One morning last summer I came up out of Crossfire carrying two objects I wasn’t carrying when I entered the canyon. The first was a fully intact turkey tail feather that I plucked from the trail. As I admired it, I noticed an oily sheen on the dark-brown barbs near the feather’s tip. I stopped in the shade of an oak tree and raised the feather into a shaft of light filtering through the leaves. When the sunlight struck the feather, chevrons of rainbow colors appeared in the vane, very rich and vibrant in hue €”a bit peacock-esque. Who would have thought a turkey could produce such a gem?
The feather was a natural object, shed by a canyon resident. My second found object was in a way the feather’s counterpoint: a container of commercially produced bottled water, over three-quarters full, dropped along a steep part of the illegal ATV trail that has caused such a ruckus in these parts. Continue reading “Embrace the pure life, part one”
Wilderness Interface Zone 