We loved the book by Joe Back and we learned a lot from it. So on our trip from Atlanta to BC we decided to look him up. Now, this was back in the seventies, we found the town that he lived in but didn't know his address. We drove to the little town and stopped at a store and asked where Joe Back's house was. The guy in the store told us.
It was a Saturday evening about 6 pm and we just drove up to his house and knocked on the door. Joe lived way out in the country, maybe 10 miles outside of the town he had a lot of land I guess you would call it a ranch.
Joe was just finishing dinner and he wasn't real hospitable at first. He was about 75 years old, they were just finishing dinner, and he just about kicked us off the porch.
He said "What are you whippersnappers doing, barging in here at dinner time with no notice."
But, his wife saved the day. She came to the door, and she realized that these young guys from Georgia had gotten all inspired by her husband's book, and she invited us in.
She served us some coffee and Joe warmed up to our visit and we talked with them for several hours.
Joe was quite an artist and he had many of his drawings, framed in the house.
Joe was proud of us when we assured him that we had learned how to tie a diamond hitch from his book.
Joe emphasized that in his book, if you wanted to be a Mountain Man you had to learn to tie your own diamond.
