Incredible Utah!

Since my last blog Thursday morning, I have had an interesting time. But before I start I should warn you that I now have a cold and I am losing my voice. So if the print here starts to fade and get blurry, you will know why.

Thursday afternoon it was rainy, so rather than hike some of the mountain trails, I chose to walk the path along the Blue River in downtown Silverthorn. It also gave me a chance to break in my new boots without overdoing it. The path along the river was beautiful, even though I could hear cars on the nearby highway. Every few hundred yards along the river were pedestrian bridges that connected the two sides of the town. As I got the the first one, I walked to the middle and looked down. In the clear water I could clearly see four or five large trout, holding their positions on the bottom, waiting for food to be brough to them by the currrent. Every now and then one would rise to the top to take a bug, or move sideways to eat a nymph that was invisible to me.

As I walked farther down the trail, I stopped to watch a guy fly fishing. He was great at fishing, but not very good at catching that day. I was amazed at how he could cast to the exact spots that should have been holding fish. I watched him for about twenty minutes before moving on.
That evening I went back to the condo, made sandwiches from stuff I had brought with me from home, watched the VP debate and went to bed early.

Yesterday morning I was up at 6am, and packed and loaded by 7:30. My fly fishing guided tour was scheduled for 8am. I met the guide, Shane Smith, at the fly shop. His first question was what did I expect out of the day. I told him I was new to fly fishing and just wanted to learn. He was a great teacher. The first two and a half hours were on land as he went through the theory, the equipment, the background on trout and their habits, and then took me to an open grassy area to teach me to cast. And to my great surprise, I was incredibly lousy at it. Fly fishing is so very different from spin casting that I had to unlearn decades of habits before I could get the hang of it. At about 10:30 I was sufficiently non-hazzardous enough to go to the water. We walked to the Blue River, which was right behind the fly shop. And to my surprise, we walked across the same bridge I had stood upon watching the trout, then down to the bank. With my polarized sunglasses I could see some of the same trout I had seen before.

So I started to fish....poorly. The fly at the end of the line was very disobediant and rarely went where I wanted it to. But I did hook a fish, just to watch it get off the hook as I very efficiently misplayed it. But over time I did start to get the hang of it and I actually caught a trout on a submerged fly. I felt like I had hit a home run in the World Series. Shane, my guide, told me that the trout in that part of the river were very hard to catch as they get a tremedous amount of fishing pressure and have become quite wary. As I fished, Shane noticed that the trout had started feeding on bugs on the surface. He went back to the shop and brought a different rod, one rigged for dry flies. It was wrong handed for me, but I tried it anyway. The fly was much lighter, but after a while I got better at it. A couple of times I saw a trout come up, look at the fly face to face for two or three seconds, the drift back down to the bottom. But I did finally see one take the fly, I set the hook, and caught my second trout of the day! I was so excited.

The lesson ended at about noon, so I thanked and tipped Shane, got in the car to drive to Escalante, in southern Utah. From the distances shown in my atlas, it appeared that it would take about six hours to get there. Check-in the the bed and breakfast I would be staying at ended at 6pm so I had just enough time.

The drive through the balance of the mountains in Colorado was very pretty, but nothing in the world prepared me for Utah. I had to climb quite a distance to get the picture below.

Actually, I just had to climb out of my car at the scenic overlook. The next three pictures are just samples of what I saw during the drive.

The one thing that I did not count on was how slow the drive to Escalante would be once I got off the Interstate. The first 'highway' was Highway 72. With a posted speed limit of 40 miles per hour the drive took forever. But as I drove I began to understand why it is always warm out west. Every few miles there was a sign that read "Open Range". If everybody out here keeps their kitchen range open, it has to help make this place hot. I also noticed that the farmers in this area must be poor; too poor to afford fences. The reason the road was posted at 40m.p.h. was that there were surprises around every corner. If I were to have gone too fast I might have ended up serving burgers. That's right, it could have been 'ground beef fresh off the grill'.

But the slow drive was well worth it. I saw so many spectacular vistas that the magnificient became almost mundane. But it was sad too. This was the type of travelling Cindy and I used to do, sharing the excitement of every new experience. But I also marvelled at God's creation and felt loved by Him.

I finally got to Escalante at about 7:15, well after the office of the B&B had closed. But there was an envelope taped to the office door with my key. So I unloaded the car, then walked across the street to the local bar where I had two beers and ate half of a pizza. For those who took a bet, I still have not eaten at a fast food restaurant.

Today (Saturday) it is raining. It is now noon and I have decided to go for a hike, even in the rain. I brought rain gear so I should be okay. It will also give me a chance to see if my new boots really are waterproof.

More to follow, perhaps this evening