Another day...another dollar

Sorry for 2 posts in one day, but I thought I'd post some images from our field work today. We've been heading to the Gallinas now every day for about a week to do this last big ecology project.

This is my first year, Higher Level Biology class hard at work in the Gallinas river area just west of campus.



The kids were given the following prompt as their lab: Design and conduct an experiment to survey a biotic component or investigate the relationship between a biotic component and an abiotic component of a river ecosystem.

The rest is up to them. Here's what some of them are studying:

1) stream richness vs. stream flow rate as determined by measuring the number of different species (and # of individuals in each species) of aquatic macroinvertebrates (water bugs)
2) grasshopper population and distribution study using the capture-mark-release-recapture method
3) cattail distribution study as affected by soil moisture content
4) a few other various plant studies and how varying abiotic factors affect plant distribution
5) pocket gopher population study (capture-mark-release-recapture)

Pretty cool stuff huh!?

cheers,
jeff

New Pajamas

There's nothing like it...

As the cold of the New Mexico fall has us getting cosy by the space heaters and enjoying some cinematic adventures on our TV, the icing on the cake is a new pair of Pajamas for a very pregnant Kelley.

We went into Santa Fe yesterday for a doctor's visit and a small trip to Target (a rare luxury for us in our small town). I got a new fleece hoodie and kelley got some bangin' new owl pajamas that definitely had her in high spirits last night....evidently Camden(black dog) and Jack (brown dog) liked them too!

As mid-October is finding me busy in the classroom, nights have been a really great yin to the yang of the daytime. Kelley and I have been spending some great quality time together getting ready for our soon-to-be munchkin to finally arrive. The nursury is set, my rocking chair is ready in the bedroom, and we've been playing tummy games with the not-yet-of-this-world kiddo when we get ready for bed. Kelley can scratch or push on a part of her belley and little Moira will kick at that spot! Pretty cool stuff.

cheers,
jeff

Luck of the Kiwi?

It's not my intention that this become a blog just about my fishing experiences, but...

My parents recently (within the past year or so) had a journey to New Zealand with some friends of theirs. On returning, they brought me quite possibly the best gift that they could have brought me from New Zealand...a greenstone fish hook. I didn't realize it at the time, but there's a bit of tradition with these necklaces in that it is VERY bad form to buy one for yourself...kind of a like giving yourself a nickname! The fish hook itself represents prosperity and safe-keeping over the water. It's a bit of a fisherman's guardian angel.

Since receiving it, I feel like I've been having a bit of good luck in the trout-catching department. Yesterday's outing was definitely one to make me even more convinced.

I was done at school by 12:30pm yesterday because of the academic festival we're having instead of normal classes this week. I ate lunch, talked with Kel for a bit, and then went down to the Rio Gallinas...about 5 min. from my house. I only fished for an hour, but in that time, caught 4 trout worth mentioning...2 of which were over 16 inches each! These are some of the biggest that I've caught yet. The weather was perfect...high 70's and low humidity...sun shining...and the bugs were out, which was making the trout rise. I caught a brown trout on a store-bought stimulator caddis fly with an orange tail...he was enormous feeling on the end of my light-weight fly rod. After that I decided to try one of my home-tied caddis stimulators just to see if they'd hit it...and that's when I caught the biggest fish yet...a deep bronze-colored German brown trout. He hit the caddis upstream in a deep pocket and we fought for a good minute and a half as he tried to take the line under a clump of beaver-chewed river debris.

Good day fishing?...or luck of the Kiwi necklace? Either way, I'm happy to be fishing in New Mexico!

cheers,
jeff

"can't catch it in a camera"

Saturday had been planned (at least in part) for over 2 weeks. One of the teachers here at the college had a friend coming out to visit and a few of us had planned on taking the day to go climbing as a way to get to know the visitor a little better.

So when Kelley and I were in Santa Fe, I stopped in at REI and bought a couple more pieces of climbing gear...a daisy chain, some locking carabiners, and a new chalk bag.

As the time got closer my days in class just happened to be spent taking the kids to the Rio Gallinas again as one of the last parts of this huge unit on ecology we're doing. As they planned out their field study, I walked the river and started noticing the trout in the stream. My "other love" was now groaning once again from the river to my soul and I went and bought a fishing license this past Friday. During my fishing outing on Friday afternoon I began to think about what the climbing would be like on Saturday and as I mulled over the terrain that we would be in, I realized that the Mora river ran straight through the area...deep inside of Carson National Forest. It was set then...

...I would ride the harley with climbing and fly fishing gear riding on the passenger seat(like some turtle with an adrenaline addiction)up New Mexico Hwy 518 and have what would become a day to rival days.

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We ate breakfast at a friend's house on campus and then I took off early to scout out the fishing spots before we all went climbing. 5 minutes (by road) from our climbing spot I found a great section of the river where the pools were deep and the trout were active. I couldn't wait until after the climbing, so I put on all my gear and caught a little brown trout within the first 4 or 5 casts.

I had seen my friends pass in the car on their way to the crag, so I got back on the bike and met them at Comales Canyon in Carson National Forest. The hike in was enough to shake the cold of the morning ride and I found them setting up gear at the bottom of a rock face called the Water Wall. We climbed until about 3pm. I climbed a 5.8+ that was really fun and tried to climb a 5.9+/5.10A route. I only got 1/3 of the way up, but the first few moves were great and tired me out.

Then it was back to the river. I went further up 518 towards Taos only by a few hundred yard and found a great public camp right by the river. I put the rod together, donned my waders and vest and stepped softly down into the stream. The willows on the riverbank were enough to buffer my casting from the harsh wind that had picked up. As the sun came out, I decided to try a dry fly (I had been fishing nymphs all morning and the previous day). I put on a stimulator caddis with a bright orange tail and crept up on a deep hole with a steep rock as the outer boundary...I could feel the trout waiting.

A long cast found my caddis laying down at the full extension of the leader and tippet where it paused for a brief second before the water exploded. A beautiful brown trout had been fooled and was now on the end of my happy line. Soon in the net, I marveled at its golden color...the spots on its side beaming with color like I had never seen.

I fished the rest of that afternoon careless if I caught another after that magnificant fish. I was soon back on the motorcycle and heading home through some of God's most amazing country...the bright yellow sunshine of the turning aspens like islands amidst the deep green of the alpine spruce and fir trees.

Home came quickly and much welcomed by my tired but happy body after a day that a camera could do no justice to.