Appalachian Trail assorted pictures

Back of Garvey shelter with ladder to 2nd story
Cliffs view
Looking south
Virginia hills
Rock outcrop on trail
2nd floor viewed from 1st

Garvey shelter
Potomac river
Don't wake him up

Appalachian Trail Adventures Part II

After coming off of the C & O tow path, I headed up into the woods. My destination was the Ed Garvey shelter. It had rained fairly heavy the night before so most of the vegetation had some moisture on them. The path to go up to Weverton cliffs is a series of 16 switchbacks. A switchback is a part of the trail that turn 180 degrees. It send you the opposite way you just came. This is done since it is easier to walk up the side of a mountain gradually. A switchback looks like a sideways laying 'W'. I think the purpose of a switchback is to remind you of how out of shape you are. I was huffing and puffing making my way up to Weverton cliffs and had to stop several times to catch my breath.

Once I arrived at the junction of the AT and the blue blaze trail that leads to the lookout at Weverton cliffs, I met a fellow hiker taking a breather. It was Bob, a 70 year old, who recently lost his wife. I found out that he lives close to where I live. Bob attempted a thru hike that spring, but found out he wasn't physically up to the challenge and had some gear issues that prevented him from being successful. Now Bob does day trips on the AT, leaving his car then hiking in so far, then turning around and retracing his steps back to his vehicle. I invited Bob to go to the cliffs, but he declined. Too bad for him since the view of the cliffs was worth the hike down. Even with the cloudy conditions I could see back past Harpers Ferry and all along the river and surrounding mountains. The trail to the cliffs had the most rocks I had encountered so far. It was more rocks than dirt on the train. The rocks jutted out of the ground like the scales on an alligator's tail.

After coming back from the cliffs I met a bunch of day hikers that seemed to be in quite a hurry to get to the cliffs. The cliffs is a nice place for day hikers since they can park at the base of the trail and just walk up the steep part. That would save them from having to walk the 2 1/2 miles of the tow path to get to the cliffs.

I finally reached my destination, the Ed Garvey shelter. The shelter is quite a structure. The shelter was built in 2001 by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. The shelter was built in Bowie, Md and airlifted by helicopter to it's present location. It is a 2 story layout, with the upper level accessible by climbing the back stairs. It has plexiglass windows that let you look out over the forest. The site also contains a privy and spring for drinking water. The shelter contains a register that people who visit can write comments for the shelter and trail maintainers. The biggest complaint was the distance and layout of the trail to get water.

Weverton Cliffs

Ed Garvey shelter
This little guy spent the night in the shelter's first floor. Good thing I slept upstairs!

A view of a switchback

Weverton Cliffs, viewed from below. It's the dark patch of rocks.
Looking back towards Harpers Ferry
A few of the rocks along the trail
The trail down to Weverton Cliffs

Recent fishing pictures

It's been awhile since I've updated these pages. So here's some recent fishing pictures.

Watch those teeth!

This guy had a full belly. Notice the bulging stomach area. He still went after the lure anyway.

Another picture of the same fish.

The pickerel seem to bite fairly regular at the local lake in the spring and fall.

Decent sized crappie.


We even took some fish trolling out to our spots. We'd trail a lure behind the boat and go slow. We'd catch a few fish out in the deeper pockets of water.

I saved the best for last. This hungry jumped on a lure half his size. This spring we've had a bunch of bass between 5 & 7 inches caught on lures. You go to set the hook when you feel the bite and launch the fish out of the water.

Monday on the water

Got out on the water today by myself. Fished the golf course pond. Caught plenty of small bass, regular sized bass and chunky bluegills. The smallest measured bass went 5 inches. They were twice the size of the lure. Hard to believe that they could manage to eat a fish half their size. Again the Mepps was the big producer. I even caught a few with an ultralight pole. They are great sport on light tackle. They really put a bend in the pole. I used the fish finder. It showed the deepest parts to be just over 19 feet deep. I was surprised to see that just a few feet off the bank the water was 5 feet deep. No real shallow parts on this lake. That may be why fishing just off the bank is productive here.

Spring is marching forward. The trees are taking shape. There was a pollen scum on the pond and it was evident on rocks and roots bordering the water. I saw a snake make it's way across the water. A beaver also decide to show up. The back part of the pond looks like someone has removed the floating timber and branches. That spot has been productive in the past. Year before that they removed 2 fallen trees that held lots of fish. Not sure of the reason they did that, but it doesn't help the fish when they need a place to hide.

It's hard to get a good picture when you are by yourself.

These bluegills are nice and chunky.

Will the sun ever shine again?

It is still very dreary with tons of cloud cover. I haven't seen the sun in a few days. Hopefully soon it will warm up and we'll be done with winter for good.

I took the portabote out after work. I went to Sewell pond hoping to try for some bass in the farther reaches in the back of the pond. Most bank anglers can't get in there easily, so I figured with the boat they'd be easy pickings. When I got back there I noticed that the weeds had grown quite a bit from the bottom. It only left about 2 feet of water that was fishable. Most of my casts with a mepps came back covered with weeds. After a few minutes of that I switched to plan B. I ditched the spinning pole for the fly pole. I motored over to deeper water. As I moved I could see the weeds moving lower and lower. I didn't anchor, I just let the wind push the boat across the pond. I raised the trolling motor up just until the prop was barely in the water. After a few casts I was landing crappies. They weren't the biggest in the pond, I've caught some very large crappie out of that pond. But after not catching anything they were welcomed.

I managed 13 fish, a mix of crappie and bluegills. Mostly crappie. I used a zug bug nymph that has been on the pole a while. The fly is starting to look worse for the wear. This spring it has been my go to panfish fly. It produces quite often when nothing else is working.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to target some other species. The local fishing reports are starting to mention that the shad are showing up in decent numbers. Before long spring will be in full bloom and most everything with fins will be active and feeding.

Still Windy, when will it end?

Headed to AAFB for some more fishing. Today we christened the new porta-bote. It was a decent maiden voyage with 22 fish boat. Had 1 nice healthy yellow perch and the rest were fiesty pickerel. Best measured 22 1/2 inches. Lots of fish in the 18 - 20 inch range.


Wind blew the boat all over the pond. I had a nice wind burnt face. I had to reposition the boat all day. Dropped the anchor a whole lot of times.

There were a lots of takeoffs and landings. Even some touch & go practicing. It got noisy a few times.

A tanker coming in for a landing.

Nice fat perch. I didn't even know there were any in this lake.

Look how happy DC gets with her first pickerel of the year.

Cold & windy

It was lousy weather this weekend for doing anything outdoors. I managed to get away on the water for a few hours yesterday. Went to St Mary's lake.

Total take was 6 fish. 5 bass and a bluegill. All caught by DC. I had the big skunk. That's how it goes some times.