[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 […]
day 11 (3/30): Two kinds of fear Read More »
[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
day 10 (3/29): The Needles Read More »
[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.
day 9 (3/28): Zero means NO miles Read More »
[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
day 8 (3/27): The outpost Read More »
[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
day 6 (3/25): Barthe Cliff 2: Waterless Boogaloo Read More »
[photos and reference links coming in May] Slept along Kane Creek, tucked at the foot of a 1,000-foot sandstone cliff, atop its rubble pile with the snaking road below. (Later in the morning I walk past a sign about BASE jumping in this canyon; I wonder when was the last time someone jumped off my
day 5 (3/24): The Devil’s everything Read More »
[photos and links coming in May] Ice cream for breakfast at the Lazy Lizard. Now I have a Talenti jar for cold-soak meals and a bit of extra water storage. Scrubbed a layer of congealed sweat off my skin, charged everything, and away we go! Except that I ended up not leaving the hostel til
day 4 (3/23): A serendipitous encounter Read More »
[photos and links coming in May] Woke at 0500 just like yesterday. Full moon, bright enough to walk, considered breaking camp. Again like yesterday, instead I fell asleep and woke at 830, long past dawn. I dreamed my charging cable broke (it’s hanging on by a metallic thread). The sky is a very dry clear
day 3 (3/22): It gets good Read More »
[photos and reference links coming in May] Snow!!! On my first night! Woke around 5 to find the already too-low tarp pressing down on my quilt, both slick with water. Like I said, the lessons are coming thick and fast. I’m barely a mile from tourist trail and already feel very much “out there.” From
day 2 (3/21): Slower than expected Read More »
[photos and reference links coming in May] …….or snoozing in a motel room. Mom, Dad and H left for Denver at 0630 today. We all gave each other a big group hug, I took a stupidly underexposed picture of them, and they drove off in the dark. I decided to catch a few extra hours
day 1 (3/20): The other kind of crypto Read More »
The Hayduke is, in my opinion, step-for-step the most adventurous 800-mile walk one can do in the contiguous USA. If you want to know why I’m doing this and you don’t have more time, that’s why. (And if you disagree on the title of Most Adventurous, I would love to know your pick!) In the
Pre-Hayduke thoughts Read More »
ghosts on the mountain whisper death into the wind i think i hear them coming now carried up and over ancient trees the quiet words of a forgotten tongue shatter on the mountainside crack inside our brittle ears and fade away without a trace the indifferent cold white sun abandons us for a darker west
ghosts on the mountain | late fall in the high sierra Read More »
The land speaks for itself: three December days in chronological order.
Death Valley & Mojave Desert Read More »
10/30-31 Ecology class field trip to Anacapa Island, an hour’s ferry ride from SoCal’s vast, vulgar, meretricious landscape of freeways and single-family homes. If Colorado led me to believe that ecological devastation is nearer to us, more widespread, and more uglifying than people sitting indoors realize, Anacapa showed that undreamed-of beauty still exists in our
Illusion Island (Anacapa) Read More »
I like having a pair of binoculars slung around my shoulder (and using them). It makes me feel purposeful, curious and ready. I have always loved the original Dr. Dolittle books by Hugh Lofting (although the racist messaging in them is gratuitous. I wrote an essay analyzing this for 10th grade history class — that’s
What I learned from 10 weeks of bird surveys Read More »
Playful soft thunder directly overhead. I’m sitting in a cave at — well, I don’t know the exact elevation because my GPS isn’t working, I’m in a cave. Somewhere far above where you’re supposed to be during a thunder storm. The nearest trees are a dark smudge in the basin below the basin below me.
Weminuche Wilderness Read More »
The other day I came upon a roadside kiosk with brochures made by local people about the history of Colorado’s West End. One about petroglyphs ended up on my dashboard. This morning I left the confluence, followed the road by the puddles that remain of the Dolores, and found my way to a deserted gallery
Petroglyphs on the West End Read More »
A couple days ago I finally moved on from Carbondale. I’m higher now, on the forested Uncompahgre Plateau in southwest Colorado. On Google Earth it’s the huge dark washboard south of Grand Junction and the interstate, west of Montrose and the Rockies, north of the San Juan range, and east of the Utah border. The
Stopping by woods on a summer morning Read More »
6/11 – 6/13 Every survey has an instruction sheet with information like driving directions to the access point, a topographic relief map showing the 16 survey points, and a name for the survey bestowed by a past technician. The instructions also tell if the survey is a “backpacker” — far enough from the nearest road
Nightmares and treasures in the hills Read More »