Category: The Moosilauke Letters

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

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