Maybe Once
"I'll send for you,” Mike said to Jackie as he kissed her goodbye. He didn’t see her roll her eyes through a big smile as she threw her arms around his neck. She’d heard the same thing every year for the 12 years he’d taken this trip. Only in the last few had she...
Ernest Hemingway: The Early Years (1939-1948)
Ernest Hemingway is inextricably linked to both Sun Valley and the nearby town of Ketchum, Idaho. He had a special affinity for the countryside with its backdrop of the Sawtooth Mountains, which reminded him of Spain, for the excellent bird hunting he found there and...
Sea of Cortez: Cinnamon Teals and Pintails
Mexico offers spectacular waterfowling for those bold enough to travel there.
A Presidential Pursuit: Hunters Who Led the Nation
Roosevelt and Cleveland weren’t the only presidents who spent time afield.
Travelers of the Edge
They stood, Helen and Webster, side by side in black water beneath a canopy of moon-bleached trees, trunks white as ghosts raising slender claws toward the streaks of shooting stars. ''I've never seen them like this," Helen said softly. "So many at once." "Like...
The Promised Land
It was one of those golden autumn days you read about and, as they worked their way through the stand of bluestem grass and past the little plum thicket at the bottom, Dean couldn’t help but smile at Maggie, the pup, bouncing along with all the exuberance of a...
An Afternoon on the Handles
This story is Tom Kelly at his inimitable best – evocative, filled with emotion and in some senses, downright eerie.
A Week Before Christmas
One morning, a December long-ago, a week before Christmas, Bob walked into a local store in Millerton, New York. The owner, Phil, a friend, was behind the counter taking care of a customer as Bob came in from the cold. “Late night, Bob,” he said. That wasn’t a...
The Old Maid
Good covey dogs are, as Lincoln said of Civil War generals, “as plenty as blackberries.” Hardy, spirited rangers that will put up whatever there is to be put up and give you your money’s worth day in and day out. That is, in good bird country. But if you are ever...
Gunkholing for Ducks
In September, the summer folks trade their beach lives to head home. The public boat ramp near my home, the one that once was clogged with all sorts of recreational craft, is deserted. It’s a busy process to haul and winterize boats tied up in slips just as it is to...