The Little Juniata — the 'Little J' — runs through central Pennsylvania past Spruce Creek and Tyrone as a limestone-fed freestone that came back from the dead. Industrial filth nearly killed it; cleaned up, it turned into one of the finest wild brown trout rivers in the state, a fertile medium river of long riffles and deep runs winding through a wooded gap in the ridges. The limestone influence loads it with bugs — the sulphurs, the caddis, the famous Trico mornings — and the wild browns grow fat and free-rising. The bed is limestone-and-sandstone cobble and ledge, the water with a faint productive stain. Wading is honest freestone work on slick rock, with deeper runs that ask for respect. The Little J is proof that a ruined river can be redeemed, and that a wild trout will forgive almost anything if you give it back clean, cold, buggy water.

Wading: Slick rock and deeper runs