Mount SunflowerKansasMarch 2013 Climbing to the high point of Kansas is about as challenging as climbing up into your dentist’s chair, only not as traumatic. Yes, the highest point in Kansas is at an altitude of 4039 feet, higher than the high points of 22 other states. Yet Mount Sunflower is utterly unspectacular, basically because… Continue reading Flatter Than a Pancake
Author: asiwentwalking
Predators
Jonathan Dickinson State ParkFloridaDecember 2000 Camping along the east coast of Florida, we have the distinct feeling that we are being watched. Because we are. Perched in the trees surrounding our tent is a flock of sinister-looking vultures. Have you ever seen a friendly-looking vulture? I keep repeating to myself, “They eat dead things. They… Continue reading Predators
Right Now
Taum Sauk MountainMissouriJuly 2012 Driving to the end of the road to a large parking area, we are ready to begin our summit trek. From the car, we walk a flat, paved walkway — ADA compliant — five minutes to a junction. Generally when we summit, if we have the choice, we loop around and… Continue reading Right Now
Blisters
Driskill MountainArkansasJune 2012 Due to my damnable blisters today, we choose a shorter hike than the one we originally planned, the one we really want to do. We’ve never hiked in Arkansas before and we were excited to be discovering a brand new land. We intended to hike ten miles south from Cove Lake across… Continue reading Blisters
Best Wilderness Meal Ever
North CarolinaTennesseeJune 1998 It is a somewhat complex plan, involving three main moving parts. First, Laura backpacks the Pisgah National Forest for a week on her own. On Day 8, I meet her at a trailhead and we plunge into the forest for another week on the Pisgah. Then for the third week, the rest… Continue reading Best Wilderness Meal Ever
Arky, Arky
FrostburgMarylandApril 2015 We are on our way to scale the mighty hillock that is the 409-foot tall summit of Washington D C. On the north side of Interstate 68 in Frostburg, Maryland, we drive past a steel girder framework that looks like it could become a small, ordinary three- or four-story hotel. It won’t. It… Continue reading Arky, Arky
A Very Large Tiny Old Man
KerhonksonNew YorkMay 2019 Philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, social critic, “father of modern linguistics,” professor, author, National Science Fellow, scholar and a guy who made it onto Richard Nixon’s Enemies list. This is none other than Noam Chomsky. Although he still has an office at MIT (Professor Chomsky is 90 years old at the time… Continue reading A Very Large Tiny Old Man
A Skink I Think
Pleasant Valley ParkPennsylvaniaSeptember 2018 A skink I think It’s on the brink Of going extinct Plink! Don’t… that… stink.
A Couple of Fun Loving Folks
Mount RogersVirginiaJuly 2011 Here we are, in the Jefferson National Forest, the Appalachian Trail, on our way up to the summit of Mount Rogers. Just the two of us, Lisa and me, and we haven’t seen anyone else for a while except for the distant ponies. Minding their own business, as we do ours. A… Continue reading A Couple of Fun Loving Folks
A Little Romance
Frick ParkPittsburghJune 1982 I started running after college. I mean, not like The Running Man, where you literally had to run for your life, and definitely not like what one does in politics. The running I was doing was sometimes, in those days, referred to as jogging. Y’know, fitness. I live two blocks from Frick… Continue reading A Little Romance