Wednesday Jan, 15
In the
morning I drove to a fishing store and asked for a few good tips. The guy’s
first question was “how far are you willing to drive?” my answer surprised him
“indefinitely.” He told me people have some good luck near the Cumberland dam.
I drove over and it was not at all what I expected, this thing was huge. They also
happen to have a fish hatchery right here. So I figured this would be my best
shot at catching something. I went with the fly rod to at least get a little
more practice with it. I geared up and hiked a ways down river until I came to the
intersection of a creek. I fished the mouth of creek, seeing fish strike the
top of the water. No luck so I continued moving up the creek. Soon after, the
trees were so close and that they seemed to be the only thing I could catch. I
gave up on that idea and headed for the main river. Near the base of the dam
the river was about 80 yards across. I tried the fly rod for about 30 more
minutes then switched to spinning rod. I tried 5 different lures with no luck
at all. With fishing being a fail I went into the fish hatchery and desperately
asked what I was doing wrong. The woman behind the counter didn’t know too much
about the fishing situation but I decided to come back and try one more day. So
I bought a license and grabbed some info. From here I drove up to Jamestown,
and bought some worms and corn for bait. The town was very small with not even
a McDonalds and I needed some internet time. I had to drive around to find
phone reception just to look up the nearest one. It was in Columbia, so I drove
through some serious farm land back roads to get there. This turned out to be
quite the drive! I talked to my friend Vince; we were hoping to hang out on the
weekend. But his roommate, the person whose owns the house he’s living at,
wasn’t cool with me staying. Apparently he said something about me scratching
the hardwood floors? So we would try to grab a beer on Friday. I stayed at a
Wal-Mart and cooked up some couscous in the parking lot.
Thursday Jan, 16
I woke up
before the sun rise to get down to the dam early. Here I found the area where
the fish hatchery dumps trout into the river. I was there for hours! I tried
every type on bait I could think of! And I didn’t so much as see a fish. I
stopped for lunch and went at it again, nothing. But this time there was
another person down there. I talked to him for a bit, and he said the key is to
use rooster tails and let them spin just in front of the rapids. Still nothing.
Then an old timer came down and talked with me. He said the trick is a small
piece of worm and sure enough he caught 2 in about 10 minutes. I was pretty disappointed;
I was expecting some big fish here. But even the ones he got were like 8
inches. After seeing that I was done. I went back to the car and made some
food. I started thinking about it and I spent 3 days fishing with nothing at
all to show for it, I couldn’t stick around for one more. Not to mention I
really want to be out west, so I told Vince I would have to take a reign check
on that beer and I drove to Hot Springs AR.
Friday Jan, 17
I drove
around town to get a feel for what’s going on here. Not what I expected, very
much a tourist town. Lots of shops and goofy museums. So I drove to Hot Springs
National Park, pretty much all this turned out to be was an overlook of the
city. I cooked up some eggs for breakfast and drove back down. I parked on the
main strip several blocks away from the visitor center; I wanted to walk a bit
after that long drive. One side of the street was lined with bath houses. Turns
out the visitor center is a bath house that’s no longer in use. My first
question was “are there any natural hot springs?” My thought was that there
would be tons of them all over the place with several hikes going to the different
ones. Turns out, there’s not a single one! The only option is to go to a bath
house, which is not free. So I was done here, I looked some cool places in the
Ozarks and drove north toward it. But I still didn’t believe there was no hot
springs in Hot Springs, so I stopped in the village and asked them. Same
answer, apparently someone uncovered one on their own property but then turned
it into a bath house. From here I drove north through some really cool
mountains with tight switch backs. Lots of fun in the new car and very scenic. I
stopped in a sporting goods store and asked a guy in the fishing section for
some tips in the area, he told me a few and I checked them out. Nothing looked
promising. I didn’t have much to do and I was pretty filthy, it was over a week
sense my last shower. So I was in need of a hot tub, I found a lovely hotel. I
did a solid 45 minute soak and I really think I personally made the hot tub filthy.
There was an older couple in the pool area with their granddaughter. They came
in the tub for a bit and the little kid was so funny. I think she was like 4-6?
They were from the south and the little girl kept calling her grandpa a “bossy
heifer”. I was pretty much dyeing laughing. After getting all cleaned up in the
bathroom, I asked the front desk where a decent bar would be. I had some time
to kill so I watched some Dexter on my computer. At about 10 I drove around to
check out the bars. There didn’t seem to be anything going on. I looked up
another bar that was a little ways away and headed there. This one turned out
to be the winner. They had a live band, which turned out be good. I sipped on 2
beers and called it a night.
Saturday Jan, 18
This
morning the first thing I had planned was a water fall you could drive right up
to. So I started north into the Ozarks. On the way to the falls I passed a
parking lot full of jeeps, I know what their up to! A good part of the drive to
the falls was on a dirt/mud/ice road, But well worth the drive. The landscape
is brown and grey, but the water was crystal blue running through the woods.
Really a beautiful sight in the middle of nowhere. The falls were about a 10
foot drop that leads into a small pool, with about a 30 yard stretch of
boulders leading the runoff from there. Of course I had to try my luck fishing,
which turned out to be none. At least I’m consistent. From here I drove down
the road following the river. There is a camp ground towards the end that works
as a parking lot and trail head for the next falls. So I parked it and talked
to some guys in the camp site next to me, seeing if they knew about the falls. They
weren’t sure if I would have enough time to get there and back so I headed out
right away. I didn’t really see much of a trail so I just followed the river. I
figured the water fall would have to be on the river. Turns out you are
supposed to cross the river and branch off on a fork leading up a different way.
So I hiked several miles along the wrong river, only to look above me and see
the road I drove in on! I walked back along the road in shame. Just to make it
worse the very guys I talked to happen to be leaving the camp. So they stopped
and talked to me, we shared a laugh about it. He said he’s been coming up here
for years and never heard of anybody who hiked that side. On the walk back to
the campsite the whole train of jeeps came rolling by and I had to smile. When
I made it back to the car I hopped in and headed the third falls in the list. I
knew I wouldn’t have time to hike it but at least I could get there and check
it out. This one was in Lost Valley State Park, which is neither lost or a
valley. The parked closes at sun set so I headed to town, made some food, and
watched some Dexter.
Sunday Jan, 19
First
thing in the morning I drove to the State park and started the hike. This takes
you through the woods a ways until you get to a small flowing stream. You walk
up stream through a cave that you can walk through, so I guess that would be a
tunnel? And the stream disappears right on the other side flowing strait out of
the stone, flowing right at you. There are lots of boulder to climb over and its
fun to just follow the stream instead of taking the trail. The stream ends at
Eden Falls, which is flowing out of a cave about 60 feet up. I hiked up to the
cave entrance and marched in. the cave goes back 200 or so yards. Inside the ceiling
tapers down until I had to belly crawl for about 30 yards. Suddenly you come to
a completely open room with another waterfall flowing from the ceiling from 30
feet up. This was a very exciting sight to see, and the most interesting thing I’ve
seen so far on the trip. As you leave the room there is a side tunnel that
walks you most of the way back to where you can fully stand up, then you drop
down from above. When I was leaving the cave, 3 more people were at the entrance
looking in. I would have loved to wait hidden in the room and scare the shit
out of someone. But, I must move on. Once back to the car I decided to start
the long drive to Colorado. I wanted to take a different way than usual so I
drove hwy 412 all the way across Oklahoma. When I’m driving in the middle of nowhere
with no one around I tend to not pay complete attention to the road, I’m
usually on the phone, eating, finding crap in my car, or something else. So I
was eating a yogurt and drifted across the center line. Sure enough I get
pulled over. The cop was looking for drunk drivers and knew right away I was
fine. He asked about all the stuff in the car and I gave him the run down on
the trip. He let me go with a warning and I was off. I made it Boise City, OK
before sleep kicked in.
No comments:
Post a Comment