Last year on one of the Internet forums that I follow I came across a great trip report by a guy with the internet id of “rbaileydav” who also happens to call the Creede area his home base. In this report he described a fabulous backcountry trip but of course did not hotspot the location. However, no matter how careful you are when reporting trip reports, someone is going to figure out where you are talking about. His report haunted me for an entire year. Rbaileydav talked about being in a beautiful wilderness valley with a creek teeming with really good sized cuts, rainbows, browns and a few brooks. I’m been pondering, looking for clues, wondering if he might have flipped his photos so to throw off the readers that wanted to locate this fishing paradise. He did mention that the hike in and out was pretty tough. I scoured my maps and Google Earth. Eventually I found enough clues that I was able to offer up two or three different candidate creeks. Number one on my fishing agenda this summer was to find this place where one could experience the old time Colorado fly fishing experience. Early on this trip I suddenly remembered another creek that I had always wanted to fish. Searching for a trail in, I suddenly realized that I had found the secret location…..
No, I’m not going to tell you where it is. I might take you there if we can work out a schedule–blindfolded of course. I will tell you that it’s pretty silly to do what I did–hike in and out in one day (about 12 miles)–you just don’t get to fish as much as you should for an area like this. This is a place to be savored and not a place to rush in and out. Here’s a short account of my trip but you’ll want to read [url=http://forums.flyfisherman.com/forum/rocky-mountains/high-country-snow]rbaileydav’s report[/url], too
I left the cabin by 7 in the morning and made it to the trailhead at 8:00. On the way up to the trail head I encountered a mature bull moose in the road that jogged in front of my truck for about 1/2 mile. Great way to start the morning. The particular hike that I faced had me a bit concerned. A couple of years ago, my niece, out climbed me on a 14,000 ft. peak nearby, serving notice that I was not getting any younger. Five years ago, I would have had no concerns about this hike but I hadn’t tried anything quite like it over the last couple of years. The hike starts at about 10,500 and goes mostly downhill to about 9200. I hate downhills but I knew I could do it. I was more concerned about the hike out after a day of fishing. Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about–the hike in took about 2 hours and the hike out took 2 1/4 hours–but it was still tiring.
Most of the first half of the walk goes through this high alpine meadow following the headwaters of a small creek. Here’s the start of the trail.
I should have taken time to fish this creek–I saw fish but don’t know if they are cuts or brooks. I’ll find out next year.
Here’s about half way in. The problem is that most of the elevation change takes place over the next mile.
The creek has a lot of different habitat. Here’s one of the holes in the canyon section.
Here’s what the creeks looks like in the meadow section.
Here’s what you find–a cutbow.
In this pool I had a large rainbow take my EHC drifted in front of this boulder. She immediately went into serious acrobatics with 3 quick leaps completely out of the water–you know the rest of this sad tale.
One more.
I do worry some about this creek. There was an outfitters camp right in the heart of the place. I started fishing there because I wanted to see if the camp had an impact on the fishing. I’ve got to say that I found the fish widely separated, spooky (to be expected), but consistently on the large size. I left after only 3 hours of fishing so that I had ample time to hike out. If I’d known how long the hike out was going to take, I’d fished a couple more hours.
Next time, I’m camping for at least one night.
BW