From Voyageurs National Park on FB: Called “Catamaran” by locals, Bert Upton is among the strangest of historical characters on area waters. He lived in a hut built over a dug-out at Squirrel Narrows. Found frozen to death in the 1930s by Kettle Falls pioneer Oliver Knox; Upton was perched lifeless in the snow just a half-mile from his home. Shunning civilization, Upton defined the word hermit. First spotted rowing his crude log raft on Namakan, no one knows how he got there. Upton’s accent implied an English heritage but any personal inquiries brought a stony silence. Some suspected him a man fleeing the law; others saw a bizarre outcast; everyone knew he was peculiar. Just five feet tall and wildly unkempt, Catamaran wore hacked-off pants and walked barefoot with a stick. Winter demanded shoes but no socks, a cast-off Mackinaw, and a trailing cap made from the leg of old underwear. He was oddly religious, and suspicious of being poisoned. Surviving on snared rabbits and fish, he ofte...
remember your training
ReplyDeleteThis is me
ReplyDelete“2011! No! Don’t give into the sadness! 2011!!!!!!”
ReplyDeleteI think that scene did lasting damage to me as a kid. 10 years old, going to the movies, and some part of you realizes that your best friend may be so sad that he's just going to die, and there's nothing you can do about it. Right up there with the Wrath of Khan and E.T.
ReplyDeleteðŸ˜
ReplyDeleteI just plussed all the comments, but you won't know that.
ReplyDelete#toosoon
ReplyDeleteheh
ReplyDeleteDo not go gentle into that good night...
ReplyDeleteMatthew Nelson That scene is a grueling, half-hour horror show of horse death.
ReplyDelete