Atlanta

We spent 4 days in Atlanta this past weekend, celebrating Andrea's Alumni weekend. Andrea and 25 others were introduced during the G Tech v NC State volleyball game, and we tailgated on campus during Saturday's GTech football game. Great times.

Besides talking fly fishing with some former olympic runners, the highlight was the food and the High Museum; the lowlight was staying at the W Midtown.

The food:

We had two fantastic diners. The first at the Tamarind Seed Thai Bistro on Peachtree in Midtown.

http://tamarindseed.com/. This was some of the best thai I've had in a friendly atmosphere. The second was some "new" southern at the South City Kitchen on Crescent:

http://www.southcitykitchen.com/midtown/index.htm

The party of 6 had fried green tomatoes (with goat cheese) and fried oysters for apps. The en trees were Fried Chicken (mine, and it was incredible), catfish and some braised pork. Pecan pie for desert was perfect. I highly recommend both places.

On Thursday night, we stayed at the Artmore hotel on West Peachtree. This was convenient to Tech, but also great for getting off at the Art Center MARTA (1 block away) and access to the museum. Friday and Saturday nights were spent a few blocks away at the Midtown W. The Artmore was a nice boutique hotel. Rooms were small, but comfortable. The staff was friendly. The wifi was free. But, the bar was obnoxious in its modern decor and trance music. boring.

Speaking of club music, the W is obnoxious. First, they block wifi and force one to pay $15/day for internet. c'mon. Second, patrons treat this hotel like a club in Vegas. The floors are loud and the guests are, mostly, young and annoying. The W should supply white noise makers in each room to dampen the revelers running up and down halls at 3am. The hotel just tries a little too hard to be cool for my tastes. Besides these complaints, the rooms are very nice.

Friday was spent wandering around midtown and checking out the High Museum of Art:

http://www.high.org/

We loved the art and architecture.

The veil on this sculpture was stopping. I didn't write down the artist, but believe it was a Renaissance era Italian.

Room at the W. Bed was comfy. Staff was helpful. Guests were trying way too hard.

Room at the Artmore

What I'm Reading: more Moore: You Suck

You Suck is the sequel to one of Moore's first books, Bloodsucking Fiends. I thought BSF was his weakest book and really was not looking forward to another book with the annoying C Thomas Flood and Jody. Flood is 19, and like most guys that age, boring. Jody is an interesting character though. Perhaps the strongest similarity between Moore and Robins is that they both seem to enjoy writing female characters with depth and strength.

Moore's story telling and gift for dialogue is always entertaining, but this story is not his strongest. I found this disappointing after his run of Lamb, Fluke, Stupidest Angel and A Dirty Job. I enjoyed another story set in Sucka Free and cameos by characters from A Dirty Job, but otherwise would skip this book.

I'm looking around for more fiction and planning our trip to Atlanta this weekend. Good southern food is acoming.

The Animas is still low and clear, except for a mile or two where they are doing erosion control clouding the river from Highway 160 downstream. Rez stockers are getting a bit smarter, a bit bigger, but will keep your line consistently tight.

Fishing the Animas and lower Dolores

A buddy from Denver came down this past weekend for three days of fishing. The weather was perfect, sunny and in the 70s with some afternoon clouds. Fall conditions are tough with tiny flies. We did see a lot of rises, but had trouble hooking up. Our best dry imitation were size 24 and olive or brown. On the Animas, these could have been BWOs, but probably midges. The fish were definitely rising to BWOs on the Dolores.

This was my first trip to the Dolores. The drive is over 2 hours and really takes me on the border of the Great Sage Plain where I usually start looking for ruins this time of year. The 12 mile drive up the canyon from Bradford Bridge is worth a trip just for the scenery.

The Dolores was a suprise: 40 CFS still makes a very nice stream and being a tailwater, the water temp is much much colder than the Animas.

A crew of DOW workers were doing a survey nearby and we were lucky enough to see them work. On a stream where we wondered if there were any fish, they netted at least 50 fish with several browns and rainbows well over 20".

They told us to consider fishing just below their area, at a spot called the Ice Hole. This is where I will go back to every time I visit this beautiful river. We spent the day casting to large rainbows sipping size 24+ BWOs and midges. I hooked up with one 16" rainbow, but the fish activity was incredible. The Dolores' rep as a technical fishery with spooky fish is no joke. I can't wait to go back.

Both pics are from Animas Valley Angler's site: http://gottrout.com/RiverInfo/Riverindex.html

A look at the Dolores:

Fishing the downstream end of the Ice Hole:

What I'm Reading: Mezrich & Robbins

I'm just wrapping up two books this week: Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich and Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbings. Ugly Americans is a short, interesting story (270 pages) and Jitterbug Perfume is a re-read. I don't usually read more than one book at a time, but it is easy with these two.

Ugly Americans is mostly the story of John Malcolm, a former Princeton footballer, who moves to Japan in the 1990s to trade derivatives. He has no financial background before making millions trading in Asian markets. The inside account of Malcolm's brief dealing with Nick Leeson (Ian McGregor in Rogue Trader, if you know movies but not finance) at Barrings and the look at Japanese culture, ex pat lifestyle and the yakuza were, for me, the best parts of the book. Mezrich's writing is breezy at points, but that is his style. He writes interesting, readable stories about rich, young, mostly Ivy League kids. I'll check out all of Mezrich's non-fiction books.

Like Mezrich for non-fiction, I love reading Tom Robbins' fiction. This read has me reconsidering Still Life for Woodpecker as my favorite Robbins' book. Although, I hate reading Vlu's diction. Like Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Animas fishing

Labor Day weekend was a huge fishing weekend. Saturday and Sunday were spent on the rez waters until we got sick of catching fish. With the recent stocking, catching 10 fish an hour is easy. They are stockers, fine. But, catching 8-12" bows on dry flies should not get old.

Monday was spent on Animas private waters landing the occasional pig. My group (a friend and his dad) landed about 20 fish throughout a full day. Not a lot, but all were 14"+, fat and healthy. One huge brown (19") mixed in with the rainbows. A 18" rainbow is pictured above.

We caught all fish on nympys, usually princes or olive/green colored beadheads. Several fish were rising in the bright midday sun, but we ran through our entire dry collection to no avail. I spoke to the guys at Duranglers, confirming our suspicion of emergers. I bought several midge emergers for this weekend.

We figured emergers, because the fish "whaled" in the film with the occasional rise above. But, there were no visible terrestials. Even if we have matched with the emergering insect, it will be a bitch to land a nice bow on a size 22 fly. I can't wait to try this coming weekend.

Constructing an Awning

My office needed an awning and my Dad is a skilled and willing laborer. It's 9' long, 4.5' deep and already a tremendous addition.

Total materials: 2 4x4 10' redwood posts; 60 lbs quickcrete; 40' 2x4; 1 2x6 10'; 3'x12' pro panel tin for the roof; tar paper; metal screws for the roof.

Framing in the day after setting the posts.

Boxed in and painted 2 days later.

Fishing on the Animas

The Animas has been running low and clear and we got out a few times this weekend. On private water south of town I was almost exclusively nymphing, but did see some fish (smaller) rising around 11am. A fat and strong 18" bow got into a size 14 beadhead nymph after a few hours of casting. After a tiring fight he was in my net and swimming away in a few minutes. A fat, healthy, wild rainbow. I was surprised that he wasn't over 20", but it was a nice fish. The pic below is not my fish, but similar in coloring.

In the evenings we went down to the Ute water on the Animas. They recently stocked the water and it's fun to catch 10" bows on dry flies. Those stockers jump out of the water almost constantly in good stretches of the water. I'd like to know how often and when they stock this section of river. Fishing in these conditions is not entirely "sporty" but it's fun.

Anasazi: Arch and Ruin - Southern Outlier Loop

My Dad and his lady friend, Sue, were in town for the past 5 days and after many days of cooking, fishing and shopping, they wanted to go see some Anasazi sites. I've been thinking about guided loops lately and considered going west into the Great Sage Plain and Hovenweep. In the end, we settled on a southern loop that offered a good story: starting at the biggest post chacoan site of Aztec we'd visit four sites each degrading from 3 stories of restored glory to mounds of rubble covered in artifacts. They were game and the day was hot, but awesome.

Our first stop was about 30 miles south of Durango. Anasazi Arch is a fantastic arch, only 5 miles off highway 550, but rarely visited.

After the arch, we toured the Aztec museum and ruins. I doubt that Anasazi great kivas were roofed two stories tall - I think Earl Morris made a grand miscalculation - but it is cool. I signed up for a tour of the East Ruins. Along with the North Ruins, I'd love to explore this off limits area more closely (although I hate guided tours).

Next stop was 10 miles south, at the terminus of the Great North Road: Salmon Ruins. This is only the second time I've visited Salmon and loved the new-ish museum. Great site.

The infamous Tower Kiva. Sue was stunned to learn that the burned bodies of 16 kids were found here. Classic Chacoan stonework. Type III?

We headed south, into the San Juan Basin to another site that I've not visited in years: Twin Angels, overlooking Kutz Canyon and the presumed Great North Road.

Exposed kiva wall since the Morris excavation of 1915. Great stonework at the few exposed walls of this site. Almost no pottery though.

Lastly, we headed back northwest to a special place that I've only "discovered" in the past year: Squaw Springs Great House. This picture looks out over the plaza of the village with the Chacoan great house rubble mound in the distance.

Squaw Springs has as much pottery and artifacts as any site I've ever visited (only one other is close). This is a typical look down, don't step on anything and shoot type of picture. The locality extends for nearly a mile. Although the great house is small, the village is huge. In a way, this is like the Newcomb area.

1/2 arrowhead? probably not, but something man made.

What I'm Reading: Chaco and After in the Northern San Juan (Bluff Great House)

The Durango library received a copy of a book I've been waiting to check out, Excavations from the Bluff Great House by CU's Catherine Cameron. The Bluff GH is easy to access and find, and I've visited dozens of times. At times, the excavation crew has been working and I've waited to view this data. I mostly skim over the Bluff GH information, but will buy this book for the Hurst and Till chapter (4) titled "A Brief Survey of Great Houses and Related Features in Southeastern Utah". I've visited many of the sites, but the chapter includes at least a dozen new to me places that are on my radar for the fall-spring hiking season. No locations will be disclosed for these special places.

Since reading Till's Master's Thesis, I seek out his work. But, he has not published a lot for me to access. The Tank Mesa Road is told as a narrative in Craig Child's excellent House of Rain as well as the Jackson Crossover. Other sites are listed in Child's book for the attentive reader.

Above the Moki Steps site, I've walked over the road feature grooves and didn't know the significance. I missed the great kiva at Red Knobs, even with Allison's report. So much to see again and again.