Annie Proulx recently brought the North Platte River in Wyoming to the world, in her new “memoir” Bird Cloud. TLC reader Alan Wilkinson takes us from the Sandhills Range to the Niobrara, where he will be wandering for the next six months and blogging about his spell of solitude on the western Great Plains and a cattle ranch in western Nebraska.
A short extract from his blog, 23 days before his departure, reads “as to any rattle-snakes that may lie in wait for me under tree-stumps or rocks – well, to quote an old joke, I guess they’ll just have to take their chances. When I first met the ranchers they offered me the use of a .22. I instinctively declined, but may change my mind – not because I am scared of sidewinders, rather that it might make for a better story if I accepted. Besides, I have fired a .303, back in my sixth-form days, and rather enjoyed it. I got a pretty decent grouping, as I recall.”
Click here to follow Alan’s adventures.
