The sun was setting farther in the distance than this little Indiana girl had ever seen. Between me and the rugged, mountainous horizon was a scene of variegated green that seemed to be rolling my way. Foothills rose in the faded yellow-green of drying grasses, giving way to stately stripes of blue-green pine. Bright green bursts of cottonwoods shedding their wispy down offset the gray-green of Russian Olive and Silver Sage. And all served as backdrop to the stars of the show, the reintroduced bison lumbering their way across an expansive meadow made lush and vibrant by the late-season runoff.
The trip we mapped out was, in great part, to celebrate D’s October birthday. She said she wanted to visit the Southwest. And specifically The Grand Canyon. “You’ve already seen it,” I said. “Yes, but…
One rod, two distinct personalities.
I’ve been following the work of JP Ross for a while now. I first ran across his Muir pack rod, a 7-foot-5-piece fiberglass 3wt, several years ago when looking for a backpacking companion to chase…
A Brush with Fame
Have you ever had a brush with fame? At the airport, at a restaurant, on the streets of New York or LA? It’s one thing to see a celebrity on television or in a movie. And I think most of us would agree that it’s yet another, even better thing to attend a live taping, movie shoot, or concert. But if you’ve ever had that “brush with fame” in your daily life, you know that experience is in a category of its own. Now imagine you happen to run across that same person and instead of walking away, they come over and strike up a conversation with you and then ask you to rub their back. Well, that’s basically what happened here. Only the airport was a Florida spring head and the rock star was a vegetarian with flippers.
It was a bit on the chilly side, but was still a great day to visit the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. The park is full of native FL wildlife—and one old hippo (we’ll get…
A good paddling
Sometimes you just need a good paddling. And this past weekend was a beautiful one to get out on the water. So, we made plans to roll the #CariVan to the Little Manatee River State…
A while back, I reached out to ULA Equipment about building a custom pack for me based on what has become their Dragonfly Pack. At the time, an earlier version with slightly different specs and…
Holiday Rest
Card games have been a part of my social life since I was a baby. Literally. When I was born, we lived in a travel trailer at the Holiday Rest campground on Raccoon Lake. Evenings…
When I was 10, my parents acquired a 70-acre, mostly wooded slice of paradise. And while our prior residences had big yards and afforded me access to creeks and farm ponds full of bass, bluegill, tadpoles, and turtles, it wasn’t until we moved to what local old timers’ referred to as “Pikeville Holler” that I began to find myself in the forest. I was tempted to say “lose myself” there, but that’s not really what happened. When I would stuff a PB&J and a few fig newtons into a tattered backpack with my canvas creek shoes and trek into the shadow of the hardwoods, something simultaneously came alive and settled in me. There was no agenda, no goal. There was only to explore.
Fishing "The Nature Coast"
The day called for a little more wind than you’d want on the open water, so when I arrived at the spring to meet my guide, Captain Duane, he said our day out was gonna be what he referred to as “sporty.”