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Walking for joy: trails, mountains, canyons, beaches and the people who walked them first.
What if the baby boom generation—who were recipients of JFK’s fitness program in schools of the ‘50s and ‘60s—could once again return walking to an everyday practice for ordinary Americans—young and old? How could that happen? Well, I’m pretty sure we won’t do it by lecturing on the subject. Similarly, Kennedy’s words in Sports Illustrated…
In December of 1960, while still the President-Elect, JFK wrote an article for Sports Illustrated called “The Soft American.” In it he bemoaned the fact that American young people lagged far behind their European counterparts in physical fitness. Kennedy believed the “softness” of the nation’s youth portended greater consequences than the obvious health one. “The…
We composition teachers talk a lot about audience. If one doesn’t know who his audience is—even if he writes a persuasive argument—he will fail. Why? Because the audience may not understand or, even worse, may not care. Which is what happened on my first attempt to publish this book. It was titled Walking through Retirement:…
Four days till Book Launching—In today’s blog I look at the benefits of walking and the research question that created this book. The advantages of walking (especially for those over 60) are well documented and include everything from heart and longevity benefits to increased mobility, better brain and emotional health and prevention of chronic diseases.…
Hiked the Lighthouse trail in Palo Duro Canyon last week. At six miles out and back (five and one half if you, like me, skip the final ascent) it was my first long hike of the season. I consider the Lighthouse my home trail. It’s the one I do most often and the one I…
Here’s the new cover. In addition to showing it to you, in this blog I want to tell you why I wrote the book. If you’ve followed my writing, you know walking has been a passion for some time. What you may not know is about three years ago I decided to research the subject.…
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Hey Facebook and blog friends, I need your help. I’m revamping and re-launching my walking book as a work on fitness for the aging (that’s the category Amazon says is selling). Can you take a look at these titles and tell me which one(s) you like? Maybe rate the top three. The Art of Walking…
Pictured in my latest blog post are my friends and I on Atalaya Mountain above Santa Fe. It was my first hike of the summer, and I decided to, once again, take my favorite trail. I guess it’s my favorite because of all the memories. I’ve traveled the 5 mile, out-and-back path dozens of times…
“There’s no better place to find yourself than sitting by a waterfall and listening to its music,” wrote nature photographer Roland Kemler. I couldn’t agree more. In my recent update to 1001 Fun Things To Do in Retirement, I added 64 fun walks and day hikes. I didn’t do it on purpose, but 13 of…
“If there’s heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached to it” wrote singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. Beach goers like Buffet are profusive in their praise. “There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away,” wrote poet Sarah Kay. A…
“The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself,” wrote John Wesley Powell, the Army Major who led the first American exploration of the canyon in 1869. If you’ve stood at its rim, you know what he meant. My word is “mesmerized,” a term attributed to…
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Walk at Night “I have been one acquainted with the night,” wrote Robert Frost. I want to say, “Me too, Mr. Frost, but not acquainted as much as I would like.” I once saw the night sky on a regular basis—when I was a Boy Scout on campouts, when I lived on a ranch in…
“If anyone asks where you are going,” wrote Graham, “you may tell him in confidence, whisper the dreadful fact in his ear—‘Honestly, I do not know.’” Graham was talking about his zigzag walks. “This is distinctly not a walk on which to embark with one’s wife,” he added. Why? Why no wife? Maybe it’s because…
Graham says the “born wanderer is always expecting to come on something very wonderful—beyond the horizon’s rim.” He further explains that this “makes the desire to wander or explore almost incurable.” The Germans have a name for it. Sehnsucht is their word for “longing.” Commenting on sehnsucht, C.S. Lewis says it is the “inconsolable crux…
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“The principal motive of the wander-spirit is curiosity—the desire to know what is beyond the next turning of the woods” (Stephen Graham). I think of curiosity when remembering the walks of my boyhood. In those days my buddies and I followed few marked trails, and most of our hikes began with curiosity. “Is that a…
Going tramping is at first an act of rebellion, writes Graham. “Only afterwards do you get free from rebelliousness as Nature sweetens your mind.” Graham says, “you leave your back door and make for the distant hills.” It’s the natural follow-up to walking in freedom. The walker/artist must rebel against the norm or expected. Take…
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Years ago my wife visited her sister who lives in Vienna, Austria, and I got to tag along. It would be my only trip to Europe, and I learned something important. Europe is seen best on foot. That is, we traveled by plane, train, automobile, bus and riverboat, but the sites I remember most I…
Not all mountain summits are above tree line. If your body can’t handle the elevation but you still want to reach a top with great views, here are some of my favorites: For a nice, short hike in the Land of Enchantment, try the Atalaya Mountain Trail, which starts near St. John’s College in Santa…
Walking in the mountains can turn hazardous—like the time I climbed New Mexico’s Wheeler Peak with three of my students. The hazardous part was caused by freezing fog, not something I expected in early September and a condition that made the footing slippery and the temperature bone-chilling (think of a cold shower using ice water).…
“The mountains are calling, and I must go,” wrote John Muir. How do mountains call us? Thoreau said it’s in the air: “There is something in the mountain air that feeds the spirit and inspires.” So what is that “something”? I suppose there are as many answers to the question as there are people who…
In his essay, “Walking,” Henry David Thoreau recommended walking in the American West. But it wasn’t so much the direction he was recommending but the condition of the region. “The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild.” “I am leaving the city more and more and withdrawing into the wilderness,”…
Robert Moor (On Trails, 2016) once said that we not only make trails, but “trails make us.” If that’s true, perhaps we need to be more careful about the places we choose to walk. Wallace Stegner, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, historian and cutting-edge American environmentalist said the same. In a1950 piece designed to influence…
I’m thinking about Ouray, Colorado. If I believed in reincarnation, I would say I must have once been a Ute Apache. That would explain the connection my spirit has with this former hunting ground of Chief Ouray and company. For me, it was love at second sight. I first came here with the family in…
Fall is my favorite season. Always has been. I love football games on cold Friday nights, pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, crisp autumn mornings. And I like the color, something one notices on fall walks. Last October Charlotte and I got to spend a couple of days in Lewisburg, West Virginia, a place where fall foliage…
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Of all the seasons, writers seem to like summer best. “Everything good, everything magical, happens between the months of June and August” said author and screenwriter Jenny Han. “In summer, the song sings itself” wrote poet William Carlos William. “Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June” concurred actor/writer Al Bernstein. I suppose…
“The world’s favorite season is the spring,” wrote Edwin Teale (North with the Spring, 1951). “All things seem possible in May.” Nearly a hundred years earlier, another American naturalist, Henry David Thoreau, took the same view. He said that we find in spring “the principle of renewal of the eternal—the year beginning with younger hope…
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“You can’t get too much winter in the winter,” wrote Robert Frost. Call me crazy, but I agree with him. I love winter walks, and the snowier, the better. I know what you’re going to say. “You wouldn’t make that statement if you lived in Buffalo, New York or Truckee, California.” And, of course, you…
Do you feel that your days pass too quickly? Do you wish you could slow things down? Maybe get more pleasure out of each moment? Antonia Malchik (A Walking Life) says that daily walks will help: “When we walk, time slows down, and our multitasking brains rest and reconnect with our creative selves—We become more…
For long hikes, especially when climbing in the mountains, consider Nordic walking, a practice that revolutionized my walks some 20 years ago. I learned it from my Austrian sister-in-law who learned it from the Finns where it originated as off-season training for snow skiers in the 1970s. Put simply, Nordic walking employs special poles to…
“Walking gives us back our senses,” wrote Sussman and Goode (The Magic of Walking). “We see, hear, smell the world as we never can when we ride.” That’s because our vehicles trap us, they explained. The doors and windows isolate us from things we would see, hear or smell if we were walking. Long before…
In 1955 at the age of 67 Grandma Emma Gatewood became the first solo female to complete the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail. She would do it three more times before her death nearly 20 years later. Emma’s story, as chronicled by Ben Montgomery in Grandma Gatewood’s Walk, is one of the most inspiring things I’ve read.…
“Humans are slow animals,” wrote Rebecca Solnit. “What we excel at is distance, sustaining a pace for hours or days.” The theory would be put to a test in 2016 at what was billed as the “Man Against Horse Race” in Prescott, Arizona. Conceived in a Prescott bar when an avid runner bet his equestrian…
“One of the agreeable surprises of becoming a walker is that you can walk faster and farther than you think, and with complete comfort,” wrote Aaron Sussman and Ruth Goode (The Magic of Walking, 1980). According to the authors, most people do not know how fast they walk. Evidently, until one becomes a walker he…
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“Walk to get lost,” wrote Annabel Streets. “I like getting lost. I like the way it jolts me awake as if a double espresso has been poured directly into my head and given a good stir.” Evidently, there are benefits to being lost. Says Streets, “When we’re lost, we’re exposed to new landscapes and landmarks—forcing…
“Doing nothing is hard to do,” wrote Rebecca Solnit in Wanderlust. “It’s best done by disguising it as doing something, and the something closest to doing nothing is walking.” Solnit’s point is that our modern culture is consumed with productivity. For your activity to be valuable, it must produce—more money, more friends, more health—and so…
“I can only meditate when I walk,” wrote Jean-Jaques Rousseau. “”When I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.” In his Confessions (completed in 1770), the famous French philosopher went on to explain in more detail. “There is something about walking which stimulates and enlivens my thoughts. When I stay…
“I am a confirmed saunterer,” wrote Christopher Morley. “I love to set down haphazard among unknown byways; to saunter with open eyes, watching the moods and humors of men, the shapes of their dwellings, the criss-crosses of their streets.” Morley’s essay (found in Travels in Philadelphia, 1937) is the citified version of Thoreau’s Walden Pond.…
It’s called the “Lassie effect.” Dog owners “typically walk more frequently—and for longer—than those without dogs” (Annabel Streets, 52 Ways to Walk). Streets goes on to say “studies suggest that the stronger the bond between dog and owner, the more they walk together.” I did some research. Sixty-five million households in the U.S. have at…
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Yesterday’s blog spoke of a heavy heart as the “heaviest thing in the world.” Today, I want to address that. What can walking do for the weights we carry on the inside—things like loneliness, fear, loss or rejection? Robert Moor comments on the struggle in his 2016 book, On Trails. He’s writing about his fellow…
“The human body is a steed that goes freest and longest under a light rider, and the lightest of all riders is a cheerful heart,” wrote John Burroughs. On the other hand, the American naturalist said “the heaviest thing in the world is a heavy heart.” So how do we bring cheerfulness into our walks?…
Could walking with one’s adversaries lead to a more peaceful world? Evidently Ronald Reagan thought so. In his 1985 first summit with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, and after several hours of somewhat stiff, unproductive talking, our 40th president realized the meeting was going nowhere and suggested to his counterpart that the two of them take…
“The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking,” said Mark Twain. “It is no matter whether one talks wisdom or nonsense, the case is the same; the bulk of the enjoyment lies in the wagging of the gladsome jaw and the flapping of the…
“I like tramping alone, but a companion is well worth finding. He will add to the experience; perhaps double it.” The words came from Stephen Graham whom Morris Marples (Shank’s Pony: a study of walking) called “the greatest prophet of 20th century walking.” Still Graham had his critics. Famous walkers like Hazlitt, Rousseau and Thoreau…
If you’ve never experienced the beauty of a rain forest, start with the Hall of Mosses Trail in Olympic National Park. For both beauty and adventure in Wyoming, you can’t do better than the journey to Inspiration Point via the Jenny Lake Boat Shuttle. And for my dollar, the Sylvan Lake Trail in the Black…
“Walking is life in miniature,” wrote Suzy Cripps (The Joy of Walking 2020). “To pay attention to walking is to pay attention to life itself.” We English teachers would say walking is a metaphor for life. Understand one, and you’ll better understand the other. And maybe that understanding can translate into practice. If you get…
“From now until the end of time no one else will ever see life with my eyes,” wrote the American journalist/essayist Christopher Morley. You do not have to be a Meriwether Lewis or William Clark to discover something new. Their eyes were not the first to see the American West. When we see things on…
In Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Rebecca Solnit says that walking “allows you to find what you don’t know you are looking for, and you don’t know a place until it surprises you.” I would have said “you don’t know what you are looking for until it surprises you.” Like the twin fawns, still in…
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“To learn something new, take the path today that you took yesterday” wrote naturalist John Burroughs. In The Magic of Walking (Simon and Schuster 1980) Aaron Sussman and Ruth Goode agreed: “Even the same walk, the one we may take every day, is never the same from one day to another.” Of course they aren’t:…
What is it about a sunrise that gives me hope? Saw one today on my morning walk. The rich reds and purples mixed with pastel pinks seemed painted on the underside of white, wispy clouds, all set against a clear blue Texas Panhandle sky. Doesn’t get much prettier. But it’s not the beauty that fans…
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“You do not complain to a beautiful morning,” wrote Walter Teller in his book Area Code 215. I resonate with the sentiment. There’s something about a morning walk, especially when the weather cooperates, that lifts my spirits. Annabel Streets (52 Ways to Walk) says it’s the sunlight, which is the primary timekeeper for our body’s…
“When we walk,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, “we naturally go to the fields and woods: what would become of us if we walked only in a garden or mall?” It would have gone without saying in the 18th and 19th centuries. There were no indoor shopping malls or fitness centers with gyms or, worse still,…
“He walks best who walks alone, wrote the British author H. F. Ellis. Many other writers concurr. “One of the pleasantest things in the world is going on a journey,” wrote William Hazlitt, “but I like to do it [by] myself.” Similarly, Genevan philosopher Jacques Rousseau, Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson and American naturalist Henry…
Do you remember learning to walk? Most of us don’t. Yet, as infants learning to walk took our complete attention. As we got better at it (letting go of couches and adult hands to walk and run on our own), it became one of our best joys. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that walking (especially in…
In the last blog I wrote about not knowing the highways of the gods when we see them. So how do I intend to give you (and me) eyes to see and bodies to feel the joy of walking? Well, I can’t do it alone. Henry David Thoreau (Walden Pond) said joyful, passionate walking is…
Did you know that the idea of walking for its own sake (not just a means of getting from one place to another) is relatively new to human history? In fact, the English verb “to hike” (meaning to walk for pleasure in open country) dates back a mere 200 years. And the noun “hiking” appears…
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“One of the pleasantest things in the world is going on a journey.” The words belong to William Hazlitt, a British naturalist, who in 1835 is thought to have written the first essay on walking. I found him because I’ve been researching my favorite retirement activity for some time now and have decided to share…
Facebook is making me sad. Because most of my memories this time of year point to a hiking adventure, most with students and most on New Mexico’s Mt. Wheeler. But I have no such plans this year. I guess it’s because the hiking buddy pool was much larger when I spent my days among 20-somethings.…
Tonight will be the last of our vacation, and I have some thoughts on the subject. Vacations, that is. As a child, we took one every summer, usually staying in a rustic cabin or camping out somewhere in the mountains of New Mexico or Colorado. We fished, hiked, roasted marshmallows and built things—forts in the…
Took our drive yesterday afternoon. Our drive goes south of Canyon on I-27 for about 12 miles; then east on FM 285, past Hidden Falls Ranch, to Wayside; then the road turns south for two miles, then east for another four, where it dead ends into Texas Hwy. 207. From there, we go north to…
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My friend Bill is a dealership driver; that is, he drives vehicles to and from Amarillo automobile dealers. It’s a rigorous gig. Last Sunday, Bill drove to Corpus Christi where he picked up a 15-passenger van early Monday; then, scooted back to Amarillo by 4:00 p.m. On Wednesday, he delivered that vehicle to a customer…
Old Mike’s Peak. It’s why I stopped blogging over two years ago. Let me explain. In 2006, the 57-year-old version of me had taken a circuitous route up the east side of New Mexico’s Wheeler Peak where I met a couple who were camped at Horseshoe Lake, just 800 feet below the summit. The problem…
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“Am I still the person I have spent a lifetime becoming, and do I still want to be that person?” asks Mary Catherine Bateson in “Composing a Further Life.” Bateson says that identity crises are not only for teens but are “revisited in every stage of life.” That’s why she recommends reflecting on one’s past…
Seems most of my life I’ve been the recipient of others’ creativity: an inspiring book, a beautiful painting, a piece of music, and things God has made—a cascading waterfall or multicolored sunrise. Building this house has made me think of the joy of the creator. Did God smile when he saw the first man observe…
Hiked in Palo Duro again today. It’s one of my retirement perks—to experience regularly pleasures once available only sporadically. Anyway, looking northeast where Highway 207 crosses the canyon at its widest, I was reminded how much I love wide open spaces (no, this blog is not about the Dixie Chicks). Not sure why. Maybe it’s…
Realized last night I’m still a camp director. Long story, but was brainstorming about ways to bring a group close and suggested a retreat. Had a similar experience writing a blog when I realized I was still a teacher. And, while comforting a grieving student this summer, the pastor in me showed up. Funny, the…
Watching another colorful sunrise this morning and realizing that it, too, is a blessing of retirement—my classes were early and I arrived at school when it was still dark. Am thinking that the sunrise is a good metaphor for the newly retired. The journey is not ending but beginning, with all the promise and potential…
So I finally made it to a golf course—actually a driving range. Was son Jeremy’s idea. He thinks his dad would make a good golfing buddy. My son hit his irons well and reached impressive distances with his driver. My shots were—not so good. “I bet a lesson would help a lot.” My youngest has…
Saw several horny toads on my bike ride today. Actually, they’re not toads but lizards, the Texas Horned Lizard to be exact. We call them “horny” not because of sexual predilection but because that’s what everyone else calls them in this part of Texas. “Seen any horny toads lately?” On the elementary school playground my…
Repacking, says Richard Leider and Alan Webber, is an essential step in getting ready for retirement or what they call a “life reimagined.” According to these authors, repacking means deciding what to keep and what to jettison for the years ahead. It’s “a practice that challenges you to lighten your load.” Makes me think of…
Did you know Santa Fe is the highest state capitol in the United States? Yep, at 7,000 feet, New Mexico’s capitol sits at the foot of the Sangre de Christo Mountains. Today, I’ll get a chance to climb one of them—the trail to 9,000’ Atalaya begins near St. John’s College on the city’s northeast side.…
Did you know Santa Fe, New Mexico is the 2nd oldest capitol city in the U.S.? Yep, Santa Fe was established by Spanish missionaries in 1607, 13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Today, the city has the oldest government seat, the oldest church and the oldest house in the U.S. Today, Charlotte…
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Saw an online link to summer camps for adults, and being an old camp director, I decided to investigate. There are adult camps on the beach, in the mountains, on rivers and by lakes where one can (pick one) surfboard, canoe, practice archery, kayak, fly-fish, zip-line, raft, mountain-bike, rock-climb or ride a horse. There’s even…
Dear Citizens of Amarillo, I apologize for calling you thieves. It started when I went for an early morning bike ride, then moved some stuff to the new house, then showered and got ready for lunch—and, then, discovered it was gone. My wallet—obviously one of you had entered my unlocked front door and taken it.…
About to get on my bicycle this morning, early because it’s going to be another scorcher (topped 100 in Amarillo yesterday). With the cleaning and moving of the last few days, I’ve missed regular biking, but I don’t plan to miss much of it in the days to come. Because hopping on that Bianchi mountain…
Yesterday began early. We were moving boxes at 7:30—hang-up clothes from the storage unit to my sister-in-law’s place—so we can get to them more easily. Then Charlotte was off to yoga while I made my first visit to the house site. After that, I had calls to make—cancel all the utilities for next week, and…
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When I climb Wheeler Peak (as I have every summer in recent years), I experience two emotional highs. The first comes when I see the mountains; I guess it’s the memories of adventures-past and the thrill of once again pitting myself against the peak. The second follows, after the summit, when I’m overcome with a…
I call it “syncing passions,” combining activities I love, increasing both the effectiveness and enjoyment of each. Like hanging out with students and climbing mountains. In the last four years, I’ve summited at least a half-dozen times with my favorite people. Plus, we’ve practiced for the higher peaks with a dozen or more excursions into…
Walked by my old house yesterday. The four-bedroom ranch structure that Sternenberg Lumber Company built for Bob Bellah in 1957 hasn’t been occupied by my family since 1968. It’s only a few blocks from where I now live, but I hardly ever pass it—one, because it’s not on the way anywhere and, two, because the…
I knew it a week before the climb. But I didn’t tell the others until the night before. What I knew is that since we had settled on a smaller mountain, then we could get everyone to the top. Everyone—even those who told me they didn’t care to summit Wheeler—who were content to hang back,…
Rising from the high desert plateau just north of Santa Fe, Atalaya Mountain culminates in a 9,121-foot peak that looks down on both New Mexico’s capitol and the rugged Rio Grande River Valley. The Atalaya Trail, which starts on the north perimeter of the city near St. John’s College, climbs over 1500 feet in under three…
How do you prepare folks for their first peak climb? Turns out I’m not the person to ask. Seems I’m a better teacher than I am a coach. That’s what I told our Finishers hikers about a week ago when I confessed I had not prepared them for the trip up Wheeler. And I thought…
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Parnell, Texas—it’s a ghost town now—a collection of old concrete foundations, dilapidated lumber, some sheets of corrugated tin that once served as roofs, all barely visible above the tall weeds. It was April of 2006, and my buddy Clark and I were taking a final mountain-bike ride down the lower portion of the Caprock Canyon…
We’re calling it The Wheeler Challenge, an attempt by our Finishers group to climb New Mexico’s highest peak. So at 5:00 a.m. MDT, August 25, when we strap on camelbacks and headlamps at the Taos Ski Valley trailhead, my adrenaline will be in overdrive. One, because I love peaks—the views, the discovery, the challenge. And…
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Roy would have chuckled at the thought. Roy who was born in a dugout on the Palo Duro, who as a child didn’t have electricity or running water in his home, who rode a horse because it was the only means of transportation available. The very idea: Four grown men traveling horseback in rugged mountain…
Averaging over 11,000 feet high and running for over 60 miles, the Skyline Trail is the longest in the Pecos Wilderness. We rode the 10-mile north section from Truchas Peaks (one of which I climbed) to Cebolla Park. To the east we could see the abrupt drop to the plains of eastern New Mexico. To…
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This Thursday, when I join my buddies for a four-day horseback ride in New Mexico’s Pecos Wilderness, I will wear his hat. It seems only fitting. For Roy knew horses the way I know books; he handled them every day. They were both his work and his pleasure. You see Roy was born in 1904,…
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“Mike Bellah on his horse King won this week’s Barrel Racing in 19 seconds.” The words came from a summer camp newspaper in 1968. My friend Martha discovered a copy of the Hidden Falls Ranch Yucca Times and sent it to me last night. Zan’s King McCue was the 3rd horse I owned and my…
Never buy a trick mule over the phone. Was finishing a conversation with a horse buyer—I needed a couple of saddle horses for summer camp—when the buyer asked if I wanted a mule. “And why would I need a mule?” I asked. “Well, he can do tricks,” was the answer. “And the price is right.”…
Charlotte and I once owned the largest donkey herd in the Texas Panhandle. Yep, donkey. That ancient beast of burden known for pulling carts in the Middle East or packing supplies for mining prospectors in the Old West. We bought them (16, once the pregnant jennies gave birth) in 1979 to haul children in and…
Almost ran over a rattlesnake yesterday on my bicycle, and it made me think of favorite rattlesnake stories. Maybe the best came in the Spring of 2005. Clark, Chris and I were on a biking trip along the Caprock Canyon Trailway near Quitaque when we stopped at an Allsup’s. A clerk named Jackie told the…
“Ray, you don’t look like you belong on a bicycle; you look like you belong on a horse.” The words belonged to my cousin Sheryl, at whose El Paso house my friend and I were staying on the eve of a 400-mile bicycle relay. Sheryl was right. Ray’s large frame, combined with an equally large…
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Mt. Elbert. At 14,433 feet, it’s the highest peak in Colorado, the second highest in the lower 48, and I plan to climb it Saturday morning. Well, not exactly climb. Hike. Real mountaineers call it a “walk-up.” Folks who scale peaks over 20,000 feet talk that way. But for one who gets lightheaded at 14K,…
Bears. I sometimes think about them when hiking. No need to. Colorado and New Mexico – where I go – have black bears, who almost never attack. Unless. It’s the “unless” part that gets my attention. Unless you startle one. Unless you separate a she-bear from her cubs. Unless the creature is having a bad…
Wrote this entry late yesterday afternoon while sitting on the back porch, watching a thunderstorm try to form around us. I love thunder and lightening – although the latter can be scary when alone on the flat prairie or above timberline in the Rockies. Mountain thunderstorms are my favorite. Last summer we saw several, one…
What is it about a sunrise that gives me hope? Saw one today coming to work. The rich reds and purples, mixed with pastel pinks, seemed painted on the underside of white, wispy clouds, all set against a clear blue Texas Panhandle sky. Doesn’t get much prettier. But it’s not the beauty that fans my…
A faded red ribbon, hanging from a low branch on a scraggly pine tree. Thank God, I wasn’t lost. It was the summer of 2008, and I was attempting to climb Wheeler Peak on a trail I had never taken, one that, because it wasn’t an official Forest Service route, was unmarked with the usual…
A few weeks ago, I asked online friends for suggested books, so thought I’d let you know about the three I’ve read. The Last of His Kind is a biography of legendary mountaineer and photographer, Bradford Washburn. Written by David Roberts, the book details the life of Washburn, whose mountain climbing exploits – most of…