The Free Radical

Sometimes we move beyond the familiar territory, into the wilds where our neighbours refuse to go.

Usually, once we’ve crossed the swamp, we immediately turn north toward the Mesa, but this day we were determined to go deeper… into the western backcountry… for adventure, and a rare culinary treat.

First, however, we noted the fresh clutch of frog’s eggs– an excellent Forest omen!

We were headed into the untrammelled backcountry, into the gorge where I’d built a tiny cabin more than a decade ago.

The very feel of the place is quite different, overgrown and remote…

… and we know well that scary monsters lurk around every corner, beyond every hillock!

But seriously, I knew for certain that we were moving directly into known cougar territory. I had discovered that the dramatically hard way a dozen years earlier whilst I was living in the gorge in my tiny cabin. (You can read about my up-close cougar encounter HERE.)

On the way to the gorge, we encountered roughly fifty to sixty deposits from resident cougars. The dogs, this day, were very good at sticking real close!

At the very same tree that intrigued the dogs so last year, I found more long blonde hairs embedded in its bark. You tell me who those hairs belong to. The dogs insisted once again that the scent surrounding this tree was unusual and unique– though I myself couldn’t smell it.

We were on a quest for the buds of Devil’s Club– a nasty shrub that grows in wet and shady areas. The area within the gorge, up above my cabin, is the only place I know of Devil’s Club’s presence. The new shoots make a tasty snack when they’re gathered at just the right stage of early development. It usually coincides with the budding of the leaves on the surrounding trees.

The flowering of the oregon grape on the way was an encouraging sign.

Some had already begun to set berries which would ripen to a bluish purple throughout the hot summer.

At the mouth of the gorge, however, the lack of low-lying new growth suggested that perhaps we were still a bit too early.

The dogs though couldn’t have cared less.

Upon arrival, I was happy to see that the cabin was still standing fully intact, just like the day I built it some twelve years ago.

A little farther up, we promptly encountered the skeletal remains of the hot tub I’d built for the months I lived in the gorge during winter. I had with me a submersible wood stove to heat the water in the tub, filled from the stream beside. In many ways, I lived almost luxuriously for my stays in the deep woods.

And just up from there, we encountered exactly what I was looking for– except that we were indeed just a few days too early. The buds hadn’t quite begun to burst yet.

We shall return.

After the brief claustrophobia within the gorge, it was good to be able to stretch our eyes once again…

It’s all home… everywhere you look… at least it is to me!