There were three significant results of my hike into the Hurricane Creek Wilderness in late October of 1997. This photo was one, which was about the only keeper in a day's shooting. Another was a severely jammed big toe that made the hike back to the car somewhat unpleasant and forced me to miss the rest of the fall colors that season.

And the third, and not least, was that I was to meet back at the trail head the abandoned Beagle pup I decided to name Abby. At the time, Abby's ribs told me that she had been without a good meal for a spell. Today Abby is fat, there's no getting around it. We're working on trying to improve that, but in another sense, I'm satisfied that we have vanquished starvation so completely, and I see her portliness as both a measure of and a monument to the thoroughness of our victory.