Planning off-trail travel is sometimes an exercise in theory. You really don’t realize how much of it is entertainment until your feet are on the ground. Much of the time, in rather short order, you ditch your plans, open your eyes, and adapt.

If there is ever a time when you go into a route preparing for the certainty that you’ll encounter uncertainty, then this next trip may be that time.

Once we leave the trail on Friday, we’ll attempt this route through a black forest (i.e., a forest where visibility is low, trails are absent, and the game don’t even create corridors), emerging (hopefully) at 10,000 feet where we can then find a break in cliff bands down to a lake that reportedly holds the largest Golden Trout in the USA.

Last time I tried this, I got skunked, and bled. But on that trip, I hooked one of the fish, lurking in deep water. I never saw it. But I felt it…

So yes, I’m going back…

Stay tuned.