'RADO

i made it to colorado!
stops along the way included: the fine city of Portland, Maine; Boston; Arlington; Brooklyn; Manhattan; South Bend, Indiana; Lincoln, Nebraska for the C's; Lexington, Nebraska; Denver; Fort Collins.

brooklyn to south bend was a good 10 hours, south bend to lexington was long 14, lexington to denver a smooth 5. i drove across the country and back with my folks when i was a little fellow, so while the landscape from say, ohio to denver was certainly flat, it was pretty much my first look at it all, so it was interesting, if not exciting. i think any road you've never been on holds some excitement, right? that said, there were definitely times when i'd get to daydreaming and wonder where the last 2 hours and 150 miles went.

i had great stays with the fine folks in all those cities mentioned above and was greeted with much fun and hospitality in colorado with Liz, Ben, Zona, Lucretia, Mandy and Menig in denver and then a great rendez-vous with Lucas in fort collins. i left denver on the morning of tuesday the 18th and drove south and west towards Creede and the 4UR Ranch, where i'll be for the summer.
if there has been one theme in this here web log besides things picatorial, it is new places. colorado is no exception and the Ranch isn't either. it was a weird feeling as i entered colorado and then thought to myself, ok, i live here now. same when i finally made it to the entry gate at the 4UR. when i arrived i didn't know what to expect but did expect some sort of instruction on what to do, but there weren't many people around. i soon found someone though and got some direction and began moving into an empty bunkhouse, Creekside. it brought back memories of moving into Hedge and trying to decide which bed to take, which set of drawers, etc, etc. as it turns out i've got my own room for the time being, but one guy is coming in late so we'll see who gets the roommate. i'm going to claim that my snoring justifies a single.
the ranch is wild and incredible to say the least. it's easy to get lost in thought or lost in thoughtlessness while looking around at the scenery here. elevation at the ranch is 8500 feet and at the headwaters of Goose Creek (the water i'll be doing the majority of my guiding on) are 9000+ feet. i haven't gone for a jog yet but i've certainly felt some wind in my lungs, most notably after picking up 75 pound pieces of cottonwoods a couple days ago for an afternoon.

i've been pretty busy in the past 2 and a half days so i haven't snapped too many pics but there'll be many to come.
i got on the water for the first time yesterday evening with one of my fellow guides Boone, from south carolina. he is a character and a sweet dude. we both stung three or four last night and both put a couple in the net this evening as well, mostly rainbows but one or two browns and also a cutthroat-rainbow hybrid.

this afternoon the guide staff (Andy, head guide, Drew, Boone and myself) fished together, talking about the water and guiding and getting guided by each other. i was handed the road first and Andy was the guide. in the first 30 minutes of ever fishing with Andy, i think i got hung up on snags 5 times, lost 4 flies, had 2 tangles and then hooked, fought and landed a 20" rainbow. Boone grabbed the rod next and hooked and landed a fish on his first cast. i had some nerves to say the least. but soon i was fishing well and hooked several others during the afternoon's "work". Drew took the stick next and lost one a few minutes later and then Andy made two casts and landed a rainbow that trumped us all. watching really good fishermen is something else.

so, there is much to tell still but this cat is pretty tired this evening.
that crazy cliff in the distance above is called The Palisade. it's pretty amazing. that's Goose Creek above. Boone took the picture of me with a nice rainbow i landed. i'll get that from him soon.

i hope everyone is well. internet is slow here, cell phones don't work on the ranch and my "dorm" phone is currently not working ha. kinda nice!