Dick has always been an adventure seeker and explorer. As a young boy (7-10 yrs.) he was a frequent visitor to my parent’s mountain ranch where he wandered around with our dog “Turk” looking for bear. As my dad told it, he never got lost and always returned at supper time for my mother’s extra good cooking. However, he has been known to get lost in a shopping mall.
On one occasion, when he was 7, he accompanied my father to our “upper place” (5 miles away) to harvest the hay crop. They stayed in a primitive homesteader/hunter cabin fully equipped with wood stove, unwashed bedding and mice. When the mower broke down, my father had to ride home for repair parts. Dick chose to stay overnite in the cabin alone. This might be “child abuse’ these days.
After his family retured to CO from Wy, Dick was camping near the Poudre River and a rattle snake crawled in his tent with him. That Polar Bear in No. Canada was not the first creature to invade his sleeping space.
Thru the years, Dick,Isabelle and their family has been very kind to my family. We have experienced the “Friday Nite Fish Dinners” and he treated my parents (70+ years at the time) to a time-of-their-life fishing trip to the Fingering Lakes north of Dillingham,AK.
It is great that he has documented so many of his escapades in his Canyons and Ice book. It’s a great testimony to his abilty to survive most anything.  — Charlie (Hotshot) Weinrich Washington, IL