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I arrived on a Friday evening at F-Troop, just me and the two camp kitties Austin and Pooh-Cat. I settled the two pets in at their 20-hour-per-day sleeping venues and their food-and-water stations and walked out back to build a campfire. A couple of hot dogs and some good quiet time later, I doused the flames and headed to the front deck to settle in on the wicker rocker and listen to the great, grave movement of waters downstream in the majestic Allegheny River.
I cracked a beer (hey, I’m old enough; don’t worry) and breathed in the fresh cool air and listened to the crickets and bullfrogs and owls in the night and pondered. “I drink alone,” I heard myself quoting from the classic rock song, “because I prefer to be by myself.”
And sometimes I do prefer to be alone in the outdoors or up at camp. Things slow down then and get quieter. You can have a conversation with yourself. It’s fun with a raucous crowd joke-telling and excitedly making plans for fishing or hunting trips, but sometimes I’m in the mood for an evening on the front porch. Just me and the river and the sounds of the night.
And then there’s the solo fishing trip awaiting in the morning. I rose with the sun Saturday, made coffee and toast, then drove down to Perry Run, which holds stocked trout in its lower reaches and wild brookies farther up. It’s one of my favorite Warren County streams, high-gradient with lots of pools and waterfalls. I started in at the Althom Road bridge and hiked upstream. The game lands forest was lush with the early-summer greenery of oaks and hickories and beech trees and hemlocks, and in the open places along the trail, where sunlight shone through into meadows, tall grasses thrived. Birdsong and insect buzz filled the air, and I fired up a Black‘n Mild cigar to hold off the gnats and mosquitoes.
A half-mile up, I approached the five-foot-high shelf-rock waterfall that I’ve been fishing once or twice a year for 20 years and tossed a line in where current bordered eddy. The fly line went suddenly tight, and I jerked and missed the fish clean. I tried again and hooked him, a fine, fat hatchery brown trout about one foot long. I don’t catch many stocked trout these days, so I took a moment to study him. The head was small and the body heavy compared to wild trout, and the fins were stunted and the coloration drab. He was still a worthwhile fish, though, having lived a month and a half in the stream since the last stocking. I contemplated his chances of surviving through until next spring and officially becoming a holdover trout, which are almost as wild as born-in-the-stream wild native brook trout. Pretty slim, I decided, especially if he stays in this obvious waterfall fishing hole.
I caught another stockie in a deep run a hundred yards up from the waterfall and one more in a pool close by. After that, though, I saw nothing but wild brookies. The stream was high and roily from recent rains, and the trout bite was light, but I did manage to catch four small brook trout from the half-mile to the mile-and-a-half points upstream, then nothing at all for a long stretch.
At the two-mile point I approached a familiar hole where I had fished a few times before. A fast run poured in against the bank, and the creek made a sharp bend and formed a deep hole right where an old hemlock had blown down into the waters. It was tricky fishing around those hemlock branches, but I found a spot where the current carried unobstructed into the pool. On the first cast, I saw the line tighten and move sharply upstream, and I set the hook and felt a strong fish on the line. I battled and maneuvered him away from the branches and up onto the shoreline.
He was a real prize, a nine-inch wild brook trout with salmon-colored fins, a reddish cast to his belly and nothing but pure power and musculature from his oversized head to his square-backed tail. Most brookies never reach this size, so I admired him a moment longer and then released him back into the pool. That beautiful fish put a smile on my face and made my day. I stood by the stream for a couple of minutes and basked in the memory of the catch. Then I dismantled my fly rod and hiked straight back to the road.
Good luck out there. And have a great week outdoors.
Don Feigert is the outdoors writer for THE HERALD and the ALLIED NEWS. His latest book, The F-Troop Camp Chronicles, and his earlier books are available by contacting Don at 724-931-1699 or dfeigert@verizon.net. Visit his Website at www.donfeigert.com.
Sports
Outdoors: Sometimes a solitary trip to camp is best
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Roundup: VQ tops KC; Sharpsville edges Greenville in OT
They say home is where the heart is. But for the VisionQuest boys basketball team, home is wherever they hang their hats.
“We feel every place we go into is our home. When you hear us do our chant, ‘Who’s House? Our House!’ that’s because every place we go to is our home,” explained head coach Richard Gordon.
Which explains, at least in part, VisionQuest’s 61-56 District 10 Region 1-A victory at Kennedy Catholic Friday night. -
Reynolds ousted by LeBoeuf in consy quarterfinals
HERSHEY — Someone once said, “The third time is a charm.” Obviously not for the Reynolds High mat team in a series of 2012 matches against Fort LeBoeuf.
LeBoeuf finished off a trifecta against the Raiders this season, beating Reynolds, 33-28, in the PIAA State Class AA Championships consolation quarterfinals Friday evening. The Bison previously defeated Reynolds in the Ultimate Duals (28-27 on criteria after a 27-27 deadlock) and the finals of the District 10 Dual Meet Championships (31-28). -
Roundup: Sharpsville tops Sharon; KC's Wareham hits 1,000 career points
The Duke University Blue Devils men’s basketball team has nothing on its namesake, the Sharpsville High girls.
Duke drained 14 three-point field goals in rallying past Atlantic Coast Conference arch-rival North Carolina Wednesday night, and 24 hours later the Blue (Darlings) Devils did likewise. -
Reynolds drops opener to Boiling Springs in Hershey
HERSHEY — One of the problems with the PIAA State Dual-Meet Championships is that there is no true seeding. That’s why two of the state’s top ranked Class AA teams — Reynolds (3rd) and Boiling Springs (4th) — had to meet in the opening round.
But, of course you throw ranking and seeding out the window anyhow in the 3-day tourney in Hershey. -
HIGH SCHOOL WINTER SPORTS: Lakeview, GC matmen win
Lakeview and Grove City mat teams notched victories Wednesday night over West Middlesex and Sharon respectively.
Mercer bowed to Redbank Valley.
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Roundup: Sharpsville tops Lakeview in OT; GC rolls over Franklin; Titusville upsets Hickory
While the Sailors were sleeping, Luchey was laying out for the lid.
Tyler Luchey’s court-length layin at the buzzer Tuesday night staked Sharpsville High boys’ basketball team to a 58-56 District 10 Region 2-AA overtime win over Lakeview. -
Roundup: Hickory girls beat Franklin in battle of 5-AAA leaders
Knowing its male counterparts upset Franklin 48 hours earlier, the Hickory High girls basketball team was not to be outdone.
Forcing Franklin into a substandard shooting performance, the Lady Hornets harvested a 53-42 District 10 Region 5-AAA win Monday night. -
SPORTVIEW: Reynolds, Greenville are 2 of state's historic programs
CONGRATULATIONS TO the Reynolds High wrestling program which became the fastest Class AA team in the history of the state to reach 700 wins last weekend.
The program, which began in 1960-61 under coach Dick Sherwood, has set a torrid pace for winning since that 4-4 season.
Ironically, the school’s 700th victory came Saturday in the District 10 Dual Meet Championships against long-time rival Greenville, which went over the 700-win plateau in 2009. Greenville is believed to be the first AA team to reach 700 wins, while Reynolds did it in the shortest time. -
Hickory soccer standouts Free, Richards to Ashland University
Hickory High girls’ soccer coach B.J. Rudge believes the bar has been elevated, and his Lady Hornets have helped hoist it.
“In general, soccer has grown in this area ... and what our girls have accomplished is a reflection of the whole (Shenango) Valley,” Rudge recently observed. -
Ft. LeBoeuf beats Reynolds at D-10 AA Team Duals
EDINBORO — The Reynolds Raiders notched the school’s 700th victory in the semifinals of the District 10 Dual Meet Championships Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately for the Raiders, No. 701 will have to come later.
The Raiders topped long-time rival Greenville, 51-16, in the semis to become the first Class AA school in Pennsylvania history to 700 wins. However, in the D-10 finals at Edinboro University’s McComb Field House, the Raiders fell to familiar foe Fort LeBoeuf, 31-28. - More Sports Headlines
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