From the clues, I have a suspicion that it is on a river that is accessible only by rafting. An 80 year old man could easily raft to a location on his own depending on difficulty of the river.
I agree. He was featured on an Expedition Unknown episode and the host went out with some people that have been searching for a long time. Below is what I recall as theories from the show and some of my thoughts.
Begin it where warm waters halt.. canyon down = Yellowstone (known to be dear to Fenn), waterfall
Not far, but too far to walk... There'll be no paddle up your creek .... Just heavy loads and water high. = Seems obvious to be a raft through rapids
Put in below the home of Brown = refers to brown trout, good fishing spot
That's certainly the obvious meaning of that one stanza. Put in on a river and paddle downstream a distance that would be too far to walk. (Of course, he would need to get back to his car somehow unless there was a second person with him who could drive to the take-out. And this doesn't really square with his supposedly taking two trips.)
Depends on how far he had to raft, it could be a hundred yards between where he enters the river and where he leaves it. He's been hiking those forests for years.
Perhaps he took two trips to the put in. once it was floated the weight would be less of a burden and he could have taken any number of miles downstream that same afternoon.
He could have then packrafted to any subsequent point down the river or any trail connecting, taking as many days as he needed to extract himself after the deed was done.
Perhaps it is even intentionally in a place where it is relatively easy to get to, but difficult to get out of.
I've seen enough variants on the "two trips" comment that I probably wouldn't read a whole lot into it. e.g. he's quoted in one interview as making two trips in a car, so one trip might have been to pick up a boat.
It's also easy to believe that (assuming this is real), the X spot could be fairly isolated while the put-in and take-out are trafficked to the point where getting a ride back to a car might not be a big deal.
I thought it was funny that the only place his book is sold in on Water St. The place to buy the book is a logical starting place. And there is a Canyon St not too far.
