re: I want to retire early and move to Montana

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The elders in my climbing club recite his work around the fire as the bottle is passed around.

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My favorite poem. If this doesn't make you want to get into the wild, nothing will.

LINK

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Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there’s nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?

Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God’s sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.
Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert’s little ways?

Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild -- it’s calling you.

Have you known the Great White Silence,
not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies).
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map’s void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is,
can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild -- it’s wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
"Done things" just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that nature renders?
(You'll never hear it in the family pew).
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things --
Then listen to the Wild -- it’s calling you.

They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their teaching --
But can't you hear the Wild? -- it’s calling you.

Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There’s a whisper on the night-wind,
there’s a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling. . .let us go.

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Have probably heard it but don't remember ( )

Crazy thing, these old farts can recite something that long from memory. That part amazes me more than seeing them get up the mountain.

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That part amazes me more than seeing them get up the mountain.

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Coming down is harder for us old people.

Interesting guy. He traveled the trial of '98 with the miners during the Klondike Gold Rush, and went on to be an ambulance driver (Like Hemingway) in WWI. My favorite stuff is his Yukon period though.

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Normally I wear a helmet but I wouldn't want to get sneak attacked because of my choice in funny headwear on bum days.

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shite, in many parts of this state you'd just look local.

"I'm tired of this dirty old city.
Entirely too much work and never enough play.
And I'm tired of these dirty old sidewalks.
Think I'll walk off my steady job today.

Turn me loose, set me free, somewhere in the middle of Montana.
And gimme all I got comin' to me,
And keep your retirement and your so called social security.
Big City turn me loose and set me free.

Been working everyday since I was twenty.
Haven't got a thing to show for anything I've done.
There's folks who never work and they've got plenty.
Think it's time some guys like me had some fun.

Turn me loose, set me free, somewhere in the middle of Montana.
And gimme all I got comin' to me,
And keep your retirement and your so called social security.
Big City turn me loose and set me free."

-a guy named Merle

Damn, was debating as to whether or not to apply for a job at Montana State, in Bozeman, well y'all have convinced me to do it. Those pictures are amazing.

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My wife and I used to talk about moving to Montana and growing dental floss. After 3 kids and 30 yrs of marriage I would tell young guys to do it while you're young. I spent some time in Colorado and Wyoming in the late 70s and that was the shite.

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Great advice. If you don't do it while you are young, you probably never will as your family grows and becomes more extended. Do things before you get tied down.

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Damn, was debating as to whether or not to apply for a job at Montana State, in Bozeman, well y'all have convinced me to do it. Those pictures are amazing.

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And that's just pics.....I know my pics are nothing like the real thing.