EAGLE COUNTY — The irony of Snow-Sports Industries America’s national Winter Trails Day on Saturday wasn’t lost on my mountain bike. The day set aside for a celebration of snowshoeing and cross country skiing in snow country was instead spent cleaning dirt from the cranks and sprockets of a Yeti fresh off a singletrack ride overlooking Beaver Creek Resort at 8,000 feet.
And while the novelty of my first dirt ride of the year wore off even before it began, it beat donating a week’s pay to the local ski tuner. To borrow from the friendly folk at the United Parcel Service, it’s one of the many things brown can do for you.
Yes, as Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz proclaimed last week, the weather pattern will change and eventually Colorado will see snow again in earnest. In fact, it snowed a bit on Saturday, perhaps in a nod to the Norse god Ullr, who is being feted in Breckenridge this week.
But like the vast majority of Colorado, Breck, Vail and Beaver Creek are still about 3 feet of snow away from attempting to salvage this ski season. It’s even hard for Ullr to put a positive spin on that reality.
In the meantime, outdoorsmen outside of the snowsports clan can consider this an opportunity to make the most of the mild.
Those who haven’t been bitten by the ski bug shouldn’t have any trouble surviving this winter of low snow. They aren’t second-guessing their decisions to buy a season pass, making plans to drive to Montana (where Big Sky Resort is offering free lift tickets to Epic Pass holders), or worrying when they might dare take those Christmas powder boards up to the slopes.
Instead, they are the ones with smiles on their faces, fishing rods in their hands and brown trout on the line.
Such was the case for Alan Gallegos of Henderson, who rang in the New Year with a Colorado River lunker on Jan. 2 just upstream from Glenwood Canyon. Drifting an egg pattern off the end of the new 3-weight fly rod his wife gave him for Christmas, Gallegos hooked up with an impressive 27-inch trout that measured a full 14 inches around.
“It truly was an awesome experience,” Gallegos said after catching and releasing the hook-jawed beast. “That guy sent me running.”
Colorado is fortunate to have a year-round fishing season. And while winter opportunities abound for ice fishermen, those who prefer fishing moving water have been enjoying some tall cotton this warm, dry winter.
Access is much easier than normal for this time of year along most rivers, both by road and by foot, as snow depths are far from prohibitive. Bright sunshine associated with high-pressure ridges makes for warmer afternoons on the water and more activity out of fish and insects.
Along with the big browns roaming the Colorado, Pat Dorsey and Landon Mayer of Blue Quill Anglers in Evergreen are making a pretty compelling case for winter fly-fishing at the International Sportsmen’s Expo that wraps up today at the Colorado Convention Center.
Kerry Caraghar of Orvis Cherry Creek is hosting a presentation on fly-fishing in and around Denver at ISE at 1:30 p.m. today, and Dorsey discusses the nuances of the South Platte (11:30 a.m.), a sequence of tailwater gems considered by some experts as the best year-round trout stream within an hour of any major city in the U.S.
That, much like January fishing (or mountain biking, for that matter), is largely a matter of preference. But it’s enough to make you wonder: Do the Norse have a god for fishing too?
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
