Wanderlust

 

(This article appeared in The Greer Citizen)

            It’s five AM and I’m loading the car with the essentials for a day of adventure in the backcountry. Besides hiking and fishing gear, I pack my lunch and a few snacks for the journey, as well as a full thermos of coffee. One doesn’t get far on an empty stomach, and without plenty of caffeine to get me going and to help sustain some level of alertness, I would be stumbling blindly through the world this morning. There’s a small stream I discovered on a topo map, and for weeks now, I’ve been hatching a plan to see what it’s all about.

To reach the place I want to fish, I will need to cover a lot of ground. I wear a pair of old worn out combat-style boots that I’ve had for years. These boots have been through the ringer, and even though the best days are now behind them, they’re still comfortable enough and tough enough to get me there and back with no worries. I pour another cup of coffee into the tin cup at the pull-off at the end of a gated off Forest Service road and try to pump myself up for the three mile jaunt to this new prospect.

It's still dark when I start up the old logging road, and I click on my headlamp to negotiate the rough terrain. At what I figure is about the half-way mark, the sun is trying to come up, and when I reach the top of a knoll, I turn around just in time to see the eastern sky aglow with the new day. The birds are starting to chirp. I’m standing on a ridge right in the middle of the shift change, and as the woods are coming to life, the night critters are headed back in from partying all night.

After trekking for well over an hour, I finally hear the soft purl of water over rocks. At this point, I start the switchbacks down the side of a steep slope through thick rhododendrons. Finally reaching the water, I unpack my rod and begin to search out the deep runs undercutting the stream banks for trout. I will follow this ribbon of water upstream for as far as it goes. Once I reach the source, I might just head back downstream past my starting point to see where it all goes. I have nothing but time now, and a restless soul longing to discover someplace new.