Stories from the woods.... part 3

 Well. I guess I'm done digging ginseng for this year. The day after tomorrow I'll be heading north to spend some serious time in a canoe. It's funny but as much as I bowhunt, backpack, and fish I might just enjoy wandering thru the woods looking for ginseng as much as anything. As the world around me seemingly every day makes less and less sense the return to simpler times and a simpler pastime has more appeal. I've hunted sang since I was a boy, a little with my father, a lot with my grandfather and great uncle and various other old woodsmen that are all gone now. Anymore as I step into the woods and disappear I'm reminded of the song, Am I the last of my kind?. 

Two and half pounds of dried roots, probably seven pounds green. I think my grandfather would have been impressed. Considering a good day in the woods is a big heaping handful or pocketful. How many miles over steep wooded terrain? 100 miles? At least 100 I'd think. Far enough to leave behind at least for a few hours images of bad cops kneeling on dead mens necks. Past images of hero cops being shot by cowards. In the woods no idiots riot or call for defunding the police. In the woods it isn't a moral dilemma if I wear a mask or not. If there was ever a year I needed refuge it's 2020. In addition to watching the country as a whole descend into madness, on a personal level in the past year I've lost my dear mother, my wife has went thru a difficult transplant and I've lost the greatest man I've ever known, my father. Yeah I've needed refuge.

Sitting on a hillside leaning back against a big oak and snacking on a papaw I'd just gathered, the thought crossed my mind the other day that without the woods, without this escape, I'm not sure I would have made it thru the past few months. More than once the thought has crossed my mind to simply pick up the old canvas rucksack and slip into the woods to never return. But the wind in the treetops, the sound of birdsong greeting the dawn, the quality of evening light would bring me peace and bring me home. There is more to be found in the woods than just ginseng.

You aren't going to hear from me for a while. I'll be watching drops of water stream off the paddle like diamonds, I'll be listening to the haunting calls of loons and marveling at the spirit of smallmouth bass. I'll be tending a twig fire on a cool morning. I'll be all right....