I've had the same UPS man for several years now. He shows up pretty consistently before ~11, largely to get the big rim and tire boxes out of his truck and out of his way. He's about my age, likes to be outside with his wife and dog, and knows the surrounding area well -- albeit in different ways than I because he's more of a hunter and fisherman. I fish a bit but tend to use (usually fat) bikes to access the surrounding backcountry, where he'll drive more and then hike. Same with hunting -- he drives in and then heads out afoot.
How you travel through the country dictates how you see and interact with it. So as the years have passed it's been interesting to hear his take on certain places we both frequent, as well as for both of us to share certain secret spots that the other has never heard of nor been to.
A few months back we got into a discussion about hard to access and as-yet untrammeled spots on our backyard mountain. I clued him in to one of mine -- with relatively small but wild fish -- and he did the same for one of his. I'd been to this spot in winter but never summer, and since Jeny was away on a girl's weekend I loaded up my bike with boat, paddle, fly rod, reel, and various accoutrements, as well as full overnight gear, and went to see what it was about.
https://vimeo.com/291043546It didn't really work out -- stick with the vid til the end to understand why.
Still great to get out and see an uncommonly visited slice of the backyard in a new way. I was out about 36 hours, all above 10,000', and saw not one other person in that time -- but lots of elk, one bear, heard lots of 'yote's, and got drizzled on all through the night thus didn't get any star or milky way shots despite carrying a lens and intervalometer for exactly that purpose. Meh!
