The Howling of Holcomb Peak

By Mark Doherty

This novella is the first of two stories featuring adventurous school teacher Jack Carment. He faces a perplexing challenge at school which compels him and several of his students and new friends to climb a challenging mountain and face a misguided court case.
Filled with both exciting outdoor adventure and anecdotal classroom scenes, the story weaves an adventure tale together with some creative problem solving. The story is set in a rural Western town bording mountainous wilderness.
Throughout the story readers will also find a sprinkling of philosophy, some regarding the outdoors, some regarding precepts of education.
Short scenes recount in flashback form Jack's creative approach to the challenging problem at school and how it led to near disaster for two of his former students. The court case which then ensues brings a series of community members together as well as a classic antagonistic lawyer.
Frequent "flash forward" chapters feature the "current day" as Jack climbs the same mountain his students met disaster on years earlier. While he climbs, he recalls the whole story from the very beginning.

The work is liberally spiced with dialogue, much of it pertaining to the classroom and the courtroom, but also finding voice with other community members in town.
Descriptions of the mountains are loaded with sensory imagery and vivid detail.

Although purely fiction, the work is semi-autobigraphical in nature. There are some wonderful original summit register entries included which come from the original summit registers the author kept on two separate mountains in Utah's Uinta Mountain Range during the mid to late 1990s--Bald Mountain and Hayden Peak. These appear printed as is, completely non fictional. Both educators and outdoor enthusiasts will surely enjoy this piece. It has something to offer both reading audiences. Whether or not a young adult readership would enjoy such a work remains to be seen.

This is not a complicated novel, nor is it a lengthy one. It can be read easily in one or two sittings.

Finally, the second Jack Carment tale takes a similar classroom situation and problem style to a new arena, The Columbia River and a kayak trip. That novella is titled The Light of Shimmering Cove. It will be launched via Smashwords sometime later this summer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Doherty
• Release date: Jul 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301167470

Mark Doherty

Mark Doherty was born and raised in the Colorado Rockies where he developed his passion for both the outdoors and music. After graduating from Western State College of Colorado with a BA in English and Writing, he moved to Moab, Utah where he worked as a guide, musician, and carpenter for nearly ten years. In 1993 he moved to the Salt Lake City area to work as a high school English teacher. He retired from teaching in 2021 and now spends his time writing, playing music, and doing woodworking. In 2016 he completed his MA degree in English, Creative Nonfiction and has produced his sixth manuscript Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration. His seventh book length work of creative nonfiction will be completed sometime in 2024. In his free time, he and his wife spend as much time as possible hiking, skiing, ocean kayaking, bicycling, and backpacking.

Book preview

The Howling of Holcomb Peak

by Mark A. Doherty

© 2001

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 Jack's Climb

Chapter 2 Silver Ridge High

Chapter 3 Jack's Climb

Chapter 4 Silver Ridge High

Chapter 5 Jack's Climb

Chapter 6 Silver Ridge High

Chapter 7 Jack's Climb

Chapter 8 Silver Ridge High

Chapter 9 Jack's Climb

Chapter 10 Silver Ridge High

Chapter 11 Jack's Climb

Chapter 12 Silver Ridge High

Chapter 13 Jack's Climb

Chapter 14 Shane and Kirk's Climb

Chapter 15 Silver Ridge High

Chapter16 Shane and Kirk's Climb

Chapter17 Jack's Climb & Silver Ridge High

Chapter 18 Jack's Climb & Silver Ridge High

Chapter 19 Shane and Kirk's Climb

Chapter 20 Jack's Climb

Chapter 21 Silver Ridge High

Chapter 22 Jack's Climb

Chapter 23 Shane and Kirk's Climb

Chapter 24 Jonathan Laughlan

Chapter 25 Jack's Climb

Chapter 26 Shane and Kirk's Climb

Chapter 27 Jonathan Laughlin

Chapter 28 Jack's Climb

Chapter 29 Millie Coalesce

Chapter 30 Jack's Climb

Chapter 31Millie Coalesce

Chapter 32 Shane and Mary

Chapter 33 Jack's Climb

Chapter 34 Shane and Mary's Climb

Chapter 35 Jack's Climb

Chapter 36 Millie Coalesce

Chapter 37 Jackson Wilson

Chapter 38 Millie and Carl's Climb

Chapter 39 Millie Coalesce and Richard Smythe

Chapter 40 Everyone Gathers

Chapter 41 Millie Coalesce

Chapter 42 Jack's Climb

Chapter 43 Millie Coalesce and Richard Smythe

Chapter 44 Jack's Climb

Chapter 45 Jack's Climb

More About Mark Doherty

. . .

Chapter 1 Jack's Climb

Jack Carment lifted his head slightly, raised his shoulders, and inhaled deeply, enjoying the pungent, living scent of high mountain spruce and fir. It permeated his sinuses as he took yet another cool draught of early morning air. Closing the door on his small pickup, he turned his ice-blue eyes up at the peak, which was already shimmering in the first rays of sunrise. The rich, rhythmic whistling of a robin was echoing through the serene, dark green forest surrounding the parking area, and he could just discern a distant stream flow murmuring clear and cold with snowmelt as it tumbled over the rocks in its descent towards the lower lakes. He pushed a tuft of ebony hair from his sun-wrinkled forehead and stood, hands on hips, basking in the sharp early morning coolness. After surveying the nearby woods for wildlife and glancing up at the sunlit peak which was still bedecked by several late spring snowfields, Jack walked around to the back of his truck, opened the camper shell, and lifted his well-worn day and a half pack out. Then he reached in and grabbed his ice ax and slipped it through the lower loop in his pack, tied it point up, slung the pack and buckled his waist and chest straps. Sunlight was still a good thirty minutes from reaching the forest floor, so he blew a breath of warm air into his chilly hands, closed and locked the camper shell, took another deep breath and began walking towards the ridge through the sub alpine forest.

Chapter 2 Silver Ridge High

Most students who came through the doors of Silver Ridge High School were just that—students. They were simply kids growing up, learning some from their teachers, learning some from their experiences and peers, and then continuing on their way on rather average pathways through school, life, work, marriage, and adulthood. Although in Jack Carment’s neck of the woods it seemed that marriage came first for many students and only a few really cared about learning much regarding academics, literature (which was his subject as a teacher), or any other type of higher level thinking. Nonetheless Jack enjoyed his job, and he and his wife Carol enjoyed their rural Utah life because it offered them tremendous outdoor recreation opportunities. And once in a while a really sincere student came along who appreciated a true teacher.

Jack Carment sensed that Shane Olsen was one of those unique students right from the start, despite the fact that Shane’s rural town education and upbringing had left innumerable holes in his grammatical and writing abilities, although his gangly limbs and tall frame gave him a chance to excel in basketball which accounted for his modest popularity at school. He couldn’t however write a complete sentence, and he couldn’t conjugate a verb correctly, but he seemed curious about literature in ways that showed an underlying sensibility and wisdom that was beyond most students. By the time Jack finished teaching the first two short stories in his curriculum, he knew that Shane was indeed a student to remember.

What, asked Jack to his class full of students, do you suppose Bradbury had in mind when he put a Sarah Teasdale poem into this story? Knowing full well that he could experience a crowd of silent stares by a class full of unmotivated students, he continued by picking a student. Jessie, what do you think?

Silence, and then a shaking head, I don’t know.

Frank, how about you?

Jerking his slumped head upright, Frank replied, Uh, the computer in the house chose the poem.

Good, remarked Jack thinking that he wished he didn’t have to call on students just to keep them awake.

How about you Susan?

Susan immediately commented, Well, the house chose the poem because it was the owner’s favorite poem, and she didn’t request one for herself, so the house was programmed to pick her favorite.

Yes, stated Jack, that’s right. But why did Ray Bradbury pick this particular poet? She’s not the only poet out there.

Shane raised his hand. Shane, what do you think?

Well, he replied, Sarah Teasdale was probably Bradbury’s favorite poet, and maybe even why he wrote the story.

Nodding vigorously, Jack moved a few steps across the room holding an upturned and cupped hand gesture saying, "Exactly. The essence of this poem is not just an irony thrown into the story, but rather a chance for the author to herald a great poet, to write on a great theme, and to teach a lesson all in one literary move! And then he continued his lecture on theme in poetry and short story while thinking to himself, Wonderful answer—Shane has done it again, what a joy to have a thinker in this class to teach to!"

But Shane had finished his Sophomore English and moved on to his junior year. Jack only saw him on occasion, passing in the halls, at a game now and then, and from time to time when Shane needed help proofreading a paper for another class.

Chapter 3 Jack's Climb

Within minutes, Jack’s pickup and the trailhead lay far behind. Soon he searched for his landmark tree on the ridge where his route would diverge from the primary trail. So few people ever climbed the peak he was aiming for that there was no distinct trail, even at the base of the climb where he needed to start up the ridge. One large grandfather Douglas fir tree comprised Jack’s indicator for a turnoff. It was also useful for finding the main trail on the return trip. After turning off, the only markings signifying the route up the rocky peak would be an occasional cairn, some of which Jack himself had placed as route markers many years before when he first came to explore and climb Holcomb Peak.

As he reached the old tree, Jack paused momentarily, placing a hand on the rough bark while looking about and listening to the early morning sounds of the forest. A squirrel from high up in the boughs scolded him for a moment, and then all was silent for a time giving him a moment to reflect. The fifty-year-old mountaineer relaxed, some of the weathered lines on his face softening, and as he stood there in his stout five-foot eleven-inch frame wearing wool pants, dark green pile jacket, and an old brown wool hat, an observer might have passed right by not seeing him, for he blended into his surroundings as if he belonged there.

Chapter 4 Silver Ridge High

Kirk Laughlin came along as a student the same year Shane was in Jack’s classes. Kirk recently moved with his parents from California, and was a product of the upper-class society, raised and fed by silver spoon. He always carried himself as if he was better than any of the small-town rural kids because he had money and had attended the best private schools in California during his elementary and junior high school years. There was no doubt that Kirk was intelligent as well as good looking with his shocking blond hair, neatly chiseled face profile and stout frame of a body, but his attitude caused him to believe he was smarter than anyone else in his class, or in any other class for that matter, and that he didn’t need to work at school because of it. Ironically, Kirk’s self-inflated intellect would eventually prevent him from progressing as a young thinker, so that when he finally left high school, he was going to be missing just as much in his education as his rural school counterparts, and he was headed downhill into a world filled with uphill battles.

Jack also taught Kirk during his sophomore year; or rather he attempted to teach him. Kirk had a way of believing he was better even than his teachers; consequently, he learned very little from anyone. Despite the fact that Kirk had been born with intelligence, he rarely used it except to impress someone for his own gain. He had evidently been a good learner earlier in his life before his move to Utah with his family and before his teenage identity struggles set in. One day in class Jack played an old folk song about a train wreck to demonstrate the third person limited point of view in short story, and after the song he asked his students for clarification of certain lines in the song.

What does the narrator mean when he says ‘although his air was bad?’Josie, can you guess at this?

Most of his students were mulling over the page with lyrics on it, looking at the passage Jack referred to, but Kirk sat back, slouched in his stylishly baggy clothes with a smirk on his face wondering why old Carment was wasting his time on a silly old folk song.Kirk never addressed Jack by Mr. Carment despite constant reminders whenever he called out, Hey Carment.

Ignoring Kirk’s inappropriate interruption, Josie replied, Does ‘his air’mean his whistle?

Almost, Josie. You’re on the right track, but what else was air used for on old freight trains? Sam, can you tell us?

Sam began, Uh, well maybe it’s — .

It’s the brakes, anybody knows that, inserted Kirk with a smug look on his face. Several class members looked over at him with open contempt.

Right answer, wrong approach, responded Jack, drawing upon his endless store of patience in order to avoid a more scathing response that had formed in his mind. As I’m sure Sam was also about to say, the old freight trains operated on steam power, and steam brakes, and in this story, the engineer could see from his gauges that his steam pressure in the brake system was not up to pressure. Jack meanwhile noted mentally that it figured Kirk would be the only one to know this, and that Jack wished Kirk could more often act like a normal student.

Without raising his hand and speaking just loudly enough to be heard by everyone, Kirk then inserted, I thought this was English class, not science class.

Having already addressed the same complaint many times before, Jack chose to ignore the comment and the student and continue his lecture. Part of what made his teaching good was the fact that he was able to cross the borders between subjects and bring it all together, but lazy kids were always negative about this because it made them think and made them work. The good students simply enjoyed each moment of class and continued to learn from an instructor that was always interesting to them. It was the students like Kirk that Jack attempted to put cleanly out of his mind when he left school, especially when he had time to hike in the mountains. It often seemed like there was no way to reach students like Kirk, but Jack always