{"id":1,"date":"2015-07-10T17:40:13","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T17:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2015-09-08T20:00:11","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T00:00:11","slug":"donley-cabin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/10\/donley-cabin\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DONLEY CABIN: A TROUT BUM SAFEHOUSE"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Greg Grime<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There are oodles of methods to choose from when making the attempt to dodge a \u201choney do\u201d list or any to do list for that matter but what better way to do so than hiding out in a cabin, built by a man, simply referred to as \u201cHughes\u201d as local legend has it, in an attempt to avoid conscription into the Confederate Army? Furthermore, his alleged success in avoiding military service during the Civil War should be a testament to just how off the beaten path we are talking about.1<\/span><\/sup> After making the trek myself on foot, up a gated, four-wheel drive, U.S. Forest Service jeep trail that also serves as the only wide and well trodden path to the cabin, I quickly arrived at the conclusion that no one of sound mind would choose this location with convenience to town in mind. With the path\u2019s increasing grade, switchbacks, and water crossings beginning at the North River foot-bridge, followed by crossings at Big Cove and Donley branches, I wholly understand why someone would choose the location for a hideaway. With three water crossings, a moderate trail grade, and an almost guaranteed chance at meeting up with a local copperhead or rattlesnake during the warmer months, it is understandable why the cabin was constructed where it stands today and has so for well over a century in the historic Tellico Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest (CNF).<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
Donley Cabin Parking area sign & the Tellico Ranger Station entrance sign. The Tellico Ranger Station building is historic in itself and worth a visit. The staff is always courteous, pleasant and very helpful if you have questions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve read at least three different accounts regarding the individual or individuals as some proclaim, responsible for building the original and subsequent additions to the cabin with at least that many versions regarding the identity of those that used it to avoid being swept up into the ranks of the Confederate Army. After consuming a mishmash (did I say consuming mash? Nevermind, forget I said mash), of recorded fact and verbal local legend, I don\u2019t think we may ever know the whole truth. But no matter, the Donley cabin is a safe place for the trout bum to weave their own tale.<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes the Donley Cabin so appealing to the trout bum at heart is\u00a0the location. You know the old saying-location-location-location. The cabin is sandwiched between two impeccable rivers, the Tellico River and one of its many tributaries-the North River. But wait-there\u2019s more; just like the wild local muscadine grapes that grow in the region-the Donley cabin gets even sweeter. With the cabin within walking distance of other superb tributaries of the Tellico ,such as Sycamore and McNabb creeks, and a short drive to the gorge hammering Bald River, all of which incidentally hold brook trout at higher elevations, your only quandary will be deciding where you want to fish- first. I\u2019ve always found it virtually impossible to pass up fishing the North River even though other alluring water is available close by. I dare you to try and stroll from the cabin along the path leading back to North River Road and make an attempt at not getting your line wet-at least once-at the North River foot-bridge crossing. I\u2019m not much of a betting man but I\u2019d wager you a steak, beer, and bread that you wouldn\u2019t even make it back over the foot-bridge before breaking into a cold sweat and succumbing to the urge to cast-just once.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bald<\/a>
Bald River Falls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the Donley cabin\u2019s porch of wide wooden planks, hand-hewn from the surrounding, centuries old timber abundant at the time, you could play spin the bottle, follow any resulting direction and before long, terrain dependent of course-be on trout water. With the cabin serving as your outpost, you\u2019d be hard pressed to fish all of the CNF\u2019s 500 miles of available cold water streams but you\u2019d certainly be strategically located to explore many worthy of your time during your stay. You might decide to stay at the cabin for a considerable portion of your life just as long-time resident, Jack Donley did some time after the American Civil War ended well over a century ago(it\u2019s been suggested that he originally built the cabin) but you may only reserve the Donley cabin for three nights consecutively at the current rate of $35\/night plus a $9 non-refundable reservation fee through http:\/\/www.recreation.gov<\/span><\/u><\/a>\u00a0if you make your reservation electronically instead of by phone.2<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, the cabin is open for reservations year-round with the spring, fall and holiday seasons typically being the only periods that you might have to plan ahead to secure a reservation which is in itself-remarkable-from the standpoint that this cabin is rustic and I do mean-RUSTIC. Have no illusions; you won\u2019t find any electricity, running water, air-conditioning or indoor toilets. As such, the Donley cabin holds its own place between tent camping and more modern RV campsites. It not only serves as a great trout bum outpost but as a valuable reminder to us all of the modern amenities that we sometimes take for granted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Case in point, after a two night stay at the Donley cabin in late spring, my oldest son of eleven, found a new understanding and respect for the pioneers that carved a life out of the surrounding forest and waterways. I thought he summed it up well by saying, \u201cDad, they [settlers] were a lot tougher than I am but the fishing sure was good, so I\u2019d go back anytime.\u201d He was right about one thing, the fishing was excellent but I\u2019d go back only with a pack mule for hauling supplies. Well, a red flyer wagon would do, I suppose. On tertiary thought, maybe an ox would be even better.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"North<\/a>
North River Foot-Bridge. Trailhead that leads to the Donley Cabin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes-I know. You are thinking, these guys must pack like women. Yes-I know. Some of you may now have your fine-hackle ruffled over that comment. Mind you, I didn\u2019t call anyone an old hen-yet. How do I salvage my integrity now? Oh, yes! I must quickly point out other\u2019s flaws-BUT my wife has a closet full of shoes even Imelda Marcos would envy! Well-not really that big of a collection-but I tease her about it often just for sport. I must admit, she is a practical traveler especially when it comes down to a fishing trip; other than her hiking boots and wading boots or sandals, seasonally dependent of course, the rest of her collection stays at home. Yes-I know. You think I\u2019m a charlatan because my wife fishes with me sometimes. But what better way to keep her in the fold of the trout bum support system? See, I\u2019ve taught you something already.<\/span><\/p>\n

So-where were we? Ah-YES, I was recollecting that even with sore muscles and exhaustion as a result of my self-inflicted hardship, I found a proud moment as a parent because my oldest son became a young man on that trip. Not once did he grumble about pack muling the supplies and equipment to and from the cabin, being wet and cold or to hot, nor was he afraid of the wildlife [bears] or the dark. He still hasn\u2019t stopped talking about that trip. He even thought the mice that squeaked and tumbled about at night as they frolicked in complete darkness were a jovial delight. I couldn\u2019t help but think where there are rodents there are almost certainly-venomous snakes hunting them in the darkness. Ironically, late the very next morning as we rolled back into camp for lunch, I passed right by a copperhead-twice. It was perfectly nestled into a depression full of fallen leaves in one of the cabin\u2019s wide rock steps. My son pointed it out before I made the third and possibly final<\/em> pass\u00a0after I\u2019d altered my course to and from the cabin. What can I say, I was lucky. <\/span><\/p>\n

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I almost stepped down onto this rock step after I altered my course coming out of the cabin from the other door. My son spotted this copperhead before I did.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Donley Cabin copperhead ready and waiting on one of the rock steps. The one I was about to step on after I’d passed by on an adjacent step-TWICE!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes-I know. You are thinking, \u201cWhen is this guy going to start talking about fishing?\u201d How about now?<\/span><\/p>\n

As we began to fish the first morning, the overcast gave way early and sunlight began to dance on parts of the North River through the tangles of laurel and rhododendron that lay beneath the pines and deciduous hardwoods as the sun rose from behind McIntyre Lead (ridge) and Round Mountain. After a brutal winter by Southern\u00a0standards\u00a0with the water temperature finally breaking into the 50 degree range, 54 degrees to be exact on this particular May morning, I was just a bit surprised the trout were halfheartedly taking, then summarily spitting out dry flies or avoiding them all together. Bead-head prince nymphs\u00a0were being hammered with reckless abandon when fished at depth in currents swift enough to show the promise of sucking your line under a boulder for eternity. If the run was fast, from beginning to end, with deep shelter as the water was split<\/em> or shifted by a boulder before spilling into the adjacent pool downstream-you just couldn\u2019t go wrong. Another indication, I was doing it right<\/em> was the overwhelming feeling of dread in my stomach telling me my nymph or leader was going to get hopelessly snagged in a rock crevice at the end of the drift.\u00a0Swift-water with no current seams would be yet another way to characterize the type of water I’m talking about. The trick was to get the line deep-very quickly; standing perpendicular and about midway in relation to the run, casting into the very head of the pool to\u00a0allow\u00a0ample time for the fly to\u00a0sink and a chance to mend .<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nymphing the North River just down from the Donley Cabin foot-bridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For this particular technique, I use sinking line. Yeah-I know, sinking line instead of a dropper rig or a new fangled float-a my-bob-thingy with split shot? But a dropper is the only way to go-right? Consider this for a moment. The scientific part of me gave the floating line with a dropper rig and float-a-my-bob-thingy with a\u00a0hefty bead-head\u00a0prince nymph as the terminal fly on both rigs their chance prior to using the sinking line and\u00a0bead-head prince nymph-without even so much as a rejection. When immediately fishing back over those very spots using a sinking line and a weighted prince nymph-the results spoke for themselves. My hypothesis; the fly simply wasn\u2019t making it to the bottom fast enough when suspended by any means (dropper or thingy) even with ample leader length-the fly floated well above and out of sight of the feeding fish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just in case you\u2019re wondering, the floating lines were neon yellow and I\u2019ve seen fish refuse a fly because they see the line. We all have. Or should I say, anyone that has fly-fished enough has cast fly-line over a trout only to see it dart or go into a holding<\/em> mode on subsequent casts and refuse any other offerings. So, I don\u2019t think fly-line color was a factor because I caught fish over the same holding areas\u00a0afterwards using the sinking line. In the end, only the sinking line was able to get the job done that particular morning for us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rainbow on a prince nymph variant (yellow flash dubbing). They liked the Ostrich Prince nymphs even better.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My other hat-trick<\/em> that morning was to simply to find the water that balanced entanglement risk with pragmatic expectations. You must skip over some otherwise fishable water because of submerged logs or complex cross currents where a dropper would normally produce, but due to how deep you must fish the fly and how delayed the line reclamation has to be with this method the most difficult part is overcoming the urge to take the high risk of entanglement on familiar waters. Yes-I know. You are asking, \u201cSo how am I supposed to know where the submerged logs are located?\u201d Answer-there is no other way but visiting the stream or even better fishing it in low water to really know. There is always that chance that a log will sneak<\/em> into the stream at any time afterwards. Every cast when nymphing with no flotation is an elevated risk that you will just have to take. Make sure you take all of the nymphs you tied over the winter with you. If you don\u2019t lose at least one [nymph] using this method-you are doing something wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
Wild rainbow trout from the North River. We kept these two for dinner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After catching several rainbows on prince nymphs, we adjourned for lunch at the Donley cabin, returning to the North River later that afternoon to the beginnings of great dry-fly action. Orange and yellow\u00a0stimulator, yellow sally, and yellow elk-wing caddis patterns were all the rage.\u00a0It was such a delight to see the trout bashing the dry flies as hard on the surface as they did the nymphs earlier.\u00a0Twas not\u00a0until our stomachs started to rumble that we reluctantly headed back to the cabin arriving just before sunset. It felt like returning\u00a0home which\u00a0compels me to diverge for just a moment and mention what I\u2019m about to say. It tugged on my heartstrings more than a bit when I read an account that reported Jack Donley requested in his final days to, \u201cbe carried back across the river,\u201d to his cabin.3<\/span><\/sup> I don\u2019t know if his request was granted but I\u2019m not surprised that he asked, as there are few places I\u2019ve found so close to my own home as peaceful as the cabin that bears his surname. Like\u00a0much of the history regarding the Donley cabin, I don\u2019t know if we will ever know exactly what he said and the subsequent events that transpired in his final days but for this particular part of the story<\/em>, I choose to believe his request fell upon the ears of someone that could grant what might have been his final wish.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
One of the Donley Cabin’s rocking chairs stamped U.S.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Coming full circle, I was thankful that the fishing was everything I\u2019d hoped it would be and more after working so hard to just sleep near the fish. As I mentioned earlier, the hardship could have been avoided. I\u2019d passed by the path leading up to the cabin numerous times over the years and I\u2018d never bothered to scout it out. You know the surrounding water was calling me. What can I say? Then there were those things that are unavoidably avoidable, like my wife not leaving work as scheduled so she could be at home with my two youngest, pushing our arrival the first night to much later than anticipated. Such is the life of a medical professional. Excuses, excuses, I\u2019m full of them, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Home-made<\/a>
Home-made steak soup heating up the first night in camp. We freeze it to keep the cooler colder longer and so it cuts down on prep time. Good Stuff!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In my defense, we didn\u2019t expect packing in our supplies to be much of an issue based on what was stated about the trail complexity on the reservations page. However, by the time we\u2019d packed in all of our supplies and equipment from the parking area to the cabin [in seven roundtrips] and re-heated our homemade steak soup on the vintage but trusty Coleman<\/em> stove, we were well past legal fishing hours-half hour before legal sunrise to a half hour after legal\u00a0sunset-so we sat around the campfire, rigged our rods, checked our fishing equipment, or gadgets as my wife affectionately calls them, and planned which direction that we\u2019d be heading the next morning. So what appeared at first to be a failure was a really a blessing in disguise, as I\u2019ve found times like those in camp to be as rewarding as being on the water. Being able to talk with anyone, especially my children, with no interruptions from the outside world is no doubt a treat with everyone plugged into the grid <\/em>these days.\u00a0Which brings up this important tidbit of information, I\u2019ve never been able to receive any level of cellular phone service while staying at the Donley cabin or within the vast majority of the CNF. Plan accordingly because help, especially advanced medical care, is HOURS away-especially at night. Make contingency plans for emergencies with the thought in mind that your smart phone, even as smart as it is supposed to be, most likely will not be able to summons help. As always, let someone reliable know your plans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes-I know. That means you have to tell your spouse, boss, family or friends where you are and when you will return. But that’s okay because remember-you\u2019re an undercover trout bum [UTB] so you have to at least give the impression that you are still somewhat plugged into their grid<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t win them all-just like you can catch them all-can you?<\/span><\/p>\n

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_______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Giving credit where credit is due:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1. \u201cCherokee National Forest: The Historic Donley Cabin a Rental Property of the Tellico Ranger District,\u201d US Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southern Region, <\/em>n.d. [Pamphlet acquired from the Tellico Ranger Station, Tellico Plains, TN (CNF) in 2014]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2. \u201cCherokee NF 2014 Recreation Season,\u201d US Department of Agriculture Forest Service<\/em>, last modified May 12, 2014,\u00a0 http:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/detail\/cherokee\/news-events\/?cid=STELPRD3799951<\/span><\/u><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3. \u201cDonley Cabin,\u201d Cherokee<\/em> National Forest<\/em> Journal 3rd<\/span><\/sup> Edition,( <\/em>August 2010), accessed July 25th<\/span><\/sup>, 2015, http:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/Internet\/FSE_DOCUMENTS\/stelprdb5274239.pdf<\/span><\/u><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Greg Grime There are oodles of methods to choose from when making the attempt to dodge a \u201choney do\u201d list or any to do list for that matter but what better way to do so than hiding out in a cabin, built by a man, simply referred to as \u201cHughes\u201d as local legend has … Continue reading THE DONLEY CABIN: A TROUT BUM SAFEHOUSE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trout-bum-cabins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undercovertroutbum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}