2007 2008 Hunting Season

Next stop was to set up camp for a night at Big Meadows between Southfork and Wolf Creek Pass. The trout where calling me, so I unloaded the Kayak and went across the Lake there to the inlet for some Brook Trout flyfishing. Blaze always enjoys the ride.

Packed up and moving on again, I was going to head over to the Pagosa Springs side of the Pass to check out some tips on hunting Dusky Grouse (Blue Grouse) from a friend Gary known as "Stinkbelly" on the Texas Hunting Forum. I also had a location for Band Tail Pigeons I was going to check out. But it was not meant to be. Truck Broke down on the Forest Road. It was a serious enough problem I could not fix with a short in the wiring harness for my fuel injectors, but it seemed like every roadblock I hit, I would turn around and there would be someone to help me. From the guy who stopped within minutes of me breaking down and giving me and Blaze a ride to Town, The nice girl behind the counter at Rainbow Grocery who lent me her phone and remembered the Tow Truck business card on the wall. The Truck driver that arranged stops to have my truck looked at first by a private shop, and then on to a Ford Dealer that put me right in and did what it took to get me back on the road that evening. But it still was not meant to be yet as I brok down again before reaching South Fork. Completely unrelated problem, but the first and only truck that drove into the rest stop I was at, turned out to be a mechanic with his trailer of tools. He drilled out the hold where my broken radiator vent had been, tapped it, threaded a piece of pipe for it, and attached my overlow hose. Did not charge me a dime. So a bad day, but a great day just the same. I decided it best to not go on to Pagosa and stay in the Southfork area a couple days, both to make sure the truck was good and to make up for some of the funds lost from the travel budget. This also left out the other two stops that I had originally considered for this leg of the trip being the far west Colorado Escalante area to hunt Chukar and then Alamont east of Gunnisson to fish for Kokanee Salmon. But that is the joy of traveling this way, there is no plan, no set destinations. I found plenty to do.

Next morning I started with hunting Blue Grouse somewhere below Del Norte Peak. I believe I was above 10,000 feet. I had seen Grouse here last year during an Elk bow hunt, but this time I found none, so I moved on to an area near Park Creek about 11 miles from Wolf Creek Pass. Birds turned out to be at or below 10,000 feet this year. The next two or three days I alternated between hunting Grouse and hiking into the Weminuche Wilderness to fly fish. Caught lots of beautiful Brook Trout, but it was the Rio Grande Cutthroat that I was hoping to catch.

Blaze actually navigated the Rocky Stream quite well and kept out of the way mostly.

Seasoned with a little Montreal Salmon Seasoning, Italian Salad Dressing, and ready to cook.