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

“You didn’t have it until after you’d done the basic work and came up with a plan on how to survive against very tall odds. By the time I got here…Okay, by the time I came back, you pretty much had everything under control. Sure, I’ve helped with the grunt labor, but you’d have done it even withoutme.”


“Maybe,” Hugh replied, uncertain if that were true or not. Perhaps it is. I did make the cabin livableand found food before Orion and I could starve to death. But so what? Dad would do his best to make me feel as if I haven’t accomplished any more than playing truant from my job and from the family. He’d probably call this an interesting if undeserved holiday. He easily imagined his father doing exactly that, with scathing comments about how stupid and reckless he’d been. “It’s not true,” he said under his breath.


“I was just thinking about what my dad would say, if I went back.”


Chapter 33