Two Biologists and a Boy: I Love the Latex Gloves
From Highline Online Nov 19, 2012 Geoff often unpacks his work backpack on the floor by his side of the bed. I don’t go over there unless I’m vacuuming, because what may look like random piles of textbooks, digital cameras, charger cords and, at times, large-gauge syringes is actually a secret system Geoff uses for keeping track of things he needs for the next few work days. If you didn’t know what he did for a living, this may be alarming. Take for example the pile I found this morning. On top of a carefully balled up uniform is a scattering of important looking papers, overlaid by OJ-Simpson-like gloves. Of course, leather gloves are not…
Two Biologists and a Boy: Under Alar’s Spell
Highline Magazine, October 16 2012 Dylan lays in front of a lichen-speckled grey rock, his head resting on an old canvas army bag. Spread around him are the contents of the bag: an old tin, a tattered black and white picture of Mount Columbia, a bone-covered jackknife, and a very old black and brass telescope. Behind him, Parkers Ridge is lit by thousands of fuzzy white dryas flowers going to seed. They glow against the red, orange and green of the autumn alpine. The Saskatchewan Glacier shines in the distance, and Dylan dreams of mountains. This is one of the many beautiful scenes filmed by director Alar Kivilo. Dylan was, quite literally, cast under his…
Two Biologists and a Boy: The Long Way Home
Original Post at Highline Online, September 24, 2012. A couple of weeks ago, a young male elk ran us off the trail. It was the first time I’ve been threatened by an animal while hiking with my son Dylan, and the only time I’ve ever popped the safety off of my bear spray. It happened when Dylan and I were hiking with a friend, Tracy, and her daughter, Linnaea. It had been a long hike, having tried twice already to descend the Pyramid Benchland back into town. A mother black bear and her cub turned us around the first time. We were alerted to their presence by a sound like a log exploding in a…
Two Biologists and a Boy: Road Swimming
July 23, 2012 Highline Online “My nuts are freezing!” says Dylan as he strips down beside me. I know I am supposed to say something like “the correct term is testicles, and please don’t yell stuff like that at the top of your lungs.” Unfortunately, I am laughing too hard, and the damage is done. This is the schoolyard vocabulary Dylan has picked up in grade one, and coming from his seven-year-old mouth, it’s damn funny. We’re standing on the edge of the floodwater that has engulfed Snaring Road. Our gaze follows the watery, yellow centerline for 30 meters or so before it disappears into the deeper water at a dip in the road. Dylan…
Two Biologists and a Boy: When an Animal Loses Her Young
For Highline Online, June 18, 2012. I haven’t really seen my husband Geoff for about three days. With the snow low on the mountains animals are forced into the valley bottoms, where they’re running into people all over the place. These “interactions” are keeping Geoff – wildlife conflict specialist with Parks Canada - pretty busy. During a ten minute cross-over at breakfast this morning he told me that he was in fact with “another woman” into the wee hours of last night. She was a female elk who had birthed her calf on Jasper Park Lodge property, only to have it snatched up by what was likely a grizzly bear, wolf or cougar. The distraught…
