by Mike Gaddis | Sep 24, 2021
On a May morning, in the glad renewal that is spring, two lives collided. One was that of a young man who knew and loved wildness, but was not wild. The other was that of a child, five weeks from newborn, who was. In the moment they met, he was so fascinated by her...
by Mike Gaddis | Sep 14, 2021
And where do you find tranquility? A restoration of spirit, a calming of your soul? In a place so quietly unobtrusive, yet so deeply profound you will never find it so perfectly any other place on Earth? A reprieve of being that is so unwavering, so wholly...
by Mike Gaddis | Dec 1, 2020
The spaniel had lived beyond her time. But strangely – to the last – she had acted almost as a puppy. He had felt the turn of the tide three years before. Felt it more than in the 73 years before them. It pulled against him now, receding rather than rushing in. He...
by Mike Gaddis | Oct 15, 2020
Our quest: the old workhorse of the Parker stable, the gun that, more than any other, validated the company catchphrase, “The Old Reliable.” For it was that of a young man, and I am old, and I have seen first-hand the burnishment of many golden years upon a dream that...
by Mike Gaddis | Oct 5, 2020
He confided the happy little story that closed the 50 years between us as gently as nightfall closes day, that filled my eyes and made me smile. I’ve an idea it might foster a similar reminiscence for you. Little, whimsical outdoor gladdenings come along now and then...
by Mike Gaddis | Jul 23, 2020
“In every journey the road will bend. Who can know how the story will wend? To every beginning, there must come an end.” Cliché? Maybe, but profoundly, as inescapable truths that bracket the birth-to-death limits of our being. In the between time, there is...
by Mike Gaddis | Jul 21, 2020
“Wouldn’t it be great?” Kjos said again, his blood up, completely dismissing the ducks, “To have a permanent puppy, to have first love over and over again?” The sun slept in that years-ago Utah morning over the Salt Lake marshes. Where Kjos and I were guests in an...
by Mike Gaddis | Jun 1, 2020
I thank God most weekdays, and sometimes twice on Sunday, that there’s not a Trout Angler’s Sportsman Society. That, in modern matter, the fine art of fly fishing for species Salmo continues quietly and foremostly a gentleman’s endeavor, largely...
by Mike Gaddis | May 27, 2020
All grown up and reputable now, it’s time to be proper, to forget about catchin’ carp and all those boyhood memories, back when a Zero bar cost a nickel. I wish I wasn’t so sophisticated as I am, so I could just haul off in the daylight and find me a...
by Mike Gaddis | May 1, 2020
All his life he’d wanted such a bird dog, and finally he was getting one, though problem was, he could only have half of him and dang if he could decide which half he wanted. Two old friends, been longer together than shoe leather, out huntin’: The morning...
