It's been a couple of months since I really was out in nature. Today I went to Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area in Hillsborough for some fishing and hiking. It was a beautiful morning when I arrived around twenty after ten. It wasn't too hot yet and there was a slight breeze. I fished for about 2.5 hours throwing everything I could think of at them (except plastic worm which I should have also tried) and ended up with one bite that threw the crankbait when it jumped (also caught a small bream when messing around with a fly). I had a first time experience as well, the park ranger was checking fishing licenses and luckily I renewed mine this morning so things were all good. Two interesting nature points of note are that there was a largemouth bass at the other end of the pond that jumped out of the water three times just out of the blue. I guess he was busting on some forage fish or something. The guy fishing down on that end using real worms didn't catch it though which I know was frustrating for him. Also I saw a ginormous snapping turtle floating in the water about 2 feet from my feet. One time it even chased my lure but I noticed it moving towards and got it out the water before it could chomp on it, I surely didn't want to mess with that sucker. I was hoping I would get to see it eat some fish but it never chomped it any of the yearling bass and bream swimming around it's head.
After fishing I hit the loop trail around the "mountain" all 800 something feet in elevation of it. Supposedly it's the tallest peak between the coast and Winston-Salem and has species on it that are only usually found in the mountains. I was surprised to find the trail wasn't crowded today as I only came across one couple at the overlook. The overlook was pretty neat, being that high over the surrounding Piedmont. I have hiked the trails before but for some reason missed the overlook, I think because it started raining last time, but the overlook is way better than the summit which just has a communications tower and a bunch of trees. Below are some pics I took along the way, including a toad that hopped across my path and the Eno River Valley.
After fishing I hit the loop trail around the "mountain" all 800 something feet in elevation of it. Supposedly it's the tallest peak between the coast and Winston-Salem and has species on it that are only usually found in the mountains. I was surprised to find the trail wasn't crowded today as I only came across one couple at the overlook. The overlook was pretty neat, being that high over the surrounding Piedmont. I have hiked the trails before but for some reason missed the overlook, I think because it started raining last time, but the overlook is way better than the summit which just has a communications tower and a bunch of trees. Below are some pics I took along the way, including a toad that hopped across my path and the Eno River Valley.
Turtle! Turtle!
Toad
Looking NE towards historic downtown Hillsborough
The Eno River is down there amongst the trees
Obligatory feet picture
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