“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…

“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…