Three Generations Camping Trip

I have been trying to get my dad out on a camping trip for a couple years now, and with this past weekend being Father's Day he finally gave in.  Now, it should be known that my dad used to camp on a regular basis back when I was a little tike, but now he rarely takes the time to do something for himself.  So, I was shocked when he told me that he was planning on going along.  Unfortunately, I was concerned when I heard that the campground we intended to stay at had taken a hit from an F1 tornado and 60% of the sites were closed.  A quick call to the campground confirmed that there were some open sites, so away we went. 

Not long after arriving, we had the tent setup and were getting settled in.

Big Agnes King Creek 4 in Fastfly Setup

My dad and son were anxious to watch me fish.  Not expecting much success, we hopped in the stream near the campground.  You can imagine my surprise when I landed this guy on the first cast.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled in this 7" brookie from a spot numerous people swim in daily.  Even greater to my surprise was that we continued working our way upstream and I hooked a brookie in every likely hole I presented my yellow sally fly to.  I ended up landing 4 more that we only about 3" long, and had 3 more get off as I was trying to land them.  Considering that I only fished for 30 minutes, I consider those to be good results.  By this time we were getting into some areas that my son was having difficulty keeping up, so we called it a day.

walking back from our successful excursion

Then we started thinking about dinner, and knew we needed to get some good coals before we could cook.  My dad seems to be amazed by bonfires, so I left him in charge of the fire.

Tending the fire and cooking potatoes & onions

We had to pass some time while waiting for the potatoes to cook and coals to form.  So, nothing says camping quite like badminton and football...

Eventually, it was time to put dinner on the fire.  Tonight's menu is deer steak, potatoes, and onions.

Deer steak, potatoes, and onions

For desert, is there anything more a kid would want than marshmallows?

Excited about roasted marshmallows

Shortly after dinner and desert it was time to turn in for the night.  It was a little warm, even sleeping outside of my bag.  After a restful nights sleep, the next morning brought more activity and games around camp with my son.  We just mainly took our time eating breakfast, breaking camp, and then roasting sausages for lunch.  On the way out, dad asked if I was going to fish anymore, so I stopped at a convenient pullout and geared up.  You can imagine my surprise when once again on my first cast I brought this guy to hand...

Then about 5 minutes later this guy...

Once again, I worked my way upstream fishing every little riffle and run I saw.  I called it quits after about 20 minutes because we really needed to get back home, but managed to land three bows in that time frame.  Once again, this was in a location that regularly has swimmers, waders, and fishermen.  So, I was surprised at how fruitful this small stream was, even after hearing one less than positive comment from somebody in a site nearby.

It was great getting my dad and Trey out camping together on this trip, my dad really enjoyed himself.  Trey is now asking for a fly rod of his own so that he can fish with daddy.  My little buddy is getting big, and I may have myself a little fishing buddy from now on.  I have an upcoming trip to the South Holston planned for this week, assuming my work schedule allows me to go.  However, we are already planning our next family trip, and I am sure it will be a blast.

Family Fishing (A Little Bit of Everything)

Recently my son commented that I hadn't taken him fishing in a while, and unfortunately he was correct.  So, this past Friday we made some time to take a fishing trip.  My son really enjoys fishing, camping, and hunting with daddy, but this was my daughter's first experience fishing.  To make things interesting we went out to the garden and dug around for worms just to give them the entire experience.  We were not having much luck in the worm hunting business, so I brought along some of my other gear in case things got a little slow with the worms.  I personally prefer to use crickets when taking kids fishing as the action seems to be always non-stop when using crickets and it is easier to keep the kids interested.  However, there wasn't anywhere on the way that sold crickets, so worms and plastics it would be.

I elected to take the kids to a little park on a smaller area lake that was relatively close to the main channel knowing that this would be more favorable to larger predatory species instead of the typical backwater areas bluegill inhabit.  It wasn't long before Trey was into his first bluegill.

First bluegill of the trip

Although, a group of carp cruising the area provided lots of distractions and enticement, he managed to stay focused on the task at hand.  Eventually he got tired of using his little rod, and wanted to give daddy's rod a spin.

While he was fishing, daddy decided to try his hand with some topwater action, and in short order landed the first largemouth of the trip.

Wanting to touch the bass

Sissy wanted in on the "shishing", and she did quite well I must say. 

Looks like the question about whether to get her a Lifetime Sportsman License is answered.  By the way, we got Trey one when he turned one, and it is an amazing deal for the youth of TN.

Trey had to reclaim his rod from Sissy, and that freed up daddy to throw the topwater some more.  After landing a couple more largemouths, I get a ferocious strike and was surprised to see this come to the surface.

A Smallmouth Surprise

This bronzeback was an unexpected surprise, and I was quite pleased with it.  Sure would have been a good fight on the fly rod.

As is normally the case though, the temptation to throw rocks and sticks overwhelmed the kids and we called it a day.  However, I feel much more comfortable taking my little buddy on more and longer fishing trips as his attention span and interest is increasing. 

Until next time, tight lines and God bless.

Buzz Showing How It Is Done

First Overnight Backcountry Trip

I have been wanting to do a backcountry trip for a year or, so sometime back around January a buddy and I exchanged emails about doing a backcountry trip. Well, work and weather got in the way, and that trip seemed to fizzle away. Thankfully, things seemed to start looking better and we made plans for this weekend. As the date drew closer, the trip shrunk from a two night trip to just Friday night. However, we wanted to make the most of the day, so we planned to set out from the trailhead around 10AM. This would allow us to fish all afternoon and evening. Surprisingly, the online booking tool showed that Thursday was completely booked up, but Friday only had five occupants including us. So, it was with some anxiety that we began the day on Friday not knowing whether the camp had been inhabited by a party crowd that would leave it trashed, a group of boyscouts, or worse fly fishermen...

A quick stop at Little River Outfitters to get some last minute supplies and Daniel told me about a group that had just stopped in and had some success fishing the day before. Although, I also talked with others who had poor luck and I didn't know what to expect. Additionally, the weather forecast had changed significantly, and the chance of storms had increased.

When we arrived at the trailhead, we saw a large group of guys leaving. We stopped to chat for a while and learned that they were the group from the camp and only one of them in the group had fished the day before with some success. Things were starting to look up.

The mandatory hike in photo:


Hanging out around camp, planning our fishing day.


It wasn't long before we got into the water. I can honestly say there was more fishable water in this area than I have ever seen before. Buzz working the first run as soon as we stepped into the water.


While I was putting my camera away I hear, "this is what we are here for". He had already hooked up and landed a rainbow, not 30 seconds into our fishing day. This got me excited. So I moved on up to the next little stretch, and hooked into this guy on my second cast.


I pulled this little guy from this tiny little side run that probably 90% of the fishermen would pass right over to reach the bigger water.


Five minutes later, I had this guy to hand.


Buzz and I continued to play leap frog up the river hitting every other hole and landing many fish in the process. Almost exactly one hour after landing my rainbow I completed my slam with this guy.


Amazingly, it took one hour and ten minutes to achieve my slam and all within a couple hundred yards of each other. It wasn't long afterward that we began to hear the rumble of thunder, and so we hoofed it back to camp just in case. Thankfully it passed north of us and we ate some dinner and got back on the water. About 7:00 the yellow sallies started coming off heavily, and there was a very large light cahill spinner fall. We fished until we couldn't see where we were walking and called it a day.

Around 1AM it began to rain, and continued to do so until we reached our vehicles at 11AM. As I was driving back to Knoxville, the sun popped out briefly only to quickly be overcome by rain clouds for the rest of the afternoon. All my gear is currently setup in the garage trying to dry out, but it was all worth it.

Buzz caught a lot more fish than I did, and completed a slam himself shortly after I did. Unfortunately, it was quite evident that my lack of fishing last year really hurt my presentation efficiency. However, I would consider this a tremendously successful outing regardless of how poor my presentation was. This was also my first real overnight backcountry trip, and I think I am hooked. Can't wait to do it again!  I got to try out some new camping gear, that I hope to do a video review on and post in the near future.

Camp Pillow Comparison

While trying to develop my camping gear kit, I have learned that some items tend to lose their comfort level after some use.  This is not a good thing for somebody like me who likes to buy lots of gear whether it be camping, fishing, or photography.  One such item I have learned is a camp pillow.  I know some people consider this to be a silly issue because traditionally people did not even consider taking a pillow with them on a camping trip, and especially not on a backpacking trip.  However, recent advancements in materials have allowed for a surge in very compact and compressible pillows.  Four such pillows that I have tested are the Cocoon AirCore Travel Pillow, Therm-a-rest Compressible Pillow, Exped Air Pillow, and Exped ComfortFoam Pillow.  This review will focus on the first of these three as I actually exchanged my Exped ComfortFoam Pillow for the Exped Air Pillow.  So, let's get started:

Cocoon AirCore Travel Pillow

This was the first pillow I purchased while trying to develop my gear kit.  I was lured in by the low price, compact size, and weight.  I used this pillow many nights, and even took it with me on work trips just in case I got stuck in the airport with weather delays. 

Cocoon AirCore Travel Pillow

 

This pillow has two distinct sides to it; 1) a slick nylon and 2) a soft microfiber on the other. 

Soft Microfiber Finish

While this was originally a selling feature of the pillow for me, it ultimately became one of my greatest frustrations with it.  You see, the microfiber feels really nice against your skin, however that means the slick nylon is down against the surface you are laying on.  Did I mention that it was slick?  It would slide all around, and like physics suggests it would end up in the completely opposite place of my head.  Occasionally I would sweet talk the pillow and promise to be nice to it, and it would stay in place well enough for me to get a good nights sleep. 

Cocoon AirCore Travel Pillow Packed

Additionally, the material used for the internal air bladder had zero stretch and actually came across as hard, especially when used on a cool night.  This is not a pillow that one would want to sleep on inflated 100%, for that matter probably not even 75%...  I found that it worked best when inflated to somewhere between 50% and 75%.  This allowed the pillow to form to my head while laying on my back.  Unfortunately, this was not very comfortable when laying on my side.  Finally, the valve has been very moody at best.  On a trip the valve actually failed after a nights sleep, and I could not get the pillow deflated.  It took a good ten minutes of piddling around with the valve before it finally became unstuck and allowed me to deflate it.

Therm-A-Rest Compressible Pillow

I actually purchased this pillow on my way to Great Smoky Mountains National Park with my son for his first father/son camping trip.  While walking around a camping store picking up some last minute supplies he saw this pillow and asked that I get it for him.  He used it that first night and asked to use it in his bed instead of his regular pillow.

Therm-A-Rest Compressible Pillow

Eventually, I got it away from him long enough to try it myself.  I have to say this is a very comfortable pillow, and that is probably because it is the only one of the bunch that begins with an actual pillow pedigree.  This pillow has a very nice feel to it, and stays where you put it (unlike the Cocoon AirCore). 

Therm-A-Rest Compressible Pillow Compressed

There are no valves with the Therm-A-Rest to mess with or foul, but the downside is the extremely large packed size in comparison to the other two pillows.  Depending on an individuals limitations, this could be a huge negative with the Therm-A-Rest. 

Exped Air Pillow

This leads us to the last pillow in this review, the Exped Air Pillow.  Prior to purchasing the Exped Air Pillow, I bought the Exped ComfortFoam Pillow.  The ComfortFoam Pillow was immensely comfortable, but had a significantly large packed size.  Not quite as large as the Therm-A-Rest, but about 2.5 times larger than the Cocoon.  So, I chose to exchange the ComfortFoam Pillow for the Exped Air Pillow.  I have had previous experience with Exped products, and was very pleased with their quality and the flat valves. 

Exped Air Pillow

The Exped has a very unique design in that it has an asymmetrical  shape that forms to the back of your neck for comfort.  This actually makes the pillow extremely comfortable for both back and side sleepers.  I can inflate this pillow to around 80 - 90%  full and it is almost perfect.  The materials and the texture are very comfortable as well, and this helps prevent the pillow from sliding all around during the night.

Exped Air Pillow Shape and Texture

The Exped is by far the most compressible and smallest packed size pillow of the group.  Couple that with the wonderful Exped flat valves and this is a wonderful combination. 

Exped Flat Valve

Although this is an air pillow, it is very comfortable.  I attribute this not only to the shape of the pillow and materials, but also that the pillow feels to have a little stretch to it that allows it to conform to my head. 

Side-by-Side Comparisons:

From L to R: Therm-A-Rest, Cocoon, Exped

From L to R: Therm-A-Rest, Cocoon, (Pepsi Can), Exped

Summary

In conclusion, my choice for a pillow will be the Exped.  It gives me the combination of packability, comfort, and weight that I am looking for in a camp pillow.  I hope you have found this review helpful, and please feel free to leave a comment or question.

Checking in

Hey all,

I just wanted to let those who follow the blog know I am still here.  Unfortunately, last year was a very slow year for fishing, and my total trip count is the lowest I can ever recall.  To pass the time I have been refining my backpacking gear in anticipation of some trips this spring.  The coming year also has us making plans for a Colorado trip with my dad and son, bot seeing the Rockies for the first time ever.  Should make for an unforgettable trip, I can't wait. 

I have also been creating gear review videos for various camping and fishing items.  You can find a list of all these reviews above under "Gear Reviews".

Gear Review: Mountain Hardwear Ampato Jacket

This past week, I took an afternoon and went to GSMNP for a little personal time and to test out some new gear.  One such item was my new Mountain Hardwear Ampato Jacket.  This jacket incorporates MH's DryQ Elite fabric, which is basically GE's eVent fabric.  I am seriously pleased with this jacket, and below is my field review and follow-up review video:

The Kids First Hike

This past Friday the weather forecast was exceptional, for November, so Amy and I planned little family outing to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Our son who is four just loves going to Elkmont to hike, camp, and fish.  Unfortunately, the campground is now closed and the water is too cold for him to really wade in, but the hiking part is still doable.  The biggest dilemma was what to do with the 14 month old baby.  Enter my wife who found a nice Kelty TC 21 toddler carrier on Craigslist.  I quickly checked it out and bought it from the lady, and now we were equipped for our adventure.  As the days passed I had to find a hike that would be both easy to access via vehicle since it technically is still tourist season and the roads can become clogged, but additionally it had to be an easy hike with lots of sights to keep my son entertained.  The plan was that I would carry the baby girl, and my son would do the entire hike on foot instead of being carried.  A year ago he wanted a hiking backpack of his own, and although he uses it multiple times a week he still had not used it on a hike.  It has a 1/2 gallon water bladder and lots of storage, so by the time I loaded it with water, his rain jacket, and a change of pants it probably weighed around 6 pounds.  Not an insignificant amount of weight for a 4-yr old that probably only weighs around 40 lbs soaking wet.  Regardless, he was anxious to start on his hike like a big boy and I was ready to try out the new Kelty pack.

Additionally, I rigged my wife up with my Osprey Stratos 24 pack and it had an additional insulation layer for each of us, a backpacking cookset, safety and first aid gear, and some additional snacks. (estimated weight around 12 lbs)  My son threw on his pack, and I strapped the baby girl to my back and away we went.

Baby Sis enjoying her new ride

The plan was to hike to Walker Sister's Cabin near Metcalf Bottoms, a roundtrip hike of 2.2 miles.  The cabin itself was a one way in spur, that would the apex of the hiking trip.  I thought a good little treat would be for me to fix everybody some hot chocolate once we arrived at the cabin for a peaceful little break.  The scenery was nice, and the weather was splendid making for a beautiful hike.

I was not surprised to see other people on the trail, but I was to find a couple other families with kids on the trail.  That was nice for our son to see other kids hiking with their families, and it added to his entertainment.  It took a while for us to hike the 1.1 miles to the cabin because it was mostly uphill, although a mild gradient, due to my son making multiple stops to investigate multiple sights.

Our Son sporting his backpack and Leki Hand-me-down

Eventually, we did make it to the cabin and the kids enjoyed checking it out and listening to mommy talk about how people lived 100 years ago.

Trey ran into another little boy at the cabin and they shared stories about how they thought life was in the cabin...

Trey and his friend in the cabin

While the kids were playing around the cabin and listening to stories, I was trying to make everybody some hot chocolate to enjoy while relaxing.

Oww Oww, look at that shirt...

Eventually it was time to leave the cabin to try and make it back to the car before it got dark.  Just before leaving though I could not pass up the opportunity to filter some fresh water from the onsite spring for the return hike.  On the hike back our son started complaining that he was getting tired, but he had already walked about 1.5 miles.  We found that if he was talking to mom while walking that he didn't not notice that he was tired, it was not until there was a break in the activity that he began to get tired.  I almost think it was more of a boredom issue that a physically tiring event.  I was quite proud that he managed to do the 2.2 miles on his own, and he is already asking when we can do another one.  Additionally, the Kelty pack performed quite well considering it was a used purchase.  I estimated that the total weight including the baby girl was around 28 lbs, and the shoulder straps, back panel, and hip belt were comfy throughout the hike.  A downside is that it is bulky and heavy when empty, but it was quite sturdy and the baby girl never really complained during the entire hike.

Once we returned to the car, our son wanted to play "School" in the old schoolhouse.  It was a fun day for all of us on this family hike, and I am anxiously awaiting the next adventure...

Instructor Trey

Until next time, God Bless.