Leaving For Co Tomorrow.

[Quillback]

Cool, looking forward to your report.

[Tim Smith]

Hope you tear 'em up cowboy.

Speaking of Colorado . . . the Dallas fam was just out there. Spent about 45 minutes fishing the Big T meadow water in RMNP after a disappointing hike to Cub lake to find it was all lilly pads and surrounded by burnt trees from last years fire.

Anyway, regarding Colorado's new cash crop . .. had this mildly awkward moment explaining the significance of these, errr , founding fathers to my kids at the Chebu Hut sandwich shop in Boulder, this after 3 days prior visiting the real Mt. Rushmore in SD.

Snoop Dogg, Willie, Garcia, and Bob - the "other Mt. Rushmore"

IMG_1256.JPG

Cub Lake is a place to find moose, not trout.

Good luck in that drainage. Looking forward to hearing your report. I just got back form backpacking with my son in that area and the rain has been a bit out of hand there this week. In the mountain streams we were following, there were so many beaver dams, it almost didn't matter. There's so much retention there's almost no possibility of cloudy water.

...and yeah, all Colorado trout will make you sick. Horrible horrible things happen to people who eat them. Or even fish for them. Scary bad. Where's the emoticon for a scary face?

[Mitch f]

Colorado is the place to be.

Colorado is beautiful no doubt. I recall the smell of pines that filled the entire countryside when I used to go there to archery hunt.

[ness]

Yeah -- Colorado is great, even when you're not stoned. Not gonna make it out there this year unless I can pull of a miracle.

Andrew -- how'd you do fishing Big T in the meadow? I love it there, even though I know it gets pounded.

[ColdWaterFshr]

I did alright, considering I only fished it for about 45 minutes on our last day there. We had just finished our hike up to Cub Lake and I wanted to fish, but the wife wanted to go into Estes and get the kids ice cream. So she left me there and I caught a couple small browns and brookies just downstream of the first foot-bridge that is the Cub Lake trailhead. Wished I had more time to explore further down. I really like the meadow water. Also I wanted to fish the fall creek meadow water but never had the time. Was tough to get quality time there when our hotel was in Boulder.

Was a little nervous as I didn't have a fishing license. Thought I could get one at the visitors center but they don't sell them. Didn't have time to run into town, so I poached!

So you don't think I'm a complete jerk I did buy a fishing license in South Dakota for 1 day and it was $18. Thought that was kinda steep.

[ness]

Too bad you missed out on the ice cream, huh?

[ColdWaterFshr]

Yeah, but I had couple of Tallgrass Stouts in my vest pocket!

One other thing about there. The flood damage from last year was very apparent on both hwy 36 and hwy 34, but especially on Hwy 34 Big Thompson Canyon coming out of Estes. Looked like every bridge had wiped out and rebuilt. Had lunch at Ed's Cantina in Estes and they said they had about 5 inches of water in their place, as did most of the businesses along the river there in Estes.

So I looked up on youtube and found this clip. Wow.

[Tim Smith]

Yeah, but I had couple of Tallgrass Stouts in my vest pocket!

One other thing about there. The flood damage from last year was very apparent on both hwy 36 and hwy 34, but especially on Hwy 34 Big Thompson Canyon coming out of Estes. Looked like every bridge had wiped out and rebuilt. Had lunch at Ed's Cantina in Estes and they said they had about 5 inches of water in their place, as did most of the businesses along the river there in Estes.

So I looked up on youtube and found this clip. Wow.

Those floods last year were absolutely epic. They had hundreds of miles of highway blown away along with dozens of bridges. It's amazing they got Hwy. 36 and 34 back up and operating within 3 months after it happened.

[Greasy B]

Didn't the big T have a similar event 30 or 40 years ago? I thought that one blew out a reservoir in the park leaving a prominent alluvial fan.

One thing that struck me in my one visit to Estes was how constrained the stream was as it went through town. I can't imagine how that volume of water passed through the bridges and culverts.

[ness]

You're thinking of two separate events. The Lawn Lake flood and the Big Thompson flood.

Lawn Lake was in the 80's. The lake is a man-made and way up in the mountains. It had an old earthen dam that broke. Sent water down Roaring River into the Fall River valley and on into Estes. There were a handful of fatalities in the Aspen Glen campground. That's the alluvial fan one and it's easily viewable from up on Trail Ridge Road or Google Earth. The remnants are still very visible in the form of boulders and long-dead trees in the valley. You can catch greenback cutthroats in front of tourists among the boulders where Roaring River and Fall river converge. Google Earth kmz file here.

Big Thompson flood was in the 70s and was the result of a huge amount of rain in a small time. The Big T canyon was inundated and there were 100+ fatalities. A big, big, deal. John Gierach writes about being out on a multi-day fishing trip in the area and learning about the magnitude of it from a newspaper headline. He said it occurred to him that if he ever just wanted to just disappear, it would have been the perfect opportunity.