As enjoyable as the first half of the Colorado was, the second half surely matched it as the boys continued to sharpen our fishing skills, grew in awareness of environmental concerns, and above all, enjoyed the companionship of new friends. To start the second half of our trip, we took an incredibly beautiful drive over mountains to the west side of Rocky Mountain National park, which featured incredible views from over 12,000 feet, sightings of elk, bighorn sheep, and other animals, and a stop to fish the Colorado River near its headwaters. This stop not only yielded some brook trout, it also provided a great opportunity to discuss how rivers change over their course and how human choices affect not just the immediate environment, but also the environments downstream.
The following day, we completed our service projects with the Bureau of Land Management. Our primary task was to aid in trail construction by scarifying the existing trail, seeding the area, ad adding fertilizer. The ultimate goal of our project is to make the trail accessible for people with disabilities. This project not only gave us all an insight into the great amount of work that goes into maintaining the areas we have enjoyed, but also led to a feeling of gratitude for being able to enjoy the experiences of the trip. We rounded the day out by catching some brown trout and whitefish in a much bigger section of the Colorado.
Our final full day of the trip was packed with great activities. The boys started the day out with an incredible float trip down the Colorado River with four excellent guides from Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne. Each camper reported having a great time, and everyone caught fish, many of them large brown trout, some of the largest of the trip. Following our excellent float trip, we retired to the Silverthorne Rec Center for some pool time, and the boys were given a lesson in pool volleyball. We finished off the night with an incredible last dinner together at The Mint, a delightful restaurant, and enjoyed one another's company one more night at camp.
We are grateful to have had the opportunity to spend time getting to know and teaching you sons. We hope that they recognize the improvement they made during our time together both as fishermen but also as outdoorsman and emerging conservationist. Whether we see them on a future trip, we wish all campers the best in their future endeavors and hope that they will remember the importance of caring for and appreciating our natural resources, and of course, that everyone catches a lot of fish.
Charlie Williams
Trip Director
