Monday, November 16, 2009

Good and Rooted

Many years ago, when I spent a summer in South Dakota working at Wall Drug, I worked with an older, eccentric woman named Violet. Violet lived in a cabin in Badlands National Park. I'd never heard of this before (I was 20; I grew up in the OC) and it seemed so exotic. Travel writer Tim Cahill lives in a national park, too.

From the Wall Street Journal:

"Tim Cahill has traveled to 100 countries, riding on horseback across the steppes of Mongolia, hiking through remote villages in southeastern Turkey in search of the supposedly extinct Caspian Tiger, driving a truck from the tip of Patagonia to Alaska and going swimming in an ice hole on the North Pole.

The veteran travel writer chronicles these adventures from a 500-square-foot cabin hidden in a thickly forested river canyon in southwest Montana. The cabin sits in this national forest on the edge of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, about an hour's drive down gravel roads from the "big town" of Livingston, where Mr. Cahill has a house."


Thanks to my mom for forwarding on this article.

5 comments:

Renee Thompson said...

We subscribe to the WSJ, and I read this article, Michelle. I'd love to buy a cabin and lease it on land owned by the USFS or NPS. The noise of the city is really wearing me down. (And despite the economy, lots here in Northern California still cost six arms and nine legs -- that is, if you want trees.)

Mom said...

Glad you thought the article was worth passing on; I've enjoyed his writing for a long time, but never knew anything about him until now. I was surprised to see he's 65; his writing made me think he was much younger.

Anonymous said...

Very enlightening. Goes to show you that a house is not an investment as was thought a few years back. Find a beautiful place to live and enjoy that, not the box around you. KInd of like building a fort when I was young. The idea of isolation is a very drawing force. Can't wait to get back to my fort and my best friend.

Michelle Panik said...

Let's all move to the California outskirts and build cabins!

BO and I recently got a new shower curtain, and it has a map of California on it. Quite educational. Through it, I discovered a new town: Lee Vining. It's near Mono Lake (water sports!). It's near Yosemite. It's currently 38F degrees there (cute sweaters!). And there's supposed to be good bird watching: a plus for both Renee and my mom.

Mom said...

Dad and I were in Lee Vining a few centuries ago with Betty and John and it was beautiful. I don't remember the birds, but that could be because I was busy chasing your brother around. I'd certainly be bird watching and taking photos now. Renee, maybe we'll meet someday doing just that!