Nat Greene Flyfishers    May 2007

Volunteers Needed for Boy Scout Flyfishing Merit Badge Class

From: Lloyd, Peter B mailto:lloydpb@forsyth.cc
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 12:08 PM
Subject: Scout Merit Badge

Dear Nat Greene Flyfishers,

We will be working with a group of ~ 15 - 20 scouts to help them earn the fly fishing merit badge on May 5. This program will be at Ravens Knob Boy Scout Camp where there will be a number of similar programs for various merit badges happening at the same time. The morning session with the scouts will be from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and the afternoon session will be 1:15 to 5:15. Anyone from your chapter who would like to help us would be greatly welcomed. The coordinator of the program from our chapter is Mike Davis (copied above) and anyone interested should contact him either by email (davism@andassoc.com) or phone (336) 580-6341.

Attached is a map showing the campground. Note the Handicraft area in the center of the map. I believe the Aquatics area is simply the area of Lake Watson and Lake Sabotta.

Check the website for directions. Its up near the Mitchell River.

Here are the links…

http://oldhickorycouncil.org/

http://www.ravenknob.com/facilities/

http://www.ravenknob.com/facilities/index.php?a=42

Thanks for your help on this

Peter

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I Try to Sleep

Note: This is the fourth (and last?) article in a series about a trip to an Alaskan fishing lodge taken last summer by Nat Greene members Jim Brady and Dick Feulner.  The complete set of all four essays can be found by clicking here.  Many thanks for Jim Brady for his willingness to share his fishing stories with us for so many years. 

Our arrival at the lodge was marked by lunch and a brief orientation. We were cautioned about the presence of bears in the area and, in particular, to look out for bears in the camp at night. Before we stepped off our porch to head for the toilets in the bathhouse, we should scan the area with a flashlight. Bears had been seen roaming around at night and we should not just walk blindly about. This was not comforting to me. Combined with the many bear tracks and piles of bear scat around the river bank in front of the lodge, I knew that an encounter with a bear was possible, perhaps inevitable.

So the first night I lay me down to sleep and didn’t do so well. I usually sleep on my left side but am also claustrophobic and the small bed tucked in a corner forced me to sleep on my right. I was also not adjusted to Alaska time, four hours earlier than home. There I was, wide awake trying to sleep in an unusual position in a strange place at a strange time. Finally, I dozed off only to dream about being chased by a bear in my bare feet and undies. I didn’t find how the dream ended because I abruptly woke up in a sweat. And I needed to pee, really bad. The men were given the option of peeing off the porch instead of walking all the way to the bathhouse and after that dream, no way am I going across the compound. I pick up a flashlight, go out on the porch and scan the area. Holy shit!! There’s a bear thirty feet away!

But the critter doesn’t move and I realize it’s actually a very large gall, probably from one of the trees used to build the cabins. A gall is a large localized swelling of a plant, usually caused by an insect infestation. I actually remember seeing the thing in daylight but it didn’t register. And this one looks very ursine in the dark. Even though I can intellectually comprehend this and the fear of an encounter has passed, it doesn’t do a thing for my bladder and now I am nearly wetting my pants. So with great relief, I let go off the deck. I go back inside and make another stab at sleep. I am still wired over meeting a chunk of wood in the dark so it takes about a half hour before I finally relax enough to drift off.

While all of this is transpiring, Dick is over in the corner sleeping like an infant. Totally passed out. No snoring, no heavy breathing, just quiet. Just when I finally do fall asleep, he abruptly growls and snorts loudly in his sleep. This sends me flying three feet in the air, blankets and all! I am so wired I can feel electrical charges zinging all over me, probably well conducted by the soaking sweat I am drenched in. Now I am wide awake, on super-heightened alert, listening for the slightest sound. I look out the window, half expecting to see a wild animal looking back. Fortunately, nothing’s there.

I crashed back down on the bed, exhausted physically and emotionally, my bed clothes cooling off and becoming less comfortable by the minute. But I was too tired to do anything. It’s 4:00 am and I felt like I haven’t slept a wink. I was so exhausted I was limp and pressed heavily into the mattress. Gratefully and without fanfare I slipped into unconsciousness.

Suddenly, the roar of the generator announces the new day. It’s 5:00 am and the cook needs electricity to make breakfast. I heard some noise off in the distance and with what senses I had left the noise came closer and closer until I realized it’s time to get up. I have, after all, had one hour’s sleep.

Dick climbs out of bed and growls, “Brady, get up.”

“How did you sleep, Dick?” I mumble in reply.

“Pretty good, how about you?”

Jim Brady

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