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6/19/10, Stoner, CO - I know this blog is suppose to be about driving horses; but, sometimes a man just has to fish.  In all fairness, I drove the horses to the fishing hole, so I guess that makes it all right.  Tonight, I’m kicking back at a small ranch on the river; with a belly full of trout, and access to water and power - life is good.

I got an early departure from camp this morning, but spent a lot of time talking to folks along the way. A few miles underway, I met Gene, who has a ranch between Dolores and Mancos.  Gene has been following the blog for quite some time, and he invited me to stay at the ranch.  I told him that the fishing is pretty good here on the Dolores, so It will be a few days, but I’ll be there.  Gene left me with a nice donation and a book of maps for Colorado - Thank You.

With no flies currently hatching in the river, I’m using a spin cast rod.  The trout certainly liked to hit the spinner I had on!

At lunch, I managed to find a wifi signal to post the blog from the previous days. The Dolores is a great place, but there is no cell or internet signals.  Except for the town of Rico, the upper half is all in National Forest; so there’s no chance of a wifi signal either.  The first houses and campgrounds appear about 6 miles south of Rico.

After lunch, I ran into Bob, who is the caretaker for a ranch on the river.  He invited the team and I over to camp. After everyone was settled, I grabbed my fishing rod and headed for the river.  In the next couple of hours, I pulled in several brown trout in the 12 to 16 inch long range. The fish were right full of themselves and put up quite a fight, frequently jumping out of the water.  I kept one for supper.  Along with some potatoes and onions it made a nice meal.

A nice German Brown Trout - about 14 inches long.  Until this week, the rivers were running very high and fast from the spring runoff, so my trip down the Dolores was timed perfectly.

After supper, I pulled the horses out of the playpen and moved it to some new graze. The grass is a little sparse, so I have to augmented it with a little hay. While I was building the new pen, I gave the lads their oats.  The carbohydrates from the oats turned to sugar, just as I was putting them in their new pasture.  Doc started acting like a 10 year old boy that has been given chocolate right before bedtime. He was running all around the pen, kicking up his heals and passing gas.  I had a feeling that nothing good could come from this behavior, and I was right. Coming around a tree, he was late spinning into a turn and crashed through the playpen wire. Quickly, I pulled it up, so the other two renegades didn’t bolt out as well.

By holding up the wire and pushing in stakes, I kept the other two Comanchero horses contained until I had the pen rebuilt.  Then, it took about 10 minutes for Mister Sugar-buzz (Doc) to be rounded up. Tonight, Doc is in Time-out (tied to the wagon).

Lets see, a perfect meal - that would be, fried trout, with potatoes and onions and a glass of cheap wine. Yeah, that will work!

Tomorrow, I’m off on another day of my riparian adventure. Oh to be 51 years old again, have a wagon and a great team of horses, lovely weather, and a stream full of fish? Hey, all of these things are true, so I guess I’ll have a pretty darn good time!

For those of you that are wondering where I’m at - I’m 12 miles south of Rico on State Route 145.