At important transitions in my life I find myself reflecting on the journey that has led to this place and time. As always, everything relates to the trail, the long treks with my backpack, the quiet moments in camp with a cup of tea and a good book, and the places where those journeys haveContinue reading “A Life Told in Miles”
Tag Archives: backpacking
Learning to Grieve on the Trail
Those of you who read last week’s post will understand why it is I am focused again on death and loss. It is a good time of year to ponder such things. The needles of the larch trees have largely been shed by now, and the paths are golden in places where they have fallen.Continue reading “Learning to Grieve on the Trail”
Lessons from the Sky
Hikers and backpackers all know what it is like to seek healing on a mountain trail. I used to call it walking away from the pain. Over the years I learned that the message from the trail was always the same. Whatever it was I was worried about did not matter very much when viewedContinue reading “Lessons from the Sky”
A Long Winter’s Nap
How many times can summer turn to fall in one life? Charles Wright “It feels like fall.” That is what passes for small talk this time of year when commenting on the cooler temperatures, shorter days, or the brilliant reds and golds that mark the season. I mark this time of year with a varietyContinue reading “A Long Winter’s Nap”
Savoring the Warmth
I have returned recently from a backpacking trip that will unfortunately be added to my list of really bad trips. It is a reminder that there is much about hiking that we do not control, such as the weather. There are also things that we do control, such as the gear we carry with us.Continue reading “Savoring the Warmth”
Here There Be Predators
I come into the peace of wild things. Wendell Berry After last week’s post I was reminded by my readers that gear matters. How we protect our campsite and food matters, and hikers have a lot of opinions and ideas about how to do that best. As usual, whenever I post about gear I receiveContinue reading “Here There Be Predators”
Still Fiddling Around
It’s not the load that weighs you down, it’s the way you carry it. Lena Horne I have had a backpack since I was eighteen years old, when I carried my brother’s old Boy Scout pack on the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier. Obviously over the many years and miles that have followed I haveContinue reading “Still Fiddling Around”
Looking Back from Higher Ground
The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills everyday. Diane Ackerman in A Natural History of the Senses For a period of about ten years I spent a week or twoContinue reading “Looking Back from Higher Ground”
Holding the Sun
In the photo above I am smiling because the sun was shining. It lasted for about fifteen minutes, and for the rest of that four day trip it rained most of the time. My husband and I were hiking in the Olympic Rain Forest, so the weather was not totally unexpected, but it nevertheless wasContinue reading “Holding the Sun”
A New Companion on the Trail
The common denominator in all these conditions—whether in the lungs, the muscles, or the bones—is overwhelming pain… It’s not a question of whether you will hurt, or of how much you will hurt; it’s a question of what you will do, and how well you will do it, while pain has her wanton way withContinue reading “A New Companion on the Trail”
The Solitude Trail 