Patricia Contaxis’ work has appeared in The Pluralist, Wrath-Bearing Tree, San Antonio Review, Rivanna Review, Pithead Chapel, and Notes From The Seashore. Retired after more than thirty years as a marriage and family therapist, she now spends her time on Trail Patrol with the National Park Service, and as a Hawkwatcher with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory. She also enjoys playing mandolin and fiddle with her band and wandering the coastal hills with her family, their very good boy, and a pair of 8x42 field glasses.
A version of this essay was previously published in Rivanna Review.
I was twenty-one years old the summer Elaine and I backpacked into Three Sisters Wilderness. I was an urban creature, from a long line of same. My grandparents had... Read more.
