Author: asiwentwalking

HellMichiganSeptember  2022

Pacific OceanJune  2016 Lately I’ve been told, more than once, that Hawai’i is the most remote inhabited place on Earth.  This is totally untrue although I’m inclined to believe it anyway.  Hawai’i is 2471 miles from mainland California.  The house where Lisa and I lodge on the island is 4602 miles from our own house; … Continue reading Grow Your Own

Otter CreekWest VirginiaJuly  2011 Trailhead.  Several cars are parked in the dirt lot, some encircled by a ring of mothballs.  Keeps your car from getting munched on by moths.  No, that’s not true.  It actually keeps your car from getting munched on by raccoons and skunks. Raccoons and skunks don’t like mothballs, but they do… Continue reading Mothballs

Mount DavisPennsylvaniaJune  2014 We cross the broad summit on the rocky trail, surrounded by a still recovering forest.  In July of 1999 a storm raged over much of this high point area of the state, smacking down trees and ripping up the flora.  Considerable wind damage.  There were reports of balls of ice 1.75 inches… Continue reading Hailstones

LeeMassachusettsMay  2014 Speaking about big, how big do beavers get?  Beavers are the largest rodents in North America, growing up to 48 inches from snout to the tip of their flat tail and weighing in at sixty pounds.  That’s about the size of your standard bear cub, or 30 pineapples. Our current trip to the… Continue reading A Big Beaver

Grayson Highlands State ParkVirginiaJuly  2014 We stepped off the trail to allow an equestrian to pass.  The rider smiled and said, “It’s a young horse.  He may yump.” “’Scuse me?” She repeated, “It’s a young horse, a little nervous. He may yump.” Yump?  We shrugged it off, not having a clue.  She did, however, put… Continue reading The Yolly Horseman

PennsylvaniaJuly  1994 On a training hike, this one after a storm, there are blow downs, cut downs, fall downs, anything you can imagine to obliterate the footpath. I had to fight my way through tangles of bushes and brambles.  I recognize some of it as rhododendron.  Two days later, I recognize some of it as… Continue reading Looks Like Rhododendron

ProvidenceRhode IslandAugust  2012 Along our route to Jerimoth Hill, the highest point in the state of Rhode Island, we take a twenty-minute detour to see something you don’t see every day.  Near the Ponkapoag Trail, or just north of the Thurbers Avenue interchange on Interstate 95, is a building that houses the former New England… Continue reading Nibbles Woodaway and Friends

DenverColoradoJune  2018 You know darn well that cities are not flat.  Right?  Then how the heck do you tell what the altitude of a city would be! Take Denver, Colorado, for example.  Everybody knows that Denver is nicknamed the “Mile High City.”  Well, everybody except for perhaps a few Broncos fans.  Nonetheless, how do you… Continue reading One Mile High

KentonOklahomaMarch  2013 It is getting dark and we don’t know where we will stay the night and we don’t have our camping gear.  We’re in the area of Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma.  I look at the map and suggest we drive into Kenton, the small community on the highway before the turnoff… Continue reading Kenton