When I visited Alaska in 2003 with my father for a six-day wilderness float trip, bookended on both sides by day-and-a-half-long visits to a wilderness fishing lodge, I thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Alaska is neither inexpensive nor particularly easy to visit. And between the breathtaking landscape and outstanding backcountry fishing — including landing two king salmon over 30 pounds on a fly rod — the trip was so thoroughly enjoyable and beautiful that it would have qualified as once-in-a- … (read more)