The Buck stopped “Here”
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July 12, 2016
Top of the morning to you folks!!! It’s a beautiful morning up here in the most magnificent South Platte River Valley! Woke up today with some much cooler temperatures, as it was only 44 degrees when I left to hike at 5:30 this morning. Definitely layered up for the first 45 minutes of the hike. The flow at the Cheesman dam this morning was down from yesterday to 184 (cfs) and only 265 (cfs) at Trumbull. Last night the fishing action was pretty good!! The midge hatch wasn’t as strong, but I continue to see hatches of BWO’s along the banks and around protruding rocks close to the river’s edge. Just fooling around, I decided I was going to just throw the single grass-hopper to see if I could raise a suspecting Trout! Back to back times I simply threw the hopper up against the granite wall and allowed the bug to fall into the river. Wham! just like that a monster brown trout that I had seen rising a few moments earlier slammed my bug and headed right for the river bank with all intentions of ending our short relationship. My drag screaming and my heart pounding, I knew I was going to have to keep the fish off the bank if I was going to win the battle. Not being in my waders and having flip flops to negotiate the cavernous bottom, I was forced to sacrifice my left flop in an attempt to net the beast!!! Now, with one useless shoe barley dangling off my right foot and realizing I could go no further into the river, I tightened my drag and made one last attempt to keep the fish from running. With one quick snare, I attempted to set the hook properly as I was dealing with my “shoe issue.” The fish made one more aggressive move, wrapped my line around a few rocks and snapped me off!! Next time I will gear-up for sure!! After the fishing wardrobe malfunction, I noticed a large hatch BWO’s around a rock close to the bank. I immediately added a green-hackle to the hopper and pulled three fish on about a dozen or so drifts. If you’re interested in coming to Decker’s and fish, be sure to check out the full-service tackle and guide shop, Flies and Lies http://www.flies-n-lies.com.
This morning I hiked in the Pike National Forest, which is on the other side of the river from my house. I do this hike at least three times a week and branch off of it to explore different areas that are populated with Native American Artifacts, gem-stones, antler sheds, lots of wildlife and an abundance of cactus and wildflowers. Now that I’m about 6 weeks into training each day, I’m getting faster and faster at ascending the hills and traversing the landscape. I spoke the other day a little bit about my past medical history and revealed that I was an epileptic that doesn’t take medication to control my seizures. I want to be clear that I do not advise anyone that has been prescribed medication by their physician to not take their prescribed drugs. I was simply at an age in my life when I had started to explore for myself what my seizures were truly caused by and for some strange reason was able to do just that. When I was just ten years old, we moved away from the only home that I knew and moved in with my grandmother at the beach. Well, not realizing at the time what stress really was, I had managed to internalize all the turmoil of a divorce, the fear or moving away from all my friends, all I knew, all I was!! For a ten year old, this was obviously too much for me to handle on my own. This is when the seizure activity began and lasted for another 9 long and agonizing years through adolescence and into adulthood. I’ve chosen to share this with you, because now, as a 46 year-old adult who has manged to live seizure- free for most of my adult life without medication, I wan’t to try to explain to you how managing stress is monumental in handling any kind of neurological disorder. As I have mentioned previously, but my have not fully explained, I have recently left the food and beverage industry for the first time in almost thirty years!! As a Chef, the kitchen has always been a “safe place” or a place I could go to where all of my other troubles would go away for maybe just a few hours. But now, as I change and evolve, my comfort zone has shifted and I must follow my heart. Thing is folks, thirty years had gone by and I had spent the majority of it living a life that wasn’t worthy of the second and third chances I had been given. Growing up with this condition and figuring out how it can be better managed through better eating habits, stress management, exercise and good life choices, I felt it had to be shared, but it also meant it had to be lived! This is one of the main reasons I created livedeckerscolorado.com. There are so many kids out there that are stricken with neurological disorders, including Epilepsy, but don’t have near the freedom or the luxury of being able to walk outside knowing that they aren’t going to have a seizure. And after lots of hard work and belief in myself, I DO! and I will never take that for granted again. I also understand that every kid isn’t as lucky as me and many have been diagnosed with the exact reason why they have their seizures. At the time, I expected to be one of those that was told why. But when the Dr’s told me that they couldn’t find anything “really wrong” I was left to figure it out on my own. However, every human being has a seizure threshold and some of us just simply have one that’s just a little lower, and I happen to be one of those individuals. For a long time I have been thinking about how to share this information with the world, but wasn’t really sure what the message would be. I guess, that if just one kid that has this disease, or is going through something similar to what I went through as a child, can benefit from what I learned, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Have a great day my friends and thank you for taking some time out of your busy day to listen to what I’ve got to say and share and I’ll see you tomorrow!
Chris
