Mountain Musing

I led her into the Bob Marshall Wilderness for the first time when she was 23-years-old. Jane took one look at the gorgeous young thing with the wavy auburn hair and twinkling eyes and decided this was a trip she'd better join as chief cook and keeper of the bedchamber.

She needn't have worried--even at 23, Lene was a developing termagant. What sort of battle-ax, I wondered, would she turn out to be, say 25 or 30 years later? Lene and her husband Lee joined us for a wilderness float trip a few years after her first horseback trip and it was obvious that her disposition toward a target as easy as her old outfitter hadn't mellowed.

Now it looks like I'm to find out what a terror 30 years has wrought because Lene and Lee are already planning to visit us next August. (She's methodical in development, crafting each attack meticulously, engaging in year-long softening-up exercises designed to keep me off balance). Her latest Pennsylvania mortar was lobbed my way just a few days ago, with this advisory:

"The first testicular guard, the 'Cup,' was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brains are also important."

(Pray for me!)