Category: The Moosilauke Letters

CherokeeAlabamaNovember  2013 How about the Coon Dog Cemetery?  It’s in the Shoals in Alabama.  The first dog was buried here in 1937.  Since then, 185 more dogs have been added to the ground. “We have stipulations on this thing,” says Larry Sanderson, current Vice President of the Coon Dog Graveyard.  “A dog can’t run no… Continue reading He Was a Good Ole Dog

Blue Ridge ParkwayVirginiaMay  2011 During our trip to the Dakotas five weeks ago, thunderstorms were predicted every day.  Didn’t happen. We have just summited Mount Mitchell in North Carolina where we had roughly three drops of water. Now it is time to come home.  We’ve chosen a slower but far more picturesque route through the… Continue reading Hydroplaning

There comes a time when it is no longer self-conscious.  You are hiking along and you see the trail take a serious bend up toward the sky and all it means to you is that you will be higher in altitude in a few minutes.  The days when you wished for the end of the… Continue reading Hiking Uphill II

Don’t make any decisions while you are hiking uphill.

Great Smoky Mountain National ParkNorth CarolinaMay  2013 Did I mention the ginseng?  Aha! One night we stay at campsite #65 on Noland Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains.  #65 is quite broad, large enough for six different groups of campers.  Two guys, tall and lean, dressed in blue jeans, white cotton T-shirts and open-front flannel… Continue reading Ginseng

ShiprockNew MexicoJuly  2013 We’re almost all the way from the Four Corners Monument to Shiprock, our next destination.  We should be seeing this massive rock by now, but instead, we are having an experience neither one of us have ever had before. A month ago, while in Phoenix the night before summiting Humphreys Peak, the… Continue reading Haboob

WyomingJuly  2013 Motoring through the driving rainstorm, north from Colorado into Wyoming.  Within minutes of crossing the state border, camel and bison are standing aside the road.  At home we get cows and sheep. On our way to Devils Tower, we drive right through Chugwater, Wyoming.  That’s the name of the town.  Population, 212.  Altitude,… Continue reading Buffalo Jump

BlanchardNorth DakotaJune  2008 I get a kick out of the most [fill in the blank] thing in the world.  Like with some folks, extremes hold an appeal for me.  I read the Guinness Book of World Records with glee.  Imagine my delight when I see that, not too far off our route to Devils Tower… Continue reading Tallest Thing in the World

New ParisPennsylvaniaJune  2015 Ask a random sampling of people which super power they would choose to inherit, given the chance.  #1 on many lists would be the ability to fly, to defy gravity, or at least to ignore it. Short of flying as a super power, some folks who stand more steadily on the ground… Continue reading Gravity Hill

Frick ParkPittsburghJanuary  2016 Of course, when you live in the Northeast and hike all 365 days of the year, you are going to experience a variety of weather conditions. On my walk this morning;  I know there is a sheet of ice under the snow.  To try to get some kind of traction, I pick… Continue reading Frozen