Housatonic Fly Fishing

Last weekend, May 27th-30th, I hopped a train out from Boston (my Jeep being in need of repair) to meet up with family and begin our annual Memorial Day weekend camping trip. We almost always go fishing, although I’ve only been fly fishing a handful of times. We were headed the the Housatonic river in Cornwall Connecticut, the premier “classic” east coast trout fly fishing river. Last year we headed down to nearly the same area, for an entirely different adventure–backpacking a small section of the AT from Jug End in Mass to RT. 41. This year we opted for some more relaxing car camping.

A little background on fly fishing

I’m still a beginner when it comes to fly fishing, but I felt like this trip I was finally starting to get the hang of things. There’s a lot of know how to fly fishing, from which fly to use in what river at what time of year, to being able to actually cast said fly where you think a fish is. Not to mention untangling your line after a (inevitable) bad cast, or re-tying your line completely waist-deep in the middle of a river.

While that may seem complicated and frustrating, I actually find fly fishing to be very relaxing, and rhythmic. There are two main types of fly fishing, nymphing with a fly below the water, or casting a dry fly on top of the river. We nymphed almost exclusively, since no trout were rising to eat the flys–even at dusk.

Bash Bish Falls

We fished a good amount on Saturday, but I didn’t get my camera out until Sunday when I convinced my family we should go for a hike. While their idea of a hike was a little different than mine, we still had a good time. We drove north to Mass, through New York, to get to Bash Bish Falls.

From the overlook at Bash Bish Falls

I snapped a few quick photos of my family and the falls, we hung out for awhile, and then headed back to camp for more fishing.

My parents enjoying the view

My sister with her SLR

Fly Fishing Take Two

After heading out and gearing up at my Dad’s favorite spot on the river, I decided to stow my camera in my chest pouch and risk losing it in the event I fell into the water. Luckily I didn’t, and we fished the evening away right up until we had to get our headlamps out to find our way back to shore.

You’ll notice there aren’t any photos of actual trout caught during our time on the river. You’ll have to believe me when I say both my sister and I each caught a decent size trout on Saturday, and a few smaller fish on Sunday. Since this section of the Housatonic is catch and release only, it was hard for me to get my camera out in time for any of my sister’s fish, and impossible when I had my own fish on the line in one hand, while unhooking it with the other.

Our only disappointment was that although there was a nice evening hatch (flys surfacing on the river), no trout were rising to eat them. We attributed it to the river still being high from the long winters runoff.

Early Evening on the Housy

New Gear

My Big Agnes Seedhouse SL2 all set up.

Part of this trip that I was excited about was trying out my new purchases–a ultralight 2-man backpacking tent weighing in a 3 lbs 6 oz, and a new 45 degree down sleeping bag, weighing in at 1 lb 3 oz. It was great to get used to these on a comparatively luxurious car camping trip, rather than on the trail.

The interior of my abode, complete with pillow.

I was extremely happy with both. We got caught in a strong thunderstorm Monday morning at 6 am, and since we were camping on trampled dirt, my tent ended up in a sizable puddle–and stayed completely dry inside for the duration of the 4 hour storm! I also think the tent is roomy enough to actually use with two people, although in continuous wet weather I might feel a little cramped. What I was not happy with, was discovering that my sleeping pad had sprung a number of miniscule leaks, leaving it deflated every morning. I attempted to patch it without success. I’ll try again when I’m at home.

Books

Though the storm soaked a lot of our gear, it didn’t stop the book sale my Mom wanted to visit. I was disinterested at first, but scored 3 great outdoors books for only a few dollars. I got National Geographic’s guides to both the National and State parks, as well as a book on rock climbing techniques. Along with a book I grabbed off the family bookshelf–Ray Jarine’s Beyond Backpacking, I should have my reading cut out for me, to get even more psyched about trips this summer and fall. I’ve been engrossed in Jardine’s book, his approach to backpacking and thru-hiking, and I’d like to note he invented the Spring Loaded Camming Device, which was revolutionary.

Extra Photos

Since I risked bringing my camera out with me, I’ll include a few photos I took to give you an idea of the Housatonic.

Waiters, the most stylish outdoors attire.

Waders, the most stylish outdoors attire.

Upriver from where I was fishing

My Dad and Beth downriver from me. Excuse the blurryness.

Monadnock Warm Up Run

Now that it’s just about June, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that ski season is finally over. I even pulled all of my skis out of the Thule box and propped them up in their summer resting place.

All is not lost, however. With the weather getting nicer every day, I can’t help but find myself excited for the summer hiking season, and I certainly won’t miss dragging a million pounds of gear all over New England every weekend.

To get warmed up for the summer I headed out to Mount Monadnock with Abby (who practically just got home from a winter in Vail, CO). Monadnock is certainly not the most challenging mountain but the summit is rocky and bald, with a few decent rock scrambles toward the top. It can be crowded, but its pleasant, and perhaps most enticingly, it allows for a none-too-shabby day hike with time left over to head back to Boston for some R&R.

Here’s a quick look at the loop:

View Monadnock in a larger map

Since it was relatively light hike, I took the opportunity to do some experimentation. The first item I wanted to test out my Merrel Chameleon hiking sneakers. Perhaps the real test was running the Tough Mudder in them, after which I realized that they are probably hearty enough for a decent hike as well. Until recently I really had never entertained the notion of hiking in sneakers since my ankles are in such rough shape, but in the absence of any real disasters on the Tough Mudder course I was inspired to try out some hiking in them. As I suspected all along, as I get fatigued my ankles get more and more floppy, which is when I’d begin to wish I had boots, however I think as a new rule of thumb, any hike less than about 10 miles is probably fine for hiking sneakers, but for longer, harder hikes I think I’ll stick to boots, at least for a while.

The next item on the agenda was the new camera. I figured it was time for a new one when I crushed my last one by rolling over it while sleeping on the floor of Denver International… This time around I wanted to find a camera with superior optical zoom, good image quality, HD video, and a high speed burst mode, all while remaining compact enough to actually bring hiking and skiing. I found all that and more in the Canon Powershot SX230 HS. The Powershot series is just plain great. They’re all full featured, take great photos, are relatively easy to use and are at a pretty reasonable price point. Unfortunately it was overcast and foggy for most of the hike, but I managed to snag a few sample photos here and there.

And on that note, it’s time to finish gearing up for tomorrow’s 17 miler up in Crawford Notch!

Gear List:

Brian’s Adventure Journal!: Deal Daemon

Brian’s Adventure Journal!: Deal Daemon: “Welcome to the Deal Daemon info page. Deal Daemon is an unfinished software project, and this page will contain the current status of the p…”

Spring: the part of the ski season where the weather is more enjoyable.

That’s right, even after hanging out on the beach in California I could not be deterred. As of April 30th there was still plenty of snow on the mountains (if you know where to look) and it wasn’t going to get skied on by itself! This time out, me managed to round up a pretty epic crew: myself, Alex, Rob, Shane, Hannah, Ziehl, and Christine. The plan was ski Tucks (or more accurately, what’s left of it) on Saturday. The weather was shaping up nicely: partly sunny, breezy, and highs in the mid 40s. An excellent day of spring skiing by any measure!

Anticipating crowds, we tried to arrive reasonably early. Even so, we ended up parking down the street from the trail head. All of the overflow parking was in use. I dropped Alex, Ziehl and the gear in the main parking lot and went to park the car. Miraculously (given the thousands shambling around the area), when I got back to the parking lot, Alex and Ziehl had managed to meet up with the rest of the party who had arrived separately. After messing around with our backpacks and skis for a good 20 minutes we were ready to hit the trail.

Tucks, on a late spring day is a sight to see. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s a spectacle. In fact there is no shortage of people who are along just for the ride: to watch hundreds of people rocket down the icy slopes. On one hand, the situation is annoying: you’ve come to do some backcounty skiing and enjoy the pristine White Mountains but find yourself surrounded by hordes of people who may or may not have any idea what they’re doing, and seemingly going out of their way to be right in front of you at all times. On the other hand, it’s pretty cool: the place is transformed into a huge staging area, full of people ready to embark on various expeditions, which likely have gone through several stages of planning and possibly hours of travel, all leading up to this point. You really have to take a glass is half full approach here: it just so happens that loads of like minded people have arrived to enjoy the same awesome place. Who can blame them?

After a couple hours of mixed hiking and skinning, we arrive at Hojos, which serves as a base camp of sorts. Here we get our first good look at the bowl.

Some obvious deterioration, but still plenty of snow!

After a quick breather, we start planning our attack. Word on the street was that Dodge’s Drop, one of steepest, tightest and most technical runs in the area was skiable. The Drop is not really in the bowl proper, it’s to looker’s left of Hillman’s Highway, which in turn is to lookers left of the Bowl. We decided that we’d head for Dodge’s by way of Hillman’s Highway and take a stab at it, while anyone not wishing to tackle the Drop could return via the slightly mellower Hillman’s.

Wait, so much further?
Photo Credit: Ziehl

A long way up!
Photo Credit: Ziehl

Our approach: Hillman’s Highway.

And a long way down…
Photo Credit: Ziehl

Anxious to get to the top, we climb up about as fast as we can, laden with skis, clothes and other equipment.

Just for frame of reference…

Once at the top we re-assemble and start getting into our ski gear – near the top of the run the wind is quite a bit stronger and the temps are probably a good 10 degrees cooler than at the base. From the top of Hillman’s be begin the short walk south-east toward Dodge’s Drop. Up on the ridge, the weather is up to it’s usual tricks. High winds, wand fast moving clouds race up and over the ridge in dramatic fashion.

The usual business…

Shane outrunning the clouds.

We find the Drop without too much trouble, click into our skis and give Rob the honor of first tracks, as it was mostly his route finding that led us here.

Rob, off to an aggressive start…

Unfortunately, shortly after he dropped in, we started to hear him calling back to us. Over the wind, we can just barely make out something along the lines of ‘still pretty firm’, ‘not worth it’ and ‘no fun.’ We hastily get out of our skis and head back to Hillman’s Highway, where we knew the snow to be plenty soft. Rob took one for the team this time…

The staging area.

Ditto…

Hannah declares victory.
Photo Credit: Ziehl

Just about ready for the good part.
Photo Credit: Ziehl

This is where the left entrance to Hillman’s
rejoins the main part of the run.

We take a nice run about two thirds of the way down Hillman’s where we stop for lunch and rest. We find a sunny spot by a rock where we can all sit comfortably and watch other skiers going up an down.

Snacks and beers.
Photo Credit: Ziehl

After another run we pack up our gear and roll out. The snow from the top of Hillman’s, all the way down past Hojo’s until about one mile from the end of the the Sherburne was excellent spring skiing: bumped up but soft and forgiving. We all but ran our way out for the last mile. By this stage of the game I was starting to turn my thoughts toward dinner, which would certainly be more attainable at the bottom of the mountain, out of my ski boots and with the aid of car.

View Hillman’s Highway in a larger map

Gear List (click links for more product info):