What Makes an Expedition?
Merriam-Webster defines an expedition as a
journey or excursion undertaken for a specific purpose. That definition covers
a lot of territory. It could mean traveling to the North Pole to see what is
there. Or flying to the moon. Or it could mean a hike into the forest,
searching for a wilderness trout stream to see if brook trout swim in its water
or if woodcock live among the alders on its banks.
Looking for a remote stream sounds better
than the cold of the arctic and much safer than flying to the moon.
There’s a locally well-known stream that
has no easy access and long has been an interest of mine. The logging road that
parallels part of it is gated and the headwaters are more than a dozen miles
from that gate. Hours have been spent pouring over maps and aerial pictures
trying to find a reasonable way in.
Finally the pieces fell together. An
accessible logging road leads to a grown in logging road that shows up in
aerial photos. It should only be a few miles down a long grade to find the
stream. What would it be like? The expedition was planned…lunch, fly rods,
camera….
The hike in was uneventful. Icy cold
water flowed over a gravelly bottom, in spite of the hot August weather. Alders
covered the entire wide bottom of the valley until the land started to rise
into hardwoods on the hills. The remote place felt like we were the only people
on Earth.
And I am not going to tell you more than
that.
No comments:
Post a Comment