Goose'n Around

It has been a slow week here at the ranch.  I sit here on my bed, exhausted from cutting and chopping firewood all afternoon, door open, with a nice cool breeze passing through the threshold from the thunderstorm lingering outside.  When business is slow for us guides, we are subject to Kyle Michaels, head ranch hand, and his extensive list of arduous ranch duties.  Before I go on, I have to briefly give a description of Kyle.  Kyle is around 5'10" with a presence of a guy towering at 7 feet.  He's quietly strong, until you get into an alfalfa bail bucking competition, when he proceeds to belittle you through his emasculating distance and power.  He only wears flannel.  When asked what he likes to do by guests, his response is "I like to work".  There was a facebook page created in his name, based on the same concept of the Chuck Norris jokes.  And on top of that, he has an extremely impressive man-beard.  I haven't met anyone who will even come close to out-working Kyle and because of that, it makes you want to work that much harder so as to not feel less of a man.  So as I worked through my third bandana that I use to mop the ridiculous amounts of sweat of my head and face, I proceeded to chainsaw and chop.

Earlier today, since we didn't have any guide trips, we were fortunate to take a trip to upper Goose Creek which is beyond the property line of 4UR, through the Humphrey's ranch and into the Weminuche Wilderness.  The creek flows into the reservoir that feeds Goose Creek below the dam, which then flows through 4UR.  We are able to bring guests up to Upper Goose Creek by request, so the GM wanted us to see it and fish it before we were in the position to bring guests up there.  Shucks... I guess I'll go fish unbelievable water...

The four of us head up there and hike the half mile or so into the creek.

We only brought one rod between the four of us and would switch off every few fish caught.  It is pretty small water with many overhanging branches that seem to swallow up flies like a hoover, so part of the switching was also brought on by too many fails or loss of flies in trees.  It didn't happen very many times but as soon as you lose your focus on what you are doing, it seemed that branches started to appear out of nowhere.

 Jesse with a round of applause and a few good laughs as A.J. snaps off on a nice fish.  Nothing worse than snapping off and then being mocked by three other dudes.

We fished for about two and half hours and probably netted a dozen fish without really fishing that hard.

Beautiful brookie.

Every seam, pocket, run, riffle or pool seemed to hold fish that would eat a dry fly.  We had a couple nice upper-teens fish eat that were either farmed or popped off once hooked but plenty of 12-16 inch chubby rainbows, cuttbows and brookies were hoisted by the end of the day.

Jesse hooked up.

Making this cuttbow feel stupid.

If someone wanted to catch ridiculous numbers of fish, upper Goose Creek would produce and produce and produce.  Oh, and after that, you'd probably catch a couple more.  The 4UR property is gorgeous, but this area is as breathtaking if not a touch more.  It's a special place that not too many people get the privilege of experiencing and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to go.  Overall, it was a really fun way to compensate for a lack of trips and it is always fun to see new water with a few good friends.

The hike out.

Unfortunately, after lunch, the chopping began.