Category: The Moosilauke Letters

Mount GreylockMassachusettsMay  2014 The Money Brook Trail goes off to the left.  That’s our planned route.  At the junction, we continue straight up the Hopper Trail.  Why do we continue straight up the Hopper Trail instead of turning left onto the Money Brook Trail?  I have no idea.  We read the map, we have our… Continue reading Talk Like a Pirate Day

RoswellNew MexicoMarch  2013 Continuing southwest 164 miles takes us nigh into Roswell, New Mexico.  Does that name sound familiar to you?  Many people know Roswell for the “incident.”  In 1947, there was a report that an airborne whatsis crashed on a ranch somewhere outside of Roswell, New Mexico.  Since then there has been a heck… Continue reading Roswell

July  2018 Behold, two of the residents of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. In the car, traveling south.  As we go farther, we see more billboards advertising “Gentleman’s Club.”  Lisa wonders, because we haven’t seen any, if there also might be an “Asshole’s Club.” In South Carolina, a bumper sticker reads…Bearded Baptist This term never crossed… Continue reading Roadtrip Atlanta

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