“Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, inciting at once to work and rest! Days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God. Nevermore, however weary, should one faint by the way who gains the blessings of one mountain day; whatever his fate, long life, short life, stormy…
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” …
Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. ~ Henry David Thoreau I keep forensic evidence of the two murders I’ve committed hanging in an art gallery in the corner of the cabin. The first murder…
“Everything you can imagine is real.” ~ Pablo Picasso I expect this is how I will die. I think this as I drive through the canyon where I live, a canyon deeply incised by the Cache la Poudre River, creating narrow chasms and gorges cut into Precambrian granite and gneiss forming a stunning variety of…
“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow It was going to be a wet one. In the days prior to my trip up the canyon the forecast promised showers over the weekend, although I was hoping for the intermittent variety. Nope. Steady rain Friday…
“History is written from what can be found; what isn’t saved is lost, sunken and rotted, eaten by earth.” ~Jill Lepore Hey, I found your fishing rod. It was early morning during my daily walk up the road as the light was breaking across the canyon walls. I passed the day-use area on the opposite…
“The friends I can count on I can count on one hand”. ~ Anonymous I have a fishing buddy who’s fond of sayings and that particular one has resonated with me. He’s always been one of the guys I have counted on. Not sure he can say the same thing about me. We are an…
“Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt There exist several memorable fish in my experience. The little brook trout caught in a narrow, tumbling stream whose encounter caused us both to blush. A cutthroat from the depths of a mountain lake so clear it reflected a Colorado sky all the way…
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” ~ John Muir The size of the ponderosa pines in Silent Forest is a testament to the vigor of mother nature. These are clearly not discontented trees, rising a hundred feet or more, trunks wrapped in red-barked girth that my outstretched arms can’t…
“Vines will be planted, corn will spring up, a whole growth of new crops; and people will still fall in love in vintages and harvests yet to come. Life is eternal; it is a perpetual renewal of birth and growth.” ~ Emile Zola For about…