It’s About the Trout

The major point of this camping trip to North Carolina was to let our son, D, have some fly fishing time. It was B’s first attempt and he did well. To anyone going, you will need a license and a trout permit that conveniently are available on-line.

We learned that there are different size limits in different places. Also some are catch-and-keep and some are catch-and-release---all on the same river.  We found the idea of keeping a seven-inch trout a little hard to fathom. There would be more meat in a can of tuna.

Here’s some of how it seems to work---to a newbie like me.

You gotta scope it out. You gotta find the right spot. It is especially encouraging if you actually SEE a fish.

Now, the fish hatchery is a good place to see trout.

Here is a raceway with food pellets piled up at one end. There was no feeding frenzy going on. Perhaps they had overdone it just a tad.

These trout are in the Davidson River just down from the hatchery. Those white spots are some of this fish food that is coming from the hatchery and into the river.

While there were fish to be seen in the river there, and many fisherman in the water, we saw only one caught. I think the trout were just so used to the pellets being available. However, we did hear about a lure that looks very much like those pellets.

B and D had already fished elsewhere before we got to the hatchery, so B decided to tour the little nature center there with me while D tried his luck in the river.

B had taken off his fishing sneakers and walked in his wet sox to the back of the truck to put on dry shoes. The air is so dry there, those footprints were drying faster than I could snap a picture. The rocks and gravel are fairly hard on your feet, so the sox and shoes or waders are necessary.

This car was in the hatchery parking lot and struck me as funny; reminiscent of a Chevy Chase movie---or perhaps a VW Chase?

But back to the process. There are lines and hooks to tie and re-tie.

 

And goodness knows, there is tackle! We visited a fly shop/guide shop in Pisgah Forest where we saw case after case of different possibilities for catching  the prize. D picked up some new terrestrials that were supposed to be what trout wanted on their daily menu at this time. “Terrestrial” was a new term to me, as far as tackle is concerned. It means little critters that usually crawl on land, such as ants, caterpillars, worms, beetles, etc. D was lucky enough to find an old abandoned fly box on the river bank and rescued some of the flies and terrestrials. It had been out in the weather a while and some of the stuff was ruined, but some was salvageable.

So then after all the preparation, there is the actual fishing. Throwing out a line with trees all around and rocks in the bottom appears to take some finesse and practice and lots of patience for when it doesn’t catch what you were after, but something else entirely.

 

D fished nine different times, usually twice a day, while we were there. He was not thrilled that he caught seven trout. Sadly, not one of those got photographed. They were all rainbows that are not native. B caught one fish, but it was the largest and the only brook trout, the native one.  B did not keep this one.

Nice prizes for a week of fun in a beautiful environment.

Land of the Waterfalls

Transylvania County, North Carolina is known for its many waterfalls and we managed to take in quite a few of them on this short trip. Below is Looking Glass Falls that is right by Highway 64.

 

Then we later hiked to Hooker Falls and its popular local swimming hole in the DuPont State Forest.

 

Across the way is Triple Falls. It is called that because you may need a triple bi-pass after the climb, if you are a flabby flatlander like me. My calves have just settled down. Here are the three falls.

Here is a look at the upper two falls. (It was VERY bright and hot up there that day.)

This is looking downstream from that same spot.

Another day, we hiked from the Blue Ridge Parkway down (and back up!) to Graveyard Fields Falls and Yellowstone Falls.. Here is the first set. There are some really big chunks of rock that people not from Florida probably take for granted.

 

There is a larger, further one that I did not get a decent picture of.  The hike was about 3.2 miles (but up and down and muddy in places) and listed as a “moderately strenuous” one (almost worthy of putting me in the graveyard!)--- but definitely worth it.

By the way, there is no graveyard. Way back when it was logged, there was a field of stumps that were covered in moss and someone thought it looked like tombstones. A fire took those out, but the name stuck.

At this spot, we found the coldest water of the trip, due in part I’m sure to the altitude. We had begun that hike from the windy parking lot wearing our fleece but by the time we had hiked to this spot a couple of hours later, we were thankful to splash the cold water on our faces and arms to cool us down.

it was on this hike that I learned that I am a fan of the trekking pole. I had not hiked with them before and borrowed one of our son’s. I am not really coordinated enough to use two and when I took pictures, two were in the way, but one felt like just the right amount of support in awkward spots. I’m shoppin’.

Davidson River Critters

B and D fly fished every day in several spots along the Davidson.

I spent my time enjoying the beautiful areas where they fished.

Here are some of the critters I saw:

A dead white moth on the wet bank.

A swallowtail enjoying the taste of the wet sand.

The shadow of this water strider was impressive. Get several together and it looked like some tracks on the river bottom.

I believe this to be evidence of beavers.

In this rock bank there was a nest snuggled into a small pit with some kind of flycatchers tending it.

I loved the contrast of the crab spider's bright color on the dull tailgate.

There were several different kinds of birds, mostly heard, not seen. Towhees and wood thrushes sang loudly in the morning and whippoorwills began with the setting sun. Crows by the dozen made quite the ruckus.

I saw one salamander that was gone as soon as I spotted it.

We saw this monster salamander in an aquarium at the fish hatchery. It is called a hellbender and native to these cold rivers and streams.

They are similar to our amphiumas. They can grow up to 29 inches long and have strong jaws and can bite.

Check out the toes. And that is some smooth skin!

What I missed up there were the sounds of frogs and cicadas that are so very loud in our cul-de-sac this summer. (We leave the window cracked so they can sing us to sleep.) We saw no snakes, but heard from a boy (on a bridge) that a large copperhead had been under the bridge when he had been down there fishing. And that was why he said he was done fishing for the day! Smart boy.

Davidson River Rabbit

In our campground, there was a cottontail rabbit that hung around between the bathhouse and our site.

It came right into our camp a couple of times. Here it is in a fuzzy picture over B’s shoulder while he sat reading.

And then it was gone.

Lucky rabbit’s feet!

Davidson River Campground

We returned home on Friday from camping in western North Carolina for five nights with our elder son. Our other family members unfortunately had work obligations. We stayed at the Davidson River Campground in the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, North Carolina. This was our son’s third trip there in the past few weeks: first with a U.F. class about southern forests, then with his wife on a long weekend and finally with us. This was our first time there and the first time in a long, long time to even be in the area.

This is a large, clean, well-run campground of 160 (mostly) spacious sites organized into eight loops. Forty-one sites are reservable but most are first come, first serve. For those of us in Florida, we need that first option. At 9:00 a.m., there was a line to get in at ten.

http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Davidson_River_Nc/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70204

Some nights while we were there, the sites were all claimed. Despite the number of people, it was a surprisingly quiet place, especially at night.

During the day, tubing on the Davidson that runs the length of the campground was a popular pass-time.  The water is cold and refreshing on a hot day. It looked like it might have been a bit shallow in spots for the amount of water some of the tubers were drawing. There is also a swimming hole.

Sunset on the Davidson from the old bridge in the campground:

Sharing that water are the trout fisherman, though they are more likely to be out earlier and come back late.

 

This carved post was just up the road from our campsite.

 

Our last night there, a group sang bluegrass and gospel on the porch of a cabin for anyone who knew about it. it was a pleasant way to wrap up our stay there.

A couple of things could be improved upon. For water, we had to walk to a hand pump. The two bathrooms per loop were often not really adequate on the women’s side. That gave us in our building, one toilet that worked properly (and one that did not) and one tiny sink and one hot shower for lots of women and their children.  I get up early, so it was not usually a problem, but even trying to brush teeth in there might mean a line.  There were some sites that have electric, but not in our loop. We did not need that anyway, though I would have been able to recharge my camera battery, which did not make it through the week.

Will we go back??  Absolutely!!

Spanglish

We went to a charming little Mexican restaurant in St. John’s County last Saturday night. The food was very good, the margaritas refreshing and the atmosphere was fun. The servers were quite competent and the prices appropriate. So what was my small beef? This sign:

Surely there is someone who could have edited this for them!

The Rain Barrel

Last month, our son in Gainesville bought us this rain barrel from Alachua County, where they were selling them for about half price. He knew that we had been looking to buy one or more and had not found the right price or set-up. B set this one up while I was at my parents’.

And then we had no rain for over two weeks. Not a drop! In fact during that time, we tied a record when we had seven days in a row where the temperatures reached over one hundred. Morning lows hung around in the upper seventies. Yuck! The grass turned brown and we had to water any plants we wanted to keep alive.

So we have just returned last night from a week in western North Carolina where the temperatures were really pretty awesome. This morning, B discovered that the rain gauge had 4.5 inches in it and the rain barrel is FULL!-----all 50 gallons!

Woo-Hoo!!

Because of the nifty stand B fashioned from an old aquarium stand, gravity will create the flow. Now when it gets dry, we’ll just hook up the hose to the faucet and water away.