One of the favorite expressions of that sage of the Smokies, Horace Kephart, focused on his desire to get “back of beyond.” That search for solitude brought Kephart to the Tar Heel high country in 1904, and the resulting balm he found for his troubled soul shows through clearly in his two enduring books, Our Southern Highlanders and Camping and Woodcraft. Trout fishing camps, with a tent pitched within earshot of a tumbling stream and the smell of hemlocks in the air, were an important part of Kephart’s lifestyle.

A century has passed since “Kep” first chose the mountains as his adopted home, but when it comes to the trout fisherman’s love of distant places and little-fished streams, little has changed. Occasionally my wife, usually when irritated, will say, “When you die, your epitaph should read ‘Jim Casada hated people.’ ” That isn’t actually the case, but when trout fishing, I do prefer people in mighty small doses.

Thankfully, such situations, with your only companions being tumbling waters and mountain fastnesses, still can be found in the North Carolina mountains. This is particularly the case in the southwestern-most portion of the state, where the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Nantahala National Forest offer those willing to take shank’s mare ample opportunities to savor the locations Kephart described as being “back of beyond.” With that glad thought in mind, what follows is a detailed look at five such destinations.

UPPER DEEP CREEK

I cut my fly-fishing teeth on lower Deep Creek and its largest feeder stream, Indian Creek. They lie within walking distance of my boyhood home and during what I now realize was a wonderful adolescence, I came to know them intimately. Yet my fondest memories of the stream focus on its upper reaches, which lie sufficiently far from the nearest road and trailhead to necessitate overnight backpacking trips to enjoy trout fishing there.

Upper Deep Creek remains a wonderful destination, and at least portions of the drainage receive surprisingly little angling pressure. It is one of those destinations a son of the Smokies, Frank Young, who for decades averaged 250 or more days a year on park streams, said would “challenge your skills, offer you real rewards at times, and always bring you joy.”

Here, as is true for all waters in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, anglers are limited to use of single-hook artificials. The daily limit is five fish (browns or rainbows or a combination of the two) of 7 inches or more in length. Don’t forget to get a backcountry camping permit for your choice of campsites and a North Carolina or Tennessee license.

There are two ways to access the stream’s more remote parts: from the trailhead just above the drive-in campground two miles outside of Bryson City, or from a starting point that begins on U.S. Highway 441 1.8 miles short of the Newfound Gap overlook. There is a large parking lot at the trailhead and a smaller one near the overlook.

Lying halfway between the two is a favored local campsite known as the Bryson Place. It is close to Horace Kephart’s last permanent campsite (a plaque set in an old millstone marks the site) and for that reason has some nostalgic appeal. For the best fishing, however, other campsites are preferable.

My personal recommendations would be Polk Patch on the stream’s uppermost reaches (Campsite 53, which is a four-mile hike from the Highway 441 trailhead) and McCracken Branch (Campsite 59, which is 5.1 miles from the lower trailhead) or Nicks Nest (Campsite 58, which is 5.5 miles from the lower trailhead) for the middle portions. Incidentally, for this and the other trails in the park, Ken Wise’s Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains is absolutely invaluable.

From Polk Patch, located on the Right Fork of Deep Creek, you can make a day trip across Fork Ridge to fish Left Fork (there’s no trail after you reach the main ridge, so you need to study topo maps carefully) or work upstream from the campsite. Camping farther downstream, you have the option of following the Deep Creek trail in either direction and starting to fish wherever you please.

Expect to catch a mixture of browns and rainbows, although with each passing year browns become more dominant in Deep Creek. However, they are appreciably more difficult to fool than rainbows, so chances are your catch will be roughly balanced between the two.