Spring SNP Camping Trip

I try to get one full weekend of fishing in the spring and one full weekend in the fall.  This spring I decided to take the weekend before I start Grad school and camp up in the SNP.  The weather was going to be sketchy, but I decided to carry through with it anyways.  Got up to Big Meadows around 7 pm after work, just in time for the rain.  I set up camp quickly (too quickly)  and got a fire going to cook some brats.  I knew by the way the clouds were coming in quick I didn't have much time so I just wrapped the brats in tin foil and threw it in the fire.

 

 

And they didn't turn out too bad.

 

 

Well the rain picked up and I called it a night early.  About an hour into the rain the thunder picked up and it was a pretty bad storm.  Being on the top of a mountain didn't help either.  The lighting didn't really bother me, it was the strong winds that did though.  After three hours of laying wide awake in the tent that was being blown around violently, I decided to just sleep in the Jeep.  It was a pretty crappy night sleep to say the least.  Here's a picture of what the tent looked like in the morning.  Note I said I set up camp too quickly because of the rain and I didn't tie down the tent good enough.

 

 

After fixing the tent I got coffee going and some bacon.

 

 

Then it was off to stream #1

 

 

 I was supposed to hike down the trail a quarter of the way and then take a drainage ditch down to the stream.  Ended up passing the drainage ditch and when I realized it I decided to just hike the whole trail down to the main branch of the river.  The hike down was easy, the hike out was all up hill and took a couple hours.  Wasn't really worth hike considering the fishing was sub par, there was an easier way to get to this river then the route I took, and only caught one decent brown and a couple dink brookies.

 

Came back and decided to cook up the steak after the hiking I did.

 

 

The night sleep was a lot more enjoyable.  Started off the morning with some bacon pancakes and coffee.

 

 

On the drive to stream #2, I saw my first wild black bear.  He was about 10 feet off the road when I stopped and I took a couple pictures and carried on my way.  Pretty good sized bear too.

 

 

On the hike to the stream I just happened to look down at my feet and noticed a funny looking stick on the path, and then I saw a tongue flicking out and stopped about a foot from it.  It was just a garter snake, but I would still prefer not to get bitten.  I moved him off the path so no other hikers would step on him.

 

 

Fishing at the stream made up for the fishing I had yesterday.

 

 

I hooked a giant brookie in the pool below but he came off after a short fight.  I cast back to the hole and caught this little guy.....

 

 

Big brookie of the trip

  

Quick Lunch

 

It was a good trip and a nice way to begin what will be a busy end of spring and summer for me.  Thanks for reading.