Long Hiatus

I have been extremely busy at work the last week or so. I also had a bout of illness last Friday and I went to work on Saturday for a few hours to make up some time and tend to a few things that I had to do before a big event was going to take place at my work place.

I haven't fished anything yet but I am planning on it. We are finally in March and the weather seem to be going in the right direction. I will be reporting about my fishing trip next week.

I did some trimming of my evergreens outside my house tonight and it is so nice to be able to work outside again. I haven't read much books lately but I have watched some movies. One in particular was real good. It's an older movie from 1984. It 's directed by Sergio Leone, one of my favorite directors who died way too early in my opinion. Leone died in 1989 at age 60 from an heart attack. He is mostly famous for his directing of Clint Eastwood in the so called "Man of no name trilogy" or the "Dollars Trilogy". He is also very fundamental in the popularization of the so called "Spaghetti Western in the sixties. The western movie was never the same after Leone.

I loved Clint in "For a Fistful of Dollars" as well as in "For a Few Dollars More", but I really loved him in "The Good , The Bad and The Ugly". All cult movies nowadays. But what the hell was the name of the movie from 1984, which I was going to talk about before all this rambling?
Well, the name of the movie is; "Once Upon a Time in America". It is starring Robert De Niro, James Woods et al. It is a gangster movie but also an epic drama. It follows a gang of Jewish gangsters in New York from the early twenties until the sixties. It's not a "Godfather" type of movie where you can say that the characters are likable or even honorable. They are all scum and criminals but that's the point. Leone doesn't sugarcoat anything and he tells it the way it is. If you haven't seen this masterpiece go rent it!

It 's Leone's last movie as a director. It is sometimes considered the last in a trilogy. It's not really part of a trilogy in my opinion but some people considers, Leone's movies, Once Upon a Time in The West, (which by the way, probably is Leone's best western ever) and "Duck You Sucker" also known as "Once Upon a Time The Revolution" part one and two of this trilogy.

Anyway, this became a big Leone push. He deserve it and it's a tragedy that he didn't get to stay with us longer than he did.

No Hiking this Weekend

Well, bad weather might be coming this am so I decided to not go hiking this weekend. I had planned a hike with a coworker to "Sand Cave" in KY. We were going to hike the Ewing Trail from Ewing VA up in to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Oh, well maybe next weekend.

I have tied some more flies tonight while listening to "Deep Purple" man their song "Burn" from the 1974 album by the same name is awesome. I never get too tired of the bass lines from Glenn Hughes.

I have not followed Glenn after his departure from Purple, I did buy one of his mid nineties albums but nothing came out of it. I know he has a solid fan base to this day and he is apparently huge in Japan.

Two DVD's

Watched "Changeling" together with my wife last night. It was a very good movie with Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, in the leading roles. It is a somewhat dark and depressing movie at times but it is very well written and the direction by Clint Eastwood is among the best he's done in my opinion. I highly recommend it.

The second movie, I watched by myself tonight. It was "Frozen River" directed by C. Hunt. I had heard a lot about the buzz around this movie and I've noticed that a lot of critics loved it. Melissa Leo got nominated for an Oscar and I do have to agree, that her performance is awesome. The other actors are not up to par with her. Her teenage son is okay but the rest of the cast were not very believable. This movie is also somewhat bleak and dire as Changeling was. The difference, better directing makes for a much better movie than Frozen River.

Calderwood Dam

Got bored yesterday. Couldn't bear sitting at home in the nice sunny weather. Lisa and I had a quiet nice Valentine lunch at the "Crown and the Goose". We both had the wonderful "Fish and Chips". I can highly recommend it. Back to yesterday. It is hard for a fisherman to wait on spring. February will have most devoted fishermen chomping at the bit. I'm no different. I have a coworker who fished the dam area on Calderwood a lot with spin gear. I didn't think it was doable with a fly rod but I decided to walk down there to have a look at the dam anyway. It is a very nice lake and it was downright chilly in the gorge. It is a gruesome walk for about a mile back up the mountain. Lord knows I need the exercise. I stopped at Abrams Creek for a little while around the Ranger Station. Drove through Happy Valley on my way back home to Knoxville. A nice and sunny day but no fishing yet.

Next weekend if the weather doesn't go bad on us will be a hiking weekend. I'm thinking about doing the Ewing trail in VA up to Sand Cave in KY (Cumberland Gap National Historical Park).

Just about died goin up Frozen Head Mountain

Well, three months sitting in front of the computer, eating and not exercising can do anyone in. I'm 42 and felt like 72. I blame it on being sick twice this winter and not exercising. Anyway, after driving up to the trailhead in Frozen Head State Park, I bought a map at the visitors center. I decided on the shortest but supposedly the quickest route to the peak of the mountain and the lockout tower. This trail was 3.3 miles one way and it is rated moderate. That is if you are in shape and that you are not me. I was huffing and puffing worse than the steam engine from the trains 80 years ago when these parts were logged. I came up on a party of three with a nice little Shi-Tzu dog. The dog was as tired as I was at that point. The reason being, it's legs are six inches. LOL.

I got to the top in about two hours. It was worth it. I had a nice view of Petros and Brushy Mountain Prison down below. I could see over to Buffalo Mountain and the windmills TVA put on top of there. I ate my two Little Debbie's, which by the way was the main reason I made it up there. I got down in an hour and a half.

The weather was superb, in the sixties. I was very impressed by the clean state park and the nice visitors center. I will definitely be back.

I can't wait until the warm weather and the early morning wildlife encounters. This big bull elk was standing in the middle of the road (Balsam Mountain Road in GSMNP, NC last July. The elk moved slowly to the side of the road as I was grabbing my camera. If someone would have come up fast on that road it could have been a bad accident. Anyway, I thought it would be appropriate to upload a summer picture when we are having real cold weather here in East TN.

Skunked on Snowbird

Went to Big Snowbird today with two pals. Neal and Pete. Pete was the only one catching anything. The water temp were hovering around 38 to 42 at the most. Bone chilling cold so to speak. Big Snowbird is a beautiful place and I am going back when the conditions are better. This was more of a scouting trip for me than anything.

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed with the amount of trash around the stream. We did see some small flies coming off. I wasn't able to catch any so I can't say for sure what they were. I'm thinking BWO and maybe some Blue Quills.

All in all a nice day to be out.