Coffee, Cane, and the Conejos

July 7-12, 2009

I caught 9 browns at Swissdale (on the Arkansas River) including the first brown of the summer (shown below).


First Brown Trout of the Year (Arkansas River).

It's pretty amazing that I have been in Colorado over two weeks and only now catching a brown. That said, it's easy to stay in the Flat Tops and catch nothing but cutthroats, rainbows, and cut-bows. Nine trout isn't bad, but the Arkansas was flowing high and fast and it seemed that it was time to go to the Conejos, my "home river" so to speak. On July 7 I drove to the Conejos from Salida stopping in Alamosa for supplies. With the 5 day cooler Mom & Dad bought me, and with a few towels and waders stacked on top, I can now get 7 days out of my cooler and this is a big deal considering the time and distance for ice and food.

July 7:

After setting up the Teardrop at Lake Fork CG, the first fly-fisherman I met told me the story: it had rained nearly every day in June, Platoro Reservoir was at a 30 year high (after being at a 30 year low just a few drought years back), and the Conejos had been running high and fast all spring until just before the 4th of July weekend when they cut back the flow out of Platoro for the fisherman. And the river dropped bigtime. Now, even though the Conejos is fed by the dam at Platoro, it really fishes more like a free-stone river. That is, it's length (over 25 miles long), number of tributaries (Elk Creek, South Fork, etc.), and varied terrain (from meandering meadows, to great pocket water, to gorging canyons) makes it appear to fish more like a freestone river (ala the Cache la Poudre in northern CO) than a tailwater fishery. Low water excited me as I felt I could wade across the river and work the opposite bank. Being a right-handed caster, this is a big plus - not to mention the opposite bank doesn't get as much fishing pressure as most wussies don't dare cross. So, I headed out about 6pm to fish a place downstream from the campground where I caught an awesome green drake hatch this time last year. Sure enough, the river was low, I waded across and busted some trout using my Beasley Perfectionist (4 wt bamboo) fly-rod and a #12 orange stimulator. And sure enough, just about when the sun was going down (and blinding me to where I couldn't see my fly), the green drakes came out and I ended up catching 12 fish in about 2 hours including some below. Love the Conejos and man do I know how to fish!


Nice to be catching Rainbow Trout again on the Conejos.


First Brown Trout on the Conejos. All day long....

July 8:

Got cold as hell last night and the hot coffee this morning was the highlight of the day. Went upstream to a favorite section of river and could do nothing right. Hung up, tippet screwed up, fly landing like a 747 on the surface of the water and scared all the fish back up to Platoro. By the time I fixed my leader and rig, the wind came up and was blowing the fly 20 yards from its intended landing zone. What am I doing up here all alone? What about that girl back at the bookstore in Alamosa...or the one that helped me pick out wine at the liquor store. I don't know how to fish, so why am I trying to catch trout on this river??

July 9:

Decided last nite to climb Mt. Conejos today since I obviously no longer no how to fly-fish. However, when I awoke the sky was overcast and darkening clouds (very unusual - it's usually clear as a bell in the mornings) and I didn't want to get caught on Conejos Peak if it was gonna get nasty. So, I decided to fish but wanted none of the wind of the upper canyon so I went downstream further then ever before and tried a new stretch of river. Bam! Caught a trout on the first cast and caught trout non-stop from 8am-2pm. What a difference a day makes. The day was topped off by catching 3 fish on 5 casts from the same slot in the river. For once, I was patient enough to take all the right measures. When I saw this slot in the river, I knew it was big trout territory. I fixed a wind knot in my tippet I had been ignoring, and actually broke off some limbs of some bushes so that I could not only cast to the slot, but also form a path of retreat as I knew a big fish would head for the fast water and take me downstream. With all this preparation down, with a swig of water and a mouth full of sunflower seeds...I headed in and made the first cast. BAM!! A big brown swallowed my fly wholesale and headed for the fast water. I gave his some line, retreated deftly over the boulders and down to some calmer water where I wore him out and netted him. The Fitzman is baaack! :) Took a pic, revived and released the fish, and headed back to the slot for more. Another cast...no strike. Another cast a foot farther upstream - BAM!! Carbon copy of the first fish...fought the same, took the same route downstream, landed the same, looked the same, same coloring, same size, coudda been brothers. After releasing...I headed back in again. A fourth cast to the slot...nada...a fifth cast a foot further than before and BAM!! A triplet brother! I swear all three fish could have been brothers, all 17-18" and just beautiful browns. Here's a picture of the biggest (I think) of the "brothers":



The mosquitos love this hole in my old fly-fishing shirt.

A beautiful and productive run on the Conejos River

Overall on this day, I landed about 20 trout and had numerous other battles where the fish won out. Good news in that among the 20 odd fish were 4 rainbows. Last year, I didn't catch a rainbow all year on the Conejos and they have been in decline since the browns have taken over. The cutthroat in the Conejos are all but gone - being somewhat slow and bashful, they cannot compete with the browns. Despite all the reputation of cunning, I have found browns to be very agressive and will not let a rainbow or cuttie or brookie take a fly before himself. Anyhow, it's good to catch bows on the Conejos again.

July 10:

Wind is up again - shit! I don't know how to fish. Caught two fish all day - the biggest one being 7 inches long. What on earth am I doing here? I bet the girl at the bookstore is at Milagros having a nice cup of coffee and flirting with some guy on a fly-fishing vacation while I am out here throwing my arm off for no reason at all....

July 11:

Went further downstream to Trail Creek trailhead and hiked down the gultch to the river. Hmm..bear tracks...not too fresh...no big deal...just keep an eye out. As I get closer to the river I'm in willows over my head and can't see 10 feet. I start being quieter and real stealthy like so as not to spook the fish and all of a sudden I look up and notice a big black animal and a little black animal. My first instinct (incorrect I might add..) was to run like hell! I somehow kept myself from doing that and my second instinct was to beshit my knickers (or in this case, my waders) but it is a good thing I did not. Just two cows who had gotten separated from the rest up on the mesa. Whew. Boy, that will get yer ole heart pumpin at 8am on a cold morning in the wilderness! Long story short - this was a great day of fishing and about 25 fish were landed. None over 16", but all fun and the scenery was awesome as usual. Orange stimulators, caddis, adams wulff - you name it, they all worked. What a river. Do I know how to fish after all? I can't decide.

July 12:

There was the coolest electrical storm over the continental divide toward Platoro last nite. I got up to take a whizz about 3am and I kept thinking someone was taking my picture..then I thought I'd gone crazy..I finally just stood there and looked up at the sky and it was fantastic. The quickets flashes of the brightest white you have ever seen in your life filled the canyon up-river. No sound at all - just flashes of brilliance.

After 5 days at Lake Fork, I was ready for a new campground. Especially after I fixed the CG hosts' waterpump in his RV for which he was very grateful. I kinda thought he'd give me a free night's stay ($14/night) but the offer was not made and I did not suggest it - though I thought strongly about doing so. Oh well, it still felt good to help someone out.

So, I packed up and headed to where I didn't know. On the way back down the dirt road, I pulled over to look down at the river from the infamous "Pinnacles". The Pinnacles if famous for a few things:

1) Hardest section of the river to fish due to the very steep drop down to the river.
2) Hot and heavy pocket water fishing.
3) Big trout.
4) A *very* big grunt back up the mountain after the fishing is over.

For these reasons, I'd never found the time to fish the Pinnacles before. Today however, I felt the water being really low - at least there was no risk of a big hike to unfishable water. I wished I had a companion for this venture, but what the heck. I pulled over (Teardrop and all), suited up, and hiked down to the river. Well, the reputation was correct - it was steep and a bit of work. But worth it - the river was gorgeous and the trout were receptive. That said, I was a bit dissapointed in the size of the fish - nothing bigger than I had been catching. I did catch one rather fat 17" brown, but of course the camera batteries were finally kaput (they had been "not working" for some time, but all I had to do was take them out, warm them in my hands, scratch around the contacts a bit, and I could always get one more picture. Well, not today. So, not only did I not get a picture of the fat brown trout, but I got none of the beautiful river down there either. Take my word though, it was spectacular and wild country. On the way out after catching 7 or 8 fish, I was lucky enough to find an old abandoned road. It looked like the original road to Platoro it had telephone lines strung next to it and the poles looked really old. Anyhow, this made the hike back downstream to the original route down the mountain much easier. Then the grunt up. Let's just say the Fitzman was looking for any shade tree on the hike up for which to rest under. Whew! What a workout. But I'll do it again next summer...later this summer??

The picture below didn't turn out as cool as I had hoped. Yes, the fish is small, but he was rising under that rock and the cast was just perfect and he nailed it! Just imagine me not in the picture and you too will see a beautiful little slice of the Conejos flowing under that rock.

The Kansas Kontingent

July 4-5, 2009



Rick and Hammer - click on the photos to see the beards.

This year the Sugarbush campground was full of Kansans, including my biker neighbors Hammer and Fauna, and from across the creek Rick the BBQ expert. Hammer was pulling a small trailor on his Harley that I must admit got more attention than the old Teardrop. Rick had a big rig that was designed to haul toys in the back - in his case a couple of 4-wheelers. Once these were taken out, an air mattress was put in and the compartment was a bedroom for his two girls.

I met the two girls first. They were playin around the creek's big hole and I said how's the water? They said cold. I said cold?? I thought you country farm girls from Kansas were 'posed to be tough. Just jump right in! They looked at me in disbelief, so I turned back to whatever I was doing. Then I hear splash! Both are in the water and soon covered in mud. It got real serious when one of them said "not in the face, not in the face" and the other was making mud balls and baking them in the sun to ripen...


Rick and the girls.


Big rig!

It was the first time I can remember hanging out with people from Kansas, but I hafta say they were some generous and kind folks. The first night, Rick made a trip over from the cabin down the road (in the family for generations) to bring over some 10-12 pounds of beef brisket he'd been smokin all day. Rick owns a BBQ place in Elkhart, KS. So, I get back from town and Hammer and Fauna are like don't cook dinner Mike, we've got you covered - check out what Rick brought us. Well, I don't have to tell you that after being in the Flat Tops for two weeks, this news was heaven sent. So, we pigged and drank beer. Half way through the meal, it dawns on me that Rick didn't provide any BBQ sauce, and I mentioned this. Well, Fauna, never one to hold back a thought, says you ungrateful so-n-so - here the guy brings you all this great smoked brisket and you are complaining about no BBQ sauce! After she calmed down, I explained that most guys I know that are proud of their BBQ (especially those who own their own restaurant) are *very* proud of their sauce and I just thought it was interesting that Rick did not bring any over with the beef. Fauna and Hammer were both of the opinion I should just let this oversight slide in view of his generousity. The next day, I was over bs'ing with Rick and getting the tour of his rig and of course thanked him profously for the brisket. Then I said, hey, Rick, not to look a gift horse in mouth, but I was surprised you didn't bring any of your BBQ sauce over with the beef - aren't you proud of your sauce? Well, he got this very concerned look on his face and said, you know, I forgot! I've got some over at the cabin and I'll bring some over later. Well, later on he comes over with a BBQ pork sandwich (with bacon) and says Mike, this has my sauce on it - what do you think? Well, it was delicious and I said it was some of the best BBQ sauce I'd ever had. Now, this was different. Do you have a secret? Without hesitating (unusual for cooks...) he says, yup, wasabi! I said wasabi, in BBQ sauce? Well, turns out his wife was enamered with a ranch dressing they tried at TGI Fridays that had wasabi. They talked the owner into selling them a 10lb tub which they were sure would go bad before they could finish it. Not to be - they loved it and put it on everything - carrots, celery, sandwiches, etc. etc. During one of these ranch/wasabi lovefest, Rick's wife said hey, why not in your BBQ sauce? Rick says his diner's success is solely due to his wife's tinkering with the menu, so when she suggested this addition to his BBQ sauce, he jumped on it and the rest is history. If you are thinking this is all bullshit, just visit Rick-n-Roll BBQ in Elkhart, KS (Hwy 56 East) or visit http://ricknroll.net/ (under construction).

Then Rick says, so, you like wasabi huh? Be-right-back and he bounds into the inner sanctum of his trailer to return with a can of, can you believe it, Blue Diamond Almonds - BOLD with Wasabi and Soy Sauce! Ohhh man, are these almonds good! Try them out - you can pick em up at Wal Mart and there is no way you won't finish the can as long as yer beer holds out.

Rick's son Ricky is a born businessman. Came right by to look over the Teardrop, asked me if I go through Kansas on the way to Tennessee and I said why sure. Hands me his Dad's business card and says this is the best BBQ you've ever had (this was before we feasted on it) and tells me just how to get there from the main road. Later, I found out that Hammer got a stack of business cards from Ricky, and I told him I guess I didn't rate - I only got one. Hammer said no, the kid realized we live in Kansas and you are in Tennessee. Good point!


Rick's son Ricky.

The morning after the BBQ feast, I wake up and hear my neighbors cookin up breakfast so I start my morning coffee routine when Fauna says, Mike - don't be making any breakfast - we've made too much omelet. I said no, no, I really do have food - you guys from Kansas don't have to feed me for every meal. She said nonsense, we didn't make it FOR you...we just made too much - so come over and get you some or we'll just have to throw it out. So, I wandered over with my coffee and here was an omelet of all omelets - hash browns, onions, peppers, pork, chicken, eggs and cheese. Zow-eee was it tasty! Best omelet I ever had (no lie). What a way to start the day and how they hauled all those tasty vittles along with that camper on a Harley I will never know. Anyhow, Hammer and Fauna were great. Tom (the campground host and owner, great guy) was giving the girls hell for playing in the creek and Fauna looked him straight in the eye and said "you're a crusty old bastard aren't ya?" Well, I just about busted a gut and fell in the friggin creek. Hammer was telling of coyote huntin stories where they go out in the winter to the prarie - no trees for miles, just small elevation changes. He and his buddy sit back-to-back as you never know which direction the coyotes will come from and sometimes they'll be 20 or 30 of em coming at you with their tongues hangin out. So, they position themselves and their rifles and start making rabbit calls and whatknot. Now, he says you can't move an eyelash when they start comin or they will break off and leave. So, you just have to be still while they come from all directions straight toward you (thinking you're a meal..). Then you blast them. White snow turns fast and it's blood on the highway. Hammer wears an UnderArmour shirt that looks like his arms are tatoo'd in camo. I thought so, and so did one other guy. I think Hammer delights in rolling up the sleeve after questioned about it. He also told a story about taking his grandmother to the doctor's office in Colorado Springs one day. He was helping her out of the car when a couple in a Mercedes dropped their jaw thinking his old grandmother was being rolled by a biker. He told his grandmother what was happening, and of course she played it up bigtime and pretended to fight back. Of course the young couple in the Mercedes sped away fast and Hammer and his grandma had a good laugh over it.

Anyhow, lots of fun with the folks from Kansas this year.


Hammer and Fauna.


Ready to Roll!


C-ya.

Another guy from Kansas, I forget his name, nice as could be. He was notable for his refusal to call the Arkansas River by anything other than the "R-Kansas" River. Cracked me up.

As usual, I never even thought about taking pictures til everyone was packin up to leave on July 5th. But I did get a few shots and they're shared here.

As far as all the trailor competition goes - despite all the nice units at Sugarbush this year, I'll stick with my old Teardrop. Even all covered in Flat Top's mud it's still perfect for the Fitzman. The fender shown had even been cleaned off by a couple whizzes, so imagine what the one on the opposite side looked like ;)

The Flat Tops Wilderness

Typical Flat Tops Country

June29-July2, 2009

The Flat Tops Wilderness is one of my all-time favorite places to camp and fly-fish. Its remote, rugged, wild, and less visited than most. This year there has been abundant rainfall - it has rained almost every day this spring. The trails are muddy and sometimes a bit difficult. The plus side of mud is good tracks - you can see who (or what) has been on the trail before and after you, assuming one knows his or her's own boot print. The usual critters where there again this year (deer, elk, bear, coons, skunks, etc) with one exception - I never saw a mountain lion print this year. However, rumour has it that the large "dog" prints on the trail were actually wolf prints. The old lady up at the cabins swears she had wolves round her house on a couple of occaisions early this spring. I googled "wolf print" and gave them a good look in comparison to dog prints, and I am still not convinced the prints on the trail were wolf, That said, I am not convinced otherwise either. Regardless, I never saw a wolf.

I realize now that I never take pictures of the trails into my favorite river. I take lots of river pictures, but in truth, the trail makes just as big an impression on me. It's the trail that must be hiked in to the real good fishing - the farther you hike away from the campground, the better the fishing. Two miles..OK...three miles...pretty decent...four miles in - fabulous fishing. Anyhow, the trail is always on your mind - what to pack-in, what not to pack, how much time to hike in/out, and at some point every year the question comes up - do I give up catching nice fish to beat the storm that is brewing, or, do I keep fishing and risk getting caught on the wrong side of the "boulders" at sundown. The "boulders" is a term some of us use to refer to the mountain top full of big boulders and rock that must be negotiated to get back to the campground. If the storm has lightnin, and they usually do, you don't want to be caught on the "boulders" with an aluminum frame backpack (like mine) and a fly-rod tube sticking up in the air (not to mention a bald head). I got caught on the wrong side of the boulders once. The lightening show was spectacular - actually striking some of the rocks on top of the mountain. I was wet cold and it was after dark when I stumbled back into the campground where Alan and crew were already organizing a search party. Amazingly cool since I had only met them a couple days before.
Anyhow next year, I am going to take many pictures of the trail to document its various sections: up hill to deep pools, narrow/muddy/buggy/flat, nice meadow, open aspen meadow, uphill to boulders, "the shoots", uphill again, straight and narrow, open meadows, and finally the cabins (at 5mi in). After four or five days hiking this trail, it leaves its imprint on you and you get to know it well. This year, the wild flowers were amazingly bright and colorful.
One man gathers what another man spills. So far I have found a Henckles knife at MeadownLake CG (very nice!) and a book on Colorado wildfires which I found on the trail.
The river was high this year but I found some good fishing including one day that was nothing less than inspirational. Here are some pictures from that day.

A nice fat cut-bow (rainbow/cutthroat hybrid).

This rainbow was a 19 incher.

Another cut-bow.




Another couple cut-bows.



The river was high and fast due to all the rain. It was hard to get good drifts with the dry flies I like to use. Also quite difficult to land a big trout as they usually run straight for the current. So, you have a choice - use 4 or 5 lb tippet and catch many fewer fish (fly doesn't drift as naturally), or use the lighter 3lb tippet and hook more fish, but lose some flies when the big ones take off on you. I lost quite a few flies...
Of special note this day was "the log". As I worked my way up the river I saw a big tree which I was too lazy to negotiate. On the other side of the tree was a real nice piece of water where I knew some trout would be hanging out.




Casting into this sweet draw from below the log, it became apparent that hooking a nice sized fish would be difficult if not impossible to land. About the time that thought went through my mind, I got a powerful strike from a medium sized rainbow. He of course headed into the current and downstream. I thought I'd lose him and my fly, but I worked him as best I could and eventually, with my rod and on the upstream side of the log, actually netted the fish underneath the log on the downstream side. I hope you can visualize this. Anyhow, after netting the fish for some reason I started laughing out loud as I was quite amazed I pulled it off. I ended up catching 3 more the same way until a whopper didn't feel like playing my game, took me downstream, and popped the orange stimulator off my line. So, I eventually got what I deserved, but it sure was great fun for awhile!




I had to string up this rainbow (just under 20") to revive it after a classic well fought battle. He lived, and I had a Kodak moment.

Native Colorado Cutthroat Trout

Small stream fishing with a bamboo fly-rod.

(June 23-27, 2009). I stayed on some BLM land the first night in Colorado to save some campground fees. As I primed the pump on my now 25 year old Coleman Stove for the first time this season it squeaked as usual. It dawned on me that its squeak sounded like a small elk or perhaps an animal in distress. The thought no sooner flew through my mind than coyotes all around me started howling away. Colorado blows my mind sometimes. The next morning when I exited the Teardrop, I was greeted by a cow elk and her young calf. I took a picture, but you have to click on it and blow it up to see them.

Elk cow and calf (click on the picture to enlarge).

There is no better way to start a summer fly-fising excursion than to head up to Trappers Lake to catch some native Colorado Cutthroat Trout. Due to all rain this year and cooler than normal temperatures (it snowed 3 inches just the week before my arrival), fising in the big lake was a bit slow this year. I caught a few, but didn't catch any of the really red spawning trout that I was after (after failing to catch a brilliant red the year before). So, I headed inland a bit and found a system of beaver ponds whose outlet was a small creek that flowed down into the main lake. It was far enough away from the lake to keep from breaking the regulations, so I tried my luck and lo-n-behold finally caught one of the bright red spawning trout that are, in my opinion anyhow, one of the most beautiful fish in existence. You would think the trout would be easily spooked in such a small stream. However, I could have caught as many 10-14 inch trout as I wanted. Since the fish were spawning, when you catch one and it goes haywire, I got the feeling the other fish just looked at the victim and think to themselves - wow, look how that guy 'does it', and you cast your fly back out (a #14 Adams in this case) and readily catch another one. I quickly felt guilty catching them 'in the act' and spent the rest of the day just watching and trying to take pictures of em in action (a voyeur as it were). The pictures did not come out too good this year, but there are a few here to document the trip anyhow.








Is there a more beautiful fish than a Colorado Cutthroat in full spawning colours?

The Trappers Lake area is slowly recovering from the massive fire of a few years ago. I would guess it will be a good 50-60 years before tree growth is anywhere near the way it was before the fire. There is abundant greenery now under the burned out trees and all the rain is a good thing in the long run. After going through the drought years, we can complain about the rain but it is never a bad thing to get rain in the west these days. Still pretty dangerous hiking when the wind is blowing strong, as you hear cracks and trees falling, hopefully not too close to you! Each tree has hundreds of knives (branches) that are a grave threat indeed. I think you can still see some burned trees in a few of the pictures.

I was dissapointed not to see the two bald eagles I spotted last summer, however there were many deer, a few very friendly snoe-show hares, and the couple camping next to me were fortunate enough to take a hike and spot the cow moose and her calf everyone was talking bout round the campfires at night.

One day I was completely rained in by a torrential downfall and spend the day in the Teardrop starting and finishing "River of Doubt", a book my sister gave me a few years ago about Teddy Roosevelt's exploration of an unmapped tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. I can highly recommend this book as it was fascinating! Among the interesting facts was the origin of the name "Amazon" itself which comes from the Greek 'a-mazon' meaning "no breast". This name came from the original Portuguese explorer of the river who ran into a group of fierce Indians. He noticed that these warriors were actually women who had cut off their right breast in order to be better archers and more deadly with their poison tipped arrows. So, all those times of my youth when we were in clubs and a buddy would say, wow, look at that "Amazon" (pointing to a tall and very well built woman), it was an obviously erroneous comparison as the woman had two fully developed breasts. Another interesting discussion in the book was how plants and animals had evolved over millions of years to thrive in the rain forest. One fish, for instance, is called "four-eyes". Over time it has developed two sets of cornea and retina. It then floats on the river so that one set of eyes can view low hanging tree limbs for potential victims (or predators) and the other set searches below the waterline for food. What a panic! Great book, thanks sis! By the way, the Brazilian government renamed the river "Theodore".
Here are a few pictures of some typical cutthroat from Trapper's Lake.

An Irishman Grows Potatos

I planted my red potatos on April 18 despite that fact that there were still two more trees shading the garden plot that needed to come down. Being a relative newbie at gardening, I was shocked the plants even came up. Low-n-behold after 3 weeks they were thriving - nice and green, very healthy looking, and no pests at all (it's a completely organic garden). They were quickly taking over the lettuce and spinach plants which I obviously rowed too close to the spuds. You can imagine how shocked I was on Tuesday of this week (June 16) when seemingly overnight the plants went from being very green and healthy to yellow and withered! I was really bummed out! There was no way those potatos should be ready for harvest after only 8 weeks and a garden that was barely getting 4 hours of sunlight a day. On top of that, we've had a very wet and cloudy early spring. Welp, nothing to do but dig 'em up and see what they looked like. What a surprise! Potatos everywhere...they kept multiplying in the ground like a rabbit orgy. Woo-hooo! Five or six plants yielded over 30 potatos, albeit some of them were very small. That said, some were bigger than at Krogers. They all looked very healthy except for one small one that had an insect burrowing into it. The dirt was really rich, lots of worms, and very few bugs.
I am ready to declare my first spring garden a success! The spinich was very tasty, the lettuce delicious, and the potatos - ahhhh, the potatos - Every Irishman's dream. I won't mention the radishes which I planted 6 inches deep. When they didn't come up, I reread the label and the "spacing" was supposed to be 6" and the depth was 1". Next year. Meantime, I am going to make the best potato, egg, and cheese omelet the world has every seen for breakfast tomorrow.

Another Tornado for Laurelwood

This front yard will never look the same again.

On Sunday March 3, 2009 another tornado hit Laurelwood - the second in 3 years. The sound of the tornado was said to be that of a huffing and puffing train. It moved very quickly and passed through in a minute or less. My house was not damaged. My friend Lloyd had a few trees down some of which landed on his garage. Another buddy of mine lost all 4 of his apple trees. Although NOAA confirmed a tornado did indeed touch down, most of the damage was confined to snapped and uprooted trees, although a few houses were affected. The uprooted trees were a result of recent heavy rains, shallow root structures on the Cumberland Plateau (in most places, there is only 12-18 inches of soil before solid rock is hit), and of course the high wins. Some healthy oak trees in the 1-2' diameter range were snapped halfway up like toothpicks. More pictures below (click to enlarge).



Note the two oak trees snapped halfway up.




Lloyd's garage - he said he saw the tornado go directly over his house.




Gotta feel sorry for these folks...





More trees uprooted.

"Clean Coal" is an Oxymoron - Chu Should Go

US Energy Secretary Chu
The Noble Prize Winner Should be FIRED


Question: How can someone so smart act so dumb?
Answer: Bought and paid for.

From Wikipedia:

An oxymoron (plural oxymora (greek plural) or, more often, oxymorons) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek oxy ("sharp" or "pointed") and moros ("dull"). Thus the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron. Oxymorons are a proper subset of the expressions called contradictions in terms. What distinguishes oxymorons from other paradoxes and contradictions is that they are used intentionally, for rhetorical effect, and the contradiction is only apparent, as the combination of terms provides a novel expression of some concept, such as “cruel to be kind”, “team of mavericks”, or “simply complicated”.

----------------------

Rhetorical effect is right. President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu have uttered the "clean coal" oxymoron so often they now believe it is actually possible. It is not. Here's why:

1) Simply mining the coal out of the earth degrades the environment.
2) Capturing and pumping into the Earth (coal "sequestration") tons of CO2 emissions from coal-fired combustion is neither economical nor practical.
3) Even if sequestration were possible, it ignores an inconvenient truth about burning coal: the toxic wastes. Burning coal produces the following pollutants: mercury, arsenic, copper, sulfur-dioxide, cadmium, barium, chromium, thallium, and lead, among others.

To read about one of the biggest environmental disasters ever to take place in the United States, which occurred in Kingston, TN on December22, 2008, check out this site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_fly_ash_spill

Clean coal is a myth. For a sitting US Secretary of Energy (who holds a Noble Prize in Physics) to come out in support of "clean coal" is proof of his incompetence. To follow up this oxymoronic stance with his recent statements that he is "agnostic" about natural gas transportation is more evidence that Secretary Chu simply has not got the backbone to stand up to powerful and entrenched coal advocates. For these reasons, President Obama should immediately call for Secretary Chu's resignation. If he does not comply, Obama should fire him.

To support "clean coal" by ignoring the fact that natural gas has half the CO2 emissions of coal, and none of the toxic particulate by-products of coal-combustion, Chu is both technically and morally corrupt. We need an Energy Secretary that understands the most powerful weapons the US has on the war against foreign oil dependence and environmental degradation are:
1) abundant supplies of clean and cheap natural gas
2) a 2.2 million mile natural gas pipeline grid connecting every major metropolitan area and 63,000,000 homes where over 130,000,000 vehicles reside and which could be refueled with natural gas every night while their owners sleep soundly.

Secretary Chu needs to go!