Freestone Exploration – Rusty Lofgren

By chance an old gated dirt road was opened for access along a particular unnamed freestone stream in west, northern, east, southern Pennsylvania, and a fellow fisherperson and I traveled this dirt road to see what we could see.

Rusty Lofgren Freestone 4

Nature stood around us and we enjoyed being a part of it. We saw a pile of bear scat the size of a seat cushion, birds a-plenty, and even spooked a doe in a field along this dirt road.

Way down around the corner, up and over the mountain, then back down again and into a ravine we stumbled upon a tributary to this particular unnamed freestone stream whose beauty was something to behold.

Rusty Lofgren Freestone 5

We stopped to enjoy the sights and sounds of this little mountain run, and only wondered the number of brook trout it held.

Our fly rods we kept in the car, and probably for the better as this tight run would require magnificent precision casts just to land a fly in the water and get a good drift.

Tempting, yes, but sometimes it is best to just look.

Rusty Lofgren Freestone 1

 

After this respite we headed back to the main stream and geared up for some freestone fishing.

Rusty Lofgren Freestone 2

 

Several casts were made and a couple of fish hooked, but it didn’t take long for me to notice something that prompted me to lay my rod down and take a looksee.

Rusty Lofgren Freestone 3

A stone wall was built by someone back in the day along the banks of this stream, and I could only wonder why. Probably for some sort of logging purposes, and thoughts of when the wall was created ran through my head. It may had been as old as the 1800s, and could have helped aid in transporting lumber down this creek. Or maybe it was older?

Perhaps it was built for military purposes for one of those old wars that were fought on the soils of this country. Hard to say, but it looked pretty interesting, and I was intrigued.

Eh, no fish to talk to for me on this trip. They were there, just “not in the mood to converse”.

Rusty Lofgren Freestone 6

No worries, though. It was fun to look around.

Rusty Lofgren is a photographer, videographer and writer in Pittsburgh, PA. Rusty’s portfolio and contact information are available at LeafBranch Studios and his new book Penna Fly Fishing Seasons is available on Lulu.com.

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