Settlin' in

The Leos are getting settled into the Conejos River Valley for the summer, making new friends and finding the local fishing spots. One of my neighbors, Ron, is a retired Marine pilot who has been coming here for several years. He has been kind enough to load me up in his truck or Jeep and show me around the area. We have visited several streams in addition to the Conejos River.

He also introduced me to Jeremy Smith, the owner of the local fly shop, who I engaged as a fishing guide a few days ago. Jeremy took me to a private stretch of the Conejos and gave me pointers on the most effective techniques for this river. Of course, since this was a private access area, it was well stocked with large trout. It made for a good morning of fishing. 

 

Richard, another of my neighbors here in Mogote Meadow RV Park, has been coming here for the past few years and has purchased property in the Sheep Creek development. He has spent the past two summers here working on site preparation and plans to build a house in the next few years. His site is on the side of a mountain and is heavily forested. So, site prep means clearing dead and fallen trees and using the logs to fill in gullies on the property. Richard has chosen to do all of this work himself, by hand. This means he spend 5-6 hours each day cutting brush and trees and dragging them into the gullies to "compost" to fill in the low spots. Last year's compost pile was 30 feet long by 12 feet deep. Leo and I visited the site with him last week and can see he has done a lot of work, but has a long way to go. Here are some pictures of the area around Sheep Creek.

Richard's site is up on the mountainside in the left of the picture

   

Building sites are up in the trees

Today Ron and I took his Jeep up to La Jara Creek. This is a small stream that flows from La Jara Reservoir, which is south of Alamosa and west of La Jara. After turning off paved highway, we traveled 16 miles on rough forest service gravel roads to the Reservoir. Then we headed down two miles of tractor tracks (good thing we were in a Jeep) to reach the Creek. It was a beating, but worth it. From the time we turned off the paved road, we didn't see another vehicle or person.

La Jara Creek

 La Jara Creek is a high mountain stream that flows through meadows and canyons at about 8,000 feet above sea level. In route we saw pronghorn antelope and elk. No bears this trip, but I expected the see one at any time. We caught  brook and brown trout, ranging from 4 inches to 12 inches.

12 inch brown trout. I caught three like this.

Ron reported hooking one in excess of 18 inches and almost landed it until his dog, Sooky, pounced on it and it got away. Sooky is a black lab mix and had a blast running around the meadows and across the creek. Leo spent the day in the trailer relaxing and listening to classical music. I know he would have enjoyed going along, but then I wouldn't. It would be like fishing with a three year old. I may try him out when I'm not fishing with someone else, but I don't have high expectation for him as a fishing  companion.