Deep Creek - Finding Hope in the High Country - A Review
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."
Author Pam Houston gives us this gem of a book, and I am biased.
I am biased because the book is set in one of my favorite places, Creede. Colorado. My love affair with this little town began sixteen years ago. On a recent visit, my wife and I decided to hike the Deep Creek trail that runs behind the cabin where we stay. The day was warm, beautiful and clear, and we found trout in pools even though we were not fishing.
After arriving back home in Texas, I started doing a little internet sleuthing to see if anyone has recently posted a fishing report (spoiler alert - Deep Creek is a very brushy stream that one can very easily step across...no trophies here). In my search, this book popped up. I read some reviews and placed my order the same day.
I was not disappointed, except when the book was finished; it left me wanting more. Pages seemed to turn of their own volition, a credit to the author's conversational style. I found myself envious of the Houston's lifestyle on a 120 acre ranch.
The book is mostly a memoir - Houston intersperses flashbacks to her childhood with "ranch almanac" entries, describing some of the challenges dealing with fire, predators (both four and two legged), and butting rams. The section called "Diary of a Fire" about the 2013 West Fork complex fire is spellbinding. I have hiked the burn scars, and fished the Rio Grande near her ranch when ash lined the banks. But until now I could never imagine the terror it must have been for residents.
The story of Deep Creek, as the title infers, is a story of hope and healing. How ties to a place, responsibility for it's health in in a changing climate both politically and atmospherically, lifted the author out of the bondage of childhood abuse and trauma. This doesn't come without hardship, heartache, and risk, but rather in spite of it.
Houston opines the potential death of the planet if we don't change our ways, but then marvels at the ability of nature to take our worst abuses, and when given an opportunity, begin to heal.
Perhaps it is that unflagging resilience that speaks the deepest to her...and to us all.
Comments