Category: The Moosilauke Letters

not really any wilderness location at all1992 1The sales guy spends so much time telling me why his mattress is superior to everyone else’s mattress that I become suspicious.  Also tired. 2Lisa suggests I go to Costco for a new mattress.  I’m sure I will be able to find something I like at a great… Continue reading A Matter of Mattress

Duff ParkMurrysvillePennsylvaniaOctober  2013 Training day.  Duff Park.  Altitude gain of about 200 feet in a tenth of a mile on Round Top Trail.  Once.  Twice.  Many times. Lots of people on the lower, flatter elevations, running, walking the dog, picking invasive garlic mustard.  Trillium, skunk cabbage, may apple, squaw root, the last of the trout… Continue reading Manypede

Settlers Cabin ParkPennsylvaniaApril  2015

Rural RetreatVirginiaJuly  2014 We stay the night in Wytheville after our summit climb of the Old Dominion state, Virginia.  First thing in the morning, we’re on the road to visit the nearby rural retreat called Rural Retreat, a town of 1500 living residents, and one dead resident in particular. In the pursuit of knowledge, we… Continue reading Who’s a Pepper?

Cohutta WildernessGeorgiaSeptember  1992 Steve is my brother, ten years older and so much wiser than me, in his mind.  Even though he spent time in the trenches in Vietnam, he was still willing to go out into the wilds of north Georgia with me.  We planned a three-day backpack trip in the Cohutta Wilderness, just… Continue reading Brother Time

Boyce Mayview ParkUpper St ClairPennsylvaniaSeptember  2017 Lisa and I are on a training hike in Boyce Mayview Park, not too far from home.  At the highest point of a loop, where several trails converge, a cute little dog comes bounding from the brush, happy as dogs usually are.  Following behind is a hiker.  Or a… Continue reading Snake Butt

ClevelandOhioJanuary  2018 Section 5E, Lot 383-0, Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland. It’s quiet here.  Of course it’s quiet.  It’s a cemetery.  This quiet is in contrast to the way this particular plot’s occupant lived his life.  Who lives here in this burial place?  Alan Freed. Alan Freed was born in 1921 in Windber, Pennsylvania, 59 miles… Continue reading The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll

my own gardenPittsburghSummer  1993 Carol said, “Put a dish of beer in the garden.  It will attract the slugs and keep them from eating our vegetables.”  She even gave me a couple of attractive ceramic bowls. After getting over the initial shock of feeding beer to anything non-human, and well aware that slugs have bad… Continue reading Slugs

ScarboroughMaineAugust  2012 Soon we make a stop at a standard looking confectionary store next to the Cornerstone Baptist Church and across the highway from the gas station.  Among the great assortment of chocolates and moose-themed tchotchkes — we’re in Maine, moose country — is Lenny, the featured attraction.  Lenny is a moose, a 1700-pound moose. … Continue reading Lenny

It’s unlikely that anyone will allow you the use of the word flink when you are playing Scrabble.  Lisa’s parents, both particularly adept at the game, grunted and bewailed at me when I tried.  Mom wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “SCRABBLE QUEEN” so I know that when I chose to create “flink” on… Continue reading Flink