Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.
- Aug 21, 2018

Jumping Into A Pool Of Mountain Trout

The Mogollon Rim is an impressive two thousand foot high escarpment that rises across central Arizona and into New Mexico, so it was very exciting to go on a day hike along one of its countless trails, long ago with a pleasant nature group. They said it would be much cooler up in the pine forests, but for some reason it was very hot. At midday, we rested next to a little stream running in step pools down the mountainside. I asked the hike leader if I could cool off in the water. He smiled knowingly and led me to the largest of the pools, it was about twelve feet in diameter with straight sides going down. “Jump in!” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. Fully clothed I jumped, pointed my toes, and fell cleanly into the center of the small, round, deep pool, with hardly a ripple. Down I went to about ten feet under the cool, cool water, where I found myself face-to-face with several little wild trout. With gentle firm little flips of my feet I twirled around in the still water and saw many, many little wild trout all around me, finning in place at various levels in the water column, and all of them were looking at me in the same still and startled way that I was looking at them. Delightful. I was so sorry to have to go back up for air. I love fish.