The buck, an honest thirty incher, now hangs in my garage. Grandpa is gone. So now I tell the story to my kids… when they’re not out building their own memories with their grandpa.
“Pile of deer, by the big juniper…” whispered Steven from behind his binoculars. “Yep. There’s at least two bedded above them and to the right.” I whispered back, also glassing the opposite slope. After a slow start to the morning, we’d spotted this band of deer from a mile down canyon. Through the spotting, Read More
I lived in a big sprawling metropolis for a number of years after college. For most of that time my commute – 20 miles: 45 to 120 minutes depending on traffic – was the defining element of each day. One Thursday, 3 days before Christmas, during a snow storm and the afternoon rush, a, Read More
Humans are decidedly visual hunters. Sure, we’ve got four additional senses, and when we’re performing at our highest levels they all contribute. But relative to most other terrestrial mammalian predators, we are disproportionately reliant on sight to find and follow game. That fact is so fundamental that we often fail to (ahem) see it., Read More
“Dada, Dada look!” exclaimed my four year old. “The buck deer, um… with the pointy antlers… he’s smelling the girl deer’s BUTT! Ewwww… silly deer.” “Yeah, they’ll do that sometimes,” I said, hoping my indifference would stop the inevitable line of questioning in its tracks. “Why’s he do that?” he asked, undeterred. “Well… uh… you, Read More
The pinks and golds of reflected sunset disappear from the virgin snow with the last straggling rays of sunlight. What meager warmth the day had on offer dissipates as quickly as the color, and an insistent voice in my head urges me back to the house. Take your armload of firewood and go, it, Read More
Ping… Whack… THUNK. “Whoa, hey! No throwing rocks at the house!” I yelled to my four year old through the suddenly vulnerable window. “I’m NOT Dada!” he shot back with an eye-roll that would make a fourteen year old proud. WHAP. “Dude! What was that?” “I’m throwing rocks at the SPIDER!” he explained, exasperated, Read More
Certain places have a way of getting their claws into you. I didn’t know what to expect the first time I pointed my truck south from Rock Springs on Highway 191. Rumors abounded of big deer, pure Colorado cutts, and stories of bottomless draws where outlaws like Butch and Sundance disappeared from the law., Read More
I was about to step haphazardly into the run and throw a few half-hearted casts. Although it was as nice of water as you could imagine we had seen little sign of life. It was early in the season and the water was frigid. As I let the ice-cold liquid wrap around my ankles my, Read More
I knew dawn, when it finally broke, would be anemic and gray – little help in driving the cold from the house. Too bad, I thought. I needed all the help I could get. The sun hadn’t cleared the mountain yet, but already I was behind: behind on the errands, the house chores, the, Read More