YOUR'E FIRED...... DAMN!

Sometimes life seems to get out of hand, at least for me that is. I'm having one of those moments right now and things are getting REALLY out of hand! Seems I pissed of the head ranger on my side of the Park, so I was shitcanned! Office politics has never been a specialty of mine, so navigating the minefield of what's probably the most political NP in the country was not something I was capable of. Obviously there's a little more to it than that, but I don't really want to get into it, I'm still livin it. It amazes me sometimes the stupidity of the things that I do without thinking out consequences or the effects on my life. This year has been a difficult one for Cat and I financially, so in my royal wisdom, I've now made a bad situation worse. It's almost like I have a demon that haunts me, waiting for success before he strikes. My mom used to comment that it was like I had some aversion to happiness, so I'd go and screw my life up every 6 months to a year.
Sadly, the effects of this are not felt by me me alone anymore, but also by my selfless, loving wife who has to put up with this crap because of me. An amazing woman no doubt, I don't think she really signed up for some of the stuff she's living with! But like the trooper she is, she just regroups and keeps on rollin. For this, I am eternally grateful. Will I be able to fix this situation before the whole thing folds up like a damn deck of cards? I don't know, but I'm sure as hell not going to sit around pissin about it. Life really sucks sometimes and it's not something I deal with particularly well when I know it's because of something I've done. But I do know that change is inevitable and sometimes drastic things are required to bring change around in our lives. One look at gas prices will show the proof of that.
Enough of all that depressing crap. It looks like we might actually get some rain this week. It would be nice to go fishin again. God knows I need to get on the water for a bit. On the up side, I've been goin out for more rides on the bike since I got new tires. Feels like a totally different machine. The new front tires make her quick and effortless leaning into turns at speed, I'm sure there wouldn't have been such a notable difference had the tire that was replaced had any trad left on it. My carbs are still being testy, the idle speeds variate constantly, so I think I'm going to take them off again for a total rebuild and then synchronization. They are probably out of sync and need a more thorough cleaning, so hopefully I can get around to that sometime soon. As usual, the task is made more difficult by some stripped screws that I need to get replaced once I can get them out. Cheap, but requires a special tool to remove the screws and ordering replacements online.
I'm going to attempt to build my own synchronizing tool out of some plastic tubing, 10wt oil, and a yard stick. I've heard good things about it all, so my hopes are high. At a $1.55 you can't beat the price and it's supposed to be more sensitive than other types of store bought gauges. Am I delving into some things I don't really comprehend, for sure. But hey, that's how I learn to do new things.
So things I've learned....
Keep you're mouth shut! It's hard to piss someone off if you never say anything.
Never under any circumstances ask if things can get worse. They can and they will!
Life goes on, things change. Get over it and deal with it.
Motorcycles are like boats, there is always something that needs to be done to them!

Back From the Dead

So I have finally recovered from the vile bug bestowed upon me by my best friends crotch fruit. 4-5 days of highly unpleasant expulsions, thank god it's over with now. It took a few days, but even my appetite has returned in full force. So what's been going on since then? Not a whole lot! The garden has taken a pretty big hit this week, I think it's been over 2 weeks since we've received any rain. Last week, my only concern was trying not to die, so the garden did not receive it's normal and required waterings, soooo... the garden is pretty well Shermanized. Oh well, I was thinking about tearing it all out to get it ready for a fall/winter cover crop to improve the soil. We'll see, the bike has been taking up a lot of time as of late.

This week on the way to work, she (the bike) started to die on me, on and off. I knew it had something to do with the fuel system, since the carbs sounded starved for fuel. My gas tank has some rust, which there is a fair amount of in the carbs, but this was a new problem and unexpected. I was off on Tuesday, so I tore the fuel system apart. I emptied and drained the tank so I could look at the petcock. Not suprisingly, it's in pretty bad shape, but I could tell it has been that way for awhile, so it should not be the cause of my headache. I checked the fuel lines, changed the fuel filter, and threw the tank back on all the while giving the carbs a dirty look. I've been hoping to avoid dealing with them yet, but it was looking more likely that they were coming off the bike soon.

I had to run into Asheville to get a new rear tire mounted. Sweet! Now I don't see visions of my rear tire exploding at high speeds, now it's only the front wheel! I returned home to remount the rear wheel and take her on an anticipated test ride with the new tire. I hopped on and took off down the road, only to have her start bogging down again and stall. I limped back home frustrated and hoping to find an easy fix online. All the while, I'm still giving my carbs dirty looks. No chance finding an easy fix, so in a moment of desperation, I tore the carbs off my bike and started taking them apart. Cat got to come home to me smeared in grime with a dual carb layed in front of me like a scattered deck of cards.

My only experience with carbs is screwing around with them on boats, lawnmowers, weedeaters and such. As stated before the are dual carbs, so they have to be calibrated. Needless to say, I was not very confident in my ability to do what I was about to attempt. I took most of it apart to clean the jets out and all the rust out of the bowls. After putting the jigsaw puzzle back together, it was time to get it on the bike and see if it worked or I totally screwed my carbs up. After a few attempts to get the carbs mounted in the boots with all appropriate wires attatched, I put the tank back on and it was time.

I turned the key on and hit the starter, as expected, it took a bit for the carbs to refuel and then she started. But she didn't sound right, I took her out for a quick spin and she ran like crap. I limped back home and restarted her in the driveway and revved to 8000 rpm and I think it cleared some crap out of a jet, because she purred at idle after that. I took her for another spin and she ran dreamy, but wanted to stall when I came to a stop and the rmp's dropped.

So, the bike runs great, sounds better than when I bought her, but my idle settings are all screwed up somehow. Sometimes it will die when I'm idling because of low rpm's, the next time I stop they'll shoot up to 2500rpm's at idle.I'm sure one of my cables got stretched out of whack or something. Hopefully I'll get a chance to look into it more tomorrow before work. Other than that, I'm having a great time on the bike. The new rear tire has improved my confidence and feels a whole lot more stable. I found a set of front forks on ebay for $15 I'm going to buy and try to rebuild this month. After putting those on and a new front tire, most of my issues with the bike will be resolved.

Believe or not, I have actually fished in the last week. I ran out to the Pigeon after frustrating myself on the bike in Tuesday. Fishing SUCKED!!! I was calf deep in areas that are normally thigh deep. I caught one fish on a wooley bugger. That was the only hit I had, the only fish I saw. I hate to say it, but I think I'm going to hang up the rods until we get some rain. It just isn't worth the stress in the fish and fishing has been mediocre at best for the last month. Since it has cooled down some, I'll probably start doing more day hikes to get ready for hiking season this winter. So there you have it, the past ten days of my life in a nutshell. Not real exciting by any means.

Green apple splatters

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I was infected with a stomach virus by my best friends urchin. This has kicked the crap out of me, literally and figuratively. I woke up around 3am on Tuesday expelling liquids from multiple orifices and it has only let up a bit over the past 4 days. I felt better on Wednesday night and over did it trying to get something other than rice and toast into my body (the only things I can seem to keep down). I took half of Tuesday off and squelched out of today in hopes of defeating this.

Something has got to give. My house is trashed, my wife has gone to see her mom and pops in Michigan, so I'm playing bachelor this weekend. Hopefully Cat won't come home to a skeleton of me covered in poop and vomit! Actually, I do feel a bit better today, the constant feeling of nausea is passing, I just don't want to risk doing too much and starting the whole cycle over again. So, when you think things are not going the way you want this weekend and you think it couldn't get much worse, be glad you're not on the crapper trying to figure out which end it's going to violently come out of! Sorry if this all got too graphic, but I think we've all been there at some point.

Hooks, Hornets, Nettle, and a Few Trout

I decided to get out and hit the water today since it was so nice out. It was supposed to get warm too, so a day wet wading a creek sounded good. I loaded Adicus since he had not been able to go on my last two trips and headed out to one of my favorite brown trout streams.

After arriving at my destination, I strung up the new 2wt and headed down the road until I reached where i wanted to get in. A harrowing descent through loose rock and thick brush I finally arrived at stream side ready to catch some fish. The water level looked good and I began to cast to likely spots. The first five good lookin holes yielded nothing, not even a bump. While casting to another hole, I finally hooked up, unfortunately it was my thumb. A size 14 yellow harey moose was embedded in my thumb. All right, this is starting out to be a stellar day! After a quick yank with the hemos, the fly was out and I was back on my way.

I started to randomly catch a few brownies in the 7-8" range, but nothing I would call consistent. I approached another nice hole and began to cast to only find that I was hung in a tree. I pulled the branch down, snagged my fly, and stepped off a rock to get back to where I could cast to another hole. As I'm false casting, I noticed Adicus starting to jump and yelp, I looked to my right and about 15 feet away in the tree I had just gotten my fly out of was a hornets nest the size of a basketball. And they were pissed and nailing the crap out of Adicus. I retreated rapidly while calling to Adicus, didn't need to, he was right behind me. I think he got hit 5 or 6 times before he got away and was quite irritated about the whole affair.

We rapidly proceeded upstream about 50 yards and got back to business. Things continued at about the same slow pace for the next hour, then it was like a light switch was flipped and I started catching fish out of almost every decent hole. I cast into the eddy next to a main run and hooked up with a double, a fish on both the dry and the dropper. Unfortunately, the larger of the two fish popped off as I was landing them, so I only got a photo of the 8 incher.
A lot of 8"-9" fish were caught today and my largest was a fat 10" brownie that sucked down my dry fly.

Adicus and I fished bit longer than we had intended to, mostly because things started out so slow and then got so much better later. I stumbled into multiple patches of stinging nettle, luckily there was plenty of jewel weed around to take the bun out. Between the hornets, hooking myself, and nettle, I was beginning to wonder which one of us was going to get bit by a snake! But the day ended with no more disasters, just a long walk back to the truck on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I played some fetch with Adicus while walking to the truck and just enjoyed being alive (and not been stung by hornets! Thanks Adicus!). While I'm typing this, Adicus is totally crashed out on his bed and I would like to believe very content about his day fishing with dad.

Beech Flats

As planned, I took off from work early today so that I could run my newly built rod through her paces. After getting off, I strapped everything to the bike and took off up the road to Beech Flats, one of favorite places to hit on a day after work. A perfect place for a new 2wt to do her thing in style!
I had a pleasant ride up the road, it was rather warm out, so it made being on the bike very comfortable. I pulled into a large parking area about a mile above Kephart Prong and started to slowly get my things together. After stringing up my rod, it was time to head to the water. A scramble down a rocky slope and I was at the waters edge and ready to do some damage! My setup for the day was a 14 thunderhead with a 16 yellow harey moose as a dropper. Things didn't start off balls to the walls, but rather with me picking up the odd 6" rainbow here and there. Most pools were not yielding fish, only the deeper longer runs seemed to be holding, despite the fact that the water levels are really good for the time of the year.

I continued picking my way upstream hitting plunge pools and deep runs that looked promising. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the streams in the park are and how easily solitude can be found in the Park despite the fact we're still in peak season. As I'm working my way upstream, I can hear vehicle traffic and occasionally catch the odor of burning brake pads as tourons eat their breaks up coming down 441 on their way to somewhere. Sadly, most of these people will never know the joy of catching a beautiful ruby gilled bow out of a sparkling pool surrounded by moss covered rock. What a shame.

The day continued on the same pace, I'd catch a few fish and then go 10 or more minutes before I would even get bumped again. To my surprise, I started to catch the occasional brown trout. Could it be possible, am I going to get a Smoky Slam on my new rod, that would be super sweet! Alas, it was not to be, the elusive brookie was not caught today. On the other hand, many bows and browns were caught, so all was not lost. I think I ended up with about a dozen fish caught and released today, although nothing of any size ended up on the line. My biggest fish was probably 8", but most were 6"-7".

So how did the new rod do. Wonderful. It's actually a little softer than my other 2wt (I didn't think that was possible) and she cast more accurately than my previous rod. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic with my new toy! I'm already anticipating years of fishing memories with this stick. It was time for me to be get going, so I mozied up a steep hill to hit the road and was quite surprised to be able to see the bike despite having fished for about three hours. Not a usual thing for me to see after a day of fishing.

The day ended pleasantly with a nice ride home on the Parkway, enjoying the unusually clear evening that afforded great views on the way home.