Frank Campbell doesn’t trust me to help load his boat. The longtime Niagara River guide has good reason to be cautious. The last time I tried to help someone load a boat in the intense current of that river, their hull ended up with a scratch (it might have been a gouge, but I worry not about semantics). So I stood idly by on the edge of the Lewiston, N.Y., boat ramp while Frank secured his Lund to the trailer. That’s when I noticed a B.A.S.S. sticker on an old — but pristine — Triton. North Carolina plates. I was intrigued.
“Beautiful boat,” I said. “And I love the sticker.”
“Thanks,” the man said. “You wouldn’t believe the story of this boat if I told you.”…