Catch and Release...

Tonight my father was cheered, and inevitably roasted, into retirement. My father lived a career dream that few realize. Unlike most Americans who switch employers every few years, my father has sported the sage green of the Forest Service since he was in his early twenties. It's hard to imagine that a boy from the pavement forests of New York would end up being a mountain man in the Rockies. However, inspirational writers such as Roosevelt, Pinchot and Leopold had a profound effect on my father's outlook. His need for open space and wild lands brought our family trekking through Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Alaska. His need and love of the outdoors certainly shaped our lives. Molly and I both are at home beside a campfire, and although we fail miserably at any sport that involves throwing or catching a ball, we can cast a lure with accuracy, assemble a tent and tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear.

Accompanying my father on an outdoor excursion is not for the faint of heart, or muscle for that matter. He has been accused of being half jackrabbit/half mountain goat. On hikes he is usually several yards in front, his back your focal point for mile after trudging mile. Although some may view retirement as a gentle, relaxing time, my father will use every moment possible to let the beast in him roam free. Several nights will be spent sleeping outside the comfort of the new home. Jack London understood my father's blood and perhaps says it best.

“. . . there was about him a suggestion of lurking ferocity, as though the Wild still lingered in him and the wolf in him merely slept.”

“. . . each day mankind and the claims of mankind slipped farther from him. Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and to plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call sounding imperiously, deep in the forest.”

The wilds are calling. Run free dad. The woods have been waiting for you.