Mountain Fork River, OK

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With 24 hours of off time, I threw the go-boxen into the truck and drove 3.5 hours to finally fly fish some trout waters—cold clear riffles—since my time as a child with my dad in Yellowstone. Back then, fly fishing was a privilege we could barely afford, but he made sure to take us to amazing remote streams in primate-free Wyoming mountain ranges.

In Texas, the next time I picked up a fly rod it was an 8 weight to snag some speckled trout and red fish in the salt flats of the Gulf Coast. I was fresh out of college, and I had a good job. Worlds apart from cold mountain headwaters and being broke.

I admit, I wasn’t very good at it, and looking back, I was a workaholic who placed far too much importance on the wrong things.

Now that I’m older and my kids are almost grown, I’m turning my attention back to those environments which forced me to lose myself in overwhelming nature.

The Mountain Fork tail waters of Broken Bow, OK is likely the closest place cold enough for trout. And I found them happy and ready to eat.

Wooly Bugger

I will be back, and I will bring the kids. The Mountain Fork was just what I needed. I want to share it with them like my dad did when he found some crazy remote riffle three mountain ranges from civilization. Not as remote, but not Dallas, TX either. It’s hard to find any form of remoteness here, but that river is just a first step for another set of adventures I’ve coming.

Monas Hieroglyphica

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“All bodies have edges in common with their shadows (something which Mathematicians know quite well). Similarly the wise realize that true bodies [of work] have diction [word choices], in speaking and writing, which are in common with their shadows. While the wiser philosophers enjoy the solid teachings and pleasant benefits of the bodies, the ignorant, foolhardy and presumptuous apes grasp at mere shadows, which are empty and worthless.”

—John Dee of London