April 2022

[photos and reference links coming in May] Morning after the rain storm, lovely. The air still cool and wet, the sun in and out of fluffy cloud forms, fragrant sagebrush decked with droplets, a family of several dozen house finches chattering in a big Gambel oak. One circles out to check on me and I […]

[photos and reference links coming in May] Great walking weather today — cumulus, shining and dark in the same flotilla sweeping across the sky. “Good luck on the trail, man,” says Caleb. “Be safe and take care.” Last night I dreamed I was a soldier, bullet fodder. Then I was in the Alaska Mountain Wilderness

[photos and reference links coming in May] So it’s a zero today. Amber makes oatmeal and I ask Caleb how he got into hunting. His respect for animals comes from deeper experience than what I can aspire to — life in Louisiana swamps, Texas grasslands, this place. It’s impossible to live without killing something else.

[photos and reference links coming in May] Not a gust stirred the tarp all night. The Loop was kinder and gentler in the morning. I called goodbye and made my way up a flattening wash with Woodhouse’s scrub jay, pinyon jay, the usual suspects, and the best cryptobiotic gardens I’ve seen yet. Oops, now I

[photos and reference links coming in May] I really was tired. Didn’t wake up until 0800. On a shrub nearby, a bird I’ve never heard with a white Venetian-style face mask sang a high melodic trilling song. _ _ _ _ _ – – _ _ _ __ . (After research later in the day,

[photos and reference links coming in May] Started walking around 0700 with about two liters to get me through the day if I want to avoid an onerous detour. Yesterday’s aches are gone for now. Gonna be another hot day, though. The stove worked well last night, boiled fast! Maybe the combo of low wind