The Last Homestead

by Warren Troy

  Denny went out to where the moose meat was hanging. He lowered the frozen meat down, sawed off a few nice pieces, and carried the rest out into the trees for animals to eat, rather than let it hang out of reach until it spoiled in warmer weather.

  It only took him a few minutes to gather up what he had in the crude dwelling. Hoisting his pack and taking up the old rifle, his wife’s old rifle, once again, he simply walked away.

  It took him several days to get back to Lanyard Creek. He made a simple shelter for the night he stayed out, spruce boughs for a bed, poles and spruce boughs overhead, and a cleared space for a small fire to reflect its heat into his shelter. It was a cold, clear, beautiful night. Caraway realized he hadn’t seen the beauty around him for a long time. As Denny lay there in his down bag looking at the stars, he felt himself filling up again, his spirit being renewed.

  The next afternoon, he arrived at Lanyard Creek. There was enough light for him to see his old home. Denny paused for a long minute to look at what he once was determined would be his last homestead, refusing to let anything run him off, until Gwen’s death had changed everything. Standing there, Denny knew he had come home, even though Gwen was gone. His heart filled with the long-denied feeling of happiness in being back where he truly belonged.

  Denny turned and walked up the little rise where his wife was buried. Standing over her resting place, Denny stood there until darkness came. “I’ve come home, Gwen,” he said. Then he walked back down to the homestead.

  Denny saw the cabin had been closed up, though he knew he had left it open. One name came to mind. “Charlie.”

  Walking up to the sturdy cabin, he saw there were some deep claw marks on the solid door, the heavy framing within keeping even a hungry bear from breaking it down.

  Reaching up to the top of the outer door frame, he felt for and found the spruce wood handle to the latch. Sliding it in the slot, he pushed to the left and opened the door.

  It was dark inside, but he walked to where the kerosene lamp had always hung, his feet kicking things lying on the floor. The lamp was still there. Denny had to search around on the shelf where he had kept small items, and finally found the plastic baggie with a small box of matches in it, and lit the lantern.

  As the flame heightened, he saw the incredible mess his cabin had been become. It reminded him of the way his original homestead had looked when he had first arrived there after it had been deserted for five years.

  Slowly shaking his head, Denny said, “Damn bears.”

  Finis

  Other Books By Warren Troy

  Can a middle-aged urban dwelling man survive on his own in the Alaska wilderness? Denny Caraway is going to find out. Casting off city life that has become completely unsatisfying--that is killing his spirit--he journeys north to become a homesteader in the Alaska bush. Denny is pushed to his limits, physically and spiritually, while carving out a life in the trees, experiencing daily adventures that could end his life if he doesn’t make the right choices. Despite the danger, he comes to love his new home and almost everything involved there. But he learns that bad human behavior is everywhere, as he deals with neighboring Alaskan homesteaders. After the peace and solitude of his homestead life is threatened, Denny must make life-changing decisions to maintain his cherished freedom.

  An inexperienced teenager leaves his suburban California home to visit his brother in San Francisco, and dives into the Hippie Movement of the sixties.

  Establishing himself in the Flower Power scene of the Haight Ashbury District, he becomes a bell-bottomed entrepreneur, running a unique used garment business from the back of an old, brightly painted step van, becoming known only as Jester.

  Heavily involved in the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle, he meets fascinating characters like Janis Joplin and Timothy Leary and has many amazing experiences, until he burns out on the whole scene. Leaving the bay area, He searches for a different direction.

  Jester moves in and out of different lifestyles, becoming a road nomad, traveling, over the years, from the mountains of Big Sur all the way to Alaska, with many stops along the way. In Jester: Memoirs of a Retired Hippie, Jester tastes love and loss, joy and deep sorrow, and the magic that still exists in the world, evolving into a unique and wise older man.