Somebody's dream

I was born to live to in the high-country. I love working with my hands, and I love looking out over the tops of ridges down into the sweeping deep green valleys that lie below. There is a great pride and peace that comes from watching the sun rise over land a mile above the sea. Life is a little tougher up high, there are fewer short cuts accompanied by more work. Though all in all, it really is simpler. You know what you have to do, and you do it.

I like to think about making a life in extraordinary places, like the one in the picture. It took a lot of work, grit, and a dream. A while back I was leading a pack string through the Bob Marshall Wilderness and we came across an old trapper's cabin high up on the west side of the continental divide. The man riding with me had a comment that will stick with me for ever. "There's some body's dream." I had never thought of it like that before. This chiminey stands as a testament to someone's work hardened hands, skill, and dreams. A life nearly forgotten. It has stood in the high country for over a hundred years, weathered but still intact unlike the rest of the house. No other details of their life to be found. Only stone, and a foundation for our imaginations to grow on.