Fall is here!

And is it ever. Today it was 72 in the car and we took a ride to Annapolis whit the TOP DOWN! Heloooo November! Never one to sit still at a red light, I whipped out the cell phone and got a snapshot of the lovely weather:

Sweet beard 'eh? (sept for the grey this year!)
Saturday we took advantage of the awesome weather and went for a nice hike in the woods up near Great Falls. We got totally lost but had fun (you can't get THAT lost up there; eventually you'll be in someones back yard) and we even had a little picnic. I got a great shot of the GF finally. She's really warming up to the camera I think:

The trees were looking great and stood nice and still for some snapshots:




While there was lots of outdoors time I didn't go fishing. I got a bit of knittage accomplished but the "orange Basket Weave Hat of Doom" is still doomed. I tried it on this weekend and there was no WAY it was going to fit. SO...I ripped and ripped and ripped. This is the 3rd time I've knit this hat. It WILL BE AWESOME someday. Here's where I got to:

Thank god I have a ball winder. I'm making good progress and will get back to it after this and another cocktail ;)

On the kitchen front, since I didn't fish this afternoon, there was Flour Carnage. I whipped up 4 loaves of bread - 2 rye and two of the ABin5 "broa" which is KILLER and I can't wait to have with soup - 4 servings worth of pasta dough for ravioli and other pasta AND I made beef-stroganoff (spell check couldn't help with that?). If I've got anything, it's some kitchen skills.

Hey, keep your cable needle in the wool and the oven HOT ...unless it's over 70 outside because then you'll be sweaty like me! - micah

Keeping your head above water

Everything's going to be OK, we've got home made pasta!

A week or so ago, after I'd come back from the edge (of the couch) with the Swine Flu, we went bumming around and I scored a pasta maker for $20. Talk about fun!!! I've been cranking it out. Between this and the bread addiction it's all carbs all the time at our house.

Here in the Washington area we've been swamped with rain and I was lucky to be sick though a lot of it. Up at the Big Gunpowder Falls there was plenty of water to go around. The spill-over from the dam brought the temps up to 60 degrees and the stoneflys, caddis and even a bunch of mayflys came out to dance on the surface. The Plastic-Hatch was thick but the trout are pretty used to it and I still got strikes after a bunch of these "dudes" floated through.

Just for the proof here's a nice little guy with my tan caddis still in the mouth:

It was a great trip up there and I even had the company of another DC area fly-fisher and we had a good time comparing notes on the river all afternoon.

Hey, does anyone know what this bug is? It's NOT a stonefly and they have biting mouth parts like deer flies; I caught one and it bit me. There were SWARMS of them. I'm guessing they're one of the 9-million aquatic flies that exist. I don't know if the trout eat them and it was hard to tell exactly what the fish were splashing after in the high water.

Hey, it's the work-week again. Strap on your helmet and crank it out - I have a feeling a bit more mid-week rain could keep the stoneflys and caddis hatching well for next weekend!!! -micah

the weather's here wish you were...

This is the "Don't you wish you were here!?" shot I took yesterday and sent out via my cell phone.
Isn't technology great? you can make people regret not coming along on a fishing trip with the push of a button! when things finally turned on for me yesterday I snapped this one to send out ASAP. The only problem is the gorge-like spot where I was I had a pretty bad signal. I still hit "send" when I got back in the truck.

The weather's here, with you were beautiful - micah

wish you could have been there

Today was a great day, again, on the Big Gunpowder Falls. One of my recent bathroom books is an old fishing guide full of Maryland streams. It mentions that a one fish day is not unheard of and that getting skunked on the Gunpowder should draw no shame. I'm finally mastering this river and while I'm yet to land a big bruiser here I'm consistently catching fish. Today was no exception and I caught tons of fish. I'd say the average fish on the river is about 9 inches. This little guy below is about 5 or 6.

I managed to hook about 4 of these and more in larger sizes later in the day when daylight was fading. Just before dusk things got hot and my subsurface caddis proved to be a winner (the one above came on my last #10 cream caddis larvae).

Most of my weekend trips involve eating my way across various countrysides and this was no exception. I stopped at Gruel's in town and got a nice sami for the road. Good times!

Down river from Falls Rd (way down a couple other roads) I came across 3 Bald Eagles in a tree. It was pretty cool. There were two adults and one juvenile. As I got closer they took off and circled me for a while before taking off.

A great weekend was had and I can't wait till next weekend!!! I'm pretty excited about all this fall weather. I was FREEZING by the time I got back to my truck and it was in the 40s when I pulled out of the valley. It got up to 60 on the highway. I can only think the cold air down near the river was trapped by the hills. I was sporting my "good camo" and I think it helped me with the fish today. Smooth wading and stalking combined with a good 12 foot 7X leader and come blending in with the trees seemed to do the trick. I'm tying up a box of #22's tonight (there were tricos everywhere) and this week. Hey, monday's coming, get some rest and fill those fly boxes this week! Oh and spread love and wear your helmet- micah

A World tour

This weekend was the Crafty Bastards arts and crafts fair and it was a lot of fun. As usual I didn't buy anything but I got to make a free button that says "I may be the best knitter in the world" (or something like that) - it's pretty funny.

So that was fun and Sunday I got the hell out of the house and went fishing. IT was GREAT!

I went up to The Big Gunpowder Falls again and fished the lower sections were the crowds don't go. It wasn't exactly chock-full of fish and the water is in the low "winter" flow already BUT I managed to take a bunch of fish.

Matt, this is for you buddy, I thought you'd like this:

The fish were pretty picky and it wasn't until I plucked most of the hackle off of my elk-hair-caddis that it started to get hot.

I fished most of the day with a cadis pupae behind my dry fly but it didn't do much except for the fallfish. I switched to this little emerger that I'd whipped up a half dozen of the spring. I'd honestly put these together for kicks - not to try to imitate anything in particular (it could work for a mud-burrowing mayfly in a pinch I figured as some of them go from the bottom right to the surface and pop out of the water.

I'm hoping you can click on these pics and they'll get big. Isn't that good times? I think so. Anyway, all the monsters are still in the river. I met some great people in the woods and Saturdays outing with old friends was great! I even made dinner for 4 that night! What an action packed weekend! Here comes the week - spread love and wear your helmet. you never know which rock will be the slippery one! micah

What a wonderful world..er, city

A few weeks ago Artcars made a visit to my neighborhood. I almost crashed my bike. I was in love. I mean, I always wanted a van and THIS van has it all. the only thing is it's all glued to the outside.

If the van isn't practical enough or too hard to park there's this car that's being towed by it. It's pretty swell.

With summer comming to and end I made it to the trout stream last week just in time for dark. I think it was worth the two hour drive just to get some outdoor time. the water level had dropped WAY down and I honestly didn't see any trout over 7". Hellooo fall.

I did see lots of birds and even signs that the hawks and the Bald Eagles are doing well.

The Herons were everywhere. That's not so great for fishing. I can't wait till we can start thinning those numbers out a bit.

All in all a nice trip out of the house and out of the city.

Speaking of the city, today was the WABA "50 states/13 colonies" ride. I had to get up pretty early and got rolling but the hood sure is nice at 7:00 on saturday.

My pal dave was nice enough to do the ride with me and we had a blast. The starting place was up in adams morgan and, powered by Crispy Cream's and coffee we climbed the hill and joind the bunch. Dave looked sporty.

There was a lot of spandex.

I think most of the spandex people did the longer ride, wehre your goal is to hit all 50 state streets (a LONG ride).

We did the shorter "13 colonies" version. Still takes a while and covers all the major hills in DC.

To all my remaining single friends: there are lots of ladies dong these rides. Get it together and dust your bikes off.

Over on Capitol hill there was a big tree down and a van crushed. I/m guessing this messed a few people up.

I persoanlly give myself extra credit for spotting this Guam License plate. I mean, I didn't know you could drive here from there but apparently you can.

A few detours were had (one took us up the worst hill ever!) and one even took us to the book festival on the mall!!!


It was crazy. I'd do it again in a week if I could recover. I had a blast. Next time I'd take a bike with gears and brakes and do the 50 states ride and then hit happy hour after. I got in a nice nap afterwards. I think the weekend is shaping up nicely. Spread love and wear your helmet - micah

Busy Summer

I am still alive. I swear. I've just been super busy breaking things around the house and fishing and other stuff. One of the things I was busy doing is riding my bike. When I say "riding my bike" I mean for a pretty loooong time.

Last month I managed to talk my girlfriend into dropping me off in Pittsburgh PA so I could ride my bike back along the Allegheny Passage Trail and the C&O Canal all the way home to DC. It was AWESOME.

While no trip is "perfect" (there were thunderstorms and 100 degree heat and bee stings in the eye) this trip was as close as you can get. I had a blast and met the greatest folks along the way.

The GAP Trail is something to do before one dies. It's super smooth and the scenery is to die for.

This shot is just after 3 days of riding and crossing the continental divide. You pop out of the Savage Tunnel (thousands of feet long at maybe 50 degrees inside during the summer!) and there you are on top of the East coast! It's worth the 3 day climp up hill.


The trails follow a few really great rivers along the ride. The Youghehany (sp?) and the Cassleman, and of course the Potomac. While it was hot as HELL I was able to go swimming 2 or 3 times a day and keep cool.

Speaking of cool, how about this???

In that tunnel is a map of the elevation. Pretty satisfying to know that it's all down hill from here! ...and fast for next few miles!

One of the days you cross LOTS of bridges. Some of them are viaducts that cross whole valleys...

Scroll back up and look at that one again! It's a couple THOUSAND FEET LONG and just awesome. You cross farms and roads and rivers....it's too cool!!!

...one of the mile markers - I think this is the morning of Day 2, I'd hoped to eat breakfast in this little town but it was pretty well shuttered on Sunday morning.

I said I got to go swimming a lot along the trip and this was by far the best spot. The water was FREEZING and deep and slow. I dove in head first and I bet I floated around this spot for a half hour before getting back on the trail. It was only about 10:00am and it was roasting-hot out already. It was a pretty nice find.

After crossing the continental divide you head south into, well, The South!

This felt like quite a day of milestones!

This is Fort Frederick ...just off the C&O canal. They wanted money to go in and it was 9,000,000 degrees so I just filled up my water bottles and kept rolling.

I did get to see the few sections of the C&O canal that I'd not done before. there's an on-road detour that STINKS right around this piece so I'd never attempted it on my over nights or 2 nighter trips. The area around it is beautiful and I hope that some day the park service can connect it. It's a shame that more people don't get to see it.

Of the sights I'd never seen, Cumberland was one of the saddest. The town clearly made some attempts to rescue itself from the lack of manufacturing but it's still a small town with a lot of staring eyes to someone who just rolled out of the woods. The number of junkies walking the streets was quite a surprise to me too!

Anyway, I got my picture taken with the mule statue!

Even though it's in downtown Washington, I'd never found "Mile 0" before this. Also, it means something more after riding 350 miles.



These are just some of the sights from my trip in their un-photoshopped form. I'd had some trouble posting till now. Not sure why but I hope you enjoy. That's my bike above, complete with fly-rod sticking out the back! Once in downtown I was a little sad it was over -after a lady in a Cadillac cut me off and flipped me the bird. Welcome back!

Hey, fall is here and I'll surely be trapped inside more so keep in touch! Also, keep your helmet on, you never know when a bee or wasp will stick right to your eye socket while you're riding and get you a few times!!! -micah