The Mountaineer re 
Leaving Moraine Lake we crossed the Chagoopa plateau to 
the rim of the Big Arroyo Canyon and after several attempts, 
finally selected the head of a ravine where a dry water course 
furnished stepping stones and scattered pines below gave fair 
assurance that the descent would not be too abrupt on the lower 
slopes. On the plateau above, mountain bluebirds flitted across 
our path and near the rim we noticed wolf or coyote tracks, no 
doubt made by the “invisible choir” in the timber the evening 
before. On the way down we heard grouse eall and on a pro- 
jecting point we found curved mountain sheep horns, mute evi- 
dence that our route had been favored by that monarch of ali 
mountain climbers. <A descent of 1500 feet brought us to the 
Big Arroyo, with our packs by that time tested and adjusted 
as from then on to be like part of our own anatomy. 
Going up stream we forded near Lost Creek and while 
some rested under the pines, others prepared fire, and the three 
anglers hastily putting their rods together whipped the near by 
pools, each securing in less than an hour twenty or more trout. 
The trout were marvels of beauty, for here the rainbow of the 
Kern and the trout of Golden Trout Creek had intermingled 
creating a kaleidoscope of color, varying in shade as they came 
from sunny riffles over yellow granite or kept more secluded 
in dark pools. Probably you all know the rainbow, but the 
golden trout is only found in the creek of that name, a tributary 
of the Kern, and in several near by streams and lakes where 
they have been transplanted by the Sierra Club. Carrying fifty 
or more trout on various occasions, in fish cans, on mule back, 
for several days at a time, the club has achieved remarkable 
success. One hundred, planted five years ago, increased so 
amazingly that thirty anglers securing the limit of twenty each 
in Rock Creek one day made no appreciable difference in the 
number of its finny inhabitants. To appreciate their wonderful 
coloring one has to see the golden trout as it darts, a blaze of 
gold, from its hiding place under bank or boulder for the fly; 
or caught, lies gasping on the green sward showing the brilliant 
gold underneath, with sides of paler hue divided by a horizontal 
band with dark back and strongly marked dots on fin and tail. 
The largest golden trout caught during the outing weighed 
three and one-half pounds and the record rainbow eight and 
three-quarter pounds, both caught in lakes stocked five and 
seven years before. The trout in the streams were smaller but 
better fighters and more attractive flavor. 
