Check out my latest essay in Montana’s Big Sky Journal (“The First Run of the Season”)

I was honored earlier this month to have my essay titled “The First Run of the Season” published in the Fly Fishing 2026 issue of Big Sky Journal, an outdoors and cultural magazine published in Bozeman, Montana. This piece has special significance because of the magazine’s publication not far from the home of my wife’s sister, Kristin Wadle, and her family.

In fact, my brother-in-law, Douglas Wadle, had his own essay published in Big Sky Journal‘s Fall 2025 issue. Doug and Kristin were early role models for my backpacking adventures, and Doug, himself an author (when he’s not practicing medicine), provided touching assistance and inspiration for my book.

“The First Run of the Season” is a flash-fiction essay recounting an old man’s escape from a changing world by boating down the Yellowstone River. The piece was inspired by rafting I did during a family vacation last summer in Montana and Wyoming, including a ride down the Yellowstone River through Montana’s Paradise Valley piloted by Doug and Kristin.

Thank you, Big Sky Journal!