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- Apr 13, 2009
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I've been meaning to post up a little trip report for the past few days but haven't found the time to do it. I finally got a little break to upload pictures and write this up.
My GF and I took our dog up to a little "secret" spot I was told about several years ago. It's a pretty small public section of stream that's about a mile hike to get to. It's super pretty, almost always empty, and there are lots of hungry brown trout! We loaded up and left on Saturday morning and had to be back by Sunday afternoon so it really was a 'get in and get out' camping trip but it was nice to be in the woods for an evening.
My new Old School Osage (OS-age :thumbup
Lady Finger showed up on the Friday before we left which I was very excited about. I was able to rig up a random pouch sheath with a cheap carabiner to make a usable dangler sheath for the weekend. I've got a Diomedes sheath ordered for this knife though.
This is how the Lady rode for the weekend.
Before heading to the camping spot we went and checked one of my near by mushroom hunting areas. We've only just started to get regular rain in the mountains so things were still a little slow. We did spots some wood ear (Auricularia auricula-judae) a common ingredient in hot and sour soup, some tiny little hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandum), and some species that I didn't know off hand but were still pretty. I'll be retunrning to the area later this month to pick some wood ear to try my hand at a hot and sour soup as well as check on the hedgehogs and look for hawks wings (Sarcodon imbricatus) and chanterelles (Cantharellus sp.).
Wood ear and a couple unidentified species. The hedgehogs were tiny and under a log, tough to get a good picture.
After the quick mushroom check we hopped back in the car and headed to the camping area. Afternoon rain was forecast so we wanted to get camp set up before the storms rolled in. On the hike into the stream we came across lots of edible berries including thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), wax currant (Ribes cereum), raspberry (Rubus occidentalis), strawberry (Fragaria vesca), and rose hips (Rosa woodsii). All but the rose hips had plenty of ripe fruit of which we sampled a few here and there. The rose hips aren't ready until after the first frost. I also stopped to grab a chunk of fatwood from a large stump to assisst in fire making later. :thumbup:
Thimbleberry. Very sweet flavor, almost like a berry syrup. The seeds are large and slightly bitter so jellies would be the best use for these I think.
Wax currant. Mild, not a ton of flavor.
Raspberry.
Strawberry.
Rose hip.
If any of you want some fatwood let me know, I would be happy to grab you some next time I'm out in the woods, it's everywhere!
Once you reach the stream there's a small crossing to make. On the way out we found a fallen tree that we were able to use so we didn't have to take our boots off.
Once you cross it opens up into a nice little meadow. There's a beautiful, giant ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) that dominates the view. GF and border collie for scale.
We spent some time looking for the perfect campsite because this area, like much of Colorado, had some beetle kill. There are a lot of dead standing trees, snags, that could turn into widow makers. We ended up finding the perfect spot though! Instead of rigging up the tent fly I brought along my Warbonnet Superfly Tarp. I figured it would give us better rain protection in the event of a large storm, plus I enjoy setting it up!
One corner rigged up in "porch mode". I dropped this down and shut the doors of the tarp when we went to sleep. This also gave us a place to store out packs and gear.
Aside from getting the tarp and tent set up we needed a fire for dinner and I decided to make a little support for our packs so they weren't laying on the ground. Plus I got to use the trio I brought along for the job. The Lady did great at finishing up the spike end.
With that out of the way I got started on fire making. Split up a feathered some fatwood. My feather sticks suck because it's been so long and fatwood can be tough to feather well, but it got the job done. Probably wasn't even necessary with the vaseline cotton ball I used.
After hanging out by the fire a little bit and sitting out a micro thunderstorm, which the dog hated and hid in the tent during, we got dinner out to thaw, let the fire turn into coals and went fishing for a couple hours.
Elk backstrap and cowboy potatoes for dinner! The steaks were still mostly frozen so I unwrapped and let them thaw while we fished.
Here's what the stream looks like! Nice little brown trout (Salmo trutta) water. There are actually some larger browns in here, more on that in a sec...
So in the first picture, just on the other side of the logs in the stream there's a large rock with lots of place to hide under it. I knew there would be fish in there so I cast my fly right by the rock. The water is nice and clear so I could see a small brown come out and head towards my fly, the brown was probably the size of the first one pictured above. Right before it gets to my fly a large flash happens and the little fish vanishes. Upon closer inspection I see a 16 or so inch brown in the process of swallowing the small guy that came to eat my fly! Apparently this larger brown T-boned the small fish and made a meal out of him! I was too shocked to take a picture, but it was one of the coolest things I've seen.
Anyways, we talked about having some trout as a meal, but by that time it was getting close to dinner and we had 3 pretty big elk steaks to eat so all the trout got to live this time. On the 20th we're heading to another part of Colorado to camp by a high lake and I'll put the Lady to use cleaning fish up there. :thumbup:
We fed the fire a little bit and let some nice hot coals develop to cook the steaks on. While I waited for the coals I prepped the cowboy potatoes. One golden potato, one small onion, and a garden fresh jalapeno. All sliced and diced by the Lady Finger! 3/32 is great for these tasks, I'm really enjoying the thin steel. Also got a very feint patina started.
Steaks were lightly oiled and seasoned with salt, pepper, and chile flakes. I always have a sheet of heavy duty foil with me, it was perfect for this.
We shared a steak steak while the potatoes were finishing up on the iso stove and then sliced up the steaks and had it all together. This was probably the best camp dinner I've ever had!
I'm sure this ended up being quite long, so thanks for following along! The OS-age Lady Finger is very quickly becoming my favorite knife. The F2 I have is great, but I think I like the Lady more, she's a little better suited for general tasks. The F2 will definitely be seeing some fish, fowl, and small game this fall and winter though! One of my favorite aspects of this particular Lady is the pseudo 'trinity pins' created by little knots in the Osage. Check it out...
Orion
My GF and I took our dog up to a little "secret" spot I was told about several years ago. It's a pretty small public section of stream that's about a mile hike to get to. It's super pretty, almost always empty, and there are lots of hungry brown trout! We loaded up and left on Saturday morning and had to be back by Sunday afternoon so it really was a 'get in and get out' camping trip but it was nice to be in the woods for an evening.
My new Old School Osage (OS-age :thumbup
Lady Finger showed up on the Friday before we left which I was very excited about. I was able to rig up a random pouch sheath with a cheap carabiner to make a usable dangler sheath for the weekend. I've got a Diomedes sheath ordered for this knife though.
This is how the Lady rode for the weekend.
Before heading to the camping spot we went and checked one of my near by mushroom hunting areas. We've only just started to get regular rain in the mountains so things were still a little slow. We did spots some wood ear (Auricularia auricula-judae) a common ingredient in hot and sour soup, some tiny little hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandum), and some species that I didn't know off hand but were still pretty. I'll be retunrning to the area later this month to pick some wood ear to try my hand at a hot and sour soup as well as check on the hedgehogs and look for hawks wings (Sarcodon imbricatus) and chanterelles (Cantharellus sp.).
Wood ear and a couple unidentified species. The hedgehogs were tiny and under a log, tough to get a good picture.
After the quick mushroom check we hopped back in the car and headed to the camping area. Afternoon rain was forecast so we wanted to get camp set up before the storms rolled in. On the hike into the stream we came across lots of edible berries including thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), wax currant (Ribes cereum), raspberry (Rubus occidentalis), strawberry (Fragaria vesca), and rose hips (Rosa woodsii). All but the rose hips had plenty of ripe fruit of which we sampled a few here and there. The rose hips aren't ready until after the first frost. I also stopped to grab a chunk of fatwood from a large stump to assisst in fire making later. :thumbup:
Thimbleberry. Very sweet flavor, almost like a berry syrup. The seeds are large and slightly bitter so jellies would be the best use for these I think.
Wax currant. Mild, not a ton of flavor.
Raspberry.
Strawberry.
Rose hip.
If any of you want some fatwood let me know, I would be happy to grab you some next time I'm out in the woods, it's everywhere!
Once you reach the stream there's a small crossing to make. On the way out we found a fallen tree that we were able to use so we didn't have to take our boots off.
Once you cross it opens up into a nice little meadow. There's a beautiful, giant ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) that dominates the view. GF and border collie for scale.
We spent some time looking for the perfect campsite because this area, like much of Colorado, had some beetle kill. There are a lot of dead standing trees, snags, that could turn into widow makers. We ended up finding the perfect spot though! Instead of rigging up the tent fly I brought along my Warbonnet Superfly Tarp. I figured it would give us better rain protection in the event of a large storm, plus I enjoy setting it up!
One corner rigged up in "porch mode". I dropped this down and shut the doors of the tarp when we went to sleep. This also gave us a place to store out packs and gear.
Aside from getting the tarp and tent set up we needed a fire for dinner and I decided to make a little support for our packs so they weren't laying on the ground. Plus I got to use the trio I brought along for the job. The Lady did great at finishing up the spike end.
With that out of the way I got started on fire making. Split up a feathered some fatwood. My feather sticks suck because it's been so long and fatwood can be tough to feather well, but it got the job done. Probably wasn't even necessary with the vaseline cotton ball I used.
After hanging out by the fire a little bit and sitting out a micro thunderstorm, which the dog hated and hid in the tent during, we got dinner out to thaw, let the fire turn into coals and went fishing for a couple hours.
Elk backstrap and cowboy potatoes for dinner! The steaks were still mostly frozen so I unwrapped and let them thaw while we fished.
Here's what the stream looks like! Nice little brown trout (Salmo trutta) water. There are actually some larger browns in here, more on that in a sec...
So in the first picture, just on the other side of the logs in the stream there's a large rock with lots of place to hide under it. I knew there would be fish in there so I cast my fly right by the rock. The water is nice and clear so I could see a small brown come out and head towards my fly, the brown was probably the size of the first one pictured above. Right before it gets to my fly a large flash happens and the little fish vanishes. Upon closer inspection I see a 16 or so inch brown in the process of swallowing the small guy that came to eat my fly! Apparently this larger brown T-boned the small fish and made a meal out of him! I was too shocked to take a picture, but it was one of the coolest things I've seen.
Anyways, we talked about having some trout as a meal, but by that time it was getting close to dinner and we had 3 pretty big elk steaks to eat so all the trout got to live this time. On the 20th we're heading to another part of Colorado to camp by a high lake and I'll put the Lady to use cleaning fish up there. :thumbup:
We fed the fire a little bit and let some nice hot coals develop to cook the steaks on. While I waited for the coals I prepped the cowboy potatoes. One golden potato, one small onion, and a garden fresh jalapeno. All sliced and diced by the Lady Finger! 3/32 is great for these tasks, I'm really enjoying the thin steel. Also got a very feint patina started.
Steaks were lightly oiled and seasoned with salt, pepper, and chile flakes. I always have a sheet of heavy duty foil with me, it was perfect for this.
We shared a steak steak while the potatoes were finishing up on the iso stove and then sliced up the steaks and had it all together. This was probably the best camp dinner I've ever had!
I'm sure this ended up being quite long, so thanks for following along! The OS-age Lady Finger is very quickly becoming my favorite knife. The F2 I have is great, but I think I like the Lady more, she's a little better suited for general tasks. The F2 will definitely be seeing some fish, fowl, and small game this fall and winter though! One of my favorite aspects of this particular Lady is the pseudo 'trinity pins' created by little knots in the Osage. Check it out...
Orion
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Thanks for taking us along!
