Results for ""

We found 102 results for your search.

Fraser Fir

Great Smoky MountainsTennesseeMay  2013 The upper altitudes of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park have a covering of a large spruce-fir forest.  The Fraser fir is named after — this is too easy — John Fraser.  He was a Scottish botanist in the 18th and 19th centuries who did some of his best work right here… Continue reading Fraser Fir

Flatter Than a Pancake

Mount SunflowerKansasMarch  2013 Climbing to the high point of Kansas is about as challenging as climbing up into your dentist’s chair, only not as traumatic. Yes, the highest point in Kansas is at an altitude of 4039 feet, higher than the high points of 22 other states.  Yet Mount Sunflower is utterly unspectacular, basically because… Continue reading Flatter Than a Pancake

Predators

Jonathan Dickinson State ParkFloridaDecember  2000 Camping along the east coast of Florida, we have the distinct feeling that we are being watched.  Because we are.  Perched in the trees surrounding our tent is a flock of sinister-looking vultures. Have you ever seen a friendly-looking vulture?  I keep repeating to myself, “They eat dead things.  They… Continue reading Predators

Right Now

Taum Sauk MountainMissouriJuly  2012 Driving to the end of the road to a large parking area, we are ready to begin our summit trek.  From the car, we walk a flat, paved walkway — ADA compliant — five minutes to a junction.  Generally when we summit, if we have the choice, we loop around and… Continue reading Right Now

Blisters

Driskill MountainArkansasJune  2012 Due to my damnable blisters today, we choose a shorter hike than the one we originally planned, the one we really want to do.  We’ve never hiked in Arkansas before and we were excited to be discovering a brand new land.  We intended to hike ten miles south from Cove Lake across… Continue reading Blisters

Best Wilderness Meal Ever

North CarolinaTennesseeJune  1998 It is a somewhat complex plan, involving three main moving parts.  First, Laura backpacks the Pisgah National Forest for a week on her own.  On Day 8, I meet her at a trailhead and we plunge into the forest for another week on the Pisgah.  Then for the third week, the rest… Continue reading Best Wilderness Meal Ever

Arky, Arky

FrostburgMarylandApril  2015 We are on our way to scale the mighty hillock that is the 409-foot tall summit of Washington D C.  On the north side of Interstate 68 in Frostburg, Maryland, we drive past a steel girder framework that looks like it could become a small, ordinary three- or four-story hotel.  It won’t.  It… Continue reading Arky, Arky

A Very Large Tiny Old Man

KerhonksonNew YorkMay  2019 Philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, social critic, “father of modern linguistics,” professor, author, National Science Fellow, scholar and a guy who made it onto Richard Nixon’s Enemies list. This is none other than Noam Chomsky. Although he still has an office at MIT (Professor Chomsky is 90 years old at the time… Continue reading A Very Large Tiny Old Man

A Skink I Think

Pleasant Valley ParkPennsylvaniaSeptember  2018 A skink I think It’s on the brink Of going extinct Plink! Don’t… that… stink.