Author Archives: Colleen Drake

You must have an exalted mind and a burning heart in which, nevertheless, reigns silent stillness. Meister Eckhart Some of my readers will recall a post I wrote a couple of months ago in which I had recently learned of the death of a close friend and had gone for a hike to try toContinue reading “Fire Fire Burning Bright”

Through practice I’ve come to see the deepest source of my misery is not wanting things to be the way they are. Not wanting myself to be the way I am. Not wanting the world to be the way it is. Not wanting others to be the way they are. Whenever I’m suffering I findContinue reading “Never in September”

At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough. Toni Morrison Yes, there really is a Solitude Trail, and it exists in a place outside of imagination and metaphor. It is a sixty mile loop that makes its way around theContinue reading “Solitude on the Solitude Trail”

Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste. Bonnie Raitt A couple of days ago I grabbed my pack and set out on a trail I hiked many years ago. My pack weighed twenty-eight pounds. I was not intending to do an overnight but instead was doing a test run. My hikingContinue reading “A Tale of Two Journeys”

There is always a way to look at the world that can make you happy. Orville There was never a time in my life when I made a conscious decision to make hiking a central focus, though there were many scattered moments, beginning in childhood, when I knew that a mountain trail held something specialContinue reading “Safe from the Storm”

Every rock I could see was under the influence of water. I stood almost blinded by the animation, knowing that even when the place went dry I would be able to see it, the rocks and canyons as scrolled and driven as floodwater itself. I could only bow my head to this. This is theContinue reading “Cool Clear Water”

Remember the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you. Rumi No one would have accused my parents of being neglectful, nor of failing to enforce the rules that kept a child safe from the evils that lurk in dark corners. My world was a circumscribed section of the neighborhood that included the vacant lotContinue reading “Spirit Lake 1959”

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure some of them are dirt. John Muir I am late with my post today because I wanted to hike instead of writing about hiking. It was what I needed to do today. I will tell you why. Yesterday I learned that a dear friend ofContinue reading “Remembering Ronnie”