Ragnar Del Sol 2010  -  Feb 28th, 2010 8:55pm

An almost endless string of events had to occur for me to participate in this years Ragnar Del Sol.  If my I hadn't turned down the job I did to take the job I have.  If I hadn't met McCoy there, if he hadn't met Jon, if Jon hadn't turned to running when he did.  If my life or theirs had taken one of a million other turns I have no doubt that I wouldn't have had one of the best experiences of my life.

I've talked about the Ragnar here before.  Its a 200 mile long relay race where teams of 12 go 24-7 from Prescott to Mesa (the long way).  I've been training hard to prepare for it this last month or two since McCoy invited me along.  I've also been wondering most that time if it was going to be enough.

In a sense, anyone can finish the Ragnar.  All you have to do is walk a couple of miles.  But to really finish - to experience this absurdity as it was intended you have to run it out, eat/sleep/live in your van and deck your ride out in as many bad puns as humanly possible.  For some that's easy, but for others like myself who are new to this running business - the 14 to 20 miles that's required in 36 sleepless hours is no small accomplishment.  Fortunately I had one hell of a team to keep me laughing and loving it the whole time.

While there are 12 people on each team, your real tribe becomes your van-mates.  Our van (van #1) was made up mostly of my friends from work: Cupp, Scott, Nemo and McCoy.  McCoy also recruited Meredith to keep us honest and heterogeneous.  We were a bit worried at first that Meredith would feel a little overwhelmed by our special brand of comradery, but by the end of the trip she was definitely one of us.

We actually started the adventure a little early and after a well calculated pre-race dinner of wings and pizza we crashed out at my folks place in Prescott.  To bad that we didn't get up there till almost midnight and then everyone was too juiced to sleep much.  Luckily, the freezing morning air woke us up a bit and by 7am van 1 was officially running the Ragnar!

Props to Meredith for taking the first leg.  It was nearly dark and well below freezing when she started with about 10 other runners.  She took it on like a champ though, and just like that it was time to hand the Ragnar slap-wrap off to Cupp for leg 2.  He has run exactly twice since our ski trip due to the broken limb, and no one was really sure how he would do.  He really set the bar for our team though running out the entire uphill leg and finishing breathless.  The only words he could utter upon finishing were "hold me" HA!.

Nemo was next - we all owe him big time for taking on the hard hills and the longest runs of the day.  Hes a freaking ironman though so he handled it like a pro and by the time I got the "baton" we were well ahead of schedule.  I didn't want to be the slacker of the group so I pushed hard too.  The cool air, the adrenaline, the props from my teammates who stopped on the road ahead of me and cheered me on helped me put in my first sub-9 minute mile ever and an overall 9:30 min/mile pace.  Finishing up that first run and handing off the baton to Scott was the best feeling ever.  All that work brought to fruition - not alone but with friends all around.

Running though is only half the story.  Life in the van was as much a part of this journey as anything.  While 1 person runs, the other 5 move ahead to the next exchange point and basically goof off for 36 hours.  We consumed mass quantities of bugles, beef jerky, gatorade and all manner of power goo/cube/bar.  We told stories, talked about our runs, mercilessly made fun of each other and did out best to survive Nemo's odiferous eminations.

When McCoy finished his first leg it was time for the first full van exchange.  This is where Van #2 takes over and we are supposed to sleep/eat.  In reality this is where Van #2 takes over and we get drunk.  After the handover we spent a little time with our other half and then headed for the bar.  Some randomly cool establishment between Prescott and Wickenburg served us beer, played terrible country music an gave us a thankfully warm place to meet some of the other crazy bastards who participated in  this thing.

To sober up, we headed to the next exchange point and some folks pretended to sleep while the rest of us grilled, played hackey sack and generally goofed off some more.  Before long the sun was setting and it was back to the track.

Running at night across the desert was unforgettable.  We had to have flashlights and reflectors but the full moon provided most of the light that night and our ipods/androids kept us all company through some really long runs.  The only thing that put a damper on the fun was that one of the runners and a volunteer were hit by a car while trying to deliver some water.  Last we heard they were screwed up but not dead.  The police had to shut down the freeway though so things got unsurprisingly hectic as they routed everyone past the accident/closure.

There is so much more but Its all kind of blurry and nothing I can say will really get the experience across.  The van has been returned to its plain white past, the clothes have been boiled, and we've all had some unconscious time.  Still its hard to think of much else - the experience was the definition of amazing.  Thank you McCoy for setting this all up and to Meradith, Cupp, Nemo, and Scott for being the bad mofo's they are :)

For anyone interested - here are our final times/stats for Van 1:

Runner	Leg	Distance	Up	Down	Start	Time	Pace
-------------------Set 1-------------------
Meredith	1	3.6 miles	+178 ft	-164 ft	7:00 am	31:00 min	8:36/mile
B-Cupp	2	3.6 miles	+500 ft	-200 ft	7:31 am	40:00 min	11.06/mile
Nemo	3	6.6 miles	+829 ft	-879 ft	8:11 am	63:00 min	9:32/mile
Robo (me)	4	5.0 miles	+203 ft	-874 ft	9:14 am	48:00 min	9:36/mile
Scott	5	5.3 miles	+32 ft	-619 ft	10:02am	45:00 min	8:30/mile
McCoy	6	6.1 miles	+72 ft	-367 ft	10:47 am	48:00 min	7:52/mile
-------------------Set 2-------------------
Meradith	13	6.3 miles	+0 ft	-277 ft	5:30 pm	53:00 min	8:24/mile
B-Cupp	14	3.4 miles	+6 ft	-75 ft	6:23 pm	32:00 min	9:25/mile
Nemo	15	8.7 miles	+54 ft	-394 ft	6:55 pm	80:00 min	9:11/mile
Robo (me)	16	4.8 miles	+27 ft	-350 ft	8:15 pm	48:00 min	10:00/mile
Scott	17	7.4 miles	+228 ft	-404 ft	9:03 pm	64:00 min	8:38/mile
McCoy	18	3.3 miles	+261 ft	-159 ft	10:07 pm	28:00 min	8:30/mile
-------------------Set 3-------------------
Meradith	25	8.5 miles	+406 ft	-181 ft	5:13 am	78:00 min	9:10/mile
B-Cupp	26	4.2 miles	+453 ft	-76 ft	6:31 am	45:00 min	10:42/mile
Nemo	27	7.1 miles	+0 ft	-886 ft	7:16 am	57:00 min	8:01/mile
Robo	28	3.4 miles	+9 ft	-236 ft	8:13 am	34:00 min	10:00/mile
Scott	29	3.4 miles	+226 ft	-147 ft	8:47 am	31:00 min	9:07/mile
McCoy	30	6.3 miles	+386 ft	-329 ft	9:18 am	58:00 min	9:12/mile

Lobbys Burger Challenge  -  Feb 28th, 2010 7:49pm

In an attempt to bring back the challenge Friday's of yore - our group at work headed to Lobbby's Burgers in Tempe to see if we could double our previous efforts and tackle their 2lb burger at lunch.  Of course nothing is that simple in my life....

Lobby's just opened up so don't be surprised if you haven't heard of it.  Its basically a standard Chicago beef/burger/dog place and while nothing really stands out for me there, it does have pretty good food and a nice clean atmosphere.  It also has the 3lb challenge if your feeling up to it.

Almost immediately, our innocent attempt at 2lb burgers got 30% larger due to an added required pound of fries.  Shortly thereafter, the owner (Lobby) informed us that to get the meal for free and put your picture up on the wall of fame/shame/gluttony/insanity you had to add cheese on each patty, toss on all the extras(onions, lettuce tomato) and consume the whole shebang in no more than 10 minutes.

As any good programmer would - I did the math.  I can get down a 1lb burger (sans cheese) in about 4 minutes.  This leaves me 2 minutes for the pound of fries if I'm lucky and don't miss a beat.  I was trying to think positive though, and since Cupp and Dale would also be giving it their best shot I couldn't very well back out now.

When the burgers came out I knew I was in trouble.  There was probably a quarter pound of cheese alone on there and my preparations of running that morning and skipping dinner the night before seemed feeble in front of the tower of beef.  Fearlessly though I surveyed the situation, formulated a plan consisting of alternating fries then burger and asked the waitress to hit the timer.

Cupp and Dale started shortly after I did - they basically took on the same strategy and pace that I did as well.  First the top bun and the toppings, then hammer on the patties and fries.  I had to start dunking fries in my drink almost immediately to keep things moving.  This sucked because the fries were damn good before that.

At 3 minutes I had managed at least a pound of food.  At 6 I was halfway done with the burger and nearly done with the fries.  Unfortunately this is where I fell apart.  The cheese and burger grease was just too much and even though I was on pace to finish - I basically had to stop at 8 minutes after finishing all of my fries to prevent food reversal.  Sure I might have missed anyway with a full pound left at the 2 minute mark, but in hindsight it was probably a good decision as no one wants to hurl in a burger joint.

Cupp did his best to drown his fries in ketchup to maintain pace, but he too succumb about the same time and finished just short of my mark with a few fries left and the same 1lb of burger to go.  Dale opted for the meat route and managed an additional patty.  Unfortunately he had had to sacrifice a lot of fries to do it.  Overall it was a basically a draw and Lobby's was the real winner with our hard earned cash and no need to put us all up on the wall of fame/shame/gluttony/insanity.

Maybe next time... or maybe not.  All I wanted to do after the meal was crawl under my desk and go to sleep.  Definitely not recommended for daytime consumption.

An Interesting Anniversary  -  Feb 28th, 2010 7:04pm

I don't really write a lot on this site about my family... well unless they are involved in one my oddball activities (as my friends have come to call them).  They are however very important to me, and I had a very cool experience at my Aunt and Uncle's 50th wedding anniversary a few weekends ago.

My Aunt Jeannie is my mother's sister.  Her and her husband (my uncle Charles) have been a part of my life as long as I can remember.  My brother grew up with their kids and some of my first childhood memories are of playing in their backyard - a wondrous place containing a cornucopia of unintentionally sharp/rusty/dangerous aka-fun things for a kid to play with.

They are both awesome people who have always treated me well and who I care greatly about.  To try and boil them down any less would leave them diluted and not do them justice.  To see them celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary - something that is rarer than it should be - was itself pretty amazing.  My uncle is an incredibly stoic guy who could remove a fish hook from his hand without wincing but even he teared up during a toast.

What was really special and unsuspected for me though was a video they had put together of their early years together.  It was all silent 8mm film full of Christmas mornings, birthdays and parades.  It was also full of my grandfather.

For as long as I can remember people have been telling me I am just like my grandfather in this way or that.  A huge compliment in my book as they all seem to have loved him as a person as much as a family member.  He was an incredibly kind hearted man with a sharp sense of humor and a love for irony, invention, and life.  He was an artisan and a man much smarter than his station in life let him be recognized for... or at least so I'm told.  My grandfather died right before I was born.

My grandmother passed away before she could teach me anything about the man and while I've heard many stories I've really only seen a photo or two of him.  So watching this video of a man I've been compared to for so long and admire for the way people speak of him was kind of a surreal experience.  Not to mention all the shots of my mother at my age and the first video I've ever seen of my brother when he was a child.  I was absolutely hypnotized by it all.

So congrats Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Charles!  Thank you for showing us all the way and for giving me a chance to see my family in a way I've only ever heard described.  I'm proud to have been there with you along the way.

Idiot-A-Rod 2010  -  Jan 24th, 2010 10:46am

I'm tired, hungover, my knees are killing me and I'm pretty much covered from head to toe in pudding.  Today may not be so great, but you have to pay for glory and yesterdays Idiotarod was truly glorious.

Quick refresher: The Idiotarod is a 4 mile shopping cart race.  Carts must be found - not stolen and returned when your done in good condition.  Teams are made of 4 runners, 1 passenger, and each team has to choose a theme and decorate/dress up accordingly.  The actual race is separated into 4 legs.  At the end of each leg you check in, then after 20 or 30 minutes you check out and haul ass to the next stop.  In the middle and sometimes at the end of each leg is some crazy ass drinking challenge.  There's also a bonus challenge at some of the stops which knocks extra time off your total.  Sabotage and bribery are perfectly legit as the point is more to have fun than win, but everyone still gives it their all to come in first even if prizes are only given out for a bunch of randomm stuff like last place and best cart/theme.

Amy, Jon, McCoy, Cupp(broken hand and all), and myself reformed the same team from last year.  We've been looking forward to this for quite a while.  Lunchtime talks about names/themes have probably been going on since October.  After a lot of back and forth we finalize on a name: Section 8 and a cart design: A Tank.

I enlisted a couple of my friends Palmer and Wilson to help with the engineering this time - especially on the cannon.  I think our build of the shuttle last year was nothing short of miraculous, but it was a push to get it all done in 1 night.  This time we had a few weeks to put something more substantial together and we succeeded beyond all of our expectations.

"Tanky" was officially born on Sunday January 17th.  His creation required the following items both purchased and found around my garage:

• 1 Shopping cart (acquired with the help of my folks on Christmas day)
• 4 cardboard boxes
• 6ft of drain pipe
• 1 4" to 6" pipe converter fitting
• 10 small paint buckets
• 1 mortar mixing tub
• 4 foam core boards
• 1 garbage disposal mount
• 2 gold stars
• 1 license plate
• 1 fire extinguisher (bought in the middle of the night off a Craigs List post)
• 3 rolls of duct tape
• 12 glue sticks
• Zip ties
• Green, white, and black paint

Check out the pictures and I'm sure you'll agree that Tanky turned out absolutely brilliant.  Props to everyone on the team for putting their heart into it.  When we rolled up to the race yesterday we were already pleased with our design.  After about half the competitors came by just to say how much they loved our cart we were absolutely glowing.

Like last year, Jon had spent the night prior filling condoms with tapioca pudding.  New to our arsenal though were beer powered squirt guns and our secret weapon - a huge CO2 fire extinguisher hidden in the cannon of the tank.  Other competitors had water balloons, squirt guns, bags of watery fudge and their own secret weapons like skunk oil(unbelievably horrific stuff).  Fortunately, everything stayed pretty civil while we waited for the start of the race.

We wandered around admiring everyone's creations.  The Disco Pimps were back with their rendition of studio 51, the Chickens had their giant nest, the CUNTS returned in all new pink underthings and our friend and coworker Spohn even showed up with some kind of giant Christmas tree cart thing.  The amount of energy people put into this race is a testament to just how unbelievably fun it is. Random people who stumble into these proceedings are always dumbfounded.

All the runners on the team this year(myself included) have been training for various races for the past few months so when this thing kicked off I wasn't surprised to see us take an early lead.  I was a little surprised however at the sheer amount of pudding, water ballons, silly string, and whip cream that got thrown around.  We all looked like we had been in a war by the time the race was over.

Tanky fared pretty well for a while and the CO2 cannon was 11 kinds of awesome.  Anytime someone got in our way we just blasted them!  As things progressed though we lost 1 fender and track then the other.  The cannon also kept falling out which meant I had to carry it half the time.  Still it was much more sturdy than most of our competition.  The biggest issue we faced was weight.  There was a challenge where you had to push/carry the cart (passenger and all) through a sand volleyball court.  Between all the tank stuff and the fire extinguisher this was a nightmare. In the end I had to hold up the front of the tank while everyone else pushed completely burning out my legs in the process.

We kept in the first couple spots drinking hard and running harder throughout the race.  Being out front meant we had to figure out where to go though and the map this year was a Greek tragedy.  We kept going the long way or the wrong way alltogether.  All the running and the drinking took its toll on me and even though we ended up finishing first, I was running well behind the other guys and there is some debate as to whether or not we got disqualified at the finish line.

The best part of the race may very well have been the after party at the Bikini Lounge.  Camaraderie, booze, and lots of cute girls made for a really great time.  There was a 2nd after party at a house after the lounge but I was pretty gone by that point.  We bailed right after the awards ceremony (Dicso Pimps won best cart again grrr) and briefly took Tanky to the grocery store for some food.  When we finally made it to Amy's house for Jon Tencza's birthday party I was done.  In no shape to drive, I crashed out on the spare bed which brings me to where I am now - recovering on my couch typing this.

Amy, Jon, McCoy and Cupp - you guys are the best.  Thank you so much for carrying my ass on this one :)

Return To Sunrise  -  Jan 19th, 2010 3:16pm

I had such a good time skiing a few weeks back, when the opportunity to go again presented itself I jumped on it.  So this last Friday after work, Alek, Kellie, Cupp and me headed back up to Sunrise.

This time we weren't going it alone.  Kyle and 2 of his friends Anhill and Harry were going to meet us up at Alek's cabin.  We would also be putting in a full day plus night as the mountain would be open from 4:30-9:30 or until people started freezing solid.  Well... most of us would anyway.  Some folks had already decided the bar in the ski lodge was a better option for the evening.

Once everyone arrived, we decided to spend the night in the most preparatory way possible - drinking a case of beer and playing Super Mario Wii.  While absurdly fun, the decision proved to be less than sound in the morning.  Fortunately, skiing is a good motivator and everyone managed to packed up their gear and get moving without too much herding.  We arrived at the mountain just after 9 for and geared up for the day.

I spent most of the morning with Alek and Cupp who was snowboarding for the first time.  We would meet up with Kyle, Anhill and Harry later.  Kellie opted for the half day and would be chilling up at the lodge until ski-school started.  Cupp did really well that morning and went from the sliding down the bunny-hill to actually snowboarding on the main mountain in just a few hours.  Learning to board/ski is rough work though - so while he and a few others took a break, I took the opportunity to get a bunch of solid runs in.

I spent the remainder of the day alternating between hitting hard runs on my own and skiing with various packs.  It wasn't long though before the day was over and we headed into the lodge to eat and throw on more clothes for night skiing.  They only shut down for about a half hour so by 5:00 we were back out on the slopes.

This was what I was here for - skiing at night and I wasn't disappointed.  Even though it was getting really cold, there was no wind and the lights on the mountain made everything look absolutely incredible.  Only a few runs are open at night but it was enough - especially since I spent the bulk of it running down the ski-park.  Harry and I kept one upping each other run after run until we were both shooting off of the full 12ft ramp and making it past the flat-top.  Unfortunately before I could get any pics or video of this, we got the call that Cupp broke his hand.

I don't think anyone was surprised.  Cupp is kind of injury prone and he was worn out long before dark.  He kept saying each run would be his last.  Eventually he headed out on his own and that's when he took a hard fall on his arm and broke the boxer bone in his right hand.  We decided it would be best to wrap it up for the night and get him to the emergency room.  So we called it a game and headed out for the Showlow hospital.

In the end it was kind of fun.  Brian wasn't injured too badly so we left him there with Kellie while the rest of us grabbed some food at Wendy's.  He eventually got his X-rays and a temp cast/sling and we made our way back to the cabin to warm up and dry out.  Everyone was pretty wiped and crashed out early.  Alek and I stayed up for a while playing one of his his psychotically complicated board games, but even this didn't last long.

We packed up early the next morning, cleaned up the cabin and went out for breakfast before making the long drive back to phoenix.  They will have night skiing again in a couple weeks - I think I'm down for another round.

Preparing for Ragnar  -  Jan 12th, 2010 3:52pm

No, its not the name of some deity who will reign destruction upon us in 2012 - John Cusack has already done this.  Rather, The Ragnar Relay is a race I'll be running next month.

Much bigger than my last run, the Ragnar is a 200 mile relay race from Prescott to Mesa.  Each team consists of 12 members and each team member will run 3 legs of the race.  The remaining members are carted around in 2 vehicles which drop/pickup at the various hand-off points.  The whole shebang should take us around 36 hours to complete and I plan on being little more than a pool of goo at the end of this one.

Fortunately not all of the legs are even and I agreed to join this fiasco on the condition that I took the shortest of them.  A 5 mile up/downhill battle, then two 4 mile runs on fairly flat land. I'm probably more at fault for joining McCoy on this one than he is but I prefer to think of this as his doing as I sleep better at night.

I'm now running about 3 miles - 3 times a week.  This is a huge improvement from where I started on the 10k, but I feel like I need to get that up to about 5 miles a day before I'm good this time.  You can track my progress/damnation on my runkeeper page if you like.  Wish me luck :)

First Ski Trip Of 2010  -  Jan 12th, 2010 3:05pm

The last thing I need to post on to catch up the poor souls I subject to this site is my latest ski trip to Sunrise.

Looking back I'm amazed and saddened that I only squeezed in a single ski trip last year.  For something I love so much I spend surprisingly little time doing it -- I'm blaming Canada.

Though this trip was originally scheduled to have 132 people come with and all stay in Alek's cabin only 3 of us made it in the end.  Vince, Alek and myself... well ok - Alek's family was up there as well but they hung out in town while we goofed off on the slopes.  Really I can't say enough about Alek on this trip.  He provided an awesome place for us to stay, food in the morning/night, and great company on the slopes.  I definitely owe him one.

Thats not to leave out Vince - he is great to ski with.  Probably the only person I know who skis better than I do.  He'll ski any run and can go all day without needing to eat or go to the bathroom.  An invaluable skill when you can only be on the slopes from 9am-4pm.  The mountain also cooperated giving us great squeaky dry snow and a sunny albeit cool day.

Tried to take a couple videos on this trip but they turned out really craptacular.  Turns out that its downright impossible to ski well and hold a video camera.  I remember my dad doing that as a kid, he is a talented SOB.  Enjoy the pics and hopefully I'll see some of you out there this weekend on trip #2.

New Years Eve 2009  -  Jan 12th, 2010 2:54pm

I guess if I'm catching up, new years would be the next big event.  Well... actually there was a small party at Paul's place where I introduced everyone to the pig project but that's another story for another time.  For now lets focus on the night we killed ol Pinchy.

Tani and Vince decided to host new years eve this year.  Was kind of a combo party/house warming.  It was also the night that we decided to test out a series of fire extinguishers for the upcoming Idiotarod.  Turns out that fire extinguishers are awesome fun :)  Was also kind of an awesome fun night in general.  We had tons of food, enough alcohol to subdue a college dorm and the obligatory bag of fireworks.  We also had alcoholic pudding!

I'm not kidding here either.  This stuff was lethal.  The original thought was that it might be a good substitute for jello shots which were worn out at Halloween.  Turned out though that alcoholic pudding won't set but instead becomes an amazing liquid concoction kind of like eggnog.  Here is the recipe for those brave enough:

• 1 Package Instant Chocolate Fudge pudding mix
• Substitute 1/3 of the water for Vodka
• Substitute 1/3 of the water for Bailey's
• Mix, stash in the freezer, then serve in shot glasses

I should also warn you that its a good idea to have an air-hole in the container during transport.  My pudding vessel exploded as it warmed in my car and oozed 60 proof chocolate all over my truck.  What remained was really amazing though.

In addition to the pudding I also brought Pinchy - a lobster from the local grocery store who spent his last few hours on ice in a lunchbox.  Its likely that Abbey will hate me forever for cooking him up but man... steak and lobster is the flawlessly decadent way to ring in the new year.

The party ran until about 3am at which point we had all had enough.  Props to Tani and Vince on their beautiful new home and backyard, to Jeremy for finally having his first drink or 10, to Abbey for getting wicked drunk and making us all smile and to Kellie and McCoy who both made me feel like I made at least somebodies life better this last year.

Halloween 2009  -  Jan 11th, 2010 9:26pm

It took me a couple months, but I finally got around to organizing all the pictures and whatnot from this er... last years Halloween party.  I had hoped to top my previous party efforts and all I can say is mission accomplished.

Actually, I may have overshot the mark.  Songs have been sung, tales have been told and the whole affair has really transgressed into a mythical beast all its own.  Costumes, women, beer, fireworks, sodium-metal, mezcal, bacon, more women, sandwiches, Rock Band, a beer gun, a fire-pit, and tray up on tray of jello shots all mixed together in some sort of dark ritual.

I can tell you that Julie won the costume contest, and thanks to a rigged vote by Amy I actually got last place.  I can also say that the bacon on a stick was the hit food of the party.  What I can't or won't really tell you is much else.  Trust me, We are all better off this way.

To all who attended this madness thank you so much.  Was really one of the craziest nights ever.  For everyone who missed out I highly suggest showing up next year.  Who knows what we'll have to do to top this one but I'm certainly willing to try.

A Cold Day At Saguaro  -  Dec 20th, 2009 5:13pm

With all of the other silly crap I've done this year, I've been neglecting the local fisheries.  Even though its been cold and rainy, I took this last week off and couldn't resist heading out to Saguaro with my dad.

We both knew that fishing wasn't going to be epic, but since neither of us had been to Saguaro in many years we decided to make a day of it.  The 2 of us headed out Wednesday morning for what was a seriously cold day on the water.  We didn't leave early, maybe 7:30, and when we arrived there was only 1 other car/boat there.  Something kind of eerie/cool about having a lake all to yourself.

Saguaro is very close to town so if the weather isn't crappy its usually full of jet-skiers and Sunday boaters - not great fishing conditions.  In a way then, these kinds of days are the only way to fish the lake.  Times when no one else wants to be there.

We headed east down the canyons to get out of the wind right off the bat.  In the decade or so since I've been on the lake, things have changed quite a bit.  The lake has become much greener, trees and tall grasses have overgrown what used to be sandy beaches and flat camping areas.  It was also a lot smaller than I remember.  That phrase seems to keep haunting my trips to our lakes here.

The fishing wasn't much to speak of - only really had 1 bite all day.  With that few people though, the wildlife were out everywhere.  Herons, falcons, ducks, we even saw a brief fight between a bald eagle and a pair of red-tails.  The whole place was quite peaceful, something I'm sure happens there all too infrequently.

We did manage to get a few bites over by Butcher Jones Beach.  Almost certainly from trout they had dumped in the lake recently.  In the end, ever fearful of crowds :) - we headed in as the sun finally came out and a few more boats showed up.  A cold but amazing day on another majestic Arizona lake.