20 mile hike at Sewanee

In November, Troop 3 took a hiking trip to Sewanee, TN.

This was a very fun day hike but also turned out to be one of the most brutal. We started around 9:00 and stayed in a group until about mile one, where we split up.

We walked on while observing some very pretty views, acorn throwing, and the Sewanee wilderness. At around mile 6.5 we sat down for lunch and filled up water bottles. Despite some problems with knowledge of how to use the steripen, lunch was pretty good.

We then continued the backbreaking hike over the hills of Sewanee and a few paved areas. Around the 15 mile mark we hit a paved trail that was relatively flat and continued our trek as the sun ducked behind the trees.

It became complete darkness when we finally reached the cross on the hill but it made a great place to stop and rest.

From that point on our spirits were lifted and we continued hiking the last 1 mile on pavement. By the end of the hike our feet and legs were aching for relief so we got in the cars and went to Hardy’s for some dinner without shoes. Overall this was a fun trip although I probably would not do this again for a while.

credit to scout Collin for writing this post.

Mountain Biking at Land Between the Lakes

The bucks Patrol of Nashville Troop 3 headed to land between the lakes in Kentucky for a weekend of mountain biking.

We stopped at the golden pond welcome area to get our backcountry camping permits. On the way in we saw these flying agarics which we had to stop and photograph.

We set up camp and headed out on the trail with the goal of riding 25 miles.

We stopped along the way to get a photo of this shelf mushroom, Libor is there to give perspective as to how large it is.

After about six miles we stopped to have lunch of summer sausage sandwiches.

Chippers chewed on his bone during lunch.

We also saw this very interesting fuzzy polypore mushroom.

I took an artistic photo of the sky through the trees for instagram.

We got back to camp around 5, but we were short of our goal, but did manage to do 15 miles, which a couple of the boys need for the biking merit badge.

We made some shepherd’s pie for dinner which looks like it is going to be delicious.

Ghia

last weekend in decided to work on the Karmann Ghia again.

I took a lot of these pictures just to remember how it was.

I’m having trouble getting fuel to the engine from the gas tank so I took the gas tank out.

I found out there’s a lot of gunk in the gas tank from sitting around for about 10 years.

I get the gas tank pretty clean but now I have to line before I put it back in.

hopefully the next time I work on it I will finally get it running.

Mushrooms

Caving

I went to Cumberland Caverns this past weekend with Troop 3. “It don’t get no better than this!” was the mantra our guide Kevin a.k.a Cavin’ would shout when we made it through a particularly tight passage. The yellow box below was a training box full of about 150 feet of crawl space the boys practiced in while we were waiting on our guide.

We started with the walking tour which gave us some of the history of the cave and there was a light show set to music. Then we began the wild tour which involved getting dirty and crawling through tight spaces as you can see below.  We had the cave all to ourselves and slept on the ground. The next morning after breakfast, we started another wild historical tour that had ladders, mud, and plenty of crawling.

       We had a great time and I look forward to going back again sometime.

The fish don’t care of it is raining

I had the best day of trout fishing I have ever had in Tennessee and maybe ever for that matter. Randy was back in town for a few days so we decided to go down to the Caney Fork again on Thursday. He showed me a place I haven’t yet fished down there called Congo bottom, but when we got there the water was still up a little too high to fish that spot, so we went on up to Betty’s Island.

I started with the same set up that I had on Tuesday which was the double fly with a gnat on top and scud on bottom. I got a few hits on this, but Randy was doing much better with a small green streamer. I didn’t have any of those in my fly box, but that is the benefit of going with Randy, he is always happy to share a fly or two.

 Now it was raining, so unfortunately I don’t have photo documentation of all the fish we caught, and this may sound like one of those fish stories, but I caught 21 trout and Randy caught 31 for a total of 52 in one afternoon. We caught a mixture of brown, rainbow and brook trout.  We never really even had to move more that 100 yards from where we started. The rain certainly didn’t stop the fish from biting.

Since I wasn’t able to get photos on the river, I decided to take some of my equipment. Here is the 4 weight reel that I use most the time.

This was a wonderful day fishing!

Caney Fork…again

I went back down to the Caney Fork River yesterday to check out a couple more of the public access areas inRegion 2. They released 1 generator from that dam from 3am to 5 am, so I expected the water at the I-40 rest area to be down when I got there around 8:30. There was a storm going through, so I decided to go get some gas for my car while it passed.

From my experience last Saturday and some research I had done after that I decided that I needed to try fishing with some midges. I also wanted to try a method that I was originally turned onto by my buddy Randy, which is fishing with a multi-fly rig. It worked pretty well, but I did have some issues with backlash. I ended up catching 2 on the dry-fly and 1 on the midge.

After I got done there, I decided to try the Gordonsville access point. It turned out not to be a very good spot for fly fishing, or really shore fishing for that matter. It is pretty much a boat access. I did talk to a couple other fisherman there though. They hadn’t had much luck.

Well tomorrow I will go again if the weather cooperates. Randy is back.

Caney fork river

Yesterday I went fishing on the Caney Fork River and had the chance to explore for myself some of the area, since I didn’t have a guide to take me to the hot spots. It was a little slow going at first, but I got to check out some back roads.

Now I have to look back at what I did to see what I can do differently next time.

Here is a post from fly fishing Tennessee that has some useful information about fly fishing the Caney Fork and other places in TN.

I started at the day fishing at Happy Hollow access point after I got finished driving around on the dirt roads that led me to places it looked like I should have permission to be there. I spoke with another fly-fisherman from Nashville who had spoken with some other folks and said that I should stay toward the shore if I went upstream and pretty much the same down stream. I went down stream a ways before I decided the water was deeper than what  I wanted to wade in. There were very few fish surfacing at this point so I used some streamers to see if that would work. They didn’t. I think I am going to have to visit a fly shop and get some midges. After I had fished upstream a while, I decided this place was too crowded and I wanted to go check another spot.

I headed downstream to Betty’s Island access point. I first started heading downstream and once again found the water deeper than I wanted to wade. So I worked my way upstream still using the streamers. A couple TWRA officers stopped by to check my license and then I continued upstream. I started seeing some fish in the water, but I’m pretty sure because of the way they were schooling, they were shad. I had seen a few fish surfacing at this point so I decided to change to a dry fly and see what that would get me. I tried that for a while and then I decided I had about enough not catching fish so I headed downstream to work my way out. When I started getting close to the put in point, I noticed a couple other fly fisherman were having a little luck. So I observed them and noticed a lot more fish surfacing. I started to have a little luck at this point. I was able to catch about 4 or 5 little brown trout.

So, now I know the Caney Fork River is in Region 2 and Region 3 of the TWRA Boating and Fishing Access Sites. I have 3 other access sites to try next time I go. It is very important to know the generation schedule. You can get an app for your ios or android device to help with this. The nail knot is a good one for connecting tippet to leader. The blood knot is another good one for this.

Well, now I am ready to go to a fly shop and get back out there.

Fly fishing Tennessee

I have been a fly fisherman off and on since I was probably in middle school fishing for bass at the pond below my parents house with a cheap old fly rod and helgramite flies. I woke up this morning with the fishing bug and realized that since I have been in Tennessee, I haven’t actually done the research to figure out how to fish the Elk River and the Caney Fork River because my buddy Randy has always done the legwork for me. Randy however is out of town and I think that I want to go fishing.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, is responsible for releasing water on these two rivers. The Great Falls Reservoir is on the Caney Fork River and you have to understand the release schedule of the dam in order to be able to fish below the dam. However, according to Southeastern Outdoors, the area below the Center Hill dam is the portion that is stocked with brown and rainbow trout by the TWRA each year. Well, I think I have learned and remember enough now to go get out on the water to see the mist rising off the cool water on what promises to be another very hot day, so wish me luck.

Here are the directions to Center Hill dam:

View Larger Map

Fishing in Hawaii

Our Christmas present from Missie’s dad in 2011 was a wonderful trip to Hawai’i to see her family. While we were there, we had the opportunity to go fishing for Blue Marlin. I have always wanted to catch one, you could say it is on my bucket list.

The equipment used for this type of fishing is incredible. As you might imagine to hook a fish over 600 pounds you will need some pretty hefty tackle.

Unfortunately, it is called fishing and not catching, so although we gave it our best, we were unable to land any fish this day. We did however get to see the freighter that was used in the TV show, “Lost”.