May 12, 2010

'I want to be like her . . . '

. . . M. said after reading the obituary of Ethel Gordon-Poage 1908-2010.

Gordon-Poage loved to fish for trout and catfish and often went off on her own in her pickup truck, even in her 70s, said her granddaughter, Dorothy Wilkerson of Grand Junction. "She never told anyone, and there were no cellphones then. . . .

"It was like the Old West," said grandson Floyd Kendall of Grand Junction. "She'd camp out in snow, under stars or in the rain," and those who went with her learned to adjust. . . .

She helped on her father's ranch and in the summers worked as a cook in mining camps and on horseback, guiding mules loaded with ore, and sometimes dynamite and blasting caps, from the mountains to a nearby town. . . .
This woman should have been featured in Outside or Mountain Gazette, but she probably did not own enough high-tech outdoor clothing or summit enough high peaks to be considered a profile subject.

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