Obsessions ~ Good and Bad

 *oops... now I'm sure of it... my editorial parts is sprained from finishing that last book! I just found the "S" that was missing from the title layin' here on the table! A reader sent me a mail that let me know something weren't right!... thanks Jody! ;) *

Obsessing on Wild Country is Good. It strengthens your legs, fills your lungs with pure air and your eyes with visions to carry you over the "speedbumps" you encounter. Obsessing on "numbers" is Bad. It narrows your focus, distorts your perceptions and buries the BIG picture.

Years ago now, when I started construction of my first website, the very first thing I did every morning was jump up and hit the button on the laptop to fire up the computer. While it was booting up I'd put the coffee on. Then I'd sit drinking coffee and searching the reports for the latest traffic numbers.

I kept a book where I logged those in every day... for too many years... until one day (Not so very long ago) I said; "you A.R. bozo! What are you cluttering up your day with numbers for?"

I put the book away and now-a-days I go to that section maybe once or twice a month to see what traffic is doing. (a guy still needs to pay attention to measure what he's doing... at least a lil' bit.)

I figure I either do my job or I don't. I whittle my words and post 'em... folks either return to see if I've sown any more worthwhile seeds or they don't. Obsessing on the numbers isn't gonna do my whittling a whole lot of good.

When it comes to my book publishing... I've had a bit of a relapse. ;) especially with the ease that you can say; "I'll just check real quick to see what's happening."

And so... you end up being one of the pathetic varmints stumbling through parking lots with your eyes glued to the screen of a smartphone... scanning your digits... grinning... or wailing "The End is Near!" while you wobble your carcass out in front of a texting cheerleader driving through the same parking lot in her momma's buick... texting things she shouldn't... to some boy she hardly knows! :)

Not a particularly inspiring vision is it? ;) 

So, since I was trying my hand yesterday at some marketing magic (I've still got a lot to learn!) I decided to shut off the laptop, park the phone on the table, and take a nice long walk. What was to be... was gonna do that whether I was playing the fool or not!

We followed a FS road/trail that turns off the road we're camped along. It cuts off a couple of miles above us, and closer to the top of Buffalo Pass.

*Following a Track on the Routt National Forest*

 It turned out to be rather electrifying!

We're up here in wild country and still the hand of man has touched the land. Have you ever walked under a high power line? Whooooeeeee! It's kinda... un-nerving. The lines crackle and sizzle. It's a lil' spooky.

The lines crossed the trail we were following and disappeared into the distance in both directions.

They got me to thinking a lil'.

*What is "Natural" ?*

Beavers fell Aspens to build their damns... and that's Natural. Woodpeckers tear the hell out of trees... and that's Natural...

But a man puts up a cabin...it's a "Scar" on the land. HE... builds an irrigation dam on his land... and it's a travesty...

Wolves and Cougar hunt elk herds into extinction and it's the wild beauty of Nature...

A man defends himself against a charging Grizzly, in the middle of the night, in his home corral...and he's fined $5000+ because he's violating nature.

Is the world out of balance? or am I?

 Walking a quiet high country trail is one of only two places where the noise of the world fades away to let me clearly hear my own thoughts and wonderments of this life.

The other being pushing a rumbling motorcycle through the wind! ;)

Either place lets the cares of the world slide away so a guy can just wonder.

The biggest thing I think I've found is that there just may be no answers. There's only the questions... and maybe that's the real deal. It's not finding the answers that is the reward... but staying awake long enough to ask the questions... and do the seeking.

As in gypsy yondering... it's not arriving at the destination but the adventure of the journey that is the shining times of it.

Wondering about such things I think likely tempers and helps balance your judgements; when you're confronted by the unending "questions" and decisions when you get back to The World.

There was a high rocky slope we took our noon time break on. The sun up high is pretty warm, even on a cool day. Good Aussie's are one of the few dogs I've seen that have a strong, natural instinct to find shade at every opportunity...

They'll trot from shade to shade along the trail we hike. They'll be waiting up ahead in the shade... until we catch up.

There wasn't much around where we took lunch. Buck found it though... about 25 yards down slope... under a spindly lil' fir...

The views in this Steamboat country are "Different" than up in Glacier or Down in the San Juans. Not lesser I think... just different.

Somehow they're softer. Fewer jagged, treeless peaks. More timbered meadows and rocky slopes.

There's something about a skyline like that... an open timbered slope... with the hazy blue mountains behind that stirs my wanderlust and unquenchable, restless, yondering.

Got back to camp... and... of course... Checked My Numbers. :)

So... about the results of the Jeb Taylor day. Barn burning breakout that made me pass out with surprise? nah...

Successful? Definitely. And so I say to all those who pushed the 'buy now' button. Many, Many Thanks!

While it had been tallying up to be a weaker month in my publishing enterprise than past months... The impact you made yesterday raised it back into a solid Gainer! :) Thank You!

This is something I've gotten pretty comfortable with. A guy can fantasize about being one of the Breakout Best Selling authors... and that's fine. The likelihood of it happening is pretty thin. Those breakouts, in the big picture, are pretty rare.

Compared to the thousands of good writers out there working to present their stories, the Breakouts are a miniscule fraction.

The heavy majority, sell nothing. So... the fact that I enjoy very modest... but daily... sales is something I'm very grateful for.

Better to work toward a solid, steady, enduring readership that just carries along through the years. That is something that can be relied on.

That is what I'm working toward. Simply doing a workmanlike job and producing a "Body of Work" that simmers along at a rate that keeps my backbone from rubbing a hole in the front of my T-shirt!

Another Good Day Yondering
Brian

I think I Opened the Door for Murphy...

Today being the Jeb Taylor Day for all my Western Readers to get a copy of the New Release at Amazon, I got up and tried to hang a fresh link on FB... and of course... that place being what it is... it locked me out!

Took a while to get my account back and then every attempt to hang a new post on there ended with an error/phishing message... hmmmm... and they wonder why their stock value just keeps tanking? ... if that Zuckerman kid wants a lil' down home educashun he can buy me a beer and I'll fill the the digger in! ;)

So... I try to do some other things... and ... yep... Verizon/Google starts smackin' me around... arrrrrrrggggghhhhhh.

I'm thinkin' the real issue here is technology outpacing the ability of "men" to comprehend all the lil' trips and traps they're setting up; and Not the poor performance of some individual company. Though I'm sure Ol' Murph' is bangin' around in the fringes taken advantage of every opportunity.

For all you folks that are wonderin' about why your phones and such might not be workin' so well any more?... here's the deal...

A few years back I started using a Verizon air card for my internet connection. Service was good and getting better for a few years.

Then... came Smartphones... and then the Ipad/tablet craze... and service started tankin'.

THAT is when the wireless internet got converted into the electronic immitation of an L.A. freeway.

How many of you notice that you've got 3G and a handful of bars but the thing just sits there... doin' nothing?

Yep. The internet super highway all loaded up with the fastest gadgets on earth... that can't go anywhere or do anything 'cause the "System" is so grossly oversold and over loaded that there's not enough room (band width) for all those jillions of fast gadgets that have been sold in the past two years to even MOVE.

It's like living in Denver and goin' out to buy that Maserati that'll do 250 mph. Wow... what an awesome car... and... just where exactly are ya'll gonna EVER see that speed? In the 7mph (when it's moving) bumper to bumper rush hour traffic? or the rest of the day when it's just slidin' along... pretty much still bumper to bumper... at a lil' bit faster?

Well...On the internet super highway it is Oh-fish-all-ee ...rush hour!

So... If I was you I'd just get used to declining service with air cards/smart phones/tablets for the next few years. Until they double or triple their cell tower capacity/available band width... I doubt you're going to see an improvement. I guess you could buy a western ebook to read while you wait ;)

Hey! It's kinda like government... Pay more... get less... :)

To heck with it... I'm gonna go for a walk and then read a Jeb Taylor Western from Amazon Kindle Store when I get back! ;) at $2.99 I'm workin' on the Pay less get more principle. ;)

Thanks for coming by folks. I hope you know you're Very appreciated!

Walkin' in the High Country Rain
 Brian

Just Enduring The Rough Life of Boondocking

I read where the drought and heat continues 'cross much of the country. Not so much here around Steamboat.

Camped where we are... I don't know how high for sure... but high enough to fire up the furnace in the morning to cut the edge off the chill! ;)

Every afternoon has become fairly regular routine. The clouds start stackin' up some lil' while just before or after lunch... Generally a small sprinkle in the early afternoon... and then sometimes like yesterday evening...

A genuine thunder crackin' mountain boomer.

*Storm Brewing on the Routt National Forest Near Steamboat*

With another storm brewing we took a shortened hike up the slope to the east. It don't make much sense to be out and about in this high country when Thor is throwin' his darts. Best to seek a mite of shelter 'fore the fun starts.

But... the urge to hunt for ever more flowers and pics must be satisfied! and the need to just get out; movin' and breathin'.

There is a sensation; hard to describe, that I get when I climb up a steep slope high in the mountains, to stop at the top with my chest heaving, heart pounding and lungs filling with Pure Mountain Air.

It's a feeling of calmness and serenity. A feeling that somehow helps arrange the "Stuff" that litters life, into some sort of proper perspective.

*pic by H. Gore ;) *

 ... and a couple by H. Gore from the day before ;)

*... eyes always on the Horizon...*

I get much the same... and more... from my Motorcycle. Lose either and I am in Deep Deep Kim Chee..

We hustled back to the shelter of the rig with the storm comin' slow... but when it got here Boom! Crack! The lightning flashed and the thunder boomed... except for the bolt that struck maybe a hundred yards or a touch more out in front of the rig... that one fairly CRACKED!

We both jumped off our seats with that one.

There's nothing like a storm in the mountains. Just plain awesome.

Once it passes ever'thing is fresh and clean. The air is crisp and pure... and there's something about the light that changes...

The sight of the road, faintly glistening as it disappears into the timber in the fading light... it tickles the wanderlust of a gypsy...

But then, the sun broke out under the rim of the clouds to the west as it came close to sunset... and the light changed yet again...

It's breathing such purified air in the light of glorious Far Country that drives me. Some might get bored with it I suppose. Maybe my intellect is small enough to be ever entertained and satisfied by such visions. Whatever... I can NEVER get enough. I have to constantly come back for another fix.

It's like a deep diver coming up after so long under water and taking that first, deep, gasping breath... It feels soooooooo good! :) and why I am always seeking ever more boondock camps.

Just a man... Free on the Earth
Brian

It's Awful Easy to be UNgrateful

Have you ever rolled along and been passed by a Big shiny new rig that just powered on up the mountain... while you rumbled along at your 29 mph... doh dee doh dee doh...

... and thought; "Geeze... lucky bugger... it'd be nice to have a rig like that!"

... or ... wrote a book and only sold a few a day... while you see others have the Break Out big sellers of hundreds in the same time, and thought; "Man, wouldn't that be sweet?! I wish I was as good a writer."

... and had those feelings of inferiority pull you down?

It's an easy thing for such feelings to bushwhack a fella... or fellerette! ... but stop a moment and look around... ??? Do they really have it "Better?" or just... flashier?

THIS... is the Home my worn old rig hauls me to...

That guy pushin' the big fancy rig down the road is likely limited to the camp in town that costs the better part of a motel room. And his neighbors already breathed the air he's using... He never even get's his "fancy" digs to a spot like this... and that's more than OK, if it works for him.

But that is one of the limits of "Flashy"... there's a part of you that says; "This thing COSTS too much to take it places like that!" ;)

How many times have you seen a driver runnin' an $80,000 Hummer down the interstate? ... and ... How many times have you run your dinged up lil' Samurai up some narrow, rock littered trail with the trees scrapin' the paint on the doors... and EVER found that high dollar "Hummer" anywhere around?

Riches can often be a bigger anchor than any sort of empowering thing.

So... I don't sell books like the "Break Out" authors... well... I DO sell enough to be a significant part of our pantry filler! and THAT actually puts  me in a relatively small group. There's a hell of a lot of writers that are every bit better than this old word butcher... that haven't sold a letter...

{um... an eagle eyed reader spotted the result of a worn editorial eye... probably the result of two many ours sitting at the desk lewking for tye pohs in my last book ;)  so... I returned and co-rected the OOPS! ;) }

Whinin' about how I wish I could do better is just a waste of energy. I'm doin' Fine!

I wonder if this guy realizes how lucky he is?

*Working Hard*

I mean... Do ya think he even has an idea of the place he gets to work? or is he all about; "Gotta get more pollen... load up the pollen... pack, stuff, load up the pollen, gather the pollen, gotta go go go."

Kind of sounds like a lot of lil' Worker Serfs don't it? You can get so focused on Gathering Pollen that you miss the beauty of the life you're passing through.

I'm as susceptible to such foolishness as the next guy... Every once in a while I've got to sit down and tally up where I am... and where; if I wasn't so fortunate... I could be.

I have to sit down and deliberately put things into perspective.

This... is where I get to work!!! and... walkin' through these forests and meadows and splittin' the wind down twisting ribbons of asphalt is HOW I get to work! :) What in tarnashun do - I - have to feel inferior about?

*Walking to work!*

 When I'm walkin' along... or ridin' the scooter... taking pictures and scheming the big ideas... I'm working! :) I've got that; "I can't believe they pay me to do this" sort of a life these days.

Could life be easier? Fewer stresses and pot holes? I'm pretty sure it could... But all I've got to do is look at half a page of news articles... look around me at the masses toiling away, gathering their Pollen... and I can know for sure and for certain; This Old Buster is riding through Shining Times!

Sometimes though, as I'm takin' the portrait of another mountain flower... or a high mountain meadow... I feel sorta like the guy walkin' on the beach with a few hundred pretty bikinied gals struttin' by... and he don't even notice any more...

Like that tourist who says..."yeah, I been there, done that"... ??? seriously??? 

Just what is the worth of whatever it is that folks spend so much money huntin' for, that if they find it they quit lookin'?

Do you only listen to a song one time? Do you only read the "Classic Book" one time? Do you hang pictures in your house and then never look at them?  Why plant flowers in your back yard if you're only gonna admire 'em one time?

To be of huge value the pleasures in life don't need to be high dollar and flashy. They don't need to be spectacular places. They don't need to leave you giddy and breathless...

They don't need to be risking life and limb, or wallet and reputation! ;)

The best things might could be just those that leave you breathing easy and calm. The things that just tickle a small smile... the things that make you comfortable.

Sometimes it's the small pleasure of finding a bit of shade to rest in... after a hot uphill climb, sheltered from the cooling breeze by the fir scented forest...

... or sitting in the sun beside a high mountain meadow... enjoying the views while you eat your lunch...

You may not be where you want to be. You may have a ways to go yet to get there. There's likely to be pot holes and detours along the way. I'd offer a word of advice (that I have to remind myself of on occasion); Learn to admire the journey. When you Get There... the trip is pretty much over! :)

Kickin' UNgrateful to the Curb
Brian

 and now for jus' a lil' commercializin'... Jeb Taylor Day, for readers of westerns is comin' on Monday! ;)

Publishing From a Boondock Camp, Good Omens, Leather Carving and Jewelry Galleries...

I battered the buttons last evening and uploaded my latest project. With this book my Jeb Taylor series, at two books, is now officially a series! ;)

But... if you look over there to the left side you'll see the link to my BK Gore Blog... and the the headline about JEB TAYLOR DAY. (Monday the 30th of July)

You might give that lil' blurb a quick lil' read... go ahead... I'll wait ;)

Back now?... Yeah I know. A bit of un-repentant self promotion. That's something I don't expect to ever get very comfortable with... and I'm trying to be...um... low key? ;) about it... but if a guy's gonna sell any of his stories he's gotta suck it up and get out there and hawk 'em... right?

So! Jeb Taylor Day! Monday the 30th of July! Two Thousand and Twelve! Get 'em for Amazon runs out! :)

I just hit the button yesterday evening to upload the last file and the light coming through the kitchen window turned color...

*A Publishing "Good Omen" *

I'm takin' that as a good omen. Gonna take a few days off from the keyboard 'round here. I need to clean up the word chips from all the literary whittlin' that's been goin' on.

Before I dive into the next two books that the carving has already been started on! :)

I've got a Leather Project to finish carving anyhoo. It's been on the table for a few weeks but I was a bit preoccupied with completing the book... so now the table is clear and I can get another of my project list clicked off.

... and somewhere in all this I've got to create some sort of Gallery to showcase Heidi's Jewelry creations. She got a few pieces in a Gallery outside of Zion Nat. Park, but I think I could do better for her if I figure out how to Multi-Task and do seven things at once and just get her own Gallery built!

And while I'm doin' that... I'd like to find the guy that said this Boondocking for a living was a more relaxed and easy way of goin'!

Some days I feel like a three legged man with an advanced case of Old Timers that got caught up in an egg beater! I don't know if I'm comin' or already left! ;)

ahhhhh... it's still better than straddlin' a buckin' horse on rocky ground. :)

Catchin' My Breath Above Steamboat
Brian

Odds and Ends of Disjointed Ramblings

About nine O'clock last night a big red alert triangle popped up on the smart phone. "WARNING SEVERE ALERT"  - Flash Flood Warning in this area!

Well... we're sitting on a point at maybe nine or ten thousand feet. If the water stacks up this high... I think they'll be writing a new chapter in the Ol' Book! ;)

It did rain though. Whew! Did it rain! Made for a cool morning too. Felt kinda guilty crankin' up the furnace this morning while I had my coffee and muffin' sittin' watchin' the sun climb over the mountains. The way ever'body back east and even down on the front range has been grousin' 'bout the HOT! :) But it was chilly! So yes... on the 25th of July, on a wet, chilly, mountain morning, this old stove up buster cranked up his furnace to warm up his feeble achy old bones. ;)

How many of you travel and hike with dogs? When you're out on the trail suckin' on your camelback... are you remeberin' your dogs? A few years back Heidi got given a lil' gizmo that we thought was just 'bout the dumbest thing we'd ever seen.

I mean... how ya gonna keep water in a folded bowl? :)

*Folding Dog Bowl*

Turned out to be a handy dang lil' thing. Folds flat and fits in a pack pocket and is always handy for dog drinks on the trail. Which is a whole lot better than a sick dog and another vet bill. We've carried this lil' bit of plastic for six or seven years!

Don't have any idea where you can find one. But I know they make folding bowls for back packers and they likely have some variety of folding bowl at Pet Smart or one of the other big box critter places. If you walk much with the dogs out in far country... it's a good investment. ( and don't forget the water bottle in your pack for the dogs water!)

Along that same line... DOG HAIR!!! ARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

There is nothin' worse than Hairy Ice Cream or... sitting on a quiet morning contemplating the universe over a cup of hot coffee... and having to stop and fish DOG HAIR out of your cup! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

So... While there is no guaranteed gizmo that prohibits an invasion of discarded dog hair there is a gadget that helps cut down on it a goodly amount...

*A Dog Rake*

The thing is made by a couple of different outfits. It comes with a pair of blades. The one shown that rakes out the undercoat and loose hair and then a thinning blade that swivels around to take out even more DOG HAIR!!!

It's not a cheap lil' tool... I guess they charge what the market will bear... and when cranky Ol' busters are grousin' 'bout the DOG HAIR in their coffee... apparently they'll "Bear" quite a bit!!! :)

The thing required in the whole deal though is the discipline to get out and scrape the dogs. Sometimes she waits too long and when she does get after 'em it looks like a herd of rabbits was slaughtered! Better that than fishin' hair out of my ice cream though!

... or chasin' four pound Dust Bunnies of DOG HAIR around the rig!!!

Worked into the evening last night as the rain fell... chasing bad spelling, typos and weirded out formatting.

If you'd asked me twenty years back what I'd be doing now... I can say that editing fiction was Not something I expected. :) As soon as I got that done... as much as my eyes can find to fix at this point anyhoo... I set to work building a table of contents and buttoning up the last bits of work on my third Novel!

HEART of a MAN is on track to be uploaded in the next few days. I just need to do the final scanning to try and spot any OOPS! that have slipped through. Otherwise it's sitting in my laptop all set to go.

This one is the second book following on behind A Matter of Honor in what is now OFFICIALLY the Jeb Taylor Series. I guess it takes more than one book to be a series huh? :)

I've been thinking of a way to give this book and the others a "kick". One way, that doesn't change the cost to anybody would be if I could organize the folks who intend to buy a copy as soon as it's released, to wait for one particular day to do their deals. That way... if all those folks did their deals on the same day it could have a bigger "splash" that could have a chance of pushin' it up into the "Lower" sales rank numbers and make them more "Visible" to all the jillions of readers out there who have never heard of a puss gutted old biker cowboy story teller.

So... I'm thinkin' that if I can get it uploaded in the next day or two... Sometime next week would be a "Target Day"... So if you're lookin' for a Western to read on your Kindle... Stay tuned! :)

Having a lil' difficulty finding water around Steamboat. I've kept my eyes peeled the couple of times we've been down off the mountain, but no spigots have appeared. It's one of the "issues" of boondocking... finding water and dumps. Usually little difficulty. There's dumps all over... and generally there's a spigot to rustle water in National Forest Campgrounds (which we frequently pay to use the campgrounds)... but here...

...Routt National Forest is taggin' users $ten$ bucks for a campsite 15 miles up a Bad Road... seems like a lot for a site that they don't maintain (all over grown with brush and deadfall), the roads are washed out, first gear, rock crawlin' axle busters... just lil' trash cans and few dumpsters and NO WATER. It's only proper to pay a reasonable amount for the use of facilities... but it's also only reasonable to maintain what you're charging $300 bucks a month for the use of!... or charge a heck of a lot less for it... Just sayin'

That and consider that the Tonto National Forest down in Arizona gets $6 bucks... and they've put in paved roads, solar shower buildings, and spacious, comfortable campsites with Ramada covers and GASP! Water!!!... seems like maybe a few other National Forests need to send their supervisors to Arizona to learn how to do the job right? It would appear that it CAN be done! ;)

I mean... the only thing that the two FS campgrounds near us have is a grubby outhouse... and battered pic nic tables. The brush is so thick that it's really just a skeeter farm. It's really time to start running a brush hog through most of these FS campgrounds. Let "natural" prevail out in the forest... but inside the campgrounds, clear 'em out and make 'em comfortable and usable! Just a lil' effort could make a huge increase in enjoyment and "Use" by folks. Improving both the Forest Service bottom line (with increased use and fee revenue) and the worlds of the people using the campsites...

... since I don't expect any great changes in bureaucracies... I'll just keep on boondocking and avoiding the sites that aren't taken care of...

... anyhoo.. I'll keep my eyes peeled once again when we make a bill payin' run to Steamboat today... There's only one dump in town at a private park... maybe I can buy three jugs full of fresh, clear, water! ;)

Un-Flash flooded and "Rambled out" on the Mountain
Brian

Doing My Mental Laundry

Kinda flat this morning... Write this down!... one of the few days you'll ever see me at much of a loss for words! :) mostly 'cause the only words I've got the past few days would be to spank the human race...

Since that is an exercise in futility, the human race refuses to learn... and I'm mostly weary of runnin' against the wind... I just went and took another walk.

Dropped off into the canyon that runs past and below our camp...

*The rig waiting above us*

When your eyes and your spirit are assaulted by and shrouded by darkness... what can you do? Drugs? Rage? Depression? or is there a way to flush that trash out of your mind?

I believe in MOST cases... it is NOT a medical condition but a choice... (I said Most).

You can choose the way you want to go. That don't mean it's an easy trail. It's not. It's often a bone crusher... but it remains... a choice.

The thing that lifts me, maybe not to the crests of giggling joyous peaks... but to a comfortable, quiet, serenity is movement and a far view.

I get myself out away from the foolish, political, emotional and often brutal things that people subject each other to... and breathe in the open air of LIFE...

... to soak up the beauty that is the world around us. A world without all the distortions of the senseless, useless, meaningless, cruelties and garbage that is much of soh-sigh-uh-tee that I dumped and walked away from.

It's just like doing your laundry. You put your dirty clothes into a churning bath of clear water and keep flushing until the dirt is gone. Sometimes stains remain... the rips aren't healed... but the worst of the dirt is gone.

I force the pure and clear mountains into my brain through my eyes and my ears... until there's no room left for the brutalities that society contaminates it with...

*Battered but still hangin' on*

I listen to the wind in the trees... the water gurgling in the stream... I watch the Raven soar overhead and the deer thump off through the woods. I close my eyes and breathe deep of the pine scented air and feel the pressure in my chest dissipate. I watch the wind rippling the water of the lake... The storm clouds gathering each afternoon and the freshening breeze they bring...

I put my knees in the wind and ride my motorcycle down a twisting ribbon of asphalt and feel the cares and worries of this world fade away.

At the end of the day though some of the mental stains remain; the worst of the filth is gone. I am refreshed and content. I am where I belong and though I can not change the world or even moderate its psychosis... I can live as I require... in the Freedom and Peace I admire.

*The Day fading over Steamboat Springs*

*Sunset in the Rockies*

I no longer am running against the wind. I am but a tumbleweed... flowing along with it.

I am who I am...
Brian

A Walk in the Park and The Soul Healing Power of the High Lonesome

The short hike we took the other day was cut a bit shorter by the big dark clouds rollin' in... so yesterday I shut down my 'puter work and we headed out mid morning to stay ahead of the expected afternoon storms.

Where we're set up there's no above timberline... sorry Bobbie and Mark! ;) ... but the Queen prefers less tilted land for walkin' anyway :) ... I keep tellin' her it's easy to walk on flat land in the mountains; You just go around the mountain rather than UP it!

I'm not to sure she's buyin' that argument... but if I keep the trails not too steep she's agreeable.

*Hiking the Tall Timber near Steamboat*

One nice thing 'bout hiking in the high country, when you're on your own schedule... there's plenty of spots to take a break and cool out.

When it gets hot and your wheezin'... just shade up for a bit and enjoy the scenery while you cool out. Then you put one foot in front of the other and push on!

This country we're in is right on the boundary of some wilderness country to the north and east. We're on the southern end of the Zirkels. Not exactly empty country bein' fairly close to Steamboat... but... there's plenty of room for several folks to stretch out without bumpin' elbows.

*Far View*

*Room to Breathe*

Though she prefers taking her walks over gentler topography... I'm a stubborn Ol' grunt. Not one to allow bein' an army cripple to slow me down too awful much...

Leastways I'm not 'bout to let some lil ol' stick across the trail block my path! ;)

I'm kind of a chameleon of sorts... Biker Cowboy Leather Carvin' Hardware Salesman Gypsy DAV Bushwhacker! :) ... it wouldn't be so bad except ya gotta have a different wardrobe for each character!

It's just past the wildflower prime around here... though there's still plenty of color...

It's good there's plenty to photograph. For a photographer of my ability level... I need plenty to choose from to get a good picture. I comment all the time about how something is awful pretty to look at... but I just can't seem to capture "it" in a photograph... Water falls are mostly like that for me... I admire to see 'em and just stand there soakin' up the view... but to bring a photograph of 'em home to show... I just struggle at that.

You can always tell when we've hit the far point and turned for home. The dogs have a pretty good sense of direction... and by the time we've made the turn... They've burnt enough energy that they start keepin' to the trail a bit more...

They led us back to camp so I could get back to work makin' the doughnuts to try and recover from the expense of this summer of Not goin' too far to try and save up a few bucks! :) Yeah... it was such a good plan too.

So... I was sittin' at the table workin' through the final edit on the next book when this pair rolled by on the road that passes our camp...

Pretty gal runnin' her ATV draggin' her guy on his busted/out of fuel scooter... I thought the "tow strap" looked a lil' strange when they passed. Wasn't till I pulled up the pic that you can see it's a sweat shirt! Talk about "they'd give you the shirt off their back!" Though... I think she's down to the nitty gritty now!!! ;)

The day ended with BBQ'd chicken on that good lil' Weber Grill we swapped out to... sippin' a beer and watchin' the sun set in a fine camp.

Though the evil of man is never ending... Life goes on.
Brian