FIRST LIGHT
At first light I returned to where we had last seen blood. A sparkling sheen of frost on the fields, thin ice on standing water, and my...
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Matt Smythe
- Nov 21, 2016
THE RANGE OF OUR UNIVERSE
Aleida shot her first deer, a healthy 2 year old four-pointer, during archery season last year. It was her first trip into the woods as a...
Matt Smythe
- Apr 1, 2015
HUSH FOR ONE SECOND
hush for one second I said hold still what do you hear I asked geese wind everything then off they went
Matt Smythe
- Jan 4, 2014
TRACKS IN JANUARY SNOW
I turn to head back inside pressing new steps into the snow different than the ones that brought me here
Matt Smythe
- Jun 14, 2013
THAT IS THE TEMPO
The boys and I and my friend Jason hit opening day of trout season on a reasonably-kept secret Finger Lakes stream again this past April...
Matt Smythe
- May 17, 2013
DEAR ALASKA
(fp note: since this piece was published as my submission to the TU Blogger Tour competition, I was selected by a panel of magazine...
Matt Smythe
- Oct 17, 2012
OUR THOUSAND MILES
I was elected and served a two-year term on the Canandaigua City Council back in 2009. My decision to run was based on my need to not...
Matt Smythe
- Jun 18, 2012
GROWING UP BRAVE
A shorter version of this story originally appeared in the Summer ’12 issue of Canandaigua Magazine. I could have called someplace else...
Matt Smythe
- May 24, 2012
BALANCE
Cam Smythe was many years and many miles from his small-town childhood in the woods and water of Upstate NY. The quick smile, quiet...
Matt Smythe
- May 18, 2012
THE GIFT OF MEMORY
My grandma Doris passed away in ’93. I was 19 and stationed in Erlangen Germany, but happened to be on a month-long mission in the UK...
Matt Smythe
- Apr 26, 2012
THE BOYS OF NOT-YET SUMMER
The morning started at 5:30 with a couple sausage, egg and cheese breakfast wraps, coffee and an apple fritter on the ride to a...
Matt Smythe
- Apr 9, 2012
THERE’S NO WAY THEY COULD’VE KNOWN
10, 9 and 7 years ago. Swaddled and warm in their loving mother’s arms, just hours after their respective births. Brand new in this great...
Matt Smythe
- Nov 30, 2011
WOODPILE
To prepare, I’ve started cutting and splitting fuel for the stove. A few weekends now spent with my dad’s old 16″ STIHL chainsaw and...
Matt Smythe
- Oct 25, 2011
TRACKING DAD’S DEER
I had just walked back from my stand to the truck to meet the kids. Dressed in sweatshirts, jeans, muck boots and still sporting...
Matt Smythe
- Jul 11, 2011
THERE’S ALWAYS TIME FOR ONE MORE
The plan was to paddle our kayaks into the West River for bass. Jason and I made the same trip last year and have fished a handful of...
Matt Smythe
- Jun 13, 2011
FORE
We don’t golf on no steenking golf course. We’re too busy catching bass and laughing at your drives.
Matt Smythe
- Jun 2, 2011
THREE DAYS & THIRTY NINE YEARS
This past Memorial Day weekend, I spent a few days camping in the Adirondacks with some new friends and fishing for native brook trout....
Matt Smythe
- Apr 19, 2011
MAY ONE. DAY ONE.
Less than a couple weeks. That’s what I’ve got left of the day job. That’s all that’s left of the twice daily auto-pilot-and-iPod-mix of...
Matt Smythe
- Mar 22, 2011
WE’RE VIKINGS, SUCKA
We dig Spring. As a matter of fact this year we did a whole bunch of celebrating and out-of-door reveling the day before Spring arrived...
Matt Smythe
- Dec 29, 2010
LATE GOOSE, DAY 2
There’s a measure of insanity, I suppose, in the psychology of the late season goose hunter. The first couple days of ridiculous wind and...
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