• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Adventure Photographer Eric R. Schickler

Let's Take It Outside!

  • Home
  • About
  • Photos
  • Commercial
  • Clients
  • Services
  • Panoramics
  • Montages
  • Wildlife
  • Photo Art
  • Artwork
  • Testimonials

“Reading is FUNdamental” and Trees Really Do Fall in the Forest.

August 10, 2014 By Eric Schickler

Did anybody see this happen?

   

I’ve been on a delightful and very gratifying book-reading tear for the past decade or so. This new-found hobby ties in perfectly with my mid-life-crisis goal of spending as much time as possible in the glorious outdoors of Colorado and elsewhere, both in business and free-time pursuits.

For most of my life this usually translated into some on-the-edge physical sport, adventurous endeavor or work project, with all the inherent insurance risks.  But with advancing age, I’m finding that injuries are less prevalent when sitting in a chair. Reading in the outdoors, in some secluded, peaceful, scenic place is one of my new joys. And my State Farm agent loves me for my latest outlook on life.

A more recent goal has been to find ways to escape the clutches of my beloved iMac computer. But, drat, dang nabbit, digital photography, writing, research, news consumption and social media silliness are all so addicting, so I’m still working on this goal.

Having finished my last book weeks ago, I was getting restless for another literary meal, a mental escape, my next life diversion. Anything so I don’t go near a TV. Or in some instances, people. So I just ordered a few more of Tim Cahill’s classics.

Tim is the author of several books, most published years and decades ago, but timeless nonetheless. His titles include “Road Fever,” “Jaguars Ripped My Flesh,” and “A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg.” He is a founding editor of Outside magazine and writes frequently for National Geographic Adventure and other national publications. He lives in Montana.

I discovered his writings when I happened upon a book at a yard sale a decade ago. It had this close-up photo of an odd-looking, forlorn duck on the cover. This was before the Aflac commercial craze, but I had to buy it when I saw the title: “Pecked to Death by Ducks.”

Cahill’s book titles are randomly and oddly selected, and have nothing at all to do with the content, but then, in strange ways, perfectly explain his adventures and written masterpieces in concise and twisted ways. Some might even call Tim twisted. I’m sure all his friends, and his publisher, do.

One critic explains Tim this way: “Cahill is great! He is the P.J. O’Rourke of the outdoors! Fearless and hell-bent on overcoming all obstacles in his path, Cahill takes us to the oddest and scariest adventures nature has to offer.”

If you have read any Cahill, you will find a slight irony in the fact that while I was comfortably ensconced in my camping chair in the White River Forest of Colorado this past week, with no mortals anywhere within miles of me, halfway into “ A Wolverine is Eating My Leg,” I was jolted from my chair upon hearing a tree–a very large tree, no doubt–topple over and crash in the forest clear across the valley. In the middle of the afternoon. And there was no wind.

No one else heard it. Just me. And how often does that happen?

But I heard it. And so it did indeed fall.

Thank you, Tim.

 

 

Filed Under: Humor, Life Experiences, Photography, Trees Tagged With: Life Experiences, Trees

Footer

Search

Image & Blog Post Categories

Recent Posts

  • Contact Us
  • Today’s Pet Peeve Grammar Lesson
  • Terror at 10,500 feet.
  • London, England. Hungary. Austria. Germany.
  • Colorado’s Loveland Pass and Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
  • Vail’s Closing Day 2014 Mountaintop Celebration
  • “Rock Concert”
  • Sasha…. the Best Dog Ever.
  • “Capes”
  • Autumn Gold 2013 – Colorado Fall Foliage
  • Quandary Peak (elevation: 14,265′) – Ascent of a Colorado Fourteener
  • Ice
  • People: Adults with Kids Candids
  • Trees
  • Buildings, Architecture, Dwellings 2
  • Buildings, Architecture, Dwellings 1
  • Rooms & Interiors
  • Water 2
  • Action, Sports, Adventure, Recreation, Lifestyle
  • Mountains in Spring, Summer, Autumn 3
  • Mountains in Spring, Summer and Autumn 2
  • Black & White Images
  • Birds
  • Water 1
  • People: Adult Candids
  • Mountains in Spring, Summer, Autumn 1
  • Fire
  • Flowers – Pionese
  • Rocks, Deserts 3
  • Rocks, Deserts 2
  • Rocks, Deserts 1
  • Roads, Tracks, Paths
  • Skies: Rainbows
  • Skies, Weather, Clouds
  • Sunrises & Sunsets
  • Musicians
  • Colorado Mountains
  • Fireworks 1 – Vail & Aspen
  • An Artist in the Making or an Artist for the Taking?
  • Fireworks 2 – Denver & Evergreen
  • Humor, Intrigue
  • Vehicles
  • Bridges
  • Autumn Colors 1
  • Abstracts, Patterns, Lines, Moods, Textures, Artsy *
  • Flowers and Plants 1
  • Elk: Big Bulls of Colorado *
  • People Portraits
  • Moriah’s Senior Portraits
  • Mountains in Winter 2 *
  • Mountains in Winter 1 *
  • Africa: Botswana & South Africa (Part II)
  • Super Blood Moon – September 2015 – Vail, Colorado
  • Elk Cows and Calves
  • Views of Manhattan & One World Trade Center
  • What’s Your Path?
  • Vail Mountain Closing Day Celebration (“4 at 4”) – April 23, 2017
  • Vail’s 2015-’16 Closing-Day Summit Gala
  • Vail’s Closing Day 2015 Mountaintop Celebration & Pond Skimming Event
  • “Reading is FUNdamental” and Trees Really Do Fall in the Forest.
  • Don’t Be Half; Be Whole.
  • Winter Fun and Nature’s Beauty in the Central Colorado Rockies
  • A White-Knuckled Visit to a Snowy Ditch
  • Autumn Colors 2
  • Bull Elephant Wreaks Havoc on Our African Tent Camp
  • Snow
  • Home Exteriors & Landscape Design
  • Eye to Eye with an Alien
  • People: Kids Candids
  • Florida – Singer Island and Riviera Beach 2
  • Earth’s Moon
  • Food
  • Holy Cow!
  • Soccer (Fútbol), Football and Baseball
  • The Polar Plunge in Evergreen Lake on New Year’s Day
  • Africa: Bostwana & South Africa (Part I)
  • Vail Mountain – Closing Day Celebration – April 14, 2013. The Ceremonial End to Vail’s 50th Season. *
  • Vail Mountain, Colorado – On the Edge of Autumn (Sept.2012)
  • Fireworks 3 – “Fire & Ice” in Avon/Beaver Creek, Colorado
  • Autumn Colors in Upstate New York
  • Old, Worn Out and Neglected
  • Mister Moose and Bullwinkle Invade Colorado
  • Shrine Ridge Trail – Vail Pass, Colorado
  • Super Ball
  • Vail Mountain Closing Day 2012 Summit Celebration
  • Snow & Ice – Evergreen & Kittredge, Colorado
  • Snowy Scenics – Evergreen, Colorado
  • Change of Scenery for Evergreen Elk
  • The Paint Mines – a Colorado Geological Wonder
  • Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula – Part 7 of 7 – Impact of an Eco-resort, “Au Revoir” and “Mucho Gusto.”
  • Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula – Part 6 – Boating the Gulf, Wildlife Sanctuary, Zip Line Thrills, Tropical Weather
  • My Deer Friends
  • Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula – Part 5 – Tarzan and the Giant Strangler Fig Tree
  • Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula – Part 4 – Adventure, Wildlife, People, Beaches and Forested Parks
  • Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula – Part 3 – Iguana Lodge
  • Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula – Part 2 – Our Exotic Adventure
  • Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula – Part 1 – Overview, Demographics & History
  • SolarAquaTerra Germoonincubus
  • Marriage Proposal on a Wooded Hilltop in Evergreen * Engagement
  • Hummingbirds
  • Sugar-coated Late April Morning in Evergreen, Colorado
  • A Life Lived Well … from Starting Gate to Finish Line. Tribute to Jimmie Heuga.
  • Florida – Singer Island and Riviera Beach 1
  • What is the Reason for Seasons?
  • African Safari
  • Oh, Calcaneus!
  • Denver’s Union Station and the Colorado Ski Train
  • A Dog Unparalleled in Canine History

Copyright Eric R. Schickler © 2025

  • Home
  • About
  • Photos
  • Commercial
  • Clients
  • Services
  • Panoramics
  • Montages
  • Wildlife
  • Photo Art
  • Artwork
  • Testimonials