I arrived at the south Holston river in north East Tennessee around five pm on Sunday. The parking areas below the dams were packed with people fishing in very close quarters. Most spinning reel and a few fly fishermen. I went up to talk to an older gentlemen who had just caught a beautiful, nice size rainbow, about the waters. He gave me quite a few pointers about fishing the area and even gave me a handful of his tied flies!
But now was not the time for fishing... I needed to find a free or Atleast cheap campsite for the evening. The area around the dam had potential but I saw multiple TVA cops lurking around. I headed into a national forest nearby and started scowering. I drove about ten miles into the woods and didn't even find a single ATV trail to drive down and set up camp on. There were no pay sites close by so I drove north across a bridge over Holston lake. At first I was about to set up shop at a boat ramp but the bass spawn and walleye run had people in and out all night long. I found a fishing pull off that had a skinny little trail next to it and I found my spot. The morning brought to light the extent of my decision.
Beautiful lake front property!! I have say it was bit of a sketchy spot in the sense that the past few owners were most likely drunk hicks, fishing, who had no sense of litter laws. But being a week day I was in the clear. I packed up and headed to the river.
This river was just like the White river in the sense that they had set times they released water and it became hard to wade fish. I took my time and visited a fly shop, bought new wipers for my truck, stocked up on some food, then got to the river around noon. The water was set to drop around one so I sat by the river for a bit with Johnny and waited.
Once the water dropped I headed into the water and started fishing. I caught a few browns and rainbows. Sorry I didn't get any pics, but I swear it happened! They were fairly small fish that were not easy to catch. This river is known as the best trout river in the east and therefore recieves a ton of pressure. Around 5 a huge storm cell rolled through and I quickly got off the river. I headed to my camp spot and the sky cleared up. I decided to break out my spinning rod and see if I could catch some small mouth.
Caught some nice fish! Spending the day in tornado warnings I decided to keep a close eye on the weather for the night. Every weather app I had said the storm would hit around four AM, so I set my alarm for three and decided to pack up after a few hours of sleep and before the storm.
Well around two AM I awoke to howling wind and pounding hail and decided to pack up shop as fast as I could and head for the bridge right down the road. I figured that would be the safest place. I had planned to set up my dome tent but once I opened it up I realized the both poles were broken from the time I let the kids in Florida borrow the tent. So I ended up sleeping under the bridge... Hobo style!
I didn't get much sleep but it was a stellar experience none the less! I packed up and headed to a tiny diner for a much appreciated hot breakfast!
After checking multiple weather apps on my phone I decided the best idea was to high tail it north since the rain was set to continue for many days. I got a hold of an old river buddy who lived in southern PA, him and his wife graciously offered a nice dry bed to me!
He is a huge gear head, like myself, and we talked a lot of shop. He works at Dewalt and I was lucky enough to get a personal tour of dewalts testing and RD drepartments! Very cool stuff to see!!
I had done some research back in college about a small town in central PA called centralia, which was a coal town that had the mine catch on fire and the town evacuated. One of the famous east coast ghost towns, made famous by the video game/movie Silent Hill, which was very loosely based on the town. This was about two hours away from the town I was in and I headed there in The morning.
It was a beautiful sunny day, which was very welcome change from the monsoons I had experienced the past few days. Rolling into centralia I immediately noticed that one, the town was nearly completely demolished and two, it wasn't as far "out in the sticks" as I had hoped. Which was all fine though, because I had sunshine and offroad trails a plenty to explore!!
One of the creepy cemeteries hidden in the woods.
This was on the closed down part of the highway leading to town. In the winter smoke rises from cracks in the road. It was unfortunately too warm on this day.
Exploring some atv trails on the mountain.
Afterwards I headed east, my college friend Sharis invited me to stay in yet another dry spare bedroom, how could I say no!?
The first thing I did upon arrival was attempt to dry out, well everything. The tent dried quickly, mattress pad and sleeping bag, not so much. In the mean time Sharis and I hiked back to a huge quarry near her house. Private property of course, so stealth was in order. I brought fly rods and gave her a quick casting lesson that she took hold of quickly. The winds though were not in our favor and we called it quits and hiked around. I had never been to a quarry with such large cliffs and enormous schools of smallmouth bass which I just couldn't catch...
Next I got to experience one of her new past times, beekeeping! I got all suited and headed to the hives!! It was a bit nerve racking at first but the cold weather and smoke made the bees pretty lethargic and docile.
That night Sharis, her boyfriend, and I got pizza at an extremely sketchy bar that I thoroughly enjoyed then ended the evening with a bonfire.
The next day we went to a crazy flea market that held some of the best people watching of all my travels!! There was also a working slot car track there!!!
I said my thank yous and good byes and headed towards, as grandpa called it, the vampire state!
Saratoga springs, my old stomping grounds, I decided would be a good place to hunker down and rest for a quite weekend... Who I am kidding, I stayed with my old pal Scotty in a town where the bars close at 4am... I had a great time!
After that I shot up to Plattsburgh to check out Todd and Meg's new digs on lake Champlain. They have a killer spot with lake access, that is sure to be a hoot this summer!
When the morning came I pointed west towards home!
After driving most of of the way through the Adirondacks in pouring, cold rain, the sky opened up just outside of Rossi. I arrived around three pm and the river was in all her glory! I love this place...
So that's it. 6500 miles, exactly 4 weeks, and 18 states. Zero car issues, but hey, it's a toyota. Cases of Campbell's soup and beer. Some fish caught here and there. Galllllllons of petrol(didn't even want to keep track of that). Great people a plenty. It was an experience I will never regret nor forget.
Thank you to all who followed along with my journey. Many many thanks to all who offered their homes up to me, you all are always welcome under my roof when ever need be!
I will be in Ireland, Scotland, England, the 12th-23rd of June so there might be a few more posts... But no guarentees.
