The Real Fall Fishing trip

I don't mind solitude.

I used to crave it and seek it out far too often.

These days, I find it where I least expect it and least enjoy it.

At least, most days.

My fall fishing weekend is not normally a time reserved for solitude.  Instead, it's reserved for enjoyment with at least another fishing buddy, if not a couple of guys.

This year, however, three of them bailed on me.

Which was fine since this was the year I planned to go back to the stream where it all began for me.

Fly fishing is not how I was brought up.  Trout fishing wasn't even on my radar until late high school.

But once I discovered this little valley where little more than a century ago Carolina parakeets were still present, things changed dramatically.

There are pools up there big enough to hide a truck in.  And where there are pools that big, there are fish.

Lots of them and some big enough to warrant the arduous hike in.

I packed my gear for the trip, realizing it was later in the year than I'd ever been up there, which meant shelter, waders, wading boots, uggghhh!  55lbs is just too much for a weekend trip!

But the sky was beautiful, the colors were gorgeous, and I wasn't going to be slowed down by decrepit old knees that threatened to buckle under the extra strain.

Late in October is the perfect time for me to getaway.  It's the 1st part of the 4th quarter at the office, which means the industry in which I'm employed is overwhelmed with work.  All the more reason to get out and down the road as often as possible.  I knew I was going to have a rough day come Monday, but some things are worth it.

So, down the road I went:

Now, this place is not exactly along the beaten path.  I mean, there is a path to it (which is more than I can say about a lot of the places I've fished!), but you have to go through a lot to get there.

including past some places you would just about swear were in the hills of West Virginia . . .

However, there are more than a few really cool parts to being this far away . . .

Proof that I could not be reached!!!!!!!!!!!!


With scenery like this, who wants to be found anyways!

And so off I went into the great outdoors, where halfway down the trail to my campsite I realized that the compact, waterproof camera I brought along to document the hiking, camping, fishing part needed to capture the view along the trail.

There was just one problem . . . the battery was sitting in the charger at the house.


So, no fishin' pics

And no serene, remote valley pics.

And no big pool or big fish pics (there were big fish, btw).

But I will go back in the Spring in search of some wildflowers and exotic plant life.

Here are a few from exploring later in the weekend . . .

I did make one more stop "on the way home" at another section of the same creek, and this time, I at least took a few minutes for some non-fishing pictures.

Non-laboring Labor Day 2009

We went to the mtns on Labor Day.

I normally LABOR on Labor Day - usually around the house getting a plethora of projects either started, only to remain in various states of incompletion for months on end; or complete a few that have been hanging over my head.

Not this year.

This year we played.

First, we went to Table Rock State Park, where I have spent lots of time in the distant past, but not so much in the last 16+ years. Matter of fact, Melinda commented that she & I had never been there together.

Well, we have now.












With the kids.










We hiked the Carrick's Creek Trail, which is really quite astounding for Melinda with her current back issues.






















We had ourselves a picnic lunch and then headed up through the mtns to Brevard, which holds one of the most fun little toy stores in the Southeast . . .








Two stories of sheer childhood bliss.









Etch-a-sketch fun:
























Paddle balls:























Toys from a bygone TV era:
















Army men:















Marbles:























And then there's the slot-car track:































































Of course, I appreciate the real plaster & lath as well as the hardwood floors in the old downtown shops:
































































There are just some fun details on the streets, like giant toy wooden soldiers and the gumball machine:































I even found a pristine tool set just like one my brother had as a kid - one that my kids never saw anything but bits & pieces of and they managed to lose or destroy the remainder of what was passed along. I couldn't believe the price tag on the thing!!!!!!







































We were just about tuckered out, as evidenced by my most energetic boy's exhausted stance:
























But, we still had one more errand to run.

APPLES!


















Hendersonville was a wee bit crowded, due to the Apple Festival, but we skirted that and headed to our favorite apple stand for the season's final haul of Honey Crisp's. Good thing, too, because the sky was ready to loose a storm of epic proportions on us, but we just managed to get turned onto I-26 before it caught up to us: