Trail Log: 7-27-2023

 July 27th - Fish Lake - Lee Camp

Leave No Tracks and Chase you till you drop

Part 4

• Trail: Back side of Fish Lake
• Miles: 7.59
• Riders: Self – Marc – Pattie – Lee – Bernice – Jim
• Horses: Jack – Lou Ellen – Leah – King – Cash – Wolf

Pattie - Marc - Lee

Lee and Marc picked a shorter, easier ride that would loop around the backside of Fish Lake; an area I hadn't yet explored. Somewhere between then and now – the GPS tracking for the day disappeared. All I have to go on is photos and my memory...and we all know how reliable that is when it comes to geography.

I remember dawdling behind as we rode the gravel to the spot that left the main road and took off up the mountain. I needed to get off and secure a strap on my saddle bags that I had missed when saddling that morning. Again, not wanting to be “that person” and hold everyone up, I quickly jumped down to make my repairs. While I'm down here – I might as well take a gander at that tree over there I'm pretty sure had my name on it. I wasn't worried about catching up – I was worried if they dove off the main road up a trail I couldn't see I would not know where they had gone. The gang, by now, is used to making accommodations for my geographically challenged brain and waited until I came in to dive onto the trail leading up the mountain.

The climb was fairly steep. If I had my GPS tracks, I could tell you the exact elevation gain. Since I don't – I will have to rely on my various other gadgets to make a reasonably educated guesstimate. Looking at the “hitting the trail or other point of interests” preset message sent to contacts using my InReach emergency location device and pinpointing those coordinates against the Explorer Map – we can deduce the approximate elevation gain to be 1248 feet. I don't have to wonder where I would be without my techno-gadgets. I already know: I'd be anywhere but where I intended to be and having a blast getting there. I've always proclaimed to have more fun being lost than I ever did knowing where I was at.

At approximately 7250 ft – the elevation encompassed a birds-eye view of the entire topology we had explored over the last several days. Marc and Lee studied the various draws, ridges and meadows they had ridden. The birds-eye view gave them a new perspective to strategize possible routes and shortcuts. They discuss such things in a foreign language I have yet to fully decipher. However, each day brings me closer and closer to cracking this strange code. The number of coherent words between the “Wha...wha's” increased. I now hear things such as: “Wha...waaa..waaaa – Deadman Trail cutoff at Orange tape....whaaa waaaa wahwah...Sugarloaf intersects...wha wha wah....Naked Guy....Naked Guy....wahwah wah.”

The lesson in geography and navigational studies ended as we slightly descended making our way around Fish Lake to a small, hidden lake. We dismounted here for lunch. I don't know where I got the idea the lake was named “Lost Lake.” Perhaps it was on my GPS tracks I no longer have. Maybe Lee or Marc came up with it. I've found the lake on my InReach Map – but it does not have a name. Garmin BaseCamp doesn't show the lake at all. Lost Lake it is.

“Famous lines and what movie were they from!” Lee must have needed something to do after solving the navigational challenges of the greater Fish Lake area. The only two movies I can practically quote word for word are Gone With The Wind and Lonesome Dove. I have shallow cultural horizons. A line from either of them would be too easy. Another popped into my head: “Another time, another place, Mrs. McKaskel, I’d have chased you down til you dropped.”

Nobody knew it. If I could have mimicked the voice to go with it, they might have. Sam Elliot as Con Vallian in "The Quick and the Dead." The one with Sam Elliot and Kate Capshaw...not the one with Gene Hackman and Russel Crow. That's a good movie too...but...well, it's SAM ELLIOT. Now that's a guy I wouldn't mind meeting on the trail. Only he wouldn't be shirtless wearing femmy little silky shorts and NIKE tenny runners. Oh hell no. My Sam would be decked out in trail worn buckskins riding a raw boned, soggy bay and wearing a sweat stained felt hat pulled down low over thick brows giving you "that look...."

“HEY, LAURIE!!!...The trail is over here!!.” By the time I snapped out of my Sam fog – we had connected with Naked Guy Trail and arrived in camp. I do some of my best day dreaming in the saddle.

“If you have to shoot, shoot to kill. Wounds won’t impress them. They’ve all been shot before.” Con Vallian.