You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Mary Oliver in Wild Geese A few years before I retired I added a pop-up camperContinue reading “Rosy’s Backpack”
Author Archives: Colleen Drake
Getting the Grace
Give me the courage to stand the pain to get the grace. Flannery O’Connor Fellow hikers who read my blog know how much the trail toughens us up for life. Almost every hiker has had that experience, sometimes at the end of a long day of hiking. Out of water perhaps, hot and tired, andContinue reading “Getting the Grace”
Things Best Known
Will you seek afar off? You surely come back at last, In things best known to you finding the best, or as good as the best. The folks nearest to you finding the sweetest, strongest, lovingest; Happiness, knowledge, not in another place, but this place–not for another hour, but this hour. Walt Whitman William AtkinsContinue reading “Things Best Known”
Something to Touch and Hold
(I)t’s nice to have something you can hold and actually touch. 9-Year old Lucia Olson, speaking of her neighborhood newspaper When I first started hiking alone in my early twenties, I was much more miserly about the weight of my pack than I would become in future years on the trail. Equipment was substantially heavierContinue reading “Something to Touch and Hold”
A Sheltered Life
I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within. Eudora Welty Each week when I start work on a new post, I select the topic and then search for a quote I think will enhance whatever itContinue reading “A Sheltered Life”
Surprised on Sand Ridge
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. Mary Oliver Many years ago for my annual trek in the wilderness I chose a route that was quite different from the backpacking trips I usually took. ForContinue reading “Surprised on Sand Ridge”
Becoming Wilderness
Someone, somewhere will say, “Don’t do it. You don’t have what it takes to survive in the wilderness.” This is when you reach deep into your wild heart and remind yourself, “I am the wilderness.” Brene Brown The summer after I graduated from high school I hiked the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier with myContinue reading “Becoming Wilderness”
Grateful for the Trail
In the midst of winter I finally learned that there is in me an invincible summer. Albert Camus It is a week for gratitude. I give thanks for all the usual things that elderly women are grateful for: my daughters, grandchildren, friends, good food, good company. But as a hiker I also have a lifetimeContinue reading “Grateful for the Trail”
Dreaming of Solitude
Those who dwell. . .among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Rachel Carson I have a recurrent dream. I think of it as a nightmare because the ending is always upsetting to me, but in fact there are no monsters and no chases from which I cannotContinue reading “Dreaming of Solitude”
Touched by the Wild
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. Phillip K. Dick My good friend Jan, with whom I have been hiking since I was a young woman, encouraged me to share this story with my readers, a story I had told her many years ago. I hesitated. “Nobody would believeContinue reading “Touched by the Wild”
The Solitude Trail 