Nuevo México

There are certain times in life, and sometimes you don't realize it in the moment, that you are experiencing something that you may never again experience. Looking back on this last weekend, I feel that I had one of those experience.

I had the opportunity to travel to New Mexico with my good friends Dan and Mike. We have had some pretty awesome experiences this summer, and this trip wouldn't disappoint either. In fact, apart from the 12 hour drive to Mimbres, the trip was just fun all around.

There was some serious preparation that went into this trip. First off, we had to book the trip in advance with Billy at Mimbres Taxidermy and Guide Service. Lucky for me, he is my dad and finding an open weekend for us wasn't too hard. Secondly, we had to grow mustaches. A mustache may come free, but it was the most expensive part of the trip. We all suffered the ridicule and weird looks for a few weeks just to enjoy one weekend on the back of a horse in the woods as real men.


And as real men we were woken up by my dad at 6:30 am on Friday morning and had the opportunity to unload four tons of oat hay, shuttle the horses around for the pasture, and saddle the seven we were taking along. We finally hit the trail around 2 in the afternoon.



I was anxious to get my lure in the water. It had been years since I have fished on the Gila river, and I was really hoping that it was as good as I remembered. That first afternoon we fished the holes close to camp before dinner, and caught quite a few fish between us all. Of course my dad caught the biggest one. The only good thing about him catching a big one so early on in the trip meant that he would go back to camp and feed the horses and make dinner, giving us a chance to catch some fish.







We were blessed to have rain every evening of the trip. It rained (and haled) just enough to break the New Mexico heat and give us the energy to keep having fun.




We found, actually my dad showed us, an Indian ruin on a ridge above the river. We found a few arrow heads, some pottery and a view to die for. It is obvious why the Mimbreno Indians chose this spot to camp, or live, or whatever they used the site for.




The second day fishing was just as good as the first. Dan was proud to have caught the biggest brown trout. We all had a lot of luck and we even decided to keep a couple to eat for dinner. We convinced Dan that most people eat the fried tails, and of course he ate the one on his fish. I guess they don't taste as bad as you would imagine.



We made it back to the truck in the early afternoon on Sunday with enough time to get home and recuperate. We didn't have any problems with the horses, the dogs stuck around, caught a tone of fish, and I even saw a black bear about fifty yards away. I would say it was a good trip. One for the ages.





I want to dedicate this post to Gus. Gus is my hound dog that I picked out of a litter of puppies about fourteen or fifteen years ago. He has been a great dog throughout the years and brought great memories. This was probably his last trip out with us as he is getting a little old to run with the young dogs. Thanks Gus.