Altitude is good for the attitude

Goose Lake is a high lake near Red River, NM. The rocky, steep, Jeep trail starts at 8500' and runs to 11,500'. I've never been up and Derek's never ridden real off-road trails on his dirt bike, so we planned a trip. Leaving home at around 8 am, we stopped in Cimarron NM at the Cree-Me Drive Inn, which has the best soft-serve ice cream in the world. It was too early for ice cream and burger, so we "settled" for breakfast instead. Well... my breakfast burrito turned out to be one of the best I've ever had and Derek took 3 bites of his pancakes and said "These are really good!" He rarely says things like that. After stuffing ourselves, we continued on to Red River.

Our RV park (Roadrunner RV) ended up being right next to the Goose Lake trailhead which made things easy. We pulled in at 11 am and got camp set up. After some thinking, we decided to ride the Goose Lake Trail first, then go fishing a bit, and then ride the Greenie Peak (11,400', too) and Moonlight Meadow trails the next day.

Off we went! Now, remember, Derek just started riding a dirt bike in February. Goose Lake Trail started with a steep and loose shale ascent. I was about 100 yards up when I spotted a Polaris Razr coming down the trail. Turning quickly to find Derek, I promptly crashed, landing hard on my butt. Derek also crashed and couldn't pick his bike up on the slick surface. So, I parked mine, walked down, got him started, pointed out the line, and off he went. I took off, waved at the Polaris, and up we went. After that rocky start, things went well, although it seemed like we climbed forever. Finally, up near the lake we got some downhill time and in a fairly short time- it's only a 7 mile ride- we arrived at the lake. I, unfortunately, left the mount for my helmet cam at home, so I just have stills to show you.

In the parking lot at 11,500'.
Derek is glad to not be battling rocks.

Derek is growing

Goose Lake

The ring of rocks

The lake was surprisingly pretty- a crystal clear little thing surrounded by a ring of rock, snow still in place. It's a popular place and there were numerous ATV's, Polaris Rangers, and such in the parking lot. We were the only bikes, though. After some photos and observation, we headed back down, during which both Derek and I observed that we needed to adjust our rear brakes! On the ride down, my butt started hurting from the fall and it being only 1 pm, I thought maybe we should go ahead and tackle the other ride and save fishing for the 'morrow. So, we loaded up and off we went! Again!The other ride starts on the opposite end of town and winds thru some pretty fun trails. Uphill, downhill, level but with water washouts... it's a great ride up to Greenie Peak. From there, you can go back down and branch off one of two different ways to make a big loop. We rode that one and Derek proclaimed it as "much better" than the other ride. By this time, we were tired and hungry and stopped at "Anchovies Pizza" in town where we had a pepperoni- artichoke heart/olive/tomato mix. It was pretty good- not quite as good as Bruno's in Raton, but still pretty good. We'd definitely eat there again.

Sittin' on top of the world.

Derek with clouds

Wondering if we're gonna get wet (we didn't)

 After a nice night's sleep in our new Casita (3 Ibuprofen later, my butt quit hurting), we went fishing. I don't have much to report there except that there is a steep curve where fly fishing along brush choked little streams are concerned. After a rough start (I already used "rocky start"....) during which my BOA laced wading boots lace broke and I had to use a leader to shut, which necessitated rebuilding my leader/tippet, we caught nothing. The Red River was whipping and places where there's normally pools were raging rapids. We packed up and headed over to Eagle Nest to visit Eagle Nest Fly Shack and get my boots re-wired, and then grab some food. Got all that done, eating at Kaw-Lija's where we had a breakfast burrito and pancakes again. We agreed that the food was good, but not quite as good at the Cree-Me Drive Inn. Nevertheless, we'd eat there again, you betchya.

Bed-time in the Casita

Fueled with food and information, we headed for Cimarron Canyon to fish more. Amidst much line tangling and fly losing, Derek snagged 2 small brown while I had several strikes but nothing solid. Tired and grumpy, we headed home but not before stopping in Ute Park for real, 100% gasoline, no ethanol added and in Cimarron at....you guessed it!... the Cree-Me Drive Inn for soft-serve ice cream.  And a few hours later, tired, we arrived home just in time for it to start pouring rain. As I write this, just over a 1" of badly needed moisture has fallen.  This is, literally, awesome.

All in all, an excellent adventure. Derek got to ride his dirt bike off-road for the first time, we both went to Goose Lake, we ate at 3 new places, we camped in the Casita... good stuff!

Fishers of....fish

(Mat 4:18-19 NKJV)  And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

I figure that since more than one of Jesus' disciples were fishermen, it might behoove one to become a fisher of fish before becoming a fisher of men.  Because, like, if you can't fish for fish, then how are you going to fish for men's souls?  If you can't fish?  You know?  I mean, is this logic or what?!  So, to this end, a few years ago we set out to become fishermen. 

Now, I fished in my youth, but it was bass fishing on small prairie potholes. You cast a lure in the water and like as not a hungry largemouth bass smacked it right away.  If one didn't, then you moved to the next pond.  This is radically different from lake fishing. Small pond fishing is more like fishing for men at a "We Want To Know Jesus!" conference. There are limited choices and the fish there are hungry. It's easy. Lake fishing- where there is a lot of water and many more choices in food, shelter, and depth for our sought-after fish- is more like fishing for souls at a Rolling Stones concert. It's gonna be a tough one and um...Keef!!!!  Start me up, man!!!  Sorry... where was I?  Anyway, having found justification for my fishing ("seek, and you shall find...", right?), and, um... let's ignore the fact that I only found justification after I was well into fishing again, shall we?... here's where we're at, fishing-for-fish-wise.

We started fishing after David's death. Couple of reasons for that. First, none of the 3 kids could swim and I didn't want to worry about them falling in and drowning, esp David who was physically weak. I also didn't want to spend all my time untangling rods and such. There were other things we did- archery, traveling, museums- so we did those things. Afterward, Brianna was old enough to handle herself and I got Derek swimming a bit. They both wanted to fish, so off we went.  We hit nearby Clayton Lake once or twice and got skunked. Then we discovered Gravel Pits Lake in Cimarron Canyon, a kid-friendly little pond stocked with rainbows. That's where we started learning about treble hooks, weights, and Powerbait.  Prior to this, I was using a medium stiffness spinning reel loaded with 10-12 lb test line and big spinners and spoons- bass tackle, in other words. Trout are much more delicate and it wasn't long before I had an array of Light and Ultra-Light rods and small reels loaded with 4 lb test line. 

Derek's first fish, ever, at Gravel Pits- Sept 28, 2012
Still using heavy tackle here.

Our first real success came at Lake Maloya near Raton where we all caught a limit or close to it of trout. 

Derek and Brianna on our first Maloya trip- April 25, 2013

After that, I started going to different lakes around northern New Mexico, exploring and trying them out.  We've hit Morphy Lake twice.  First time was slow- D2 and I caught 4 fish between us. It's hard to get to and I don't think it'll be our favorite lake, although Teresa's Tamales is just down the hill and a worthy stop all by itself.

Morphy Lake

After Morphy, we went back to Lake Maloya and again caught some fish. We've been back to Maloya 6-8 times and have had good fishing every time. I think it might be our favorite lake on the whole.

Lake Maloya

Derek and I went to a 3D archery shoot back in July 2014 and just weren't having much fun so we bailed early to take in some fishing on the way home.  This was our first visit to Coyote Creek and we had a great time there. We didn't catch a lot of fish, but the scenery more than made up for it.

Beaver dam at Coyote Creek 

Clayton Lake is our "local" lake but it took us awhile to figure it out. Eventually, we started catching fish fairly regularly, but it's never a given.  In 2015, I got something new- an inflatable Intex Mariner 3 boat. I've never been a boat person, but it's fun and it's really opened a new door as far as fishing goes. Shortly after this, I bought an Intex Challenger K2 kayak. I like the kayak for its lightweight and maneuverability but it's not as comfortable with 2 people and is obviously much less stable than the boat, I really enjoy using both boats to explore the waters.

Trying the Intex for the first time

Before long, we had to try fly fishing, especially after visiting smaller waters like Coyote Creek and Gravel Pits (and the surrounding Cimarron).  Using points from my Cabela's card, I got us set up with rods and reels and we were off.  There is a steep learning curve with fly fishing and at first, we were not very successful. One thing I learned about fly-fishing is that, unlike normal fishing where bodies of water are referred to as "Lake _____" or "_______ River", you call the place only by its first name.  Thus, the Cimarron River is simply "the Cimarron" and the San Juan River is "the San Juan".  Doing it this way lets people know that you "know". So if you want to sound like you, too, "know", I suggest you start referring to bodies of water by their Christian name. 

Fly fishing the Cimarron

To help get over the Fly-Fishing Learning Mountain, we hired a guide from Eagle Nest Fly Shack.  Tim, the owner, was our guide and both D2 and I learned a lot. That fall, we picked up used waders and boots from them, and applied our lessons on our own.

Learning from our guide

As of this writing, I have yet to catch a brown trout and D2 has yet to catch a rainbow on a fly rod.  We're in competition to see who can be the first to get the other's fish.

A non-guided trout

At Winfield 2015, D2 learned to tie flies.  Several of the Winfield guys are fly-fishermen and D2 and no shortage of help. He's caught trout- brown trout, no rainbows, please note!- on his own hand-tied flies.

Learning to tie flies at Winfield

Next on our list of fish to catch were walleye and bass.  Clayton Lake has them, but Ute Lake has more, so when Heather needed to zip down to Ute Lake to do a falcon exchange, D2 and I were all on board.  There, we met my ex-apprentice, Calvin, and another falconer, Mike, (that's four falconers fishing for fish, in case you lost track) and fished away.  D2 caught two keeper walleye and a couple of bass, plus Mike gave us his bass and we had a meal!  After trout, the walleye and bass were big fish.

First walleye and bass at Ute Lake

A few weeks later, we put our new Casita to use in an overnight stay at Clayton Lake where we caught several nice fish.

Casita Camping at Clayton Lake

The view from my kayak

D2 caught the big one

And then just a few weeks ago, we took the Casita back to Ute Lake where I caught several smallmouth bass, including a few keepers.  Derek didn't catch one until just before we were ready and then hooked one bigger than either of mine.

Ute Lake smallmouth

Well, that's fishing so far. Now that the weather's getting warmer, we're  moving back to the fly streams where I will catch a brown trout. We're both going to catch cuthroat, probably in the Valle Vidal, which is a place I've never been. Or maybe up in Santa Barbara creek, another place I've never been.  Later this year we have plans to head down south to combine fishing with hawking and javelina hunting. We've discussed moving to Logan (home of Ute Lake) in the winter. We can speak bilingually now, switching effortlessly from Spin-Cast to several dialects of Fly-Fishing. We have "A River Runs Through It" memorized- in my case, both the movie and the book. However, don't think that we are good fishermen, I think we still need a lot of practice. And we intended to practice. A lot.

“My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.” 

“Well, until man is redeemed he will always take a fly rod too far back, just as natural man always overswings with an ax or golf club and loses all his power somewhere in the air; only with a rod it's worse, because the fly often comes so far back it gets caught behind in a bush or rock.” 

“As a Scot and a Presbyterian, my father believed that man by nature was a mess and had fallen from an original state of grace. Somehow, I early developed the notion that he had done this by falling from a tree. As for my father, I never knew whether he believed God was a mathematician but he certainly believed God could count and that only by picking up God's rhythms were we able to regain power and beauty. Unlike many Presbyterians, he often used the word "beautiful.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

Hanging with Heather

It's been awhile since I updated my poor little blog.  And that's 'cause I've been pretty busy.  Let's catch up.... In Feb, I mostly worked on guitars and rode dirt bikes a bit.  The weather was decent and we got a fair amount of riding done. Then in early March, our friend Heather stopped by for a visit. Being that she has quite a bit of ranch and livestock experience, I put her to work and her visit turned into a 6-week stay.

First course of action was building fence. I have 2 miles of fence between two pastures that was in pretty bad shape and has been since I got to the ranch nearly 20 years ago (I need to let that sink in for a minute... nearly TWENTY years ago...). I wanted it fixed up.  To that end, I bought a Danuser T3 post driver for my Case skid steer. We worked about 2-3 days/week on the fence and got it all spiffied up with steel posts, re-stretched wire, and some new braces. After some initial hiccups, the Danuser worked beautifully. At one spot, I pounded posts by hand into a dry lake bed.  Later, I drove by with the skid steer and decided to see how much further I could get the very tall posts.  I drove them an additional 2' without even actuating the "pound" part of the driver!  That's when I got impressed.

Miles of fence ahead

Stripping wire, pulling posts, driving new ones

Since Heather has experience with livestock auctions and Derek had some money in the bank to invest, we went to town a couple of times to buy cattle for him. I met with a local rancher the first time and got both his and Heather's opinions on the cattle.  When a likely bunch came up, we bid and won and suddenly Derek was a cattleman!  Back home, we branded, vaccinated, and sprayed with insecticide, all firsts for us.  We ended up buying 6 yearling steers in all. We'll let these gain weight on grass all summer and sell them in the fall, making a (hopeful) profit on the gain. This is a test run to see if we want to buy 20-50-100 yearlings in upcoming years.

I'm holding the gate shut...

.....Heather applies the iron.  Derek and Georgia are go-fers.

In addition to the yearlings, Derek has a herd of 8 momma cows and they started calving this past month. With these, we'll likely keep the heifer calves to build the herd and sell the steers this fall to generate money with which we'll buy more cattle next spring. If all goes well, by the time Derek's ready for college, he'll have a good fund built up.

The first home-grown calf of the year

Another thing we did was go hawking.  Since I met Heather thru falconry and since she brought 3 Harris' hawks with her, flying them seemed the logical thing to do. We flew them mostly in my Cedar Creek canyon which is a pinyon/juniper lined canyon. Bunnies aren't plentiful, but we got 2-4 decent flights every time and caught 1 bunny and a jackrabbit. We also saw a Barbary sheep ewe with a very small lamb in the canyon, a first for everyone. And we got a lot of much needed exercise! I think we fired up to fly Harris's again and I've put an order in for 2 birds for myself for this fall.  So, hopefully, we'll have some news on that later this summer.

Jackrabbit down!

And then we went fishing.  Being originally from Minnesota, H has some fishing tricks up her sleeve including The Art of Filleting, something which we'd never done. We fished pretty much once a week and caught lots of trout.  Derek caught his first walleye, smallmouth, and largemouth bass all in one day at Ute Lake.

Derek with walleye and bass

The above fish, about to be 'et.

I left out a bunch of other fun things- "walking" up to the top of the local mountain (pretty sure I said "climb" but everyone thought they heard "walk"...), looking for prairie falcons, playing Scrabble, visiting Las Vegas NM, feeding cattle, sitting in front of the fire talking, listening to music, and more, but I think you get the idea. We all learned a lot of things from each other, had fun, and it was, in short, A Most Excellent Visit.

Sitting on top of the world....

Alas, all good things must come to end and, in no time at all, it was time for Heather to head home to Montana. After lunch one day we said our "see you in awhile"'s (no "goodbyes", nope!), sent her down the road, and started getting back into our normal routine. That, of course, was quickly punctuated by incoming cattle (going into the pasture which fence we'd just fixed) and just like that, another ranching season begins.

Until next time

First one off the truck

Feed us!

And that brings us up to speed. Every year is an adventure.  What will this one bring?

There is one more thing. We observed what would have been David's 15th birthday with a visit to his grave. Tears were shed, funny stories were told, and- as always- we try to look forward in hope.

The Big Fast Train

The big fast train is here.  "What", you ask, "is 'the big fast train'?" It's a concept that I use to describe events that are a long time in the future and seem like they'll never get here.  Then, suddenly, they are here. I don't know if you've ever been out West (where the horizons are a long ways off) and watched a train coming, but you'll often see them way out there, sometimes as nothing more than a dot, a million miles away. You can sit beside the track and spit your tobacco (if you chew, and you really should quit if you do) and wait. Nothing happens. The dot doesn't seem to get closer but if you keep waiting, after awhile you'll start feeling the tracks vibrate a little. The train still seems a long ways off. When it gets closer, you can start making out details. Closer still and maybe the conductor will blow the whistle to warn you to get your foot off the track where you've been feeling for vibrations. And then, with a lot of noise and rumbling and flying cinders and whooshing air, the train is HERE! The ground shakes, the rails flex, your eardrums scream at the noise and commotion and then...WHOOSH!!!!.... it's gone. And off into the distance it goes until it becomes a small dot on the other horizon and before long maybe you don't trust that your memory was all that good and it really wasn't all that. So, wait for another train.

That's what long-anticipated events are like. You plan and prepare and it seems like the date will never get here and then, suddenly, it's here and like a fully loaded train, it sometimes threatens to just flat-out run you over.

My big train right now is "Winfield" or, as it's more formally called, the Walnut Valley Festival. This is home of the National Flatpicking Guitar (and other instruments) contest and this year, I'm entered in both mandolin and guitar. I did the guitar contest 4x- 1994, '97, '98, '99- and the mandolin once ('99, I think) but then quit contesting and just focused on playing. There is a maximum of 40 contestants, each of whom play 2 tunes. From these, 5 "make the cut" to the finals where they play 2 more tunes and from here, 3 are winners. It's a very prestigious contest and hard, too. On any given year, there will be 3-9 former winners and your first job, if you wanna make the cut, is to beat them. Also on any given year, only 1-2 of those former winners will make the cut themselves. It used to bother me that I competed for 4 years and didn't make the cut and then I thought harder about the fact that a lot of great players don't make it either.

This year, I needed some motivation to practice guitar and I was starting to feel semi-creative again after a long non-creative period, so in March, I signed up for the contest.  This kicked me into a frenzy of tune preparation and practicing. I could see the big train down the line and knew it was coming and I wanted to be ready. The train isn't quite here yet, but the tracks are shaking. Our truck is loaded up and tomorrow, Derek and I head off to Dallas TX and then up to Winfield. Once I get to Winfield, I'll be able to see the conductor and hear the whistle. At the end of the week- on Friday, at approx 1 pm- after being intimidated by 15 year old hot-shots backstage, I will step on the mandolin stage, sit down in front of the mic, adjust my chair, look at my rhythm guitar player, and then...I'll play the first note of my first tune. At that point, the train will be upon me. I'll be a little nervous, but with any luck, I won't forget, mid-stream, what tune I'm playing like I did in the guitar contest one year when I had to just rip around in the scale for a few seconds until I remembered and got back on track. On Saturday morning, I'll do it again in the guitar contest, but having- hopefully- survived the mandolin contest, I should be more relaxed. My goal is to simply make the cut. If I make the cut in either contest, I will pass out backstage and be the first person in the history of the contest to fail to make the finals because he's passed out backstage from excitement.

If you want to hear quick recordings of my contest tunes, go here. These were done with a simple digital recorder sitting on my desk, just so I could hear how the tunes actually sounded.

In May, I noticed that I'd started to put finish wear on the top of my mandolin neck. I bought this mandolin new in 2002 and I've never worn a mandolin neck before- 2 guitar necks, yes, but never a mandolin. I took pictures.

Finish wear in June

Finish wear in Sept

Underside of neck. 

So, why I am going to Winfield via Dallas?  Well, several months ago, I got it into my head that we needed a Casita travel trailer. Derek and I have been doing a lot more fishing, archery shoots, and just getting out and I would really, really like to have a little trailer that I don't have to pop-up and which has a bathroom and shower. The Casita fits the bill. The family was a little hesitant but one day we headed off to Clayton Lake to go fishing and I brought up the topic. As we came down the hill to the lake, lo and behold, can you believe it? There was a Casita travel trailer! The owner kindly gave the family a quick tour and our fate was sealed.

This is not our trailer. This is what they look like.

We're getting a 16' for the lower weight

I started earnestly searching for a used one but they are hard to find and the only ones I found were 7-9 hour drives away and, yeah the pictures look good, but who knows what condition they were really in? I decided to check prices on new ones and what do you know? Casita is having a sale. The price quoted for a brand-new trailer was barely higher than what I was looking at for 10 year old trailers. I figured that in 10 years, I'd have a 10-year old trailer instead of a 20-year old trailer, and so, thanks to generous financial donation from my mother, I ordered a new one. Lead time was 2.5 months and there, folks, is another big fast train. After all this anticipation and preparation, Monday, Lord willing!, we will hook the new trailer to our truck.

In other news, Derek and I have been fly fishing. After testing the waters ourselves, I decided to hire a guide and jump start the process. We ended up selling 2 of our doe pronghorn permits and using that money to finance a full day's fishing on our local waters. We learned a LOT and had a lot of fun. I hope this is something that we'll be doing more of in upcoming years. Thanks to Eagle Nest Fly Shack in, appropriately, Eagle Nest, NM

Derek's first Brown trout (yes, the fish was back in the water quickly)

Stalking fish pre-guide

Derek and guide

Last bit of news... "Falconry Equipment" is being edited by my co-author Jim Hodge as we speak. When I get back from Winfield- Lord willing- I will make suggested corrections and send it off to the printer. I should have copies in hand by mid-October, if all goes well.

It's been a great summer. I'm looking forward to fall.

Archery Adventure 2015

We are back from another NFAA Grand Field archery shoot. This is for the State Championship and it is a long 2-day shoot in which one shoots the Field, Animal, and Hunter round in 2-days for a total of at least 252 scored shots. The round is outdoors and there's a lot of hiking up and down hills in the July sun.  It's a tiring round to shoot!  There are 6 lead-in shoots at which the winner is given 10 points, 2nd place 9, and so forth.  You can bring 40 points to the Grand Field and then score a potential of 30 points (10 for each round) at the Grand Field. It's important to shoot the lead-in shoot as you can win the Grand Field, but lose the championship if you only shoot 3 of the lead-in rounds and your competitor shoots 4 or more. More on this later!

Scoring the rounds

Derek and I spent both nights at long-time falconer Tom Smylie's house in Edgewood NM and had a great visit there. Tom goes WAY back in falconry- longer than I've been alive, actually- and knows everyone and everything about it. Derek had a good discussion with him and maybe learned a few things about campers, hawks, falcons, pigeons, dogs, book, kayaks, climbing, search/rescue,...

At the shoot, the first day went well and normally.  I matched my highest score on the Animal round and Derek broke his own records in the Field and Animal rounds.  We left Tom's at 6:15 am and got back at 6:30 pm.  Long day. I was happy because I've been having rotator cuff issues all summer and in fact had skipped some of the earlier shoots in Jan-Mar due to this. At some point, I discovered kinesiology tape and started using it on my shoulder.  Mark me down as a believer; after shooting about 150 arrows on Saturday with the tape in place, my shoulder was great.

Day Two: I started the day 100 points up on my next competitor.  Should be an easy win, right?  Especially when the next 2 guys below me didn't show for Sunday's shoot... Derek was about 50 points up on 2nd place. Off we went.  About Target 4, my bow was shooting high and it just got higher and higher so that by Target 7, I was using my 20 yard pin at 35 yards. Something was going on and I couldn't figure it out.  On round 8, my first two arrows went high off the bullseye. Arrow 3 went about 18" low, completely off the target face!  I was positive I'd used the right pin, so I shot again... pow... same low spot.  When I looked at my bow, I saw the problem... my arrow rest launcher was broken.  At every other shoot I'd shot for the past 3 years, I'd taken an extra bow.  This time?  No.  And of course, I have an equipment failure.  Well, I was dead in the water now!

Broken rest!!

What it's supposed to look like

Or so I thought.  After trying to shoot Derek's bow and taking a "0" on the next several long shots (50-70 yards), we were back to a 30 yard target and I decided to at least try to score some points. By holding my 60 yard pin up and to the right about "this far", I managed to sink an arrow in the 4 ring. After that, I just kept working on it and by the time we got done, I was able to score 16's (4- 4 rings) on the 40 yard target and score a whopping 320 points (compared to my regular 500-ish).  Derek, in the meantime, was shooting great and scored another new State record of 528.  A perfect score is 560.

Derek's day was not w/out excitement, though, as Bob lost Derek's scorecard just before the start of the 2nd round. We have 2 cards for this very reason and I quickly took a picture of my copy for safekeeping. We started a new card, someone found the original card, Bob transferred scores, and all was well.

Derek shooting

Talking to Bob, District chairman

Back at the pavilion, scores started coming in. Derek won easily.  In my class, Competitors #2, 3 had gone home, but #4's score beat me by a mere 40 points. I wrestled with this a bit because he had 7 sight pins on his bow and you're only allowed 5 in my class. I wondered whether to protest him and make an enemy or just let it go. Then I remember the lead-in shoots....and he hadn't shot any of them. In the end, it turned out that he was shooting as a "guest" and got no points anyway. So, I took my 2nd State Championship.  Had I started shooting w/out my rest and not taken the 0's, I might've beat him straight up!

Derek, on the other hand and to his immediate disappointment, lost the championship due to the fact that he'd only shot 2 lead-in shoots and the other boy had shot 3. Maybe math will become useful to him now!  On the upside, if he'd won, then he would have 3 State C's to my 2.  Now, we're even!  Yeah!  But, me, I have no records, and Derek broke 3 of his own records today, probably setting them away for awhile.

State Championship #2!

After shooting, it was time to go fishing.  We both had new fly-fishing gear to try and so it was off to Coyote Creek SP to fish and camp. Coyote creek was busy and we ended up catching nothing. To make the best of our time in Northern New Mexico, we decided to move on to another area and headed for Red River.

Fishing Coyote Creek

At Red River, I spotted "Starr Fly Fishing" and we pulled in. The sales help gal was very helpful (and more than slightly cute...) and we left with directions and some new gear (a Fishpond San Juan pack for me) and headed to Fawn Lakes. That was a nice location and even though we didn't catch anything in the heat of the day, we had fun and we'll be back when it's cooler and the tourist season slacks off a little bit.

Our next stop was the trusty Cimarron Canyon and this time we were going to try the "Special Trout Waters".  That ended up being too tough for us, due to the brush along the road, and so we moved down to the easy Gravel Pit lake.  There, we found some other fly fishermen working the little "dam" and while I spin-fished (I really wanted Derek to catch the first fly trout), Derek talked to the guys fishing there and got some good pointers.  Before long, he had his first fly-fish trout and was happy as a clam, even though he looks sleepy in the photo. He was bound and determined to catch a fish with his fly-rod and it was great seeing him finally succeed, even though it was slow going to that point. He also got some good casting and fly pointers from an older guy there and was casting pretty well by the end of the day. I asked Derek about catching the fish on a fly-rod and he said it hit a lot harder and it was more fun fighting it in. He continued to fly-fish after this and moved away from the easy waterfall to the little pond behind it where the "big boys" were casting. He had one there, too, but lost it bringing it in. The "big boys" literally applauded him when he was fighting it and he got a kick out of that.

Derek's first fly fish trout

We finally headed home about 8 pm, driving thru a big thunderstorm/rain to arrive home, very tired and stinky at 10:30 pm.  Shower and bed were quickly in order.  We're already talking about going back to Red River.  I've still got my trout to catch, after all.

Lessons learned:
1) Shoot the shoots.
2) Carry spare rest launchers.
3) Don't give up. Throw arrows at the target if you have to.