I found myself reluctantly going warm water fishing today. The smallmouth bass should be in prespawn mode, but the lake is not 55 degrees in the central basin.
I went to Elk Creek and fished close to the mouth. The water
was in the high 40’s to maybe 50 degrees maybe.
Again, all we can do is try, but it stings a little more
when fuel is 5.00 a gallon!
I headed out to comb the beaches in search of pre-spawn smallmouth bass.
When I left the house the air temperature was 60 degrees and
by the time I got to Presque Isle State Park it was 45 degrees.
Needless to say, this did not help my cause. Lol I knew fishing
would be tough and it would be compounded by the NNE winds.
I did not get to the first bay on the Isle until 1030 on purpose.
The one reason was the weather. I
needed the rain to pass through because no one enjoys fishing in the rain when
the temps are in the 40’s lol.
I would only use
the eggbeater here and I had hopes to fish Elk Creek in the late afternoon, but
those hopes were crushed by the storm.
They had some type
of fishy tourney for Yakers this day and even knowing the weather was dismal
they were out in good numbers.
I did see some guys
doing well with a Carolina rig and 3” creek chubs. They caught some nice walleyes and really
decent smallmouth. Not my fave style of fishing, but they where putting on a
clinic.
I did get a hit though
on my soft paddle tail swim bait, but that would be all I would get all
day. I was satisfied with that, at least
it was something.
I hiked about 4
miles of shoreline. I was nice to see the different waterfowl. This area is a huge
migratory birding area.
I will be attempting to find fish in Pennsylvania on Saturday and on Sunday I will attempt to fish Ohio.
I am really wrestling not hiking but I need to feel the rushing waters on my skin.
I know when I go fly fishing or use my eggbeater somewhere it is to relax. I may walk countless miles and lose countless flies or lures. I know that the reel reason I am even out there is to unwind from life.
Saturday I shall drive out to Presque Isle State Park in Pennsylvania. Smallmouth Bass should be starting to arrive in catchable numbers along her shores.
The wind will be out of NNE and only 12 knots. I will spend the better part of the day there before going to Elk Creek.
At Elk Creek in the lower mile of the creek, she should start to see smallies moving in to get into their prespawn feeding frenzy.
I have not targeted smallies in Elk in maybe 15 years and I am sure they are still in there. We will see how it all plays out.
I will also be paying a visit to the west break wall in Conneaut.
The last time I was up there on the inside of the west wall I saw a huge sand bar that nearly reached the break wall and it has always been shallow there.
Now access to the break wall may even be easier, but we will see on Saturday.
Here are a few of the hikes I will be going on
...I am afraid the rivers are still too high and looks likew more rain on friday!!!!
Spring has slowly sprung the wetlands are wet and the frogs have begun thier song in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park!
I will be taking a few time lapse videos and others. I will hopefully be able to see some interesting birds.
I decided today to head over to Cook Forest in the great
state of Pennsylvania.
My first stop was Fire tower Number 9 to catch the sunrise.
This did not disappoint and I will post the video below. The road to the tower
was closed and I believe it was a seasonal closure.
To the fire tower and back was 3.3 miles and extremely
doable in the dark and of course I had my headlamp on.
The wind was howling and I needed to make my set up as low
as possible. The fire tower is shaking a bit, but it was totally safe. The fire
tower would not be safe, I don’t think for small children because of safety
concerns.
After I was done, I drove to the trail head where I had
planned my route to start. After getting
all my gear out and ready I realized I forgot to bring my micro spikes.
There was ice everywhere and you could tell the melting ice
had just refrozen overnight!
For this route I combined a few different hiking trails from
the Cook Forest area. I initially got the data from Alltrails and import it
into Garmin Basecamp for editing.
I combined parts of Seneca Trail, Forest Cathedral Trail,
Mohawk Trail, River Run Trail, and The North Country Trail. This initially was
to be a 15.5-mile hike with an elevation deviation of about 7000 feet. I fell
way short of that as I will explain later.
The trails are very well marked throughout the hike for the
most part. The only true navigating issue I had is the amount of wildlife
trails that in some areas can be very confusing. So, just remember to look at
the painting markings ahead of where you are going so you can identify more
quickly where you need to be going to stay on the trail.
The Cathedral Area was amazing and will make you feel
humbled by the shear size of the trees. There was a storm that wiped out many
of these magnificent trees in 1956. Here are some links to share more
information about the area.
The reason I came here was to experience a lot of ascent and
descent in a hike. In the first nearly three miles I experienced just that.
As an example at mile 0.37 my ascent was 211 feet, mile 0.29 ascended 157 feet, mile 1.85 ascended 423 feet, and the last large ascent was 479 feet at mile 6.82.
Because of the time I got to the trailhead and due to
weather conditions I chose not to do the entire loop that I had laid out. I will be back later this spring or early
summer to hike in this area again.
The descent into the river valley would be 704 feet in 0.68
miles according to my Garmin 64sx. The descent into the river valley is nearly
a straight shot down so be ready for that.
While in the Clarion River valley I noticed a few things
about the river. This time of year, the river was low. I don’t know if it’s
normally a shallow running river in this section, but I could see rocks almost
out to the middle of the river. The river was at least in this section an easy
and slow flowing section.
I turned northeasterly to begin my trek out of the river
valley. The ascent would be 487 feet in 1.04 miles again according to my
Garming 64sx. The ascent thanks goodness had some switch backs on it to break
up the monotony.
I saw a few people working their way down into the river
valley. I was still really surprised at the lack of people overall throughout
the hike.
There are plenty of places to rest along the trail if a
person needs to take a break.
There are lots of mossy rocks and wood throughout the duration
of the hike. In the spring the flowering
would most likely be nice.
I like early spring the leaves have not begun to pop and you
do get better views in my humble opinion.
The places where you could get water from were far and few
between on the southwesterly side of the Fire Tower Road.
I still have some more content to edit, but I hope you have
enjoyed the read.
Be well,
Sonder
Well, it has been a cold snowy winter. I have decided to
hike up Mount Washington in 2027-2028. Before that even gets here, I need to
prepare. I know you are most likely saying buddy you got time lol.
While you right I have time, but also life gets in the way
and things come up that can prevent a person from reaching their goal. I want to give myself a generous window of
time to prepare.
This route has an estimated elevation deviation of 7000
feet. While I have already done a 17 miler
with a deviation of 6300 feet that was almost at the end of summer last after
hiking for months.
Today I will be testing myself to see how my stamina and
endurance have waned over winter.
I will pay close attention to my pace and see how it goes
mile by mile today.
We love doing what we love doing. It’s a passion that many don’t
understand. Like going to bed at 2000 to wake up at midnight and after making
breakfast to watch a sunrise on a fire tower that’s 3.5 hours away.
Those experiences for the people who know it is amazing and
for others they say I would never.
After making a pot of fresh ground bean coffee and having
breakfast I headed out to the Hocking Hills State Park area.
I had read other reviews about the fire tower and how unsuitable it is for some people. Yes, the stairs have no risers. The small platforms at each landing do have some chain link fences on them. You cannot enter the structure, but you still can see an amazing view. I will attach the timelapse below of the sunrise.
I would also be chasing a few waterfalls today. I would be staring
at the hike a little earlier than normal for myself and that’s only because I was
trying to stay ahead of the number of potential hikers today.
As I hiked up into the gorge of the Twin Sisters Falls you
could see the erosion damage from the storms from last year. A good amount of
soil erosion had taken place, and it exposed new rock formations. This also has
exposed quite a bit of tree roots and they have also fallen.
Some of the newer smaller waterfalls you could see them
because of the ice dams that they left behind.
I was only going to do a short hike because of the amount of
time I was going to spend driving there and back. I would still get in a miler
with an elevation deviation of over 3000 feet throughout the hike.
I changed my GoPro settings to shoot in 9x16 format because
it was more important to see the high walls of the gorges.
I hope you enjoy the artwork.
The passion we have for what brings us joy is strong. Hmm I might have gone to bed a 2000 and got up at 0000. I am going to drive down to the Hocking Hills area to capture a time lapse of the sunrise and then go on a hike.
I will also be chasing a few waterfalls while I am down there!
Here southerly from the shore of Lake Erie we are not blessed with mountains. Here there are glaciated valleys and hills.
They have their own beauty, and they are what has made northeast
Ohio. A hiker who is looking for a lot of elevation deviation in their hike
will need to learn through trail and error what trails or trails offer them the
challenge they are looking for.
On Sunday I had chosen a trail that was 11.2 miles out and back,
but the elevation deviation was roughly 1700 feet ascending and descending.
Today’s trail started out in the Cuyahoga Valley National
Park Headquarters parking lot.
I brought along my normal gear, but also packed my micro
spikes by Kahtoola Web Link
After the first flight of sandstone stairs and feeling the
ice under my boots I knew I needed to strap those MICRO spikes on.
One still needs to use caution while wearing them. You need
to lift your feet higher and look where you step. I did not have my GoPro at a
great angle for this and ended up with more of the trail in the videos and not
the landscape.
The great thaw was not an issue this morning when I started,
but buddy did that change on my return leg of the hike. Everything was getting
sloppy and water was starting to run in the ditches and creeks.
What water did see going into the woods was clear, but
coming out it was turning into chocolate milk.
I also noticed in this area particularly that they coyote
like using the trail as a bathroom and It’s better than dog crap!!
I also saw a very interesting piece of 1800’s history out in front of the Summit County Engineers office out post (see photos below).
I also saw a huge wolf dog and I did not try and pet him, but
he nosed my hand.
It was not because I was afraid of him, it was just out of respect for him and his owners.
The parking lot was to full to do the 14 mile route!!
Paine Creek is a tributary of the Grand River in Northeast
Ohio. I have been hiking Paine creek a lot over the last few years.
The shale gorge of Paine Creek is in some locations have
shale walls that are over 100 feet high.
The other thing about Paine Creek is it has a lot of tertiary
streams flowing into it. Now, some of them are so small you can kick a rock across
them.
Several sections of Paine Creek are accessible via the Lake
County Park system.
Today’s hike will be a shorter hike than I normally do, but
all the vertical deviation I will be doing will make up for it.
Today’s temperatures are going to be below freezing. The
first part of this hike I have done dozens of times, but when it comes to
hiking around ice and water, I always approach it like I have never been there.
I will be wearing my waders and changing into my regular hiking
clothes for the overland part of the hike.
One of Paine Creeks features is that it has mostly a shall
bottom. While this is generally very slick thew majority of it is shallow. The average
depth is 18” and yes it has some deep holes that you can swim in. I will be
steering clear of those today.
My main priority is doing some hike recon for what I am
going to call Triple Falls Creek. This
little ditch has high gorge walls that are over 100 feet high. I will attach a video that illustrates what I
am trying to convey.
I don’t know if I can actually climb the two other falls and
to be honest just getting past the first falls might be a challenge also.
I might have to return several times throughout this year
and build some ladders to get up the falls. This trip is more about intel
gathering than anything else really.
Have a great Sunday folks,
Sonder
I selected the MSI Aegis RS2 AI C2NVR9-1294US Gaming PCIntel Core Ultra 9 285K 3.2GHz Processor; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB GDDR7; 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM gaming computer to edit the content I create.
I
also slapped 64 GB Ram into the PC. Right now it runs smoothly and I hope it continues
to do so. I also added another 27” monitor.
I
also needed to send my GOPro13 back for a warranty exchange. I will be back at
it in two weeks.
Stay
safe folks and be well.
Sonder
I hope you enjoyed the artwork. I will be getting a new PC and for the next few days I will be sorting that out. I also needed to return my GoPro13 back for a replacement. The content will be limited for a few weeks. Hang in there folks and stay safe.
I chose to wake up and drive over to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The overnight low was going to be 18 degrees.
I knew that only the silliest of hikers would be out this
morning. I saw four woman that must have started when the sun came up lol. They
were in their 70’s you go girls!!!
One of the hardest things I think of while hiking below
freezing temps is how do I dress?
I carry a pack so I can always take layers off, but if you
leave it in the car, you can never have it. So, with that said you need to
think of what your pace is going to be and will the heat transfer adequately enough
so that your skin stays relatively dry enough.
If the sweat stays on your skin because of the clothing you’re
wearing will not allow the sweat to transfer though your layers you will be
miserable and cold!!!
I had chosen a nearly 12-mile hike. I had to create this
trail loop because it’s a combination of three trails. The two trails are The Wetmore Bridal, Lake
and Salt Run, and part of the Cross Country Trail.
I saw several deer foraging in the woods for food. I did see
all kinds of small birds. It was supposed to get to 25 degrees, and I can
attest that did not happen ..lol….
