Friday, July 13, 2012

Gorgany Race, 2012

Earlier this summer my friend Evan and I took part in an adventure race in the Carpathians. There was no fishing involved, but it was definitely an adventure.

The race includes 16 control points scattered around the mountains, particpants have 30 hours to find as many CP's as they can. Scoring is based on the number of control points found, time, and completion of "technical tasks" (rappelling, a high ropes course, river crossing, etc.). All that said, we didn't do so great, Gorgany kicked our buts. But we were satisfied with what we accomplished, namely improvement on Evan's result from last year (with a different team), and summiting the highest peak in the area, which we managed at night. All in all we found 5 of the 16 control points, and completed two technical tasks. So, here are a few
photos:

Carpathian meadows.

This bridge on an underused road was washed out by a flood at somepoint.


Haystacks and fields.


Bridge across the Limnytsya River on the way to Mount Vysoka.


The Lymnytsya River in the moonlight.


At the summit of Vysoka (1805m), 4:30am. We never did find the CP in the dark, that was a bummer.



Twilight below the summit. This place felt like a moonscape in the dark and fog.



The trail on the way down.


Sunrise.






Tuesday, July 10, 2012

More Flies


Here's an old unfinished post I found in my "drafts" folder of some sakasa kebari I tied with different hackles. As I remember I really liked the golden plover hackle - it's very supple and has a nice combination of colors. The waterhen was good too. I'm not sure what else I wanted to say when I started this post so long ago, but the photos aren't bad:



Sakasa Kebari with golden plover hackle



Ruffed Grouse Hackle

This time with waterhen hackle

Pheasant hackle with a body of olive UNI-Yarn

Sakasa kebari tied for smallmouth bass - size 8