Another day a few fish

With all the rain we have been having it has been hard to find something to do outdoors. Can't climb in the rain, can't fly a kite in lightning, can't fish in lightning, snowboarding is over, and people get all poopie-diaper when you mountain bike in the mud, kind of like Verting in the skin track. Which I would like to add is retarded. It's a mountain. bike, get it dirty, ruts are fun! So, Saturday I cleaned the house, watched baseball (Mets & Yankees... yuck!) and ventured out to take some photos, all in all boring, non-eventful and a waste of a day off. Sunday had to be different, it just had to.
I awoke Sunday to clear blue skies, a cool temp, and an itch to catch some fish. So I through all my gear in the truck and headed out. Drove about 2 -2 1/2 hours away... into more blue skies.
The approaching storm.
By the time I got to where I was going the skies turned grey and began to rumble. I quickly rigged up and started to fish. I was able to trick about 7 fish into my net in an hour and a half until... flash... KABOOM!
I saw a quick flash of lightning followed by an instantaneous thunder shockwave which made me duck like I could avoid lightning and jump out of the water. I thought to myself this must be "gods" way of telling me to go home. I made it back to the truck in a hurry and sat in the back just listening to the rain patter off the shell, the wind whipping, the thunder roll, and the lightning crash. It was very peaceful to just lay there for an hour or so and relax, get mellow, and chill.
Shelter from the storm.
On my way out I stopped to check out another hole and noticed just how much rain had fallen as it turned the water into chocolate milk.
Nestle Quick chocolate milk water.
I am ready for another fishing adventure soon! Hopefully the weather will start to turn but not too hot please, I hate 100+ degrees and I am very much OK with this extended spring type weather.
It was a great day for the tag team of the Raggedy Andy and Grumpy Frumpy... my all time favorite combo... the everywhere slayers. These two flies together are unstoppable.
Raggedy Andy.
Grumpy Frumpy.
Raggedy Andy through the Ghost Net.
There were some other creatures lurking around the water. Tons of tiny little Yellow Finches ( I think). Very hard to get an in focus shot of these little guys as they fly around a lot. Same with all the Hummingbirds I saw. Also saw a deer and another fisherman.
Tiny deer.
Yellow bird.
Unknown fisherman making a splash.

Moab bike, climb, camp

Hit Moab over the weekend with Brock, Wendy & Bill & their 2 kids. Did some camping, biking, climbing and then headed to work on Monday and Tuesday while they went off into the desert to do some climbing while I earned a paycheck.

We headed out along the river looking for Fat Bastard... the climb that we could all do with the two kids not being exposed too much. Good times, and not a bad climb for my 4th climb since I was a pre-teen back in N.H.

Me starting to climb.
Brock.
Wendy.
Bill.

We camped above the Slick Rock trail head which is below the Porcupine trail head. Brock and I were saddled up to ride Porcupine which we were told is amazing and it is. The climb is very techincal with ledges ranging from a few inches to a few feet. After riding the ridge along the top of the plateau we finally got to the single track section and it was game on. Both Brock and I got bucked from the bike a few times donating some skin to the rocks. We finished the ride quicker than we were told we would which was nice, can't wait to get back down there and slay that trail again. The views are amazing.






At our camp site we were at the base of a large cliff. The full Moon rose and illuminated the sky so brightly. You could see stars but the Moon was so bright the sky remained blue. I was able to geek out a bit with the camera and take some of what are to me a few of the best photos I have ever taken.


Night time and blue skies.

The Moon Rise.