Cost-Counting and the Delusion of Free Car-Camping (Night 5)
“If we make that shift toward a life simple in means but rich in goals, we are not threatened by plans for saving the planet.” -Arne Naess After leaving the South San Juan Wilderness, my wife and I went north to backpack in a less monsoonal climate. When we arrived at Minturn, hoping to camp … Read more
Cowshit, Hail, and Grizzly Ghosts: Elk Creek of the South San Juan Wilderness (Days 1-4)
When the rare opportunity to have six days for wilderness exploration presents itself, the hurried shot-gun trips to nearby areas are put aside, and we set our sights on further, harder-to-get-to areas. This time we chose the South San Juan Wilderness. Planning a backpack trip that satisfies both my wife’s needs and my demands is … Read more
First Moments in Minnesota: Water, Trees, Birds
After a long drive through the undulating and barren Dakotas, I arrived in Minnesota. Verdant plains, stubbled with ash, cottonwood, and maple, gave way to rolling hills that were blanketed with white and red pine, balsam firs, red cedars and juniper, and a myriad of deciduous trees…and lakes. Coming from the xeric Front Range of … Read more
glacial maws
Action drove me from my paralysis. Before that, there had been fear. It snuck up, gripped me by my throat, drummed wildly against my heart, and threw its dark magic into my eyes. It crowded the space in between my brain and skull, horror vacuii set in like Ooblek’s goo. I couldn’t move. I was … Read more
Llovía
As we sat underneath the tarp eating our dinner, it began to rain. By this time, we were used to it. This onslaught of water, this downpour. Our second semester in the Chilean Patagonia and we were no longer strangers to this element. I peered out from the blue tarp that was our kitchen, as … Read more
A Fly Angler’s Genesis
Memories of fishing lakes and streams pulse like the last light of a dying star. Neither brilliant nor faded, they contribute to the entire sky-scape of adolescence. So, it was a sad moment when, last summer, I threw out jars of moldy salmon eggs, knotted leaders, rusted hooks and lures that had occupied my tackle … Read more
Good Company
Two older boys from church were on their way -and that was all I knew. When Kevin and Ian arrived I had already been blindfolded. They put me into the passenger seat of a car and said, “You’ll have to trust us”. I knew better. Two other church boys, deemed camp counselors, said those same … Read more
The Language of Nature and Romance.
Wind chilled the sweat on our skin while we paused our journey through a steep glacial valley. Our resting place was in a thick stand of aspens and the mid-morning sun shone from directly overhead illuminating the spade shaped leaves. They were iridescent and in the wind they shimmered like scales on the side of … Read more
A Road Less Travelled: The Flat Tops Wilderness (Wagonwheel Trail-Days 6-7)
Posted by sainteterre on August 15, 2011 · 2 Comments
Everything in the world is beautiful, but Man only recognizes beauty if he sees it seldom or from afar.-Vladmir Nobokov from “Gods” We left the Holy Cross area by mid-morning. Car after car cut through the cakey dust, sending helical plumes into the still air over Homestake Creek and onto it’s riparian shoulders. We left … Read more
Category Photography, Prose, Review & Commentary · Tagged with backpacking, Biodiversity, Environment, Photography, political, Prose, review, travel, Wilderness Areas