Category: The Moosilauke Letters

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

Colorado SpringsColoradoJune  2018 The world’s largest beetle. The world’s largest beetle is bigger than your pancreas.  That is a very large beetle, an Oh-My-God! sized critter.  It’s called Titanus giganteus, or the Titan beetle.  I’ve been told that the Titan beetle is strong enough to snap a pencil (why it would do that is still… Continue reading The World’s Largest Beetle

Loyalsock TrailPennsylvaniaSeptember  1998 The car breaks down outside of Williamsport, an hour shy of our destination, trailhead for the Loyalsock Trail.  Turns out we need a new transmission.  Yikes!  We make a few calls and rescue comes. Car secured on the truck bed, we jump into the cab for the ride to the car dealer. … Continue reading Home Improvement

OklahomaMarch  2013 The name Oklahoma comes from two Choctaw words.  Okla, means “man” or “people,” and humma means “red.”  Therefore Oklahoma translates to “Land of the Red People” or “Land of the Red Man.”  Some sources explain that Oklahoma or Oka-oma means “mobile home destroyed by tornado,” but this is unverified. It makes sense to… Continue reading OK, the Sooner State

West VirginiaJuly  2011 Route US-19 South, on our way to Mount Rogers, the highest point in Virginia.  We behold an amazing assortment of “roadside attractions,” including the nearly ubiquitous sets of three crosses alongside the highway.  We don’t count how many we see on this trip, but there are easily more than the number of… Continue reading Those Crosses

BlairsvilleGeorgiaNovember  2012 There was a woman some years ago in Arizona.  Her name was, and is, Randi.  According to a source to be named later, Randi was a thirteenth generation armadillo farmer.  Did you get that?  That’s a lot of family and that’s a lot of armadillo. For thirteen generations, Randi’s family ran the armadillo… Continue reading What’s the Dilly Yo

Driskill MountainLouisianaJune  2012 Kill.  Probably not what you think. The suffix kill, as in Driskill, is a Native American word with a less gruesome translation than the English meaning.  Kill means “creek.”  It is a name popular in eastern Pennsylvania and New York state, with names such as Schuylkill, Bushkill, Cobleskill, Peekskill, Wallkill and many… Continue reading Kill