Hunting grouse with the atlatl in Coronado's Gold by Kenneth Fenter

     In the 40's and 50's my family would try to take a couple of days to go camping and fishing sometime during the summer. Often it would coincide with the summer rains that would come around the 4th of July and thoroughly wet down the farm's crops so that we could justify diverting the water into the reservoir that fed our home and ask a neighbor to milk the cows and feed the livestock. My dad's favorite place to camp and fish was Lost Canyon. The head was on the high slope of Hesperus Peak the tallest peak of the La Plata Mountain range. At over 14,000 feet it was majestic and we looked out on it every day from the front window of our home on Summit Ridge. Our farm was at 7,000 feet, 8 miles from the entrance of Mesa Verde Ntl. Park, 10 miles from Cortez, 8 miles from Dolores and about 12 miles from Mancos.
     On those fishing trips we camped on the rim of Lost Canyon and hiked about a mile and a half down into the canyon to the creek. On more than one occasion dad would watch for what he called "Mountain Chicken" to go to roost so that the next morning he could revisit their roosting spot with the single shot .22 to bring back a couple for breakfast. I remember them to be like fried chicken and about the size of the fried chicken Mom used to harvest on the farm. I now know they were high mountain Blue Grouse. They are protected now, and there is a season. I don't know if there was one back in the 40s or not. They seemed to be plentiful then. Of course Lost Canyon had not been logged, the road was dirt and it took us several hours to negotiate the unimproved road to get to where he camped.
     In the story Coronado's Gold the four high school aged boys are camping and fishing during the same era that I remember as a kid.

      In Coronado' Gold Cliff and Carl decide to treat their friends with a change from fish with fresh mountain chicken for breakfast.
     Carl’s internal alarm woke him, and he woke Cliff. It was a half-hour before sunup. Dawn was beginning to lighten the meadow. The two boys hurriedly put on their shoes and took up their atlatls and spears. They loaded bone point darts onto two spears each and set out for the aspen grove. Carl’s photographic memory took them precisely to the spot where they had sat at dusk the night before. Cliff had learned to mark locations so that he could return to them, so they had it double covered. He was very impressed with Carl.
     On the way, Cliff had whispered the plan. They would as quietly as possible sneak close to the tree or trees where the blue grouse were roosting. Cliff was pleased to see that Carl was taking note of how he was walking silently. After a few feet, Carl too was walking nearly as quietly.
     Carl would point out the bird he would throw at and Cliff would do likewise. They would load a spear and have a second ready. If they missed on the first throw, they would throw a second. They would each try for one bird. That would provide enough meat for breakfast and leave the rest of the flock untouched.
     At the tree they believed to be the roost, they found grouse roosting on three different branches about twenty feet up. They had to stand back to be able to throw at a comfortable angle. Their throw would be about 35 feet, easily within range.
They both took aim and threw at the same time. Cliff’s spear flew true. Carl’s flew on by. One bird tumbled from the branch. The other birds nervously danced on the branch but did not fly. Carl loaded his atlatl calmly, took aim a second time and threw. His bird tumbled from the branch.
     “Good shot, Carl,” Cliff said slapping him on the back.
Cliff picked up both birds, bound their legs, cut their throats and hung them on a branch to bleed clean before they retrieved their spears. Both darts were still impaled in the partridges. The spears had fallen free.
    "They carried the birds, the size of full grown hens, back to camp in time for a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

Coronado's Gold by Kenneth Fenter, A mysterious visitor

14,000 + ft. Hesperus Peak, tallest of the LaPlata Mt. range of SW Colorado.

     Good Thursday morning. In Coronado's Gold Cliff wakes up on Thursday morning to the smell of coffee brewing. They are at their final destination, Grindstone Creek Lake. Hermosa Peak looms large only a few miles away. Carl is boiling the coffee on the campfire. Tim and Bruce are fishing for breakfast. The night before Carl and Cliff had played the Native American Flute accompanied by Bruce's harmonica. Tim had danced around the fire. Later in the night Cliff had been awakened by restless horses. Cliff tells Carl:

     “We had a visitor last night, so I was up for a while. I sat up and watched to see what was bothering the horses.”
      “Did you see anything?”
      “They settled down, and then I saw someone come down the trail from the lake. He stopped about half way from the lake to here and turned around. Then, when he was out of sight, I heard something. I followed the sound and, I swear, Carl, I heard a flute playing. It was pretty close to what we played. However, not exactly the same. And then it just faded out.”
     “Well that’s spooky!”
      “Yeah it was.”
      “What did he look like,” asked Carl.
     “Couldn’t see him well. He wasn’t a big guy. Walked stooped over, trying to be inconspicuous, I guess.”
     Carl added the same amount of grounds he had seen Cliff use the night before and then moved the pan to let it simmer. Then he poured two cups and handed one to Cliff. Carl quizzed Cliff on whether the flute sounded exactly like the Native American flute.
      When Tim and Bruce returned, they and Cliff walked up the game trail, examining it as they went. They saw no human tracks. In the dark Cliff had not been able to see whether the figure had actually been on the narrow trail, or if he had been on the grass, but the grass had not been disturbed recently.

Jersey Jim Lookout Tower in Coronado's Gold by Kenneth Fenter

     A good Wednesday morning.  

    Continuing Cliff, Carl, Bruce and Tim's progress up Lost Canyon, a tributary of the Dolores River, on their fishing trip in "Coronado's Gold":

     The boys make a detour to Jersey Jim Lookout Tower. Jersey Jim is located near the head of Lost Canyon. In 1956 the tower was operated by my aunt Betty Porter's sister-in-law Verna Dale Porter. It was and is 90 feet tall. It is no longer a manned tower, but is a monument. It is located in an aspen forest. The photo was taken during the early spring before the aspen leafed out, but you can get a perspective of how tall the tower is.

       From its vantage point at near 10,000 ft. on the western slope of the La Plata Mountain range, Mrs. Porter could monitor the entire southwestern corner of Colorado and hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest land.

     

The Colorado Columbine is a metaphor in Coronado's Gold by Kenneth Fenter

       Good Tuesday morning.

     In my new novel "Coronado's Gold," due to be released by Feb. 20, by Tuesday morning the boys are well on their way deep into Lost Canyon. They are in blue spruce and quaking aspen country now. They wake up to blue skies, catch a mess of brook trout for breakfast and Cliff sees his favorite wild flower, the Colorado Blue Columbine.

      He sees not only the beauty of the columbine, but more. It has become a metaphor of his life and relationships.

     Earlier, as a young boy he had been told wild columbines couldn't survive if he tried to transplant them, but he did it anyway. 

     Through his patience and tending he eventually had a wild garden of columbines, flags, strawberries, lupine and other mountain wildflowers that came back each spring and bloomed profusely. But it had taken him several patient years to get them there.

Coronado's Gold by Kenneth Fenter release Feb. 20

Coronado's Gold by Kenneth Fenter a new adventure novel will be released Feb. 20. The novel is the fifth book in the series begun with The Ruin, The Bee Tree, Pivotal Times: The Freshman Class, and Gifted Hands: Saino no Aru Te. Two of the main characters are Cliff Kelly and Angelina Martinez who have been in all of the books in the series. The majority of the characters in Coronado's Gold are carried over from Pivotal Times.

A scene from Coronado's Gold by Kenneth Fenter. In Coronado's Gold, Cliff, Bruce, Tim, and Carl set out on horseback on a Monday morning in July to go fishing in Lost Canyon. Their destination is Bear Creak near Sharks Tooth (on the left) and Hesperus Peak in the center. All are located in Montezuma County in Southwestern Colorado.