Where North Meets South and East Meets West
by Timothy Louis Baker Copyright 2009
PublishAmerica
http://www.publishamerica.net/product86825.html
In December of 1981 I started going to Arkansas in the Ozark
National Forest for some of my excursions into the bush country.
The first time I went I had bought an old Ford Falcon which
broke down on me within a day of my arrival. I gave it away for
junk.
I camped in that winter for a couple of weeks on the ridge top
of White Branch Hollow. One day I was following White Branch
the stream itself and I stumbled onto a bear cave with a bear in it.
I know because of the stench emitting out of it. I had a .22 rifle but
I was glad I didn’t wake up the bear or at least he didn’t come out
after me. I hurried away from there. In Arkansas bears don’t
hibernate, they just sleep in a tree or a cave or curled up
somewhere by a rock or tree or something during blasts of cold
weather in the wintertime.
One night in the mountains in Arkansas while I was camped
on that first trip to that state with a couple of inches of snow on
the ground and me under a tarp under me and folded over me at
night I heard wolves howling and closing to within 300 feet of me
by the sound of them and surrounding me. I got up and added
more wood to the fire. Then I went to sleep.
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WHERE NORTH MEETS SOUTH AND EAST MEETS WEST
I’ve heard wolves and coyotes howl many times in packs and
other times one by itself would howl. I’ve heard them howl when
they cut my trail when I was hunting and exploring, in many
different localities of the many different states and provinces
where I went in the backwoods and wilderness.
The next morning after I’d heard the wolves the night before
I went to a country store where I met an old mountain man
named James. I mentioned to him about the wolves and he urged
me to come with him to his house for a few days as he said they
were probably after me. I did so I didn’t have a chance to go see
their tracks in the snow and investigate what went on.
At James’s invitation I got into his truck and we went to my
campsite nearby and put all of my gear into his truck. He drove
me the 12 miles to his house.
James was 70 years old when I met him and married to an
equally old Indian squaw.
James was an old mountain man and said the wolves probably
were after me after all when I again described the situation to him
there in his home. He would know and my Mom’s Grandfather
used to tell her and her sisters and brothers of how when the first
settlers came to Kentucky they had trouble from wolves attacking
people to the point where they had to bar the doors and windows
so the wolves didn’t come in their homes and attack them.
I stayed a couple of days and nights with him in his house. I
helped him run his trap line and do odd chores. In return he fed
me, and at night he played his banjo, sang songs while he played,
and told stories. He made his own banjoes by hand and whittled
out chains of pine 2 X 2’s. He had been working in the woods
since he was eight years old.
He was like a jack-of-all-trades and master of them all. He’d
been a logger, built and operated saw mills, rock mason,
carpenter, mechanic, ran trap lines for many years and made
TIMOTHY LOUIS BAKER
78
things with his hands, like the banjoes, the chains of wood, and
turkey calls for hunting.
James let me take his dogs, Sport and Ruff hunting with me
one time. I got two squirrels and a hawk.
He once showed me a three-legged wolf fur he’d trapped on
his trap line the same morning he trapped it. He said maybe it was
in a trap before and chewed its leg off or maybe it was shot at one
time.
James told me a story of himself and a bear. He was
hunting squirrel with a .22 rifle out in the mountains and a
bear came up out of the hollow after he did. Jesse was
standing there and saw the bear and the bear looked at him.
It ran up to within a few feet of him then stopped then stood
up on its hind legs. Then James held out the gun as a club and
said to the bear, “This mountain ain’t big enough for the two
of us so you better run fella!” It got back down on all fours
and left.
I have seen there in the Ozark National Forrest turkey hens, in
flocks on the ground and in the air, flying overhead. I’ve jumped
a wild turkey gobbler which flew near me in front of me about 100
feet away from me. I have many times heard Tom’s gobbling in
mornings.
I’ve lain awake and listened to the sound of a deer swimming
across Mulberry Creek when I was camping in Arkansas. I’ve
caught fish in that creek. I’ve seen bass that were very big bass,
and heard and seen deer in that country.
I was a mountain man through and through. I’ve been married
to the land since I was 14 years old and I’ve had a mistress since
I was 21 called the wilderness.
All seven of my published books are available at:
http://www.publishedauthors.net/anexperienceheavensent/index.html


























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