Author: asiwentwalking

North CarolinaTennesseeJune  1998 It is a somewhat complex plan, involving three main moving parts.  First, Laura backpacks the Pisgah National Forest for a week on her own.  On Day 8, I meet her at a trailhead and we plunge into the forest for another week on the Pisgah.  Then for the third week, the rest… Continue reading Best Wilderness Meal Ever

FrostburgMarylandApril  2015 We are on our way to scale the mighty hillock that is the 409-foot tall summit of Washington D C.  On the north side of Interstate 68 in Frostburg, Maryland, we drive past a steel girder framework that looks like it could become a small, ordinary three- or four-story hotel.  It won’t.  It… Continue reading Arky, Arky

KerhonksonNew YorkMay  2019 Philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, social critic, “father of modern linguistics,” professor, author, National Science Fellow, scholar and a guy who made it onto Richard Nixon’s Enemies list. This is none other than Noam Chomsky. Although he still has an office at MIT (Professor Chomsky is 90 years old at the time… Continue reading A Very Large Tiny Old Man

Pleasant Valley ParkPennsylvaniaSeptember  2018 A skink I think It’s on the brink Of going extinct Plink! Don’t… that… stink.

Mount RogersVirginiaJuly  2011 Here we are, in the Jefferson National Forest, the Appalachian Trail, on our way up to the summit of Mount Rogers.  Just the two of us, Lisa and me, and we haven’t seen anyone else for a while except for the distant ponies.  Minding their own business, as we do ours. A… Continue reading A Couple of Fun Loving Folks

Frick ParkPittsburghJune  1982 I started running after college.  I mean, not like The Running Man, where you literally had to run for your life, and definitely not like what one does in politics.  The running I was doing was sometimes, in those days, referred to as jogging.  Y’know, fitness. I live two blocks from Frick… Continue reading A Little Romance

Big Bend National ParkTexasNovember  2015 We’re in Big Bend National Park, getting away from it all, as they say. When they say, “getting away from it all,” they usually mean getting away from it some, the stuff we don’t like or don’t want.  That’s what we want to get away from.  For so many it… Continue reading Lion Touches

MaineAugust 1992 Funny how we city kids were trained to ridicule areas of our country which are less densely populated than where we grew up.  These are the places on the maps where there are fewer lines representing roads, the places we look at from our car windows while driving through and say, “There’s nothing… Continue reading There’s Nothing Here

BangorMaineAugust 2012 We visit Paul Bunyan in Bangor, the real Paul Bunyan.  Just like the real Paul Bunyan in Portland, Oregon, the two real Paul Bunyans in Minnesota, the one in California and the one in Michigan.  Each state claims their Paul Bunyan is the real one. Bangoreans, Bangorites, Bangormans, whatever…  Folks from Bangor claim… Continue reading Paul Bunyan

August 2016 Doctor Marty and I are exchanging emails.  In preparation for climbing Mount Whitney, and being fully aware that the altitude on our recent climb on Mauna Kea challenged my constitution, I am asking him about a medication my friend Mike the Wilderness Medicine guy recommended.  It’s called Acetazolimide, or sometimes called Diamox.  It… Continue reading Personal Doctor