When you hike a trail you honor the life, the legend, the man, the beard: John Muir himself. "This great Scottish-American conservationist can be considered the father of our National Parks, and founder of the modern environmental movement. More than anything, though, he loved a walk in the woods." So speaks the trail sign on my …
Yellowstone River: Strength Demands Strength
Wild rivers are earth's renegades, defying gravity, dancing to their own tunes, resisting the authority of humans, always chipping away, and eventually always winning. Richard Bangs & Christian Kallen, River Gods Day 3 on the Yellowstone River: The water was cold. Not as cold as I expected, but I didn’t …
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Goodbye, Fort Tryon
A writer discovers: it's in your last moments in a place that you come to love it the most.
Three Weeks in the Future
Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown. The river is calling and I must go. A parody of the famous John Muir quote flows off my typing fingers as I contemplate the next three weeks of my life. The plan: to kayak approximately 500 miles of the Yellowstone River from Livingston, …
A Boot-ist Meditation
Alone at the table I sit, pen-in-hand, remembering. I'm writing a eulogy. For my boots. They were my best, most rugged pair of fire boots: Danners, with thick rubber soles and knowing, thorned-in scratches. Victims of a brutal crime: an unannounced cleaning spree at my parents' house. It is a eulogy, also, to the migratory …
Writing the Wild 