Th' Cabin

Wyoming has a bad rep as a sparsely populated state of dumb redneck cowboys. And it's not entirely undeserved - Matthew Sheppard was crucified by a couple of dumb rednecks in Wyoming, after all. Still, it's a gorgeous state, and a lot of the dumb rednecks are really nice and not so dumb at all.

My friend Chris's dad owns a few acres of land in the foothills of the Medicine Bow mountains near Douglas, Wyoming. It's a good four-hour drive from Denver to get there, and it's worth every minute. There's plenty of camping and hiking and general outdoorsiness to be had much closer to home...but none of it has The Cabin.

The Cabin is an old, rustic log cabin, not a great big modern house with a hot tub and a satellite dish that happens to be in the mountains. It does have electricity and running water, which means you can go for a long hike and come back to a cold beer from the fridge and a hot shower. There's a fabulous firepit and always plenty of firewood. There's not just an outhouse but a two-seater outhouse, which I don't think I have to tell you is pretty damn sweet.

The best thing about The Cabin is that it's miles and miles from the nearest town in the least populated state in the Union. You go to The Cabin and you're wonderfully isolated from the rest of the world. An occasional jet passes by overhead, but there's no traffic, no car alarms, no sirens, no bums harassing you for spare change. When we're there, we go to sleep each night listening to the sound of a mountain stream instead of two crackheads screaming at each other in the alley.

Behind the land that The Cabin is on is nothing but miles and miles of national forest, so you can hike for miles and miles. There's a swimmin' hole and a fishin' hole (the stream is swarming with trout in the summer). There are no demands on your time. I spent the morning on Saturday flying a kite, and quite literally had nothing better to do.

We got back from a weekend at The Cabin yesterday. We can't wait to go back.