Aug 8 2013

Day 8 – Fly fishing on the Shenandoah River

Hi there, today was an awesome day. It was one of the events I was most looking forward too, a guided fly fishing trip on the Shenandoah River. We woke up around 630 and prepared to meet our guide, Kevin of South River Fly Shop, at the Elkton McDonalds. After a quick breakfast, we were on the road to the launch. After launching and setting up the boat, Kevin gave us some lessons on fly fishing. I was initially a bit intimidated of fly fishing, the sport is unfairly stereotyped. Casting, catching, and retrieving a fish can be difficult, or I first thought. Kevin’s instructions help put me at ease and I was actually casting a fly in no time. Our rig for the day was a 14 ft modular raft boat. It was pretty cool and held up to both the deep and shallow water of the river.

Below is a picture of some of the flys we used. It seemed today (overcast) the fish wanted top water poppers..

Right off of the first bend, we were on to fish. We caught a half dozen or so blue gill. Bream on the fly rod fight pretty hard! Here’s a picture of Aimee with her first fish of the day…

The float took place over about 3.5 river miles. We actually passed through some Class 2 rapids, this made for a fun ride down river..

There were points in the river where shallow rock allowed for wading. The water was cool but nothing like the waterfall in Stone Mountain, I’m still shaking from that plunge!

It was overcast in the morning, but the sun came out as the day progressed and allowed for great sight fishing for small mouth bass and bluegill. Sight fishing was a blast, I could have stayed out there all day! The fishing patterns here are different than anything I’ve fished before, the fish hang out in the slower parts of the river in the rock crevices. From there, the current forms a “bait” conveyer belt and the fish just have to sit and wait..

The views on the river were awesome. There were a bunch of rock cliffs and wooded areas, we even saw a deer crossing the river…

All in all, the day was better than I expected. We ended up with about a dozen blue gill and dozen small mouth bass. Aimee took the crown for the largest fish (13″ small mouth) for the day and she earned it. For some reason she usually finishes with the biggest fish, this isn’t the first trip where she beats me. That’s why I enjoy fishing with her, she’s good luck! At the end of the day, you couldn’t have payed me a million dollars to remove the smile off of my face. Until tomorrow…

Aug 8 2013

Day 7 – On the road to Shenandoah National Park, VA

We left Stone Mountain State Park around 10am and hit the road. First stop, Virginia Welcome Center. The lady that helped us there was very nice and knowledgable. She recommended we travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few miles, Fancy Gap Exit to Roanoke, for a very scenic drive and to look at the Mabry Mill which is the most photographed area in Virginia. Then, she suggested, we switch over to the interstate, Roanoke to Harrisonburg, to make up some time lost on the slow pace, zig-zaggy roads. We completed our drive traveling on Skyline Drive, which is basically just like the Parkway with breathtaking views and lookout to stop and take pictures.

Jacob must have really liked this stop, he took so many pictures!

We had to make a pit stop at Gander Mountain to buy 2 out of state fishing licenses.

On the road again to Big Meadows Campground!

Smokey Mountains!

There’s deer everywhere here and they are not scared of people. We drove up to them eating while people were walking 20 ft. away from them.

This day of drive took much longer than planned but the scenery made it worth it. Homemade pasta and meatballs for dinner tonight.

Aug 6 2013

Day 6 – Waterfalls, Wine, and BBQ

Our hike yesterday was more exhausting than we thought. It was difficult to get out of bed this morning however the prospect of seeing a beautiful waterfall got me up and at’em. We had researched to hiking trails at home ahead of time and read a few post about an enormous amount of stairs going down to the falls, so after the previous day of hiking we weren’t looking forward to more burning thighs. After seeing this waterfall, it was totally worth it!
The beginning of the trail.
A random fireplace, house seems to be missing.
Oh Lawd!
Are they trying to scare us?
The view from the top. I can see why people have died, this looks like a wicked cool water slide! Who wouldn’t want to chance death and slide down that thing?
There isn’t a large pool of water at the base here so I can imagine if you were crazy enough to slide down the impact at the bottom would be most unpleasant. I do not recommend doing that at all! OUCH!
I tried to get a good shot of bottom of the pool of water at the base. The sand here is covered with a metallic layer of ultra fine silvery mica. The rocks, roots, and trunks of trees were all covered in glitter. It was magical!
Those infamous stairs, we couldn’t leave without a shot of those.
On to the next waterfall. This one has two pools big enough for swimming and the surface is smooth enough to slide, safely, down into the pool.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way! The trees have grown around the boulders.
That’s Jacob, it was too cold for this girl to get in! I’m a weenie.
There is a video of him sliding down the lower part of this water fall but we can not add a video to the blog. We had a picnic lunch and headed back to the camper for a little nap. Then it was on to the vineyard.

Tobacco farms are everywhere in these parts. It makes a very pretty plant.

Entry gate to Shelton Vineyards.

Main building containing gift shop, tasting rooms, cellar, distillery, and processing machinery.

After the tour, we sampled everything they had to offer. Of course we bought some wine and got a good recommendation for a BBQ joint and headed there for dinner.