Solo Camping Trip

I was able to slip away this week and spend a couple of days on one of my favorite streams. I did not backpack due to a nagging injury that I am trying to let completely heal before I head to Montana next month, but hey, car camping is better than not camping at all!

I am always bothered by the amount of garbage left by others when I camp at a dispersed camping area. This trip was no different, I spent the first few minutes cleaning up the site. It is a shame that people trash our gorgeous public lands the way that they do.

I kept my gear simple on this trip. I used a poly tarp as a fly over the table and the tried and true Dutchware hammock and Warbonnet Superfly tarp.

I did have one catastrophic failure on this trip. My wading boot sole came loose. I can't complain too loud, I paid very little for these boots and they have more than a year of hard use. I will need to buy another pair before leaving for Montana and I do hate breaking in new boots.

Fishing was good on this trip, in fits and starts. There was a lot of thunderstorm activity which made the fish slow down significantly when one of these storms would roll in.  On the other hand, when they were feeding the fishing was very good. I fished the delayed harvest section of the stream and was pleased to catch a decent mixture of wild and stocked fish. I kept 4 of the stockers for the pan. I will say again that the state has done an outstanding job of improving the quality, both appearance, and taste, of the stocked trout.

Overall a wonderful trip. It was fantastic to see the abundance of wildflowers and butterflies. In eastern North Carolina it is rare to see butterflies. I suspect this is due to the use of pesticides in commercial farming. Obviously, they do not suffer from this in the western end of the state.

Thanks for looking and as always I look forward to your input. Feel free to hit me up in the comments. Chris