Kayak Trip - Lake Chatuge (Jun 11)

We met six friends and launched at Jackrabbit NRA for about a four mile trip on the lake. It was warm, but cloud cover kept it bearable. Afterwards, we stopped at Chevelle's Restaurant for an excellent. Because we were a group, they brought us a huge plate of desserts.


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Paddling/fishing Lake Chatuge (Jun 9)

We got up early this morning and after Joan got her haircut, we took the kayaks and launched them at Jackrabbit Rec. Area. John had the hot hand today with three very nice bream. Joan had to settle for a small rock bass and bream. We plan on having them for dinner soon. We caught all the fish on a small foam hopper that John ties. It is big enough that the smaller bream usually cannot get hooked.


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Hiking Dicks Creek Gap (Jun 8)

We joined the Mountain High Hikers for a nice 3.2 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail where it crosses Hwy 76 west of Clayton, Ga. There were 28 of us on the hike which had a few fairly substantial climbs.


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Senior Rodeo at the fish hatchery (June 4)

Today we helped represent TU at the Chattahoochee National Fish Hatchery. This was the annual Senior Rodeo when the throw hundreds of trout into Rock Creek for those over 55 to catch. We helped serving lunch for everyone after they fished. Folks stood nearly shoulder to shoulder to try to catch some trout. Everyone seemed to have a good time.




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Fires Creek (June 3)

Today we went to Fires Creek Recreation Area in the Nantahala National Forest in NC to fish there. We started in the picnic area and hiked about a mile on the trail up the creek. John caught two trout, one small one on a parachute Adams and a larger one on a yellow grub. We returned to the picnic area and had lunch, and since the tubers left, we decided to fish around the picnic area. Joan caught two nice trout on a black ant. It was warm, so we wet waded, which worked well.


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Standing Indian NRA (May 24 - 27)

We took the motorhome for this trip, which is about 39 miles from Trackrock. It is west of Franklin, NC and has an elevation of about 3500 ft. The headwaters of the Nantahala River pass thru the campground. It is a beautiful river that gets a lot of fishing pressure, but is not stocked. It has mostly wild rainbows, but also some wild browns. Armed with some tips from the locals, we fished downstream from the campground with flys that would get down into the water column. Joan, however, caught the only fish, two nice rainbows, although we both lost a few. Given the type of fishery, we still consider it a successful outing. The motorhome behaved wonderfully, and the weather mostly cooperated, with only a few storms. There was a bear that came into the campground at night and campers who left food out found it gone in the morning. One group left a few days early and misses out on their holiday weekend. We were not bothered. This was our first time in our new rig dry camping (no elec. or water hookups), so we had some things to learn about keeping the batteries charged with the generator. Joan successfully drove the motorhome back down the mountain. We had a great time.


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Hike with Mountain High Hikers (May 11)

Today we hiked 6.4 miles, mostly along the Appalachian Trail, from Woody Gap, off hwy 60, to Dockery Lake. It was mostly foggy with a few periods of light rain, but a beautiful hike none the less. This was our first hike with the group, but felt very welcomed and comfortable with the pace. Their website is: http://www.mountainhighhikers.org/

View Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/HikeWithMountainHighHikersMay11#