Alpine lake

Day two, hot springs.

Day three, a lot of alpine lakes.

Okay.

Alpine Lakes.

So you hike, and you go, first of all, after Hot Springs, we got back to the house.

My buddy wanted to drive up to this little mountain town, very rural, very remote, called Seasesh, Idaho.

So there's, there's actually a point on there.

There's a trail that's called Ruth Lake that goes to three or four lakes that are on, on trail, depending on which way you go on the trail.

And then you can go off trail and hit like three or four more lakes.

And so that point, the reason I bring that up is from my house, it's equal distance on mirror Lake highway.

If I go up through Evanston or I go up through cameras, it's kind of the midpoint, but, um, the Uintas are unique in that they are the largest contiguous mountain range that goes east west in the, in the contiguous States.

A lot of people go to it.

It has a little small lake next to it that hardly anyone fishes that has some brookies in it and not too far from it off trail.

I've gone to some of the lakes off trail and never seen a person all day,

The Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho.

jagged granite peaks that look like the teeth of a giant beast rose above endless forests, alpine lakes, hidden valleys, and miles of wilderness where a person can disappear without leaving a trace.

To most visitors, the Santus are paradise.

To others, they're a place where something feels wrong.

Then, in 2023, hikers discovered clothing and personal belongings near Benedict Lake.

Investigators eventually located Thomas' remains roughly half a mile from the trail.

Authorities believe he may have left the trail to explore the nearby Alpine Lakes before suffering a fatal accident or medical emergency.

Half a mile.

But the Gunnison was also designated gold medal water.

And then you've got tons of little creeks and alpine lakes.

You've got the East River.

You've got the two reservoirs, the Blue Mesa, which is the biggest body of water in Colorado, and actually had the world record, unofficial world record lake trout a couple years ago.

So

it's really just like a, you know, kind of a fishing mecca here.

How are the Alpine lakes?

The Alpine lakes are great.

It's hard to say this far out and assuming the flows/temps are even fishable then.

If not, we may go explore Alpine Lakes instead.

Two of us are new dads and have hardly been fishing for a couple years, so we're excited.

My question is: Do you have any fish camp traditions you'd recommend? Shore lunch recipes? Secrets for drying waders in camp? What might you do to best take advantage of this trip? I've dug out my vise and am busily knocking the rust off tying to refill my fly boxes, hoping to make, to maybe make a tradition out of this and one day bring the littles along.

It wasn't about that.

I've had those experiences in Colorado where we, you know, hike a mountain, we're so sweaty, and we've just accomplished this massive goal, and then we jump in the Alpine River or Alpine Lake, and it's so cold, but it just feels like, "Oh my gosh, I did it," you know? And it's that stuff that actually makes sense to me, um, in, in a way that is different than what we could ever measure.

Yeah, so good.

So good.

Mm-hmm.

And not to get super nerdy on V- VUM, visitor use management jargon, the desired conditions I think are really fascinating of Banff is going through this journey right now of like what is the experience we want someone to have at Lake Louise versus the backcountry in Yoho National Park? Do we want people, are they okay being surrounded by lots of tourists taking photos along Lake Louise? Yeah, we're probably g- not gonna regulate that, but do we want someone to have that same sentiment in the backcountry where they wanna be in solitude or skinny dipping in Alpine Lake? I don't know.

[laughs] You know what I mean?

Right.