Mid-1970’s

During the summer months much of the water from the high country is collected in various diversion ditches, and on Independence Pass these diversion ditches feed into Grizzly Reservoir.  It is then sent through a large tunnel under the mountains and out into the river that feeds the Twin Lakes on the east side of the Continental Divide.  Some of these diversion ditches have tunnels to move the water from the various valleys such as Lost Man or Lincoln Creek.  In the winter the water in these tunnels stops flowing and they run dry with the exception of small puddles and low spots where the remaining water collects.

A little known side effect of these ditches and tunnels going dry in the winter are all the fish that get trapped in the puddles and low spots.  For these fish, the winter means certain death.  There are year round caretakers up at the reservoir to keep an eye on things and perform maintenance on the buildings, gates and tunnels.  In the 1970’s this work was performed by Dwight and Doris Reeves and for them, winter was a very quiet time and their only escape is by making the 12-mile drive through the big tunnel out to the east.  They stock enough food to limit how many times they will make this trip in the winter.  In the 1970’s my family got to know the Reeves and we often took snowmobiles in the winter up to see them when it was safe as the journey up from Aspen crossed dozens of avalanche paths.

I remember one fall in the mid-1970’s; we were invited up for a fish fry.  Dwight had just closed all of the diversion ditches and was making final preparations for the advent of the first big snowfall.  As a teenager in Aspen back then most fisherman had a “Rod & Reel” and the concept of “Catch and Release” was still more of an oddity rather than the norm.  I remember packing up my fishing gear and getting in the back of my dad’s pickup for the ride up to the reservoir.  About two dozen family and friends caravanned up to the reservoir for a day of fishing and eating our catch.  Upon our arrival I remember Dwight telling me that all the gear I brought with me would not be necessary.  He supplied all of us with a bucket and informed us that would be all we would need.  To say I was a bit confused would be stating the obvious.

We all walked out in the direction of the Lost Man ditch.  The tunnel was about a mile from the reservoir and we walked in and along the edge of the ditch.  Upon the first large puddle we came across our host walked into the middle, stuck both hands into the freezing water and came up with a two foot long fish.  Within the first five minutes out on the ditch he had collected three very large Brook Trout.  With that education in hand I realized why a bucket was all that we needed but it would have been nice had we been warned that some warm rubber gloves would have been equally as handy.  We walked the length of the ditch and about 500 yards into the tunnel collecting fish in every puddle or small body of remaining water.  By the end of the day nearly 200 fish had been collected.  I hate to think how many we left behind which faced certain death, not to say the ones we collected had any sort of future ahead of them.

I am not sure if this is still done by the current caretakers but I think I must have eaten fish every day for six months back then.