Western North Carolina Hammock Camping and Fly Fishing

 It has become a tradition that every Memorial Day my cousin and I go on a backpacking trip. In the past, it has been a family trip with uncles and cousins joining us. This year was a bit different in the fact that it was just me and my cousin Todd for the majority of the trip, Todd's pastor did join us for one night though. This year's trip was great even though the weather was a little on the wet side.

  

This year we changed things up a bit and instead of walking in from the lower end, we decided to hike into the headwaters and hike completely through the length of the backcountry portion of this stream. I had attempted this same hike a few years ago and due to the remoteness and very little travel on this trail, we lost the trail and ended up boondocking through some rugged steep country. On this trip I had an advantage, an app on my phone called OnX which showed the trail and gave your current GPS location so you could see if you were off-trail or not. The app worked fantastically and was worth every dime, we had no problem staying on trail, with no shenanigans through rhododendron thickets. The complete trail is roughly 11 miles and we spent 3 nights on this trip. I am looking forward to doing this hike again and spending more time fishing the remotest portions of the stream, I know there is a 13" southern strain brookie lurking in these waters or even bigger. 

The gear I used on this trip was the same tried and true gear I always use. My camping gear consisted of my Dutchware gear 11' netless hammock and my Warbonett Superfly tarp, for sleeping I used an Enlightened Equipment quilt set. My fishing gear was a TFO finesse 8'9" 3 weight, Lamson Liquid reel and Cortland 444 double taper 3 weight line. Hot flies on this trip were size 12 light cream-colored flies like an elk hair caddis or yellow sally. I carried all this gear in an Osprey Exos 58 backpack.