on the highway to North CarolinaJune 2015 It’s a seven-hour drive. I stop at what we used to call a comfort station. Now they are service plazas. Anyway, y’know, I have to pee. In many places, when you pull off the interstate onto a two-lane back road, you have suddenly gone back in time. I… Continue reading Rubbers
Author: asiwentwalking
Flying Squirrel?
Frick ParkPittsburghJuly 2005 I’m wiggling my way through the now vertical branches of a downed tree. Listen to that racket! I look up and there’s a flock of crows, each one flying sideways in the wind, cawing their stories to anyone who will listen. I catch a glimpse just ahead, something jumping sideways from a… Continue reading Flying Squirrel?
Anachronism
Quebec Run Wild AreaPennsylvaniaMay 1996 Hiking through the lowlands of the Quebec Run Wild Area in southwestern Pennsylvania, I am transported to another time. Or maybe it is the other guys. Hiking south on Mill Run Trail, I sense some goings-on off to my left. What-ho? A dozen or more people, dressed in standard garb… Continue reading Anachronism
Lion Touches
Big Bend National ParkTexasNovember 2015 We’re in Big Bend National Park, getting away from it all, as they say. When they say, “getting away from it all,” they usually mean getting away from it some, the stuff we don’t like or don’t want. That’s what we want to get away from. For so many it… Continue reading Lion Touches
Waterlogged
Myakka River State ParkFloridaFebruary 2002 Reminds me of the time I was backpacking in the Myakka River State Park on the Gulf coast of Florida. Florida, as you may know, is flat. The swamps where we hiked were nothing like the rolling forests of the northeast or the mountainous hikes we have done in New… Continue reading Waterlogged
Bees and Bees
Crowders Mountain State ParkKings MountainNorth CarolinaJuly 2018 they’re in here It comes up in a random discussion as we hike to the top of Kings Mountain in North Carolina. What’s the difference between carpenter bees and bumblebees? It is a warm afternoon and we have our sampling of both. Both carpenter bees and bumblebees are… Continue reading Bees and Bees
Bees
Savage River TrailMarylandJuly 1999 On our hike to camp the first night, we encounter swarming bees. Not too many, but not too many is too many. We are a group of backpackers on the Savage River State Forest in Maryland. Climbing a hill, single file, our lead hiker must’ve stirred a nest of bees because… Continue reading Bees
Those Who Have Dugout Canoes
MissouriJuly 2012 Politicians in Missouri usually alternate between pronouncing the state’s name as Missouree and Missouruh. The Missouruh pronunciation favored in the southern part of the state and by older, conservative residents, is often used when candidates speak to rural audiences. I quote this paragraph from the Week Magazine, 10 26 12, which in turn… Continue reading Those Who Have Dugout Canoes
Notes from the Bigelow Range
MaineAugust 1992 Behold, observations from the Bigelow Range, Maine’s Second Mountain. Six peaks run 12 miles east-west in western Maine. The Bigelow Range. They’re gorgeous. I mean, they’re mountains! Of course they are gorgeous. But they were almost not gorgeous. In the mid 1970s, a proposal was made to turn this area into a massive… Continue reading Notes from the Bigelow Range
Bash Bish
MassachusettsMay 2014 Very close to us when we are on the summit of Mount Frissell, the high point of Connecticut, is Bash Bish Falls, a 60-foot waterfall which is the climax of cascading water as it tumbles through a series of gorges. The original Bash-Bish was a person, a Native of excellent babe-osity. She had… Continue reading Bash Bish