The importance of wild rivers hits home to me again on a rainy September weekend as I explore my way deep into a notch valley of the Incomappleux River. I am searching for one of the last remaining stands of old growth cedar and hemlock in the upper Columbia Basin. It’s the last stop on […]
Gravity and Water’s Wild Card
Most summer afternoons, I settle into a natural hollow at the base of a sizable cedar tree beside Laird Creek. The creek burbles and runs, curling over cobbles, carrying water downhill. Lying back, I watch the tree’s cool branches spin and whorl above my head. Sometimes, I fall asleep, lulled by the joyful noise that […]
In search of Springbank Clover
Phase II of my 6,000 mile search for beauty took me on another road trip last week – to the Broughton Archipelago. This smattering of rocky islands between the west coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island has been home to the Kwakwaka’wakw indigenous tribe for thousands of years. I was drawn to feel for […]
A Gypsy-sort-of-Garden
Some of you know that I have landed back in south-eastern B.C. after a winter of exploration across the west. Soon after I arrived, I was thrown a curve ball that resulted in the continuation of my gypsy life in a community I have called home for 22 years. While there have been challenges, I’ve […]
6,000 miles in search of beauty
On the last, long day of driving, La Tortue hauled me up and over Montana’s slice of the Continental Divide between Bozeman and Butte. There, I found a raw yet mystical beauty: rolling dry-scrub mountains dusted with new snow. A rising sun casting an etherial glow. Puffs of low cloud scoured loose to unveil something […]
Finding the headwaters
I cross into Montana and head west, drawn by the allure of Headwaters State Park, about 30 miles west of Bozeman, Montana. The second-longest river in North America begins here, tucked into a wetland east of the Rocky Mountain divide. Every river begins differently. The Missouri’s alpha is actually the confluence of two rivers, the […]