Day 1, The Day From Hell
So, we finally get on the road. We're cruising up I-35 from Austin. Even though this is really the first time we have towed our big rig any significant distance, we're doing fine. This towing stuff really isn't so hard after all. Then, 30 miles north of Austin, people start passing us and waving us down. "Pull over. Quick. Trouble!", their expressions said. We got off the road and onto the shoulder. We were really bummed out to see that our boat trailer rig had broken a weld and collapsed onto the highway. A portion of the steel beam at the back of our trailer was ripped away during the failure and our back bumper sagged onto the pavement.

Fortunately, things held together well enough not to cause an accident. But, we were forced to unload the boat and trailer on the shoulder of the highway and return to Austin for repairs. In the process of trying to recover from this incident, we managed to short out all of our trailer lights, tear a hole in our awning, spring an access hatch on the trailer and drag 25' of sewage hose down I-35 for a couple of miles. Definitely, not a good situation.

Luckily, we found Craig (McDougald), Ron, and Bill over at their St. Elmo shop this Sunday afternoon. They welded our bumper back on and helped us make the other repairs needed to get us back on the road. Unfortunately, we had to leave the boat trailer behind.

Not to be defeated by this series of catastrophes on our first day out, we refused to go back home to regroup. We limped the trailer over to the KOA on I-35 on South Austin. Just 5 miles from our home in South Austin, but we were on the road.

The next morning, we completed our repairs and headed to Denton, TX, our first stop.

A Recap of our Travels So Far. Here's a quick list of the places we have camped and what we did there.

Denton, Texas KOA - Visited Camping World, a large store that sells RV and camping supplies. Bought stuff.

Lake Tenkiller State Park, Okla - Spent 3 days on this beautiful, clear, eastern Oklahoma lake. Extremely high waters limited fishing opportunities, so we hiked, poked around and relaxed.

Osage Hills State Park, Eastern Okla - Spent 4 days in this campsite in Oklahoma's Green Country. The trees in these rolling hills were full of lots of beautiful and colorful birds. Mountain Bluebirds and a Summer Tanninger shared our campsite with us.

Riverside Campground, Bartlesville, OK - Stayed a week in Bartlesville visiting Jeff's parents and attending Jeff's 20th high school reunion. My dad and I built an alternate carrier for my boat on the pickup bed.

Dodge City, Kansas, KOA - Just passing through for one night headed to Colo. Visited Boot Hill Museum, ate a big steak and savored the aroma of the nearby stockyards.

Pueblo Colo, KOA - Just passing through for one night headed towards Gunnison, CO. Conducted a BBQ in high winds and rain.

Holts Guest Ranch, Almont, CO - Our first real fishing destination. A trailer park with hookups where we spent our first two weeks in the Gunnison/Crested Butte area.

Tent Camping on Texas Creek - David Clithrow of Denver has a very fine tent camp on an isolated section of Texas creek, about 4 miles from anywhere anybody knows where anything even is. While David was back in Denver on business, he invited us to visit and stay at the camp. We enjoyed a couple of great days of total isolation and small stream fishing. Thanks David.

Lakeview Campground, Taylor Park, CO - We have scammed onto the finest campsite in the Gunnison Nat'l Forest, if not the country. Our living room window looks out over the largest visible section of the continental divide in the US. Our site is perched on the side of a mountain which overlooks the Taylor Reservoir valley. The hummingbird feeder that is hung in front of our living room window is under constant attack by several of these iridescent little creatures. A wide variety of spectacular fishing is just minutes from our site. This is what we have set out to find. We are living and fishing in heaven. There is a 2 week limit on this site, but they'll have to beat us out with a stick to get us out of here. (We ended up staying here over 3 weeks)

Gunnison, CO, KOA - A one night stop over while we got the truck serviced and got ourselves back to hookups for the first time in 3 weeks. A nice clean park.

Montrose, CO, KOA - We're in Montrose to visit Silver Springs Trout Farm, the hatchery that we use to stock the Guadalupe River.

Rowdy, the Wonder Dog  This is a story of near disaster and a really lucky dog (and dog owners). We took Rowdy (our 2 year old Golden Retriever) out for a run up the road from Taylor Park Trading Post to Tincup, CO. These are narrow, dirt roads with little traffic, that follow creeks up beautiful mountain valleys. Anyway, we decide to let Rowdy run off-leash, allowing him to bound and play in the sage brush mountain meadows. We notice that a large dump truck is coming up the road towards Tincup and call Rowdy over to get him secured on leash. Rowdy, who is having great fun running around in the mountains, decides to come bumblebee around Cyndie and play keep away, as the truck keeps getting closer. Cyndie is grabbing for Rowdy, I am waving at the truck to slow down and suddenly Rowdy runs right under the truck. Yelp, Tumble, Dust. We just scream "NO!" Suddenly Rowdy comes spitting out the back of the truck and takes off running way down the road. When we finally catch up we find a dog that ought to be dead, with only a 1/4" scratch on his nose. Rowdy appears to be unaffected by the whole incident. The same can't be said for us.

A Rocky Mountain Fishing Report  The Rocky Mountains had a combination of record snowfalls this year and a winter season that just would not give way to summer. As a result, most of the western rivers were at record flood stages well into late July. That has made fishing in these parts more interesting than normal. Many of our favorite fishing rivers are now an open invitation to drown, if you wonder to close, much less wade.

High water has proven to be good news for big fish, at least where we have fished. While the overall catch rate has been down, the big fish have been moving.

As of this writing, the rivers are dropping rapidly. You can see change in the streams from day to day. The springtime bugs are now starting to hatch and the trout are feeding. My bet is that there will be great, late season fishing in the Rockies!

Big Fish Stories! I am pleased to report that I have topped by personal best on rainbow trout twice this summer, landing an 8 pound and 10 pound fish. The 10 pounder comes with a classic story.

The big fish was hooked up in the heavy current of the flooded Taylor River on a #16 fly and 4 pound test line. Within moments, it took off on a run that broke my best flyrod in half. I was able to grab a hold of the tip section before it got away and got myself back into the fight. Twenty minutes later and several hundred yards downstream, I worked the fish into shallow water and onto the bank.

So, where's the picture or is this just another big fish story? Other than a car full of tourists who saw the fight and stopped along the road to watch, this fish was landed with only me as a witness. Never-the-less, it is an experience of a lifetime for me and just another big fish story to you. I do have a broken rod to show as evidence, if you'd like to see it.

A Guest List without Your Name on It? It has been a great summer for sharing experiences with our friends. Terry and Wendy, soon to be The Gunns, of Lees Ferry spent two weeks with us at their cabin at in Taylor Park and showed us some really nice fish. The guest list for Terry's 40th birthday included David Clithrow, Pete Parker and his granddaughter Jenna, Randy Smith (all from Denver), Ray and Kathy Franks (from Phoenix), Jeff English (Lee's Ferry guide) and a couple of other flyfishing folks whose names have faded in the birthday celebration haze.

Lots of friends from Austin have come to the mountains to visit with us. Guy and Janet Mery and their kids spent five days with us, including a day fishing trip to Mirror Lake. Barry and Denise Silverman and their kids joined us for flyfishing on the Taylor River. Doug and Linda McCasten brought four teenagers up for a week and caught a mess of fish on Willow Creek. Eric Bataille, his father Bob and brother Brent, stopped in for a couple of days of trophy rainbow trout fishing. Eric was blessed with the opportunity to land a 7 lb+ rainbow, his largest ever. Bill Choate ventured out with me for my first float of the boat on the Gunnison River and Ended up catching his first fish on a flyrod.

Cyndie's brother, Rick Shelton and his girlfriend Bobbie drove over from Albuquerque and took a day trip with us to Tincup.

One the best things about this adventure has been sharing experiences with our friends. Your invited, just give us a call and we'll tell you where we'll be.

A Run with the Ironmen. Cyndie and I have been working hard to get into and stay in shape. Just when you think you are doing pretty good for your age, somebody comes along and humbles you. When Ironman tri-athletes Bill Choate and Brian Gilbert suggested a morning run in the mountains, I foolishly accepted the challenge. What followed was a grueling 4.5 mile trek that started around 10,000 ft, went through some serious elevation changes and proceeded at an 8 minute (-) mile pace. While Bill loped along comfortably, talking to me the whole way, I gasped for oxygen and grimaced with the pain in my weary legs. But, I finished with a new respect for what Bill and Brian do to get themselves in the kind of shape to complete an Ironman.

What's next on the Agenda? Well, we're trying not to be to scheduled, but this is what we're thinking about doing from here.

We're going to hang out in the Gunnison/Crested Butte area until early August. We hope the water will have dropped enough to allow us to float and fish the Gunnison by that time.

Next, we have plans to head over to the Flaming Gorge Canyon on the Green River in northeastern Utah. We'll float and fish the Green for a week or so. We'll also probably check out Dinosaur Nat'l Park.

Late in August, we're heading up towards Jackson Hole and the Yellowstone River area. We'll spend a couple of days fishing with Paul Bruun on the Snake River and hope to hook up with Jim Adams, of the Austin Angler, to fish on the Yellowstone.

Early September we're thinking about heading over into the Big Horn River area of Montana. We'll spend a week floating and fishing for big trout in this area.

Mid September we plan to head towards Denver, for the FlyTackle Dealers Show.

Terry Gunn and Wendy Hanvold, of Lee's Ferry Anglers, will be married in Las Vegas on the 22nd of September. We plan to attend. On the way, we'll spend some time in Albuquerque visiting our brothers (Cyndie has 3 there and I have 1) and their families.

On our way back into Austin in early October, we'll stop off and fish some NW New Mexico streams with Alan Bray, the new President of Texas TU.

Jeff to Become a Guide. Terry Gunn has offered me the opportunity to guide at Lee's Ferry next spring. I'll be taking people on walk-in trout fishing trips into the entrance to the Grand Canyon. The trout fishing in this area is world class and the scenery is spectacular. This will be a great opportunity for us to learn more about this area about flyfishing in general. While I'm out guiding, Cyndie will be working in the flyshop. This should be an interesting 3 month experience for us.

What's it Like Not Working? After 15 years of corporate and government life, it is quite a change to not be working. There are things you miss about work. The friends, the structure and ..... there must be something else. But, I have to tell you, it is very nice to have a break from an 8-5(or 6, 7 or 8pm+) lifestyle. You start the day at your own pace, set an agenda based on what you want to do and can take the time to enjoy the experiences as they come. We both know it is a luxury we will only enjoy for this 2 year period, but there are lessons it that will last us a lifetime.

We're in touch, So you keep in touch. We're on the road fulltime now, but that doesn't mean you can't keep in touch with us. Send us an E-Mail or leave a voice mail message at the numbers shown on the newsletter header. We love to hear from our friends. And, we've you where we're heading, so come visit.

A Late Breaking Fishing Update. On August 5, I landed a 15 pound rainbow trout. This 29 inch fish had a girth of over 19 inches. Unlike the last big fish story, this one was landed in front of a crowd of about 30 people and there are numerous photos. The crowd broke out in a group cheer when the fish was finally netted at the end of the 30 minute fight. In order to land this fish, I had to wade into deep swift water and eventually had to be assisted with my wading to avoid being swept downstream.

The big fish had 5 or 6 other flies in it and also had a 3" Rapala hanging out of its mouth, its' treble hooks grown into its jaw. Clearly this fish had fought and won several times in the past.

About this newsletter. Most of the material in this newsletter is taken from daily journal entries that Cyndie and I are keeping. Individual articles have been written over the course of the past 6 weeks.

The newsletter is produced in WordPerfect 6.0 on our desktop and notebook computers. It has been printed on our Bubble Jet notebook printer. All of this equipment is powered by our solar charging systems. Other than the final copies, all production occurred somewhere in the backwoods of Colorado.

Contents:

Day 1, The Day From Hell. 

Rowdy, the Wonder Dog. 

A Rocky Mountain Fishing Report. 

A Guest List without Your Name on It? 

A Run with the Ironmen.

What's next on the Agenda?

Jeff to become a Guide

What's it Like Not Working?

About this newsletter. 

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