When Hugh Mathews decides it's time to get out from under his tyrannical father's thumb and away from the life he's been living, he does it in a big way. Packing what he'll need to survive in the wilderness, and with only his dog, Orion, for companionship, he heads into the mountains. When they find a abandoned cabin, Hugh begins the arduous task of repairing it, as well as hunting for food and everything else they'll need to stay alive.<br><br>Soon after, Ansel Jeffries, a nature photographer, arrives at Hugh's cabin, seeking an abandoned mine he wants to photograph. After talking with him, Ansel sees the potential for a story in what Hugh is doing -- and why.<br><br>Ansel convinces Hugh to let him tell it, meaning he'll be living at the cabin with Hugh. When he moves in, will what becomes friendship between the two men grow into more?

Off the Beaten Path

There’s another pro, too. I’d have someone to talk to. As much as he didn’t like admitting it, he did miss conversing with someone who didn’t reply with barks and woofs.


“Not that I don’t appreciate your company, Orion,” he said, patting the dog’s head, “because I do.However you lack something when it comes to making decisions about what needs to be done next, or talking about how beautiful a sunset or a particular tree or bush is, or which plant I haven’t identified might or might not be safe to eat.”


He laughed when Orion gave him a ‘woof’ in reply, got up and went to bed.


The first thing Hugh did Saturday morning—after a breakfast of boiled goldenrod stems and some berrieshe’s found on a shrub which he’d identified a couple of days ago as Golden Currant—was set to work pulling the overgrown grass from the field. A tedious chore, but if he was going to seal the cabin walls a necessary one.


Chapter 18