Category: The Moosilauke Letters

somewhere in West VirginiaMay  2002 A fair sized group of us were hiking through the woods on a backpacking trip when we came upon smoldering flames in a circle of rocks aside the trail.  I asked the women to go on up ahead. When they were far enough up the trail, we guys formed a… Continue reading Being a Guy

ArizonaMay  2018 1Bumper sticker on a particular Wrangler Sport… I’M THE BLACK JEEP OF THE FAMILY 2The old and suggestive rock formations of Arizona present many opportunities for us humans to engage in our ingrained and idiosyncratic habit of seeing patterns that present in random information.  This information may be in the form of numbers,… Continue reading 12 Stories from Arizona

MedoraNorth DakotaMay  2015 Medora, North Dakota, is a cute little tourist town at the edge of the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It’s north of White Butte, the high point of North Dakota, and east of a town called Home on the Range in North Dakota. Throughout its history, Medora has always been… Continue reading Do You Have a Side Salad?

SaxonburgPennsylvaniaFebruary  2021 I took this photograph of the car windshield just before we embarked on our trip of discovery. Notice the rain on the glass.  There is nothing wrong with the weather here.  As Alfred Wainwright (English fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator) told me, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” What’s… Continue reading Not the Brooklyn Bridge

Dolly SodsWest Virginia1996 As I was making my way up the trail a few days after a storm, I came upon a downed tree.  A tall, muscularly chiseled lumberjack type of guy was chopping through the log which was blocking the trail.  He was using an ax, his shirt was off and he had a… Continue reading Cowboy Hero

Allegheny Front TrailBlack Moshannon State ParkPennsylvaniaSeptember  2003 In Naked I, I wrote, “According to the register at trailhead, no one has been here in the last seventeen days.  There may be, at this moment, no one within miles of me.” If you assumed I was talking about people, you are thinking the same thing I’m… Continue reading Naked II

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