To reach my nearest “neighbors” on their fourteen acre parcel adjoining
my cabin property, I have two options.
The first option is a two-mile drive. The first mile follows Hogum Creek down along
the base of a mountain as it prances toward the Blackfoot River. At a fork in the road, you must make a 180
degree turn and then climb another mile up a forest service road through heavy lodgepole
forest. Near the end of this climb, you
cross through my twenty acre parcel and open a gate at the southern boundary.
The second option, always my preferred choice, is a 200-yard hike
from my cabin to their place. The hike
involves a steep climb through deadfall and crosses directly from my property
to theirs.
The second option can be a tough go. But the slower pass through our forest makes it worthwhile. An astounding diversity of wildflowers are
in bloom right now. As my father would
have put it, the place is “lousy with wildflowers.”
At present, Indian paintbrush, Oregon grape, arnica, virgin’s
bower, lupine, wild strawberry, and fairy slipper orchids are flourishing. It is possible to see all of these flowers
sharing the same patch of sunlight at the feet of the lodgepole trees.
Posted are photographs captured from a meeting with my neighbors
halfway up the mountain yesterday.
Flower Diversity
Paintbrush
Fairy Slipper
Meeting the
Neighbors
—Mitchell Hegman
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