Neshannock Creek

My guide, Cooper, helping me spot rising fish.

Went after work with Spence and Cooper.  It was a hot day and the water was already pretty low.  I started out above the covered bridge and hit the first couple runs.  I picked up a a few cookie cutter rainbows on a Frenchie nymph as well as a bunch of chubs.  Most of them were horned chubs.  I have no clue how or why horns grow on these chubs, but their nasty.  I got sick of catch those so I moved, and I think they followed me.  I caught a few more trout, all on nymphs.  There were a couple sporadic rises, but no consistent top water action.  The algae was pretty bad for this time of year already and it made nymphing really annoying.  We fished a couple hours and then headed home.  I probably wont fish this stream again until the water level is up or I try to time the brown drake hatch.  Its definitely no blue-ribbon stream, but its a relatively close Pittsburgh option.

JMU Virginia Mountain Bike Reunion

I returned back to Harrisonburg, VA to meet up with a couple former roommates that I wrestled with at JMU. This year our group expanded and Diaz recruited a few of his friends from Chicago, NYC, and DC and Kodish brought his younger brother. This was our Second Annual mountain biking trip back to the Shenendoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains where it all started. These guys rode Massanutten on Friday and on Saturday I joined them to ride the Reddish Knob / Timber Ridge loop.

 

The crew is feeling great at Briery Resovoir BEFORE the 6.5 mile climb.

Right out of the gate we climbed from 2000 ft to 4300 ft in 6.5 miles of windy paved switchbacks that took much longer than when we did it 10 years ago. What a climb. At the top, we stopped to take in one of the best views in Virginia and give our bikes a rest - they needed it!

The bikes taking a rest

Diaz figuring out where to go....scary.

It's hard to see, but below that red arrow is Briery Brach Resovoir were we started the climb.

The only thing left to do when you go up is to come back down. This trail was rated as difficult and it was true to its rating. Within the first 1/4 mile there is a really rocky section that no one dared to try. This was a hell of a way to start, especially for the guys on their first mountain biking excursion. A few choice swear words could be heard from the crew on the 'awesome' trail selection! Fortunately, this didnt last and we got into some manageable single track. The first half of the ride was on Timber Ridge and was pretty rocky and true to VA style riding. There were some sharp descents followed by stout rocky climbs which added to the cumulative burn my legs were still feeling from the trek up the mountain. The downhill runs really made me wish I had a full suspension bike as the rocks and trail just beat the shit out of you going at high speeds.

Looking down the first 1/4 mile of trail and wondering if we made a bad decision?!

That is a recipe for pain
                                    



Pretty much the only way down



Ah, that's more like it. Classic single track

Once the trail headed off Timber Ridge, it turned to more dirt / clay towards the bottom. This section was super fun and you could really get some top end speeds riding around the berms and racing towards the creek bottom. It took a little while, but everyone made the entire ride and there was no major injuries.

Now everyone loves a cold beer after a good tough ride and after this trip we needed a whole beer garden. Look no further than Rocktown Beer Festival in downtown Harrisonburg. Truth be told, last year we just happened to accidentally stumble upon this beer festival we when stopped at Shenandoah Bike Company after our ride. This year it was no accident and was strategically planned ahead of time. It's also probably how Diaz and Kodish were able to convince a few more of their friends to show up. We rolled into the festival about 4-5 hours after it started and it was easy to see the damage that day drinking strong micro brews had on the local crowd. People were flat wasted and dropping like flies. It was a pretty entertaining scene and a great evening.

Looking forward already to next year's trip. We expect even a bigger ride.

The beer pavilion with about 30 tasty vendors

Morels

Spence, Cooper and I went on a quick morel hike before the Pens game (we should have kept hiking.) We found mostly tan / yellow morels with a couple greys under poplars and dead elms. We still need some more rain and humid nights for the big ones to come up, but it was a beautiful spring day to be outside.

Cooper getting in on the action, but not used to
to the 80 degree weather

As we were walking through the wide open woods, Spencer stopped to say something and as she turned a hen turkey exploded into the air from under a dead fall tree a couple feet directly behind her. She ducked like she was under attack and it was seriously one of the funniest things I've ever seen in the woods. Sure enough though, the only reason that hen was holding so tight, was she was sitting on a nest of three eggs. Mid-April - that's insanely early!

Can you find all three? The finished product...a morel mushroom pizza!  Delicious!

Little J First Day Sulphurs!

Spencer and I went to the Little J to fish opening day.  We went to the Barree section and hiked up the canyon section.  We tried to avoid the crowd by getting further into he canyon section, but soon realized the canyon was filled up with tents from fisherman that floated in with rafts and canoes for the first day of trout.  We had never been to this section on the first day and seemed like a pretty neat camping tradition.

 

We didn't really get started til around noon and there were some caddis flying around.  I picked up a handful of trout on a beadhead soft hackle.  The day was mostly overcast and around 3PM I started seeing a few of the season's first sulphurs.  I can't say that I've seen Sulphurs this early in the season before, but what a nice surpise.

Classic wild Little J brownie with red spots and red-tipped adipose fin

Our friend Tom met us for some evening fishing and the hatch picked up as we got a nice rain shower. The bugs weren't heavy but we were able to find a few consistent risers.  We picked up a couple on sulphur dries which made the day.

Tom with a brown that he picked up on a CDC sulphur

Morel Hunting

Went for an evening hike with Spencer on Good Friday for the season's first morel hunt.   This was the earliest I've ever hunted morels but, with the warm weather we've had and a few confirmed reports, we took a stroll.  Spence spotted the first morels of the seasons and we ended up finding 16 small white ones.  Not quite the pop cans we found here last year, but more like their midget cousins.  These must have came up with that hot weather we got about a week or so ago.  But the lack of rain and the 30 degree nights probably stunted their growth.  I never thought I would say it, but we need rain badly in April!

What they lack in size, though, they will make up for in flavor.  Morel omelettes for Easter morning!!