Bear Paw Meanderings

In my jaded youth, my family and I had lots of fishing and hunting cabins. You know because you read about one or another several times a year.

One of the biggest drawbacks to our hunting camps was that usually they were one room log structures and had no insulation. I remember one cabin on Clear Creek that you could lay in bed and look up at the stars through the shingles on the roof. And yet, that roof never leaked. Amazing.

In our cabins we usually had a large black cook stove and included a hot water reservoir by the side. Heat the stove and oven and you had hot water as well.

By the time...