What is a freestone stream?
A freestone stream is born at the top of mountains as drops of rainwater and melting snowflakes. As gravity forces these droplets to seep through the crevices of rocks, soil and organic matter, they combine into small trickles of water. Some of this water stays on the surface and some sinks into the ground to later emerge as a tiny spring. These trickles eventually collide and become larger and larger. They form tiny streams that you can step across. The tiny streams eventually join other tiny steams to form larger ones. These tiny streams are made larger along the way by many other trickles of water and eventually become streams that are large enough to be named and shown on maps. These streams are usually the headwaters of what will become a large freestone stream or river. The PH of the water is usually low. Generally, water in the headwater streams is fast moving pocket water. Most headwaters fall through steep gradients and rapidly flow downhill. As the stream reaches the lower el
