The repulsive seething mass of beetles shimmered in the high-altitude sunlight. I found myself transfixed by the frenetic movement of their red-backed bodies. I had spotted a few of the shiny-winged standouts on top of the dried and crusty stud pile while hiking up to check on the flow of a spring …
Follow the North Star
It was cold and lonely at midnight in October. The range was dead quiet after exhaling its last deep breath of fall. It was a decisive switch to full on senescence—dormancy after the frantic production of high-altitude shortness of a 60-day summer. Except for the stars poking through the …
100 Days, 600 Miles
Dear Friends "Are you sad that it's almost over?" As we bumped our way on the 2-track out of the backcountry from our last cow camp, I was asking my 26-year-old Linnaea about coming off the range with the cattle in the next few days. She, along with our other daughters and some great crew …
Beeves in the Back of Beyond
The late August sun glinted through the trees along the ridgeline above. I was alone, putting together a remote stock water system in an essential wilderness, with a fire pump, 300 feet of surplus firehose and two 1000 gallon poly tanks. I had pulled the hose-lay on foot over my shoulder up a steep …
When Beauty’s Poison Kills
"Dang it.", I thought. I could hear the squawk of magpies over the continuous rustle of aspens turning golden in the mountain breeze. The striking contrast of white and black iridescent beauty in their plumage was quickly eclipsed by their grisly reputation: dead animal eaters. Hearing the …
Hail and Hearty
Dear Friends It was the unsettling low roar that got my attention. When first perceived, my mind simply put it in the folder marked 'wind in trees.' But then the rational mind took over with a nagging thought: there were no trees on this part of the range. The nearest forest or creek-side aspen …