The river that lay out on the western horizon was still an unknown to me – a long, mysterious meandering flow. The slow, deep, turbid waters of this flow seemed meant to irrigate croplands here in Crawford County, not to accommodate extraordinarily large spawning trout. But I was here to expand my horizons, to do radical new things and probe mysterious waters, here to challenge another frontier.
Read more "Call of the Frontier"The ground was soggy as we sloshed back in on this early January day. We parked at a place that I’ll never reveal to walk in to a stream I’ll never name.
Read more "Of Flowages and Fire"We strive to achieve perfection, every shrub and flower in its assigned place, looking its best, and nothing else crowding things and making a mess, nothing interfering with appearances or first impressions.
Read more "Weeding"“It’s just much, much too cold. The valley never warmed this morning and the trout are really, really put off. They’re just not eating anything,” Nigel consoled and rationalized for us both.
Read more "State of Mind"Walking can be thought of as the basis of almost all your further activities in the wild.
Read more "Walking"Why do we put so much stock in the prognostications of the modern augurs who tell us what the future holds for us? Look at your own life and think about how little of what’s befallen you could have been forecast.
Read more "Didn’t See That Coming"Catfish were simply the most likely fish that were in season, were probably waking now from winter semi-dormancy and could be found close to home. I knew the kinds of places one would set up for catfish on a typical summer night but these weren’t likely the right venues for tonight.
Read more "The Catfish of Affirmation"I’m back in Export, Pennsylvania now, a quiet place just outside the Pittsburgh metro area. I’m still trying to, in a sense, get back to normal after a long walk across the continent. I don’t really think most people would find my life very “normal” in the conventional sense (no climbing of the career ladder, […]
Read more "Just the Fundamentals"So, starting out in the spring of 2021, I want to fish and hunt mushrooms and write about it all but I don’t think my conscience would let me rest if I made these my priority while the civilization that has allowed me so much freedom and such a good life is under assault.
Read more "Final Words"Building on the themes of Breakthrough, Shellenberger has gone on, in Apocalypse, to show how necessary the apocryphal messaging of left-wing environmental organizations is to the social change they foment as well as to their own sustainability.
Read more "Apocalypse Never"
the dying fish 