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Shook Branch to Watauga Dam Overlook

I am a little late with this post as usual.  We actually made this hike two weekends ago.  I guess it is better now that not at all.  We started out at Shook Branch on Watauga Lake with the plan to hike around the end of the lake to the Watauga Dam Overlook.  The hike is about a three-mile hike with most of it following the shoreline of Watauga Lake. 

The participants of this hike were Misty, Jordan, Colton and I. We actually had to tie Colton up and lock him in the trunk to get him out of the house.  Ok, well not really, but I did threaten him with it.  It was a beautiful day to be out hiking, especially with family. 

We had not gone far around the end of the lake when we came upon a very nice camping spot right along the shore of the lake.  We hope to get back there soon to camp overnight and do some fishing.  While at this spot, we decided to pull out our backpacking stove and cook some ramen noodles for lunch.  While we hung out here eating, a couple of friends of Jordan’s came by to do some fishing.  After a short while, we decided we had better head on down the trail.  Jordan had to be at work later in the evening and we knew that if he were to make it we needed to make up some time.

After we had hiked about half the distance of the trail, we made it to the Watauga Lake shelter and decided to veer off trail to it for a few minutes.  Just before reaching the shelter there is a small creek that crosses the trail.  Jordan and Colton had already gone ahead to the shelter while Misty and I were lagging behind just a bit.  In her attempt to cross the creek, Misty slipped on a wet rock and jammed her foot down between two rocks, giving her best attempt at breaking her ankle.  Without a doubt, I give her an “A” for effort, although the ankle was only lightly sprained and not broken.

We rested at the shelter for a few minutes while Misty soothed her sore ankle and pride -- we did have to make fun of her a little after all.  Once we were all ready, we set off down the trail again.  About a mile from the end, we managed to find the geocache that was located on this trail.  Jordan was the one that climbed up the side of the hill to retrieve the cache so he was given the pick of the swag and chose a carabineer with a retractable end on it for his fishing vest.  We also found a track able item in this cache that we took out so that we could move it along to its destination.  After returning the cache to its hidden location, we continued down the trail on our way to Watauga Lake Overlook.

With the overlook in sight, we passed over Watauga Dam.  After all the years of living in this area this was the first time I had ever walked across the top of the dam.  The views from atop the dam were spectacular well worth the easy hike out to see them.

From the dam, we made it up to the lookout with just enough time for us to retrieve our car from the starting point and for Jordan to get to work.  Once again, we created a few memories that we will hold onto for years to come and had a great time do it.

⇒ Click here for an album of pictures from the trip. ⇒ Click here for a slideshow of pictures from the trip.

A trip down Watauga with A & S Outfitters

Well the TVA Recreational Schedule is finally in effect.  Saturday morning we met up with Sean from A & S Outfitters of Elizabethton to take him down in our Kayaks.  It would be his first time down Watauga in a Kayak.  You might say that he was a little excited.  I offered Sean the use of my Flex Vertex 85 Kayak.  So a little before 8:00 AM we were at our normal put in just down from Siam Bridge.  Before getting into our trip too much I do want to mention a little about a particular piece of the equipment that was being used.  I did not get a good picture of it however you can see it on the side of the Vertex in the above picture.

Sean and his wife Angie are owners of a great new fly shop in Elizabethton that also makes custom fly rods.  Sean was using a pretty unique fly rod that I wanted to mention.  It is about a 5 foot rod that you are able to put either a spinning real or fly real on.  As an avid kayak fisher this really intrigues me.  As a matter of fact I am having one built by them as I type this.  Hopefully I will have a nice review of it up within the next few weeks.

So with that said lets get down to the trip.  Sean was the first to land a trout of the day.  It wasn't the biggest trout any of us had ever seen but first is first!  We had stopped in our usual spot at the small island just down from our put in at Siam Bridge.  The trout were jumping all around us so we new we were in a good spot.  Unfortunately Sean's trout was the only fish we caught from that spot.  In fact it was the only trout we caught until we were down past were Stoney Creek joins with Watauga.  This is another of our spots that we normally do well at and Sean and Jordan really started catching them here.  I think Sean finished up with 5 from this spot and Jordan with two.

Our next fairly productive spot was just below the Hunter Bridge.  There was a lot of folks in there but we were able to ditch the Kayaks on the bank and find us a spot.  I am not sure of the total number they caught but Sean and Jordan did pretty well here.  We also took a few minutes to eat a quick lunch.  In this picture here you can see the difference in Sean and Jordan's rod.  Jordan is the one in the distance and is using his 8 foot 5 weight and Sean is in the front with his little 5 foot rod.  I am not sure of the exact weight of it but Jordan nicknamed it the "baseball bat".  Whatever you want to call it though, it caught the most fish on the day.

The rest of our trip down the river was pretty uneventful and we didn't catch but a few more fish.  I didn't take any other pictures either.  I want to thank Sean for coming with us.  He gave up time away from his fly shop on a Saturday morning to do a little fishing with us and I really appreciate that.  I can't say enough about A & S Outfitters.  Sean and Angie are remarkable folks and I am glad to see them in Elizabethton.  I hope the business does well and is here for years to come.

Hiking, Camping and a little Geocaching - Part 2

As promised from Part 1 of this posting, I will let you know what happened to the trackable we fondly came to know as "the little yellow guy".  We set out Saturday, May 19, 2012 for Panhandle Rd on Holston Mountain.  Specifically we were headed for the fire tower access road on top of Holston Mountain.  The group this time around only consisted of Misty (the Wife), Abby and myself.  Brianna and Colton chickened out on going and unfortunately Jordan had to work Saturday night.  And yes to make sure that I point it out so that all 10s and 10s of people that read his blog will notice that Brianna (age 15) and Colton (age 12) were too chicken to make the hike out to the camp site.  Yet Abby (age 5) was a trooper and went with us.


I had hunted this area before with Jordan so I was somewhat familiar with the access road out to the fire tower.  The road was wide and a easy hiking although it does climb in elevation a little towards the end.  Normally this wouldn't be so bad but with Misty and I carrying loaded packs for out camp we were due a short rest by the time we made the close to mile hike out to the tower.  After a short rest we decided to check on one of the caches that are supposed to be near the fire tower.  While looking around for the cache we found this little guy right around where the cache should have been.  Not liking snakes very well I decided to let this cache pass until another day preferably when the weather cools off some and the snakes aren't out.


So we set out down the Holston Mountain trail (and yes there is a trail hidden somewhere in this picture lol) on our way to the Flint Mill trail.  The ground foilage was very dense for most of this trail so I kept a good eye out for more snakes while we hiked on.  The trail was a good hike and as I pointed out to Misty several times, was mostly down hill which meant tomorrows hike back out would be up hill most of the way.  She was not in the least pleased to here such comments from me so I decided to shut up before I found myself sprawled at the bottom of one of those hills.

By the time we made it down to the Flint Mill trail head we had been on the trail for a 2 to 3 hours and all three of us were ready for a break.  Abby was hoping to make our camp right in the middle of where Holston Mountain and Flint Mill trails intersect.  Not out of exhaustion though, she was just excited to be camping.  After a short break we set off up Flint Mill trail.  The trail was ab little over 0.5 miles to Flint Rock and we hadn't gone far when I heard Misty shout something from behind that I never really expected to hear.  As I was walking up the trail I heard her gasp and then shout "HORSE".  Now I know that people do frequent these trails on horseback, but maybe my mind just working a little slow at that moment because I about jumped out of shoes when I spun around to see a guy on a horse approaching us on the trail.

After we all got a good laugh and things calmed down the guy on the horse pulled a rattle snake rattle from his shirt pocket and said that he was a short ways behind us on the trail coming down Holston Mountain and that we had walked right past the snake.  On the return trip the next morning I came across the dead snake and man were we lucky.  It was about a 3 and half to 4 foot long snake and as a big around as a mans arm. I am just glad that something didn't happen when we went past it.

After that little jolt we continued on up towards Flint Rock.  About half way there we found a spot where others had camped so we dropped our packs there and hiked the rest of the way out to the rock.  Once we made it to the rock all we could really say was WOW what a view.  I have seen basically the same view from planes while I flew into Tri-Cities Airport but nothing quite like seeing it from the rock.  I think we could have spent all afternoon there but we still needed to find the cache and get out camp set up.

We started back down the train and found the cache on the way back to our camp site.  It was in great shape and after trading out a little swag for Abby we signed the log book and said our goodbyes to "the little yellow guy".  He was our first trackable and we were excited to send him on his way.

We got back to the site and set up our tent and got started on dinner.  I cooked some small pizzas on my MSR pocket rocket stove.  I am not sure if it was just the fact that we were all so hungry or not but the pizzas were some of the best I had every eaten.  After we ate and cleaned up the dishes we broke out some marshmallows and roasted them over the fire.  Abby was her typical self and ate her fair share of them.  We then straightened things up and did a little laundry before heading to bed.  We slept pretty decent aside from the occasional critter in the camp site that night.  Not sure exactly what they were but I did here several coyotes howling nearby.

We rose the next morning and made our trip out.  All-in-all it was a great experience and one we will remember for some time to come.

Here is the track of our trip one way to Flint Rock.

Flint Rock Hike / Camp

⇒ Click here for an album of pictures from the trip. ⇒ Click here for a slideshow of pictures from the trip.

Hiking, Camping and a little Geocaching - Part 1

I have been a little lazy on my posting so this will encompass events over the last two weekends.  To start off, on Saturday, May 12, 2012, we went on a hike out to a geocache in Dennis Cove.  It was supposed to be about 0.75 miles to the cache in a straight line so probably around 1.25 miles along the trail.  Although my wife and oldest daughter was along with us, Jordan and I decided we would hit Laurel Creek, which runs along side of the trail, for some brookies.

So as we hiked the trail Jordan and I stopped occasionally to try our luck.  Unfortunately however our luck did not go so well.  I did tell Jordan towards the start of the trail that fishing on small native streams like this one was much different than fishing stocked streams and rivers like he is used to fishing.  

Here is one of the holes we stopped at along the trail.  It was a beautiful spot that we all enjoyed.  Notice in the picture that Jordan was in his socks.  I am not sure if he was trying to use some sort of chemical or biological attack on the trout or not.  Maybe he was just trying to totally get "in touch" with the water.  I managed to get one or two to bite on my spinning rod here but never hooked any.  The hole was really a bit too tight for two to fish so I wound up dropping back and letting Jordan have at it.  He never even got a bite out of the hole.  Maybe he needed to get his water shoes out of his pack.

One of the next holes we stopped at was another beautiful spot.  The hole was deep and would have made a great swimming hole.  There was a giant rock roughly the size of a small van that we were able to crawl out onto.  Jordan did manage to get a few strikes out of this hole but again did not hook any.  I didn't fish much here and wound up letting him use my spinning rod some.  We spent a good little bit of time here at this hole just relaxing and watching Jordan get frustrated with not being able to hook any trout.  It's always enjoyable to watch others having trouble fishing.  At least it is for me.

We continued on down the trail and eventually came to several spots where we had to cross the creek.  As you can see from the picture Brianna is giving it a go at crossing this part using the wires stretched across.  She didn't make it far though.  I am still not exactly sure what the purpose of the wires were.  At all three crossings the wires were so far above the water that there was no possible way to wade the water and also use the wires for stability.  Not unless you were about 10 foot tall that is.  I also doubt they are there for a person to cross like Brianna is attempting.  The average hiker here would never be able to make it all the way across like that.  What ever the reason, the wires were there and gave us something to laugh about while at each of the crossings.  

After wading across the three sections of the creek, we managed to find our way to the geocache.  To our surprise we found our first trackable in the cache and liberated him.  Jordan also chose a fishing lure key chain.  I forget what we left in its place.  

The entire trip took about 5 hours and was maybe about 2.5 miles round trip.  We had a great time and saw some beautiful country.  In part two of this write up you get to see what happened to the trackable we got from here.

⇒ Click here for an album of pictures from the trip. ⇒ Click here for a slideshow of pictures from the trip.

Weekend Finds

Jordan and I went out for a couple of hours on Saturday and Sunday to do a little detecting.  We have been trying a new spot that appears to not have been hit as hard as some of the local parks.  Yesterday we had about a dollar in clad along with this nice pendant.  It is a Saint Christopher pendant with Sterling and Hayward on the back.  After doing a little research it appears to be made by the W.E. Hayward Sterling Co.  They have been in business since around 1851 and is supposed to be the oldest jewelry company in America.  This pendant was probably made around the 1950s.  The quarter in the picture is there for a size reference.  We didn't really find anything else Saturday.  Pulling the sterling silver pendant out of the ground made up for the lack of anything else.

We decided to hit the same area today and I am glad we did.  Although we didn't find much clad, the day turned out great.  It was a bit on the chilly side, especially for an idiot like myself that went out in shorts.  I believe the temp was in the mid to upper 40s.  Anyways right off the bat I started digging wheaties.  We managed to pull a total of 5 wheaties on the day.  I also dug a very nice 1919 D Mercury Dime.  The highlight of the day came when I dug a 1940 Walking Liberty Half Dollar.  This is my second Walking Liberty half and forth half dollar I have dug with the E-Trac.

I can't wait to get back to this same spot as there is still a lot of ground that we have not covered.  I am confident that there are still quite a few silvers waiting to be found there!

Metal Detecting Equipment

I will start off my metal detecting posts with a description of the equipment that I use.  My detector is the Minelabs E-Trac.  For those familiar with metal detectors, you will know that this is one of the higher end and more expensive detectors out there.  I bought mine in March 2011 from Detector Depot in Knoxville, Tn.  They are great folks there and have amazing pricing and deals.  As for the detector itself, I couldn't imagine detecting with anything else.  It has found targets that other detectors of folks I was detecting with could not find.  It is hands down worth every penny that I paid for it.  I don't know that I would recommend it to someone who was just getting into metal detecting mainly due to it's price.  For most people the E-Trac costs a good deal and is more than they should be spending on a hobby unless they are 100% certain they will be sticking with it.  That said, for anyone who has been detecting for a while or is certain they are going to stick with it, then I would highly recommend the E-Trac.  In my opinion it can't be beat.

Aside from your detector, one of the most important tools I feel that a person needs is a good probe.  The probe is used to find the target in the ground once the hole has been dug.  It makes things so much easier and faster to have a good probe.  There are many out there to choose from.  I first used a cheap probe that got me by, but was difficult to use.  I then bought the Garret Pro-pointer.  This probe is by far the best stand alone probe on the market.  It has a depth of about two inches, is relatively small, light weight and comes with a great belt holster.  Although it is one of the more expensive stand alone probes out there I would highly recommend this for the person just starting out or someone who has been detecting for years.  I would not waste my money with other stand alone probes.

I keep using the term "stand alone" probe and some might be wondering what exactly I mean by this.  Probes like the Garrett Pro-pointer can be used by itself for anything from metal detecting to looking for small metal objects like screws dropped into the carpet.  I eventually purchased and started using a probe called the Sun Ray X-1 Target Probe.  The X-1 goes in line between your coil of your detector and the detectors electronics.  It actually uses the detector to "probe" the hole you just dug for the target.  What makes this probe so nice is that this allows you to still see the target identification while in the hole.  When using a stand alone probe like the Garrett, you have no way of knowing what the probe is hitting on until it is out of the ground.  With the X-! you can still see exactly what the probe is pointing towards.  Although the X-1 is about twice the price the Garrett I would recommend this probe to anyone that is buying a higher end detector that is compatible with it.

The last two pieces of equipment I use that deserve to be pointed out are my headphones and digger.  The headphones that I use are the Sun Ray Pro Gold.  They are extremely comfortable and very durable.  Although you want to get a good quality set of headphones, I don't think that the brand is that important.  Just find a pair that is comfortable and works for your detector.  The digger that I use is the Lesche Model 85 made by Predator Tools.  I will freely admit that it is kind of pricey for a digger however after using several different gardening diggers bought from Lowes, Wal-Mart and various other big stores, the Lesche digger is worth every penny.  It cuts through the ground so much easier and makes a cleaner plug.

Although there are other pieces of equipment that I use while metal detecting these are the main items.  Hopefully someone will find this helpful and interesting.