I have several friends from my college and mid-to-late 20 years who are "extreme" sport enthusiasts: mountaineering, rock climbing, white water kayaking, mountain biking, and so on. While I've dabbled in a few of those arenas, I'm pretty much the only one who views fly fishing as an activity that's worth any and all time I can dedicate to it. On several occasions these mis-informed friends have offered the same back-handed compliment, something along the lines of : "fly fishing is the sport I plan on doing when I'm too old, or too broken down to (insert above sport here)...." In other words, fly fishing seems like a cool sport (compliment), but it just seems like a cool sport that old men do (back-hand). My response to them? "Thank you. That means I'll continue to be alone on most of my favorite water." With the first 58 degree rain of the season setting the stage for the upcoming 7-8 months of weather, I've spent the last 2 1/2 hours looking back at some of the awesome water and beautiful fish I've had the privilege of coming across this summer....but only after putting in some work to get there.