Long ago I came to the conclusion that the favorite past-time of man in general was to skin the socks off of his fellow man. To get the best of a fellow human, stranger or friend, brazenly or subtly, especially in a material way, was the approved method of demonstrating his superiority over his trusting or gullible associates.
June 6, 1968 “In Memory of Friday, Born May 13, 1954, Died August 15, 1955.” On a rocky point jutting westward from near the top of the Chetco-Illinois divide, near the tumble-down cabin on an old mining claim, a tiny grave no more than 3…
As alarmingly scarce as the snow in our hills is this spring you will still find plenty of it if you try to drive up into the mountains – and all in the wrong places.
If you ever want to follow the old Mud Lake trail through to the lake it was named for, in order to ferret it out all the way you’ll need, besides plenty of stamina and lunch, these three things: lots of patience, lots of luck, and a Ouija Board.
Away to the west of the Chetco-Illinois River divide, in a dark, wooded section of the Little Chetco canyon, many years ago, when the hardy gold seekers of that day were back there reaping a golden harvest, a sturdy little one-room cabin with an open lean-to attached to one end was built beside the trail not far from the river.
Some of the most attractive and interesting of our host of parasitic plants are the various members of the broomrape, or cancer-root, family. For those who want to look them up in the wildplant manuals the botanical name of this family is Orobanchaceae.
When my friend and I drove into the spacious parking area back of the garage in which my jeep was undergoing repairs, we arrived just in time to see the Lone Ranger step up to a low tractor, take a couple of turns with his reins
Being happily old-fashioned and with a mind that comes readily unstuck from the world’s woes, and focuses easily on its delights, has distinct advantages which, seasoned with a generous pinch of imagination, can make life seem pretty exciting and worthwhile even when helza-poppin all over the globe.
Above Bell Echo, on the side of El Capitan, is a large crevice in the mountainside that I don’t like any more – even if I did find the little carnivorous butterwort growing there.