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”
Tag Archives: Colleen Drake
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”
A Peak Experience
Like most hikers and backpackers I have enjoyed climbing to high places over the years, though I would not consider myself to be a “peak bagger.” Dangling from a climbing rope or pounding pitons into solid rock has always been a little too scary for me. I prefer to have my feet on solid ground,Continue reading “A Peak Experience”
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”
Making Choices
Like most hikers and backpackers I have long considered myself to be an environmentalist. I remember the first Earth Day in 1970. I was a sophomore in college, and it was a warm spring day. I stood in the commons listening to speakers tell us of various threats to the sanctity of our planet. NoContinue reading “Making Choices”
Remembering Mom’s Home Cooking
In 1968 when several friends and I decided to hike the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier to celebrate our graduation from high school, I volunteered to plan and prepare all of the food for the trip. That meant planning, shopping, and packing lightweight food for five girls for ten days, a daunting task. What IContinue reading “Remembering Mom’s Home Cooking”
The Solitude Trail 