Stopping in the Woods on a Snowy Afternoon...

...we broke out the Atlas snowshoes and hit the snowy trails today, with Alf the Wonder Beagle breaking trail. A couple of times she got in over her head and had to swim out of a snowdrift, but for the most part she did an admirable job with her 4PD* (*4 Paw Drive). The cool thing about virgin snow is that we could see the tracks Alf was following so diligently.

As has been the case for the few weeks, my "companion" on the snowshoe trek was the USFA "Double Eagle" snub-barreled .44 Special single action in a Bob Mernickle high-ride belt holster. There's something undefinably satisfying about packing a single action. Maybe it's a reminder of hiking along the Tennessee river with my grandfather and my father's Flat-Top .357 in an old Hunter holster, or plinking snapping turtles out of stock ponds with a Ruger Single Six .22 — the farmers paid a "bounty" of $.25 a snapper, a buck for one of the huge pond-clearing monsters.

Maybe it's an intellectual connection to the legends of our culture, Elmer Keiths, Skeeter Skeltons, my friend John Taffin, or a historical connection to the men and women who walked these same Colorado trails more than 100 years ago with Colts (and maybe the occasional Remington) hung on their belts.

Or maybe it's the legacy of cowboy action shooting — so many hours of practice with the old thumb-busters until they are indeed second nature. For whatever reason, they just feel right...