From the Waters of Coyote Springs

“From the Waters of Coyote Springs”, is a fictionalized memoir about Eve who is a self reliant forester, who camps in the remote forest of the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon, doing timber inventory. She lives the life of a modern day vagabond, breaking camp every week or so, as they make their way north through the Wallow-Whitman National Forest.
It’s the early 1980’s; Eve is in her twenties and enjoys the carefree, but sometimes lonely existence of an unconventional, bohemian lifestyle. She lives in a circular camp with five other strong willed men and women, who know well the sacrifice required of living on the road, and living a lifestyle of true nomads. They are camped beside Coyote Springs which used to provide water for the Nez Perce Indians, led by the famous Chief Joseph.
Eve joins the crew of mismatched drifters who live completely cut off from the rest of the world. She is a free spirited, feisty, liberated woman, who was raised during the seventies, when the nation was being changed by the force of the hippie generation, with their counter culture values and unconventional lifestyles. She carries with her the hidden sorrows of her past and her relentless search to find her place in the world. She learns to endure the forester’s lifestyle, which at times can be harsh, and physically demanding. She works in wilderness areas where there is still no trace of mankind, and where old growth forests still flourish. She works in steep, sometimes dangerous terrain, in the vicinity of the notorious Snake River and Hell’s Canyon area.
When the mountains fill with snow, Eve spends the winter a friend. He takes her to his hand-built log cabin in the Pacific Northwest temperate rainforest of Alsea River valley, near the Oregon coast. He is a reclusive man who expects nothing from anyone; he is self-sufficient and keeps to himself most of the time. They live the winter in total isolation, fishing from the river, harvesting the apples from his orchard, and living out of his well stocked root cellar. They make extra money by climbing up into the second growth forest above the cabin and picking salal, bundling it into bales and selling it to florists in the area.
Eve finds herself becoming more than just a friend, although he remains shut off and reveals nothing of his past. She begins to transforms herself, by letting go of having to be always in complete control. She becomes torn between her definition of independence and her need for love.
Surrounded by a tranquil, mystical river world, Eve searches for the strength to love again and to take the risk of becoming venerable, and above all to trust the instinct of her reoccurring dreams.
.