A Thanksgiving Day’s Bear Hunt

A Thanksgiving Day’s Bear Hunt

Thanksgiving Eve at length came around and I was off for Norfolk with the lightest of hearts and the gayest smile I had worn for many days. My friend and companion in arms, Mr. Parkins, met me there, and away we went together, as jolly a pair as could be found in a...
A Thanksgiving Blessing

A Thanksgiving Blessing

For more than 50 years I’ve been going up there. If it happens to be during hunting season – that is, deer season in the fall or turkey season in the spring – I usually have a rifle or shotgun in hand. For at least 30 of those years, my aging mother-in-law always...
Dove Song

Dove Song

Dove openers initiate the beginning of the fall hunting seasons—special occasions that create wonderful memories. Doves embody the best features of upland game birds rolled into a gray bullet that challenges the best of shooters. The stars must have aligned early for...
Mountain Lion Against All Odds

Mountain Lion Against All Odds

As with any type of hunting, circumstances can change abruptly when hunting mountain lion with hounds. There is either a track to run, or there is not, and this changes instantaneously. We had put ten miles behind us in a hike in Idaho’s snow-covered backcountry...
Mister Howard was a Real Gent

Mister Howard was a Real Gent

The week before Thanksgiving that year, one of the Old Man’s best buddies came down from Maryland to spend a piece with the family, and I liked him a whole lot right from the start. Probably it was because he looked like the Old Man—ragged mustache, smoked a pipe,...
The Price of a Dog Part 1 of 3

The Price of a Dog Part 1 of 3

Part One: Leaves Papa died in the spring of ’62 when I was 12 years old. Although there had been little interaction between us, he was still a needed figure in my life—a father. Mother wouldn’t, but I made allowances and excuses for his long absences. I would tell my...
New Polls Show Blue State Colorado In Play For Republicans

New Polls Show Blue State Colorado In Play For Republicans

A recent Denver Post report on the state of affairs in Colorado affirmed what Democrats have seen nationally—that their brand is struggling. Another recent Quinnipiac University poll affirmed the same; the Democrat Party is deeply unpopular nationwide, and...
Bones Among the Blazes

Bones Among the Blazes

Only 30 minutes into the first day of the season on a brisk December morning, I am at full draw on an old battle-scarred ram. A slight breeze coming up off the North Fork of the Big Thompson River is trying its best to cut through my layers and give me a chill. The...