The Big Game

Autumn in the high country. And for me, that means some long, full days of fall-gorgeous, super-slow, well-outfitted, and heavily-armed walks in the woods.

And another year of leaving those woods with less meat in the cooler than I went in with.

Lava Lessons

I started worrying about Lava three years ago. That's when the Park Service reshuffled its Grand Canyon river permit system, and we were able to move our launch date from "someday maybe" to Summer 2011. A good time: my son would be graduating from Durango High School a month before we put on, and head off to college a month after we took off. A perfect rite of family passage for a family raised in large part on the river.

Lake Nighthorse recreation plan dooms Ridges Basin

Game over.

And the game has been over for a long time, I came to realize once I saw the Lake Nighthorse draft recreation plan. It was just that a lot of us hadn't realized it. But any illusions to the contrary -- that the game might still be on, that there might still really be a chance to keep what was left of the precious undeveloped, quiet, wildlife-filled rarity that is Ridges Basin -- were fully put to rest at the public meeting on Monday, April 11.

Old ski bums don't die ...

... they just get on YouTube! 

A four-minute doc about 70-somethings keeping the bumming alive in the Kootenays:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYM8tLJLryU&feature=player_embedded