A Shenandoah Story (Long)

[Troy]

Hi All,
As you may remember, I headed to SNP this past weekend with my girlfriend. I was a little weary about going due to the "unseasonable weather" approaching. Well, the trip was already planned so there wasn't any turning back.
We arrived at SNP on Thursday at 2:00 pm. We headed to Big Meadows Campground. We went to pay for our campsite and the ranger gave us a warning. She said "Are you sure you want to pay at once for all three nights of camping?" "We are going to have some unseasonable weather the next couple days." "There also is a chance of snow for Friday." "You might want to pay night by night." Well, I have been camping in cold weather before so I didn't think anyhting of it. I also seen that we might get snow showers. I was not worried. I said, "we are tough, we want to pay for all three nights". We then left to go to our campsite and set up.
We set up camp and started drinking some beer. Boy, those beers were cold. We ate and then started a fire. Night came quickly and so did the coldness. It was cold!!! I really wanted to hangout and enjoy the peacefulness of the mountains, but the cold wouldn't allow that. We made it till about 10:00 pm. I checked my thermometer in the truck and it said 22 degrees. We then went to sleep. It wasn't really sleep, I was up every hour or so making sure I was in the sleeping bag. I was really ready for the morning to come.
The morning came and we got out of the tent. It was 7 am and the coldness didn't leave. I checked the thermometer and it was now 18 degrees. I didn't care, it was time to fish. We first went to the wayside to eat some breakfast and drink some coffee. We decided to head to White Oak Canyon to fish. We arrived at the parking lot around 10 am. I was surprised to see so many cars there already. I was hoping they weren't fishing.
We hiked down the trail a mile or so and seen some fisherman. I was kind of bummed because I know these little streams are spooked quickly after fisherman have gone through. I told my girlfriend that we would walk down a couple more miles. We got to the highest waterfall of the creek and started to fish. My girlfriend got a birdsnest with her spinning rod right off the bat. I was fishing using a prince nymph and a hare's hear tandem rig. My first cast a little brookie hit my indicator. I knew right then the fishing was going to be good despite the 30 degree temps. Throughout the day I caught about 20 brookies. The biggest being about 8 inches, but boy was it a beautifully colored fish. Overall, it was a great day. It was now about 5 pm and we still had to climb up the mountain. Off we went.
We finally made it to my blazer. We were tired. My blazers window hatch doesn't stay up by itslef in cold weather. My girlfriend was already in the truck leaving me to put the rods in. I got my fly rod in while holding the window up. It was time to put my girlfriends in. Somehow, I lost my grip on the window and the window came down smashing my girlfriends rod in half. At least it wasn't my fly rod. I then told her this wouldn't have happened if she was helping me. Anything to take some of the blame off of me. We went back to the campsite.
We got back to the campsite and cooked our chicken on the fire. We then started to have one of those "snow showers". I'm glad we got the chicken done. We hung out till about ten again. It was just as cold as it was the night before. There was already a dusting on the ground. I checked the temp. again and it was 20 degrees. We went in the tent. I again woke up every hour or so again. Every time I woke up I could still hear it snowing. Morning came and I looke outside. We got about 4 inches of snow. We decided we wouldn't stay the night and went home. I'm glad we made it two nights because it wasn't the weather for camping. Overall, it will be a trip I will never forget.

Troy


PS: Sorry about the big paragraph. I can't seem to indent any paragraph.

 

[JackM]

You have a good girlfriend. I couldn't get my wife in a tent in August with overnight lows in the 70s. Thanks for sharing your story and too bad the trip was cut short.

 

[tomgamber]

Somehow, I lost my grip on the window and the window came down smashing my girlfriends rod in half.

Good way to get her to start fly fishing... :-D

Sounds like you still managed to enjoy yourself. It was just as cold here and you were fishing.

 

[Wulff-Man]

I haven't camped much since I was a Boy Scout (more years ago than I want to admit), but I can still remember probably the most miserable night I've ever experienced. It was a cold early spring day on a scout camping trip. I doubt that it was as cold as it was for you at SNP, but I remember not being able to sleep, and it seemed like every minute was an hour long. Not my cup of tea.

Your story sounds like it could be the basis for a hilarious "King of Queens" episode, if you've ever watched that show. Doug and Carrie go camping!

 

[Troy]

Wulff_Man,
I have seen the show and you are right. We had a lot of funny things happen that trip. On Thursday night before we went to bed, I put out our fire. There wasn't any flames on the fire, but we still had some hot coals. It was windy all day (which made it even colder) and we heard something blow over. I looked outside and my chair blew into the fire. I had to get my boots on and go out and get my chair. The fire melted it preety good. It still works though. It just sucked having to get out of the tent and my sleeping bag.

Troy

 

[Chaz]

Troy, if your girlfriend stays with you after that trip, I think you better stick with her, if you get my drift. Camping in the cold can be touch, I ws at Mt rogers 1 time in the fall and got snowed on, it's not much fun. Then 1 time when I was camping in Boy Scouts we got snowed on in January or February 1 year. We were kids so we didn't care, now I'm worried about the weather for this weekends fishing.

 

[Maurice]

Troy,

That's hillarious! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Best twenty brookies you'll ever catch.

Maurice

 

[troutbert]

Souds like a real adventure! You may have froze but now you'll have some good stories to tell. I like the one about the chair blowing into the fire. It reminded me of a line from the old Christmas song:

Lawnchairs roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping at your nose

Maybe I'm not remembering the lyrics exactly right.

 

[FYfly]

Well it’s a small world. I posted some questions concerning fishing in SNP and was down there the same time frame you were Troy. I think we were the other fisherman you saw, 2 older gentleman and one that was younger (I ‘m the younger one). I believe that we saw you and your girlfriend a few times that day. We crossed paths on the hike out? Also believe I came out of the stream up the trail from you towards the end of the day, sorry if it seemed like I was in a rush to get ahead of you, the old guys started walking out early and I was trying to catch up. Our fishing experience was similar to yours, we all caught around 20 fish with the biggest around 8", primarily on hares ear and march brown nymphs that day. On Thursday we fished Brokenback Run and experienced a sparse hatch of quill gordons and caught a few on dries but most of the action was still subsurface. Then on Saturday we drove down into the valley and walked up White Oak from the lower park boundary, we didn’t catch as many as the previous days but they seemed to be a little bigger with the largest stretching around 10". Hope to go back when there isn’t 4 inches of snow and wind chills in the single digits. Some picture should be posted soon.
Frank

 

[Troy]

FYFly,
I did see you. It's funny because me and my girlfriend were talking and we mentioned how fast you got up the hill. We weren't moving too fast at that point. It really does take a lot of energy fishing that area. It is great though. Were you camping too? I really wanted to fish the next day after the snow, but camping for those 2 nights was enough.

Troy