Seeding the Future

This past Thursday, I took a day off of work to assist Colorado Parks and Wildlife in stocking hundreds of baby Rio Grande cutthroat trout into watersheds around the San Luis Valley.  My assignment was a remote and rugged small watershed near the Conejos River called Sheep Creek.  So with the help of 2/3 of my terrier pack (the third was in Denver getting a haircut) and a couple of retired homeowners who knew the area, we loaded my 105 liter Osprey with 2 bags filled with trout fry and pointed south.  

On our hike over to the creek, we stumbled across a herd of about 60 elk and watched for 10 minutes or so as they crossed over the drainage, regrouped, and then headed out over the ridgeline.  Eddie Vedder gave a menacing (but just soft enough so that only I could hear it and be impressed) growl to let them know what he would've done to them had they stuck around...

On arriving at the overgrown creek, it was immediately clear that it was already inhabited by a robust population of cutthroat trout, and a single bow and arrow cast with my trusty 7-foot-3-weight produced a nice 10-inch cutthroat.  Nevertheless, our assignment was to release this next generation of trout into the wild.  I identified a couple of pools that did not appear to have any sharks in them, allowed the temperature in the bags to slowly equilibrate to the temperature of the creek, and released the Rio Grande cutties.  

An though I would've loved to stick around and fish for a while, with the rest of the family waiting for us in Westcliffe, we began the slow trek back to the truck.  After a sweltering hike out, during which we walked through an aspen grove that had ample evidence of recently housing the herd of elk, we arrived and began the drive home.  

The dogs were completely spent, a tired that only a wilderness adventure on 4-inch long legs can deliver.  

It was a good day.