The

The In the summer of 2015, so more than a decade ago now, me and a few friends were just

sinking beers and watching TV in my apartment, when I flipped over to the history channel

and saw this show called Alone.

Now, for folks who have never seen it, a bunch of contestants get

dropped off in some isolated patch of forest up in Canada, but so spaced out that they can't work

together, and hence why the title is called Alone. They only get the basic survival equipment

and contestants can tap out at any time, and then whoever stays out there

longest wins a million dollars. And as we're watching, an argument breaks out between us,

over which one of us would win the million dollars, and by the end of the night, we only

agreed on one thing. We should head out to the middle of nowhere for some kind of hardcore camping trip and find out which one of us was king of the wilderness.

And then a few months later, the five of us are sitting in a truck headed for a place known as the River of No Return.

Now its full name is the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, but we ended up shortening

it to the much more ominous River of No Return to make the trip sound more badass.

It's the largest wilderness area of Alaska, and with us living in Boise, it was basically

right up there on our doorstep.

We drove up to a little town called North Fork and

then made our way to the trailhead which would take us to a place called Long Tom Mountain on foot.

And this meant our four days hiking there and back and one day's rest on Long Tom Mountain

with some fishing and swimming in the nearby Salmon River while we camp there.

That first day's hike was rough, and I slept like the dead when we finally made camp for the

night. The second day was a little easier after the first, and seeing the view from the top of

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