Men against the woods

Each year my son and I take a men-against-the-woods hike which involves off-trail travel to an alpine lake we've never visited. This year we began by hiking a short maintained trail to a shallow lake in the alpine lakes wilderness.



Then we left the trail and headed through the woods by a troll house...



Next came a major brush fest.



On the other side of the brush was this 1.3 acre lake which gets stocked with 200 cutts every three years.



We caught cutthroats on size 12-14 hard body ants, hares ear wet flies and greenwells glory wet flies. I fished an 8'6" Phillipson 5 weight bamboo rod. Mushroom risotto and Cutthroat trout for dinner, rolled in flour/dill/cayennepepper/salt and fried in olive oil and canola oil. This is what men do. If Phil K were with we would have had real as opposed to packaged mushrooms.



After morning coffee we caught some small cutts in the shallow 4 acre lake by the maintained trail and hiked out. Very few berries for our oatmeal. We were in a forest at only 3,100 feet so maybe the sun didn't have a chance to ripen the berries.


We had the lakes to ourselves and saw only 2 parties of through hikers the whole weekend.

 

[Josh]

very nice!

I need to do more of this sort of thing.

 

[Matt B]

Mushroom risotto and Cutthroat trout for dinner, rolled in flour/dill/cayennepepper/salt and fried in olive oil and canola oil. This is what men do.

This is what cultured outdoorsmen do!

There's another sect that eats trout raw out of the lake, and just pours dry rice and mushrooms in their mouth, takes a swig of untreated lake water, swishes, crunches and swallows.

I like your way.

Very few berries for our oatmeal. We were in a forest at only 3,100 feet so maybe the sun didn't have a chance to ripen the berries.

Seems like the berries dessicated early this year. Except in very moist shaded areas, most are all dried up!

Great outing; thanks for the report and pics.

 

[Dave Westburg]

There's another sect that eats trout raw out of the lake, and just pours dry rice and mushrooms in their mouth, takes a swig of untreated lake water, swishes, crunches and swallows.

Alan Hasselborg, the legendary Alaskan outdoorsman and bear hunter, used to make his clients throw away their food and stuff their pockets full of oatmeal. That was the extent of the provisions they carried into the woods. See Hasselborg's Hangout in Frank Hibben's Hunting American Bears or Bear Man of Admiralty Island: A Biography of Allen Hasselborg. 1996 by John Howe. A remarkable man. There are a couple forest service cabins on Hasselborg lake which I plan to visit some day.

 

[dep]

super cool. thanks for sharing

 

[dflett68]

glorious. thanks for this Dave.

 

[Greg Armstrong]

Great job creating memories Dave… for the both of you!

 

[Phil K]

Not too many shrooms out yet. Soon!