S TAT E GAME LANDS REVISITED BY BOB STEINER I T WAS GNARLED. Its limbs broken and twisted, and its skin silvery gray. But it was tough enough to have survived a lightning strike. I leaned against its tilted frame. A windstorm had caused it to pitch off the hillside at an angle, but somehow it still stood. Not much about it had changed in the quarter century since we met. I, like this mammoth old beech tree, have grown old. A few years back I had weathered a few lightning strikes of my own - cancer and a heart attack. But this fine November midday I was just out saying goodbye to old friends. I'm currently no more terminal than the next guy, but I am a realist. At 66, I'll be lucky to tromp the woods for 20 more years. So I figured I'd better get at it since visiting my list of old friends - my favorite places on state game lands - will require a lot of hoofing on my part. Each place is special to me for time spent there earlier in my life. State Game Lands 127 Many decades ago, I purchased and refinished a wooden canoe. My wife Linda and I spent a lot of time that summer enjoying our new treasure. We put it on Brady's Lake on State Game GOING BACK TO RELIVE THE MEMORIES ONE MORE TIME. SEPTEMBER 2016 35