I came so far for beauty,
I left so much behind.
—Leonard Cohen

I planned to make a night of it, fishing brookies on the sparkling upper river early in the evening then dropping down to a deeper, slower stretch after sunset in the hopes that Mr. Hex might appear—and that Mr. Big might join the party. I knew where the heavy brown lived and if anything could induce him to slide out from beneath his canopy of brush it was a hatch of Hexes, the biggest, juiciest mayflies on the continent.

Patagonia likes big ideas. Sitting around the kitchen table of a rented Cape Cod cottage in Harwich, Masachusetts some time ago, we had gathered to test and discuss one of those big ideas—Patagonia's ultra-packable Middle Fork Waders, which, with their compact form factor and innovative use of materials—have since served to transform the way many anglers think about staying dry when standing in a river. But, try as they might, the folks from Patagonia couldn't help but stray the conversation to another idea, one that was still considerably under development.