Category: The Moosilauke Letters

Allegheny Front TrailBlack Moshannon State ParkPennsylvaniaSeptember  2003 On the first day of my four-day solo trip, I stop ten miles into the wilderness to make camp.  The rain has stopped and I find an attractive area for camp, right by a stream in the draw between the leading edge of the front and some other… Continue reading Naked I

outside FlagstaffArizonaMay  2018 Lisa is not the only one who has been caught speeding in Arizona. In 1871, two years after John Wesley Powell explored the Grand Canyon, scout for the United States government Franklin Benitez was charged with surveying a remote region in the Arizona Territory.  Coming upon a sizable depression in the ground,… Continue reading Quite a Large Hole in the Ground

outside WinslowArizonaMay  2018 As you may realize by now, the police keep a constant watch on Lisa when she is driving.  I have been her passenger too numerous times to count when an officer has pulled her over.  She moves fast, but they’re on to her. This time we’re on Arizona Highway 87 traveling north,… Continue reading Speeding in Arizona

VermontAugust  2013 Our weather today is pleasant, comfortable, delightful even.  We have wispy clouds, reasonably warm temperatures.  It’s August, it’s summer, one of New England’s seasons.  Summer is followed by autumn, of course, and then by stick season.  When Earth is on the other side of the sun, spring for most, New England experiences mud… Continue reading New England Seasons

Quebec Run Wild AreaPennsylvaniaApril  2016

Red RockPennsylvaniaOctober  2000 One night, we stay in a two-room cabin in Red Rock, Pennsylvania, just south of the natural wetlands, old growth forest and great variety of waterfalls at Ricketts Glen State Park.  We stay in this cabin because last night, when we camped out, my toothpaste froze solid. We walk into the office… Continue reading One Night a Cabin

Shake and shakeThe catsup bottle.None will come,And then a lot’ll. — Richard Armour (1906 – 1989)

GoodlandKansasMarch  2013 Eighteen miles past Kanorado, at Goodland, Kansas, stand the largest sunflowers one is ever likely to see.  We are in the car, without directions, but if this flora is as big as I’ve heard it is, we’ll have no trouble finding it.  Yep, here we are, next to Bubba’s Meat Block and Bill’s… Continue reading Sunflower

Wheeler PeakNew MexicoJuly  2013 In order to hike to Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico, we must first walk in the Carson National Forest.  These woodlands were named for Christopher Houston Carson, better known as “Kit Carson.” Lisa hears Kit Carson and thinks of a PTA mom.  I think Kit Carson sounds like… Continue reading Kit Carson

Cañon CityColoradoJune  2018 If you want, or if Lisa encourages you, you can walk across a bridge that is 955 feet high.  That is, 955 feet of air below you.  If your hat were to blow off, or if you dropped your book of Chaucer poems, it would take about nine seconds to get to… Continue reading Royal Gorge Bridge