Post by labrador on Aug 20, 2007 22:54:29 GMT -5
Click this link to watch a video of the trip. It's probably a lot more enjoyable than reading all those WORDS... 
;D ;D ;D
s81.photobucket.com/albums/j234/wlodarb/?action=view¤t=August07.flv
Here's what a view looked like from nearby...Little bit Smoky?.
Here's a trout bum catching some ZZZ's in an afternoon nap.
Hey does this headlamp work?
Well, The trip is over. We had a good time, caught some fish, ate some food, and drank some drink. It was good. I will say that the highest water temp we saw was 66 degrees, so those streams can really handle the heat, but that's another thing, the heat wasn't that bad and it was signifcantly cooler up there which was a welcome relief. The water levels seemed lower...but NOT LOW. They seemed just fine and probably even higher than we saw back in June.
I will say that the hike in and out of this area is much more grueling than the place we went to earlier in the year. It was about 6.5 miles in and 6.5 out, but much of this is up and down some serious trails. This one really ran you up and down the mountains, and on paper (topo maps) it doesn't seem like much, but when you're out there, it's a lot. Also the trails are marked, but not with the information we needed, so it seemed difficult to navigate at times, well, we had to think about it for a second before we moved on, and once we even were retracing steps after a wrong turn.
Once we got to camp, we set things up but we were pretty beat and sat around for a good 30 minutes or so trying to get some relief. I was tired. Anyway, we hit the stream and found it pretty tight in some spots and pretty wide open in others. The fish would pop out at dries in most likely spots, but our hook-ups were around 1 fish for every 4-5 strikes. Seems that the fish were all very small, but colorful, and fiesty, and we caught both browns and rainbows, but no brookies. I imagine we wound up with around 10-15 fish each day to hand. The water on the lower ends where the trail first comes into it is very WIDE. It was big water there, and looked like one heck of a place to fish. We didn't check the temps, but I imagine they were higher, but too high too fish? We should've checked, but it was a long way from our camp, so we kept on walking. I think it would be a lot of fun to fish that section in some cooler weather though. I have to think there are some big monsters in that area.
The flying stinging insects were everywhere, with honey bees, hornets, yellowjackets, and bumblebees all around, especially at camp. They went away at dusk, but reappeared each morning. I got two stings, and I think UB escaped unscathed. We did see a bumble bee nest creekside that had them crawling in and out of several holes in the ground and through the wall of the creek. I didn't know they lived in the ground. Hmmm.
We also saw the food chain in action again. It wasn't salamander vs. salamander like last time, but UB got a good video of it, and I am sure you will enjoy it. I will let him fill in the details. We didn't see or hear any bears, but UB thought he smelled one, and later said "It might of just been you.[B)][B)][B)]" We did see some poop from them, and we also found a large pile of nasty black hair that we thought might have been from a bear, but we didnt' know for sure. We talked with a Ranger who drove up for a minute at our cars before heading in, and he said the bears were extremely active and we should keep a look out for them. He said the obvious about not sleeping with food and hanging it up and stuff. We saw one snake on the way in and it slithered out of the way after I almost stepped on it before I could really slam on the hiking brakes. It looked like some type of a small garter snake or something harmless.
Didn't have any rat problems, but both of us had our food in ratsacks, so we weren't worried, but I think this campsite see's a lot less traffic than our previous site, so the mice don't have as much to keep them sticking around.
Didn't see many folks at all. We had one couple come through and spend one night, and that was it...Well a man rode through on a horse once, and some guy walked through in tennis shoes asking how to get to somewhere, but that was all we saw up there. Not like the other place, where hikers are all over the place. It must have something to do with the difficulty in getting back there. I never thought I wasn't going to make it...not even close, but I did think the hike really sucked for a lot of the duration. Seemed worse coming out??? Or did it[xx(]?
;D ;D ;Ds81.photobucket.com/albums/j234/wlodarb/?action=view¤t=August07.flv
Here's what a view looked like from nearby...Little bit Smoky?.
Here's a trout bum catching some ZZZ's in an afternoon nap.
Hey does this headlamp work?
Well, The trip is over. We had a good time, caught some fish, ate some food, and drank some drink. It was good. I will say that the highest water temp we saw was 66 degrees, so those streams can really handle the heat, but that's another thing, the heat wasn't that bad and it was signifcantly cooler up there which was a welcome relief. The water levels seemed lower...but NOT LOW. They seemed just fine and probably even higher than we saw back in June.
I will say that the hike in and out of this area is much more grueling than the place we went to earlier in the year. It was about 6.5 miles in and 6.5 out, but much of this is up and down some serious trails. This one really ran you up and down the mountains, and on paper (topo maps) it doesn't seem like much, but when you're out there, it's a lot. Also the trails are marked, but not with the information we needed, so it seemed difficult to navigate at times, well, we had to think about it for a second before we moved on, and once we even were retracing steps after a wrong turn.
Once we got to camp, we set things up but we were pretty beat and sat around for a good 30 minutes or so trying to get some relief. I was tired. Anyway, we hit the stream and found it pretty tight in some spots and pretty wide open in others. The fish would pop out at dries in most likely spots, but our hook-ups were around 1 fish for every 4-5 strikes. Seems that the fish were all very small, but colorful, and fiesty, and we caught both browns and rainbows, but no brookies. I imagine we wound up with around 10-15 fish each day to hand. The water on the lower ends where the trail first comes into it is very WIDE. It was big water there, and looked like one heck of a place to fish. We didn't check the temps, but I imagine they were higher, but too high too fish? We should've checked, but it was a long way from our camp, so we kept on walking. I think it would be a lot of fun to fish that section in some cooler weather though. I have to think there are some big monsters in that area.
The flying stinging insects were everywhere, with honey bees, hornets, yellowjackets, and bumblebees all around, especially at camp. They went away at dusk, but reappeared each morning. I got two stings, and I think UB escaped unscathed. We did see a bumble bee nest creekside that had them crawling in and out of several holes in the ground and through the wall of the creek. I didn't know they lived in the ground. Hmmm.
We also saw the food chain in action again. It wasn't salamander vs. salamander like last time, but UB got a good video of it, and I am sure you will enjoy it. I will let him fill in the details. We didn't see or hear any bears, but UB thought he smelled one, and later said "It might of just been you.[B)][B)][B)]" We did see some poop from them, and we also found a large pile of nasty black hair that we thought might have been from a bear, but we didnt' know for sure. We talked with a Ranger who drove up for a minute at our cars before heading in, and he said the bears were extremely active and we should keep a look out for them. He said the obvious about not sleeping with food and hanging it up and stuff. We saw one snake on the way in and it slithered out of the way after I almost stepped on it before I could really slam on the hiking brakes. It looked like some type of a small garter snake or something harmless.
Didn't have any rat problems, but both of us had our food in ratsacks, so we weren't worried, but I think this campsite see's a lot less traffic than our previous site, so the mice don't have as much to keep them sticking around.
Didn't see many folks at all. We had one couple come through and spend one night, and that was it...Well a man rode through on a horse once, and some guy walked through in tennis shoes asking how to get to somewhere, but that was all we saw up there. Not like the other place, where hikers are all over the place. It must have something to do with the difficulty in getting back there. I never thought I wasn't going to make it...not even close, but I did think the hike really sucked for a lot of the duration. Seemed worse coming out??? Or did it[xx(]?
Thanks for sharing!
