Solitude and John Gierach:  “It’s not likely for a solitary trip to end in a great epiphany or anything.  It’s just that I think the way you fish when you’re alone is the way you really fish: your own personal style, uninfluenced by crowds, guides or friends, and it’s interesting to plug back into that now and again.  Solitude is educational and it can be satisfying.” authored John Gierach in Another Lousy Day in Paradise.

Well the photographer behind this blog lives for solitude while flyfishing, often at the expense of nervous anticipation of the artist; but, that’s just us.

Headwater red rock, 11x14:

Stairway to Cross Mountain, 11x14:

Birch Creek spring, 11x14:

  

These secluded, remote brooks seem to possess one common denominator other than solitude, and that is they are often home to small wild trout.  “Whatever they are and however they got there, they’re the kind of trout that fate put in the stream, they’re only as big as they’re supposed to be, and by now, generations of fish later, many of them have gone ragged-ass wild and are part of the landscape.  If they lack any romance at all, it’s our fault, not theirs.” so wrote John Gierach in At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman.