Category: The Moosilauke Letters

on the highway to North CarolinaJune  2015 It’s a seven-hour drive.  I stop at what we used to call a comfort station.  Now they are service plazas.  Anyway, y’know, I have to pee.  In many places, when you pull off the interstate onto a two-lane back road, you have suddenly gone back in time.  I… Continue reading Rubbers

Frick ParkPittsburghJuly  2005 I’m wiggling my way through the now vertical branches of a downed tree.  Listen to that racket!  I look up and there’s a flock of crows, each one flying sideways in the wind, cawing their stories to anyone who will listen. I catch a glimpse just ahead, something jumping sideways from a… Continue reading Flying Squirrel?

Quebec Run Wild AreaPennsylvaniaMay  1996 Hiking through the lowlands of the Quebec Run Wild Area in southwestern Pennsylvania, I am transported to another time.  Or maybe it is the other guys. Hiking south on Mill Run Trail, I sense some goings-on off to my left.  What-ho?  A dozen or more people, dressed in standard garb… Continue reading Anachronism

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

Myakka River State ParkFloridaFebruary  2002 Reminds me of the time I was backpacking in the Myakka River State Park on the Gulf coast of Florida.  Florida, as you may know, is flat.  The swamps where we hiked were nothing like the rolling forests of the northeast or the mountainous hikes we have done in New… Continue reading Waterlogged

Crowders Mountain State ParkKings MountainNorth CarolinaJuly  2018 they’re in here It comes up in a random discussion as we hike to the top of Kings Mountain in North Carolina.  What’s the difference between carpenter bees and bumblebees?  It is a warm afternoon and we have our sampling of both. Both carpenter bees and bumblebees are… Continue reading Bees and Bees

Savage River TrailMarylandJuly  1999 On our hike to camp the first night, we encounter swarming bees.  Not too many, but not too many is too many. We are a group of backpackers on the Savage River State Forest in Maryland.  Climbing a hill, single file, our lead hiker must’ve stirred a nest of bees because… Continue reading Bees

MaineAugust  1992 Behold, observations from the Bigelow Range, Maine’s Second Mountain. Six peaks run 12 miles east-west in western Maine.  The Bigelow Range.  They’re gorgeous.  I mean, they’re mountains!  Of course they are gorgeous. But they were almost not gorgeous.  In the mid 1970s, a proposal was made to turn this area into a massive… Continue reading Notes from the Bigelow Range

FreeportMaineAugust  2012 On our way north, we drive past the BFI.  The BFI lives by the side of the road on Route 1 in Freeport, Maine.  He lives there, but I don’t know if you want to call it a living.  He just stands there.  All the time.  He’s been standing there for more than… Continue reading The BFI

North CarolinaDecember  2005 North Carolina thoughtfully provides an 800 toll free telephone number that you may call in order to request information about the state.  It may not be the information you want, but at least you can get it. On the telephone I inform the information office person that during our upcoming trip, we… Continue reading Freedom of Information