks like 4 more holes are on order. 

Still, at 50% off retail can't pass that kinda deal up.  

Thank goodness Mrs Wulff has set aside plenty of fun sized snickers to fuel this engine. 

road goes ever on

Back porch wall tile us coming along, slow but sure. 

One thing that's become apparent: better keep my day job. 

Here's hoping the grout will even things out?  

juanin it

clearance

Ladies and gentlemen, your flight is cleared for takeoff~ 

fall break

Kids had a fall break from school last week, giving us the opportunity to get out onto the Juan.

Did not have both kids out casting rods much last summer, so this was a welcome break for me as well.

Time to catch up, spend some quality time together.  Sharing smiles, laffs, whoops.

And disappointments too- some of last year's planters have all grown up.  To totally school the uninitiated on the Juan.

Still others did meet their match in the form of this ole angler. Ha!

From San Juan Fall 2013

viento encantado

dawn patrol

Had to opportunity to hook us up with the pilots and crew of the Viento Encantado balloon the last day of ABQ's Balloon Fiesta.

envelope training

rigging

Can't say enough about the hospitality everyone extended the kids and I.  If you have not yet experienced crewing a balloon, you'll find the entire community vibe second to none.

pilot's briefing

lot to learn

we have a go for launch

fun!

just as much for me

Many thanks to Russ, Clark, Aileen for having us out, showing the kids the ropes, literally, about the backstory launching and recovering a hot air balloon.   Quite something to witness the synergy between pilots, crew, balloon first hand.

deflate

oterober

west ridge, Otero Canyon

September is behind us, Oterober is upon us.  (Oh, you remember Oteruary?  Well, there's sure to be more where that came from ;-)  

Happy Oterober everyone, may yours be a chunky one!



#mtb #singletrack

good morning!

Coming to you live directly in today's mass ascension flight path.  

jets

Kids' mid school hosted home xcountry meet. 

Kids got jets. 

epilogue

Yep, I caught my fair share after all, on hopper/dropper rigs mostly.  Ran a double nymph rig for some of the big fellas when the creek was blown out. 

Speaking of blown out- I see this particular pair nosing a feeding line at the foot of a pool, maybe 12" down.  I look away to change rigs out, look back up to make my cast, and there's nothing but chocolate milk where white water did flow.  Yep as fast as that, as I'm sure you know.  Spooked myself out of heading into the box, what with that crazy rain in CO fresh on the mind. 

Did manage to top out into that upper meadow before calling it a day.  Trudged back to camp in, you guessed it, a downpour.  




Staring at the prospects of another cold camp, another drenching night, I set my sights instead on that peach cobbler made by that nice Abuela on the road back home.   

 
Hmmm, my choice was made, and a wise one it proved: read later 2" snow blanketed my meadow that very night.  

the fall backpack 2013 series:
fair warning
discovery
elk smoke
epilogue

elk smoke

elk smoke [elk smohk]; noun  

Def: those wisps of backcountry storm clouds reminiscent of the vapor of elk bugling on a frosty morning.

Origin: First coined by toddler Will the Thrill on one of his first camping trips

 

Usage: peering out of the tent at the remnants of last night's storm, WTW exclaims- 'Look Dad! Elk Smoke!' 

Indeed it is son, indeed it is. 

the fall backpack 2013 series:
fair warning
discovery
elk smoke
epilogue

discovery

elk smoke on the ridge

don't matter, so long as it's hot

The next morning dawned bright and clear...
...somewhere far, far away from my small valle.  My morning was met again with squalls punctuating the steady downpour.  Slowing to a drizzle after breakfast, I made the most of the opportunity to gear up, boot up, hit the trail for that feeder I had my eye on.  

I wasn't a half mile up the trail before a monumental squall breaks over the far ridge.  There I stand in the middle of the trail, exposed as the day I was born, rooted in complete fascination as the squall envelopes the head of the valley.  The clouds slink down the rock face like elk smoke, while below the rain sheet is a moving, quavering, curtain of battleship grey.  

I'm shaken out of my boots by a peal of flash/thunder/flash/thunderrr, and I'm thinking oh sweet jeebus, this ain't gonna be good. But a minute, and I'm getting hammered by rain, sleet, grapnel, the trail now a veritable river. I hoof it into a clump of spruce, hunker down under some big boughs, and wonder aloud just what the hell it is that I'm doin' up here. 

In the far backcountry, in the pouring rain, lightning all around.  Without a lick of sense.

torrent

So I had some time to ruminate and thank dog for what Awesomeness could be found in the moment.  Like Gore-Tex.  And Redington waders.  And loved ones.  And oatmeal-raisin cookies, don't forget those.  And cutthroat trout, without whom I would not be in this fine mess.  ;-) 

cutthroat waters

All kidding aside, nothing quite like those big boomers in the high country to make a guy feel alive, amirite amigos?

the box in a brief lull between storms

Well wait ten minutes and the weather will change adage proved dead-on dontchaknow.

I soon found myself at the foot of the canyon, stringing my favorite 3wt.  That stealth black 3-piece, crafted by an old rod maker, sorely missed, who will never make another.  

native

It is there, peering through the gloom to where my first glory pool awaits, that I find...myself.  Once more.  

For I suddenly realize, despite the steady downpour, the numb fingers, the cold trickle down the back of my neck- that most all is Right in my World.  

And so it is, with a murmured- Well, let's get after it, I make my first cast into what is to be another glorious day in the high country. 

why we fish

the fall backpack 2013 series:
fair warning
discovery
elk smoke
epilogue