Almont / Crested Butte fishing / fall colors weekend

This weekend Ryan, Allison and I headed southwest out of the Front Range to Almont via Cottonwood Pass. As soon as we got out of Buena Vista the aspens began putting on a show, fly fishing became easy, and my eyes were opened to Crested Butte. It's almost as if there was a magic line we crossed into the western third of the state that marked the change. Maybe it was just the Gunnison County border... hard to say. Whatever it was, we had a great weekend.

Friday night Ryan and I headed out to fish as soon as we had the Jeep unpacked. Before we even had our waders on we saw a bald eagle. Ryan and I each caught 2 kokanee salmon on the East River north of Almont. I also heard a nearby elk bugle for the first time. We had even better luck on Saturday, and probably caught over 60 salmon combined in 5 hours. It was incredible. Each fish weighed 2-3 pounds and put up a good fight as long as they weren't foul hooked. I had much more success than my trout fishing endeavors of last year, so it seemed a lot more fun. Even if we didn't catch a thing it would have been a lot of fun though. It was a beautiful place with great weather and great company... very peaceful and serene.

After lunch on Saturday we headed to Crested Butte. I had never been to Crested Butte, and was very excited to see a new place that I had heard rave reviews of. I was absolutely blown away by the drive into town... and everything about the place once we got there. 3 days later I'm still wondering how I can rig the lottery to afford playing there the rest of my life.

I don't want to overdo the praise, but I really don't think the scenery, authenticity, sense of remoteness, and culture of Crested Butte is rivaled within Colorado except for maybe Telluride. [I haven't been to Ouray or Silverton, so to be fair those should also be mentioned.] Outside of Colorado you might also add Jackson, WY into the mix, but that's honestly about it. [Again to be fair, I've never been to Alta, UT.] Crested Butte is now without doubt my favorite ski town that I've ever been to. I should probably shut up so all 3 of you reading this don't pack your bags and move there to ruin the place, but for me CB simply puts Vail, Steamboat, and Breckenridge to shame... and I really like those towns. With some of the steepest in-bounds skiing in the state, the Elks (my favorite CO range) out your back door for world class mountaineering, mountain biking, aspen and wildlife viewing, a fertile valley and fishing downstream, etc. the place just can't be beat.

On Sunday morning we headed back into town and I took a self-guided tour while Ryan and Allison were in church. I walked around with my jaw on the ground, jealous and daydreaming about dying penniless yet rich beyond my wildest dreams in terms of powder days and singletrack miles. The town is full of cool homes, neo-hippies (meant non-derogatory), more bikes than cars, prayer flags and wheels placed with pride, fences made out of old skis, front doors that haven't been locked in weeks, and a farmers market to boot. I people-watched in Camp 4 Coffee for a bit and my suspicions were confirmed; this is a true mountain town and not just a town which happens to be set in the mountains. Nearly everyone lives there for riding their bikes in the summer and their skis in the winter. Sign me up. No, seriously... where do I sign? I am praying they have free skiing in the early season again this year so I can see it again soon... not that just wanting to go back isn't a good enough reason.

None of us wanted to get back onto pavement when we crossed the Continental Divide atop Cottonwood Pass going from dirt road to civilization, but it had to be done. I don't like that feeling.

photos: http://flickr.com/photos/brett_burch/sets/72157607420399314/
video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi_NMzO5T74

expecting more from the buckeyes... and me

Well, Ohio State is getting criticized by the whole world today, and it's doubtful any of my commentary will be original, but I'm going to just get this out of my system and then probably stop writing about them for a while.

• I think something happened in Columbus on 11/18/2006 after the Michigan win. Something went wrong. Since then the Buckeyes have not played up to their potential at all... especially this year. They seem to be playing with a fear of losing rather than playing to win. They're waiting for their opponent to shoot themselves in the foot and open up a chance to win instead of creating the win.
  
• It's as if a team with 20 returning starters is sleepwalking through their final campaign. Is that really how they wish to be remembered? It seems everybody except Boone and Hartline are ok about this... even Tressel. Hartline is definitely opening up a dangerous can of worms by almost pointing fingers though. I would encourage him and the entire team to rally as a group rather than start to place blame. That could spiral out of control quickly. That could, however, be the spark they need. There seems to be no spark, no passion, no offense. And not much defense either. I'd rather watch a 3-8 team that played their hearts out each weak than a 8-3 team that didn't care.
  
• I honestly don't think they should have been in the title game last year (and if other teams hadn't thrown themselves under buses then they wouldn't have been) but this year seemed like a good opportunity to get to the title game and earn some respect. Now it seems unlikely they'll even make it to the Rose Bowl. This is not the same group of guys I saw as backups to the Ginn/Smith/Gonzalez/etc group. They have digressed, and this year's dropping in the polls 3 weeks in a row indicates that.
  
• I don't know why Beanie didn't play last night. There seems to be no consensus about his condition except the doctors cleared him. Why didn't Tress play him? I can't take this crap. Who knows if the return of Beanie will lift this team, but as of right now I'm afraid to watch this team take the field again. I am not just a fairweather fan, but I have no desire to watch a trainwreck or cry when the bloodbath ensues. How has a team with this much experience not ironed out the kinks yet?
• The offensive play calling was poor at best. No deep passes or passes to tight ends? I feel bad for Nicol. And why not actively use your starting wideouts? The box score shows Sanzenbacher/Small catching 9 passes compared to Robiskie/Hartline's 7. Why in the world was that even close... even with Pryor in the game? I would expect something like 13 - 3 instead of 9 - 7 the other way. I know Boeckman was hurried, but there is no excuse for that crap. Tress seems to have no confidence in his starting lineup. They looked like the exact antithesis of the team from week 1.
  
• Boeckman has fallen from grace. Put in Pryor. If Boeckman can't get the job done when the offensive line is not holding, put in somebody who can save themselves under pressure. If Pryor is the next leader of the team (and right now there seems to be no leader) then let him cut his teeth.
  

You would think I was bi-polar today. After thinking thoughts like the above for most of the day while a bit hungover and pissed off, I drove up Flagstaff to see how much snow was still in the Indian Peaks. It was as if I had never been up there before, like heightened senses or something... but seriously one of the most beautiful afternoons of my life. If I could control the weather I would consider repeating the weather from today for the next 500 days or so. I felt great afterward. On the drive up I listened to "To the Wild Country" and the lyrics seemed to tell it pretty well.

...
To the mountains, I can rest there
To the rivers, I will be strong
To the forest, Ill find peace there
To the wild country, where I belong
...

I had a great vista all to myself for about an hour and I just sat there in awe. The mountains seem to do that for me I guess, but I felt so much better. I think that and me receiving my ski pass in the mail this weekend are collectively a sign that I need to focus on my outdoor activities and just mentally let this year's Buckeyes go.

I also did a lot of thinking about myself up there. I'm still learning about myself, and suppose you never stop that, but today I re-realized that I set very high (but not unreasonable) standards for myself and miss the mark often. I hate letting myself down, and seem to care about that more than letting somebody else down. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I have decided to re-double my efforts and pick myself up by the bootstraps. My climbing is definitely improving of late, but that seems inconsequential compared to not living out my faith, doing my best at work, managing my finances, etc. A lot of inner turmoil going on there. I think I should just go to bed... it was not a good week, so let's hope the next one is better. If not, I'm going to need a lot more time in the mountains.

expecting more from my government

Tonight my mother basically suggested I was a Democrat because I told her I was sick of hearing about the grave terrorist danger this country faces from the speakers at the Republican convention. I thought it was funny since I have never claimed to be a Republican or Democrat and am not accurately pigeon-holed into either. It feels easy to lean one way or the other given the current administration though. To be honest, after listening to speeches from both the DNC and RNC, there are things I liked and disliked from both sides. So, since I have this little piece of web real estate, here are a few things I'd like to see / hear our next President say / put into place.

1. Cut the fat out of Washington. The only way to do this is to
   1. dilute the emphasis on political labels /parties and stop polarizing America by forcing people into one of two camps, and
   2. discourage politicians from seeking kickbacks from big industry or wasting time on projects which stuff their pockets instead of satisfying the best interests of the people they represent.
   We are lacking a utilitarianist spirit in our government. In the software world, where I have spent over 5 years professionally, the best way to kill bureaucracy is to increase agility and demand constant feedback. See IBM as an example. It seems insane to me that aside from silly polls, one of the only ways we give feedback to our elected leaders is by re-electing them or kicking them out of office every 4 or 6 years. 4 or 6 years is not a small enough feedback cycle. We need transparency into their actions as our leaders. Give me a web interface to query the history of actions by Politician A of Colorado. Let's get Washington out of the 1980s and let's stop pretending the government doesn't know all of our email addresses... I would like to be able to subscribe to emails or whatever that will tell me what the elected people of my city/state/etc voted for or against. Please don't make me watch hours of CSPAN for that. I could choose between a weekly/monthly/quarterly summary, be given links to read about what each item was about, read comments about why they voted the way they did, and be able to submit feedback on the way my official voted. If enough people participated, our officials wouldn't need silly approval rating polls, and would know the region they represent is aware that they are working to achieve what they said they would... or not. Sending out a survey asking for input before votes would also help our officials to better understand how we want them to act while in office for us... and might help them to cross party boundaries. We should be able to expose (and maybe remove elected officials responsible for?) pissing contests.
   
2. Give the opportunity to interested parties to take back responsibility from the government.
   
3. Committees in Washington or elsewhere should be given realistic goals and deadlines. Those that fail should be given the chance to explain why but eventually be disbanded for ineffectiveness. There is to much bloat in our political system.
   
4. No more drilling on environmentally sensative US soil. Not in Alaska, not in Montana, not in New Jersey. Nowhere. That's like a meth addict saying, "I'll quit in 2010." No you won't dude; you'll be dead. And so will we if we don't divert funds wasted on existing nonsustainable infrastructures and begin to replace them with sustainable ones. For example, let's put up solar panels in Nevada and Arizona in "environmentally low impact" and "productive" locations to eventually replace Hoover Dam so we can let the Colorado run all the way to Mexico. (While we're on that topic, penalize Las Vegas heavily to discourage growth in locations that are never going to be environmentally feasible for their current or predicted populations.)
5. Taxes schmaxes. I don't care if you tax the crap out of me if I can see the reward. If that's what it takes to build a high speed mass transit rail system which reduces our dependence on planes and freeways, so be it. (Can we start with the one going from Denver to Vail with stops along the way for all the ski resorts please? Seriously... I-70 is a disaster.) I do, however, care a lot about you taxing me for ridiculous things like building bridges to nowhere or killing buffalo that take 1 step out of Yellowstone because some dumbass cattle rancher thinks his cows might get Brucellosis from a bison (... which has never been documented... and the damn cows started the problem in the first place... and the cows are not nearby in the winter to be infected anyways! Seriously, you people are insane. Read more at buffalofieldcampaign.org.) People who think they are paying too much in taxes are probably correct right now, but low income people who think only the rich should pay taxes are selfish fools. Sorry buddy; that's capitalism... you rely on the police, FDA or DMV just like Mr. Rich CEO does. Americans lack a serious acceptance of responsibility and appreciation for the services the government provides. The way we pay our teachers, keep our homeland safe, and protect our incredible wealth of natural resources (National Parks for example), etc is atrocious and costs money to remedy, erego taxes. If this is the richest country in the world, we should be able to see that... and I don't when I look in our public schools or read the City of Cleveland is bankrupt, etc.
6. Phase out or reform social security. There are loads of people collecting checks that are well off financially and didn't put in near what they've pulled out.
   
7. No more rogue actions that convince the rest of the world we're a bunch of stupid idiots. I'm sorry, but if the rest of the democratic world is a bunch of pansies and is too afraid to stand up for what they believe in, they should be called out on that rather than sink the US government into enormous debt. Spineless, lethargic or apathetic nations should have their true colors shown.
   
8. All of our elected officials should have to read Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and pass a test about it before being sworn in.

That's enough for now.