Adam's Awesome Anecdotes

I got a chance to go back to one of my favorite campsites this weekend, Sandy Creek Bottom Campground, with my friends that originally got me into camping, Matt and Janice (plus their children).  Jimmy also made it for a few hours, too.  When we arrived early Friday, nearly all the campsites were taken and even most of the spots to pull over and fish on the several mile dirt road that leads into the site were taken, however, we really lucked out and managed to get a site at the very end of one of the campgrounds that was right on the river.  I still can’t hardly believe we were able to snag such a prime spot.  Even if we had our choice of any of the sites there, out site would have still been one of my top picks!  

Our luck didn’t quite hold up with the weather though or the fishing.  It started raining the first night, and even as we packed up this morning, it was still drizzling intermittently.  It really brought back some memories from last time at this site where it rained on us on and off for 4 days straight!  I remember my tent was completely flooded last time.  I got through it with lots of beer.  This time, just a moderate amount of beer and much nicer gear!  :)  Pictures or words can’t begin to describe how much rope we used to hang the two tarps you see in the pic here.  We were pretty proud of ourselves though.  We were able to run the tarps within just a few feet of the fire ring!

Unlike last time where we got more trout than we could eat at one meal, we only caught one trout the entire weekend this time.  Well, a trout and a half.  Janice almost pulled one in on Sydney’s Barbie fishing pole!  Matt was the one to bring in the one fish, but it wasn’t for a lack of either of us trying.  We both stood in the frigid water for several hours both Fri & Sat and chased many a lure out of a tree limb.  Matt claims the problem was also with his Wal-Mart brand worms.  They’re from Canda and he was quite adamant that the fish aren’t accustomed to Canadian worms so they won’t eat them.  Something sure was wrong, because I could see the fish, I just couldn’t find a lure they wanted to bite!  It was OK though, we still made our experimental trout gumbo with our one fish and just added a bit of extra Andouille sausage.  It was the most random concoction I’ve tried in a while, but let me tell you — that shit was delicious!  It never fails to amaze me how much better food tastes at a campsite.

Overall, even despite the lack of fish and persistent rain, the trip was an absolute blast and a much needed getaway after a rough week!  It was good to put my gear through a test while still having the benefit of car camping.  While wearing the new raincoat, I got myself into some crazy thick underbrush trying to walk downstream along the river and basically got myself in a situation where I had to free-fall down a steep hill for a few feet to get back to the trail.  The raincoat didn’t argue one bit.  It took the beating quite nicely, not to mention kept my upper body dry all day (without really being hot at all) while I stood in the creek in the rain!    I’m looking forward to the next camping / fishing trip although this was already starting to push the barrier temperature wise.  If there are more trips it looks like it will be NC / TN for me!