Bushwhacked
Rumor has it, once again, that Tyee Store is reopening. They evidently gave up on the dream of growing marijuana legally. Probably illegally too, I’m betting. Gonna just sell cigarettes and beer and wine and white bread, all the supplies we South Enders were waiting two years for. Two and a half, but let’s not quibble — let’s celebrate!
Me, I went out today with my trusty sickle and reopened my trail from the back 40 to the road just south of the store. About a mile last time I kept that trail. New folks have moved in back there. Fences have gone up. Blackberries have blocked the path. It’s been, after all, two plus years for the jungle to reclaim my trail, the one I made back in 1985. Although … that trail has moved the way a river alters course. Trees have come down, pastures have been fenced, two loggings have changed things drastically, barbed wire has fenced me out. So okay, change is inevitable. I’m a South Ender; I’m familiar with the notion.
But a few new neighbors forced me into the woods for some serious bushwhacking, mostly to avoid the appearance of trespassing. Okay, the actuality of trespassing. I know what the Amazonian explorers must’ve felt like, hacking into the wilderness, running into dead ends of insurmountable barriers, turning back and trying another route. I didn’t have a guide. Since the Barefoot Bandit left the scene, the interior is uncharted territory. In the end I cleared double the trail I eventually plan to use. Maybe the deer and the raccoons can use the rest.
It’s a pleasure, in case you wonder why I bother, to still be able to traverse the island west to east by moccasin. In the old days I’d slash my way across, buy a beer, jaw with the storefolks and the local yokels by the crackerbarrel, then wander back to the west side. Me and Marco Polo, Lewis and Clark, Livingston and Stanley. They got the fame, but I get a beer. Pretty good trade-off. And who knows? Maybe they’ll grow cannabis too eventually. Save us wasting all that garden space ….
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