PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

If you hike to Hanson/Chitwood or Smelling/Julia, you will park at the gate on ... Scotty Road I think it's called. DO NOT park in the turn around where the 8 No Parking signs are. Park on the side of the road just before that. We ran into the local property owner on the hike. He aggressively patrols that turn around. I can hear it now ... oh this, and oh that .... you're in his world out there. If you want to avoid problems, dont park in front of the no parking signs.

Now on to the report.

Today was hike day. As usual, myself and the force of nature. She was really dragging today though, due to taking up riding her bike to work again after an extended break.

In a new and exciting development regarding the force of nature, she's gotten herself a fishing license! That is a huge bonus for me, as now I can get her on the easy methods. Worm on bobber - you see it go down, you jerk on the pole. She refuses to bait the hook, or take a fish off the hook, but now I can cast lures while she tests the effectiveness of bait so overall it's super nice.

So the hike, I thought it would be easy compared to Greider, as it is all on a logging road. At 6 miles each way though, I am screwed up big time. Going down the stairs in the house here, felt like I was being stabbed with a knife. No joke.

The fishing ... well, on the way past Lake Chitwood we did not drop lines in water. We saved that for the way back to the car. The water at Hanson was super murky. Couldn't tell depth. The plan was to try to fish on the bottom to try to catch brook trout ... well, no dice. Wasn't really possible .... did not hook up a single one that I know of. The cutthroat bit really softly, for the most part. But we did get bites on a gold castmaster, a red/yellow/green spinner, the white grub I used at Cottage Lake yesterday, and worms both under a bobber and at the bottom. The only thing that was a complete fail was salmon eggs. We left the lake with the fish in the picture and headed back down the hill to Chitwood.

Upon cleaning, get this - every fish retained was full to the brim with dragonfly nymphs. Like 3-5 each. It's a dragonfly massacre up there!

I can't give this trip an A+ as no brook trout were caught,and the sun didn't come out. But over all it was a totally awesome day - the fish were gorgeous, wind was annoying but not awful, and I didn't get rained on. Going to make Chitwood post now.

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