Salmon Fishing in Michigan

Oct 8-13, 2008 The drive up was horrific. Somehow we fit 6 guys and all the fishing and camping gear into a vehicle. We didn't leave until 4pm for the 13 hour drive to Cadillac, MI. I finally fell asleep just as we were driving through Cincinnati, OH. Twenty five minutes later they decide to stop for dinner. Waking from a deep sleep, I was totally confused. Taking a good while to remember how to unbuckle a seat belt, I head into the Big Boy to shovel down some pancakes and eggs. Getting back on the road, I couldn't fall asleep for the rest of the trip. Pretty miserable by the point, we show up to my uncle Bruce's Bear Claw Cabin, and I went about setting up my tent. There was no way that I was going to claim the 6th bunk in a tiny room full of snoring and smelly guys. After less than 4 hours of sleep, I hopped in the car to headed to the river. I was expecting it to be pretty cold down at the river in northern Michigan in mid-October. Shortly after showing up and standing in the sun, I was tearing off layers until I was down to my shorts and black thermal underwear top. Of course, I brought a T-shirt with me for the rest of the trip. Every day was upper 70's and beautiful; we couldn't have asked for better weather. One of the nights it got down to the freezing point but my sleeping bag kept me toasty. All the other guys seemed to keep warm all cuddled together in there. The camp food was amazing thanks to Frenchie's bean buritos and deer meat for every meal. So now to the point. If you've never wrestled a 15+lb salmon out of a rushing river, trust me, it's a battle. It was so cool getting one on and see it jumping 4ft clear out of the water as it's taking your line. Everyone out there knew that none of the fish were feeding so we tied yarn to a treble hook just to be legal and then bounce it on the bottom until it snagged one. You'd be lucky to actually get them in the mouth. Oops, I mean... they were all in the mouth. We were pretty consistent bringing in 13 every evening and varying amounts on the morning fish. Overall we brought back 61 fish. We filleted them all ourselves at a park cleaning station that had wonderful piles of maggots below the dumpsters of fish guts. After cleaning the fish we smoked about half of them at camp. The other half will be vacuum packed when we get back. But we're bring back about 300lbs of clean salmon fillets and one whole fish. My dad skinned 5 or 6 to mount this winter. Not like he doesn't already have twenty hanging in the garage. I've saved the best part for the end. So Friday evening we caught a ton of fish and clean them up. Getting back to camp, we couldn't wait to tell the deer hunting Uncle Bruce about all the fish. My cousins had just showed up to hear also. My walk in to camp to find our glory completely stolen by the huge doe hanging from the game pole. After a perfect arrow shot through the shoulder into the vitals, it made only 60yds before dropping. My grandpa was the only one there to help him carry the kill back to camp. That evening we all stayed up late celebrating. After Bruce cut up an onion, I grilled the tenderloins to perfection and all the fisherman at camp lowered their heads in defeat. That was the best tasting piece of deer I've ever had. I couldn't believe that it had been running through the woods two hours earlier. Fish camp was a success, and with deer camp off to an early start, Bear Claw Cabin is seeing a great year. The big deer hunt is the first week of November, so if anyone wants to split gas with me, call ASAP.

Boston

Sept 20-25, 2008 I learned one important fact on the 16 hour drive up to Boston: New Jersey sux! Other than that, the drive was completely uneventful. I guess that's typical when you drive through the night. Leaving Knoxville at 6:30pm put us into Boston at 11:30am. Oh but at 6am after driving for 12 straight hours I was pretty zonked. I pulled over to get gas and this guy starts messing with my car. So I'm freaking out wondering what the heck this guy was doing. Pretty quickly I realize that this was a full service station as were all the rest in New Jersey. Woohoo, my first time at a full service gas station. Getting to the hotel was surprisingly simple considering we were staying at the Langham downtown in the financial district. Having never been to such a nice hotel, I didn't know that you couldn't do anything yourself (just like the gas station before). After leaving the car with the valet, we went inside to check in and get our bags. When we grabbed the cart with our bags we were quickly stopped by the concierge who informed us that they "help with that". So we left the bags and headed up to the room to wait. Half an hour later, our bags arrived and we collapsed on the bed for a much needed nap. My mom came and woke us up after her first day of her medical physics conference was over. We were all pretty hungry so off we walk to the Italian district just a little walk north. We got a table outside with a wonderful view of the fountain filled park with the skyscrapers right behind it. The food was authentic and amazing while being quite reasonably priced. After dinner, we walked the harbor for hours looking at all the boats. I couldn't believe all the beautiful sailboats. There was a sailing school with a whole fleet of Solings and J24's. We all had we pretty worn out and started back to the hotel after the sun set. We relaxed in the hot tub then some tv before bed. Well bed for Mom, air mattresses for me and Melissa. The next morning, Melissa and I met up with Uncle Paul and Aunt Dixie. When Mom got done with her stuff we walked down to the Union Oyster House. They knew right away we were southerners and stuck us up on the top floor all by ourselves. All the seafood was great, but the best part was listening to two of the waitresses' girl talk. I couldn't keep myself from laughing as their lips were moving a million miles an hour changing all the R's into H's. From there we started on the Freedom Trail, first stop for us: Faneuil Hall. So, Boston takes that whole Revolutionary War thing pretty seriously. This place was a controversial open market and served as the town hall. It was here the James Otis proclaimed "taxation without representation is tyranny." Later I got Wayne Cutler's family connection to Benjamin Faneuil and of course, I was blown away by all the history. Anyways, from there we walked to the Old State house and then to the grave sites of what appeared to be aliens. Seriously, the skulls on the tombs had the weird oblong alien shape. That was just beside Boston Commons where we strolled through the park. There was a beautiful pond with swan boats (in the summer) where we fed the ducks. Of course we had to go get a few beahs at Cheehs. Ok fine, beers at Cheers. I spent the whole time attempting to copy everyone's accent. We drove down to the suburbs where Dixie's family had a pahty waiting for us. They were all an absolute blast! It's so much fun getting to know more extended family. So after an amazing meal and plenty of good wine, we were done for the night. The next day, Melissa and I drove back down to Plymouth with Paul and Dixie. I pretended to commandeer the Mayflower, but realized that I would need a breeze the opposite direction to make it out of the harbah. We walked all through the little town and checked out a few antique stores. We drove to a different sister's party where we got some good fantan and 99 going. When it got late, said bye to everyone and headed back to meet Mom at the hotel. The next day, Melissa and I were on our own. We went to the Quincy Market to get some food then caught the subway to the Sam Adams Brewery. We start by tasting the malts and smelling the hops (which smelled exactly like a Boston Lager.) We then moved to the brewery floor. So this spring I had brewed a few batches of beer with Johnathon. The wart that you cook has a very distinctive smell. It was amazing that the Sam Adams brewery smelled exactly like my kitchen! We got to see all those people from the Sam Adams commercials at work picking some hops or mixing some pre-beer mixture. After the tour was over we went into the tasting room. There was four long tables and Melissa and I made our way awkwardly over to the far table where there were three other college kids. To our amazement all the tables were given the same amount of beer. So all the other tables were splitting all the pitchers between twenty people, while only 5 for us. So, we were putting down a lot of beer in a short time. Ah, and we got to try one of their experimentals: Lemmongrass Heffeweisen. So ya, I got a Sam Adams beer that none of yall will ever get! We hopped back on the subway and rode over to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game. We spent hours at Cask and Flaggon, the most awesome sports bar I've ever been to. Mom met us there and I went to go grab some tickets. The game was pretty awesome as it was 4-4 for several innings against the Indians until the Sox took the lead and kept it for the win. We walked most the way back to check out the Prudential building but it was closed. The whole way back I was talking with Melissa about which club we wanted to go to. When we got back, she goes in to change and comes out in pajamas. I almost let it go because I was pretty tired too, but still had to give her heck for it. The next day Mom caught her flight home. We took a hike to the other end of the Freedom Trail to the USS Constitution and Breeds Hill where the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought. There was a tall monument which I ran up. It seemed fitting that the last thing we did before leaving Boston was to get this beautiful view of the whole city. On the walk back we stopped for a short while at the Old North Church and Paul Revere's monument. While we did just about everything to do in Boston, I definitely wish that we had more time to take it all in. I don't know about Melissa, but I am positive that this was one of the best trips of my life.

Summer 2008: Road Biking

Unfortunately, Knoxville kind of sucks for good road biking. Fortunately, I've found some of the best around and have really enjoyed it. It's amazing different than mountain biking which I've been doing for years. Instead of reflexes and jerky sprints, road biking is all about smooth power and endurance. Almost all of the rides have been short 20-30 milers in the evenings. My usual ride is down Martin Mill and Nubert Springs in South Knoxville. It has great variety of hills and flats with its beautiful East Tennessee scenery. Next is heading down to Loudon from Concord heading through Lenoir City. My new favorite area is up around House Mtn just northeast of Knoxville. There's plenty of miles up there that are great for an evening of pedaling. After my backpacking, I know my cardiac ability has definitely increased and I can't wait to get back into doing some long distance biking. Hopefully I'll get a few Centuries under my belt and feel like I've really accomplished something. I'm still working on the cross-country trip and will let you know more whenever I know anything.

Summer 2008: Mountain Biking

There would be a ton more people out mountain biking if only they knew how much of an addrenaline rush it is once you get into some of the hardcore stuff. Heading as fast as you can dodging trees and boulders just to the point you hit a jump for a moment of airborn, realizing that your breaks don't work while you're in the air. The best part is I've gotten pretty good at it. I can't even remember the last time I crashed. Haw Ridge is still my favorite ride and probably always will be. I've been out there so many times and I still don't think I've ridden every trail. That place seems to get more and more technical with all the erosion. There's one point right off the bat with 12 inches between a tree and the bank down to the water. And of course the Hill of Truth snaking to the top of the ridge under the powerlines will always be on the top of my epics. The next place that I've been getting into is the loop at Racoon Mtn. This is an amazing ride that is just begging to be pounded all the way through. It's about the perfect difficulty for me too. The easy sections I push myself as hard as I can trying to find that edge where I just lose control. The technical sections, I practice hitting the best line or even testing my balance trying a harder one. Another ride that has to be mentioned is IC King park. This place is such a short drive away that it's perfect for getting out for the evening. Mountain biking is all about balance and controling your center of gravity. Ya a little strength and endurance always helps, but most obstacles can be hit much easier with finesse. I ride a 2000 Gary Fisher Tassajara that is absolutely falling apart. At lease every other ride I'm having to replace one part or another. Not too many bikes can take a beating for 8 years and live to tell about it. I haven't been able to break down and buy a new bike because I doubt I'll be using it all that much once medical school starts. I'm definitely ready to travel further and try some other great trails. First Pisgah forest then hopefully Arkansas and Colorado.

Little River trail

June 22, 2008
With nothing better to do, James and I took off to the Smokies. With missing a random turn in Weir's valley and the usual delays of Pigeon Forge, we didn't hit the trail until 6pm. Fortunately, the trail was an old flat road so there was no problem making 6 miles before dark. The white rhodadendrin bloom was absolutely beautiful lining the river. We set up the tent in one of the grass line patches and organized the rest of the gear. After an exhilarating dip to wash off, the fireflies synchronously performed for our turkey tetrazini soup dinner. After a confusing bridge lesson, the moon rose to send us to bed.
The next morning we took our time exploring all the abandoned houses of Cosby. It was definitely weird seeing so many homes so closly packed in all falling apart. Sometime I'll look up to see what the story with all that is. In all, we found another wonderful trail in the Smokies that would be perfect for beginner hikers and backpackers.