You, tenkara anglers, have just adopted a highway!
If you’re anywhere near Boulder, Colorado, drive up Boulder Canyon. On mile 37 going upstream, and mile 35 going downstream (just about 6 miles into the Canyon), you’ll now see this sign. If you see it, stop by, take a picture and share it with us here, on Twitter or Facebook with the tag #TenkaraHighway.
Several months ago I was driving down Boulder Canyon after a day of fishing. I always look at the “Adopt-A-Highway” signs and see who is involved. I had never thought of seeing what it would take to have a sign dedicated to our customers. Alas, on that day the sign simply said “available” below it. Next day we called them up to ask for information on having that space. “There are no signs available there right now”, they informed us. Well, it says available, so we drove up and got the mile markers. “Ok, I guess it’s available. Here’s the paperwork”.
It turns out it’s such a good proposition. Because the highway runs along Boulder Creek, in this case to adopt a highway we need to do a stream cleanup a few times a year. Cleaning up the stream is already part of our ethos, and something we do very often. Have you read our “Took our Limit” post? Now we’ll have a good excuse to do some organized cleanups of Boulder Creek. We’ll post those events here.
Yesterday we drove up the Canyon for some evening fishing. I was thinking of stopping near the beginning of the Canyon when Margaret recommended we see if the signs have gone up. I had been checking for them almost weekly for months, and was always a little disappointed not to see the sign there. It almost made it in time for the Tenkara Summit. And, yesterday, finally, there they were!
It turns out the 2 miles of Highway we adopted (miles 35-37) are terrific tenkara waters and the fishing is pretty good. We all caught some Colorado brownies yesterday. The water is a bit harder to access in most points, with steep banks, but that probably means not many people fish it regularly. The weather and the light were 100% autumnal, crisp air, warm diffused light, and colorful trout.
The stream cleanup, albeit not organized, started yesterday. Our friends spontaneously started gathering trash found along the highway and the stream. I soon joined in. I suspect these will be the cleanest 2 miles of stream anywhere. It’s amazing how much trash you find among the tall grasses when you start looking for it.
The most unusual trash finds of the day were a mailbox and a soccer ball. Both in decent shape actually. That’s the interesting thing about cleanups, you’ll always find unusual and occasionally valuable stuff. Last year I found a working GPS and a large cooler.
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Driven that canyon all my days, either to get home to Nederland, when I lived there in the 80’s, or to visit the family cabin on North Fork Middle Boulder Creek or to ski Eldora. I know exactly where the ladies are standing – just below Wild Tiger Gulch, where the huge Sugarloaf fire got started. A fitting stretch of creek for T-USA!
Steve, exactly! Good eye!
Coming down the canyon this afternoon, the light fading, I saw the Tenkara sign and followed the stretch of water down below to my right. Then, a couple miles later, saw another highway sign, this one owned by Rocky Mountain Anglers. We *own* the canyon!
Fished the canyon yesterday, heading up past MM 37 with the pull-off on the left, and the parking area.. What a sweet piece of water. Nice pools, and some faster tighter runs, saw a number of fish, even snagged a few.. It was a beautiful day out, and a great piece of water. Good pick Daniel, I know it was no accident.