Hookers, Sanders and Beer

-- Sanders is my neighbor? --

In the continuation of our Rocky Mountain travel log, we will take a little diversion from fishing and talk about other parts of our trip -- lodging, Grand Lake and beer.

Because of the 4th of July holiday, our stay in Grand Lake was split at two different places.  The first was a condo on the North Inlet Creek right in the town of Grand Lake.  The second was a cabin just off Rt. 34 about 10 min south of Grand Lake overlooking Shadow Mountain Lake. We will talk about the lead pic later in this post.

-- I-70 Heading west out of Denver --

We left Denver International with one stop for food and a visit at Charlie's Fly Box.  Knowing the rivers were high, we picked up some 3X leader and tippet and some cone head streamers to help us get stuff deep in the heavy flows.  It was a pleasure to meet and chat with Charlie Craven at his shop.  As he looked up some of the river flows for where we were heading, we were both rolling our eyes.

-- All the snow runoff is heading to the Pacific --

The weather was clear and traffic not that bad for the start of a long holiday weekend.  The drive over the Continental Divide at Berthoud Pass was breathtaking.  On our way home we went over this pass in dark and rain, which was a bit more nail bitting nerve racking.

The town of Grand Lake is small and seasonal, but it was packed in preparation for their famous 4th of July fireworks. The condo we stayed in for a couple of days was right on North Inlet Creek. This was an ideal location for fishing in the "backyard", except for that damn runoff thing...

Shot from the condo deck

And a bit further downstream

-- Steamers Galore! --

We also were greeted with the stench of dead fish that someone staying in the condo about a week ago did not fully grind down the disposal.  With my son suffering a touch of altitude sickness, the smell put him over the edge and had him part with his pizza lunch. What a great way to start our vacation.

After a couple of days at the condo, the fish smell was gone and so were we.  We moved to the next cabin and to my surprise, blog follower Sanders was my neighbor!  From the sign post on the cabin road it looked like he was bringing the Hookers as well -- PARTY!  I knew we were in the right place when the toilet seat told me to fish streamers.

And of course the beer.  I did not touch a Coors while in the Rocky Mountains, but the local brews from Boulder Beer Company, Grand Lake Brewing Company, Odell Brewing Company and Breckenridge Brewery were excellent.  

 -- Colorado's Finest Microbrews --

I'm a bit partial to hoppy beers and found the "Hoppy's One Ton Pale Ale" and "Stumpjumper IPA" from Grand Lake Brewing to be my favorites.  The "Wooly Booger Nut Brown" and "Avalanche Amber" ales were also delicious.  They all were good and I'm thankful that the micro brewing revolution of the last 20 years is going strong.

-- Happy Crew after great fishing week --

Food in the local restaurants was ok to good.  We ate out a couple of times and fortunately no one got sick (this has happened to us on previous vacations).

I'll keep putting more pics and stories from the trip.  Hope this non-fishing stuff doesn't bore you.

Thanks for following!