Pennsylvania is full of wild brook trout and it’s getting better all the time. Pennsylvania became one of the most unexpectedly pleasant states to wander through during my long hikes, as recounted in The Dying Fish. Originally, the tall virgin forests of the mid-Atlantic favored brook trout. They provided ample shade almost everywhere, keeping the […]
Read more "Pennsylvania As Brook Trout Park"Just a quick post on the Armstrong Trail today, probably of interest mostly to western Pennsylvanians. This was where Susan and I just spent a happy Saturday, checking on what’s accessible in the spring of 2017. Like almost all other rail trails, efforts are being made to expand the trail along more disused rail line […]
Read more "A Stretch on the Armstrong"“Tennessee Officials Confirm First Sighting of Mountain Lion in 100 Years” (The cat pictured is a lynx, as close as I could come with my own photos) It was a riveting headline that caught my attention yesterday morning on my Facebook feed. Fortunately, though, I’m in the habit of checking dates on anything billed as […]
Read more "The Big News on Big Cats"Running several miles on a developing rail trail earlier today, I thought again about how much good these flat paths do me here in western Pennsylvania. The wealthy industrialists who saw these corridors built could never have imagined their ultimate purpose. They were only seeking profit at the time of construction but in so doing, […]
Read more "More Celebration of Trails"During the long hikes recounted in The Dying Fish, I encountered strange creatures from time to time, always when I was least expecting it. Normally though, I just saw signs that they were present, such as tracks crossing my own path. But always they were there, just beyond the ring of campfire light, watching me […]
Read more "Twilight Creatures"Featured image for this post is the blacklite art of Malcolm Crittenden Malcolm’s exhibit runs through February at the Community Art Center, Johnstown, PA Thanks Malcolm and great show! Always wanting to explore new corners of our home state, Susan and I took advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures this last weekend and headed for […]
Read more "The Model Park"One of the first things you’d learn about, if you ever yearned to become a fish ecologist, is the danger posed by non-native species. And the most simple formulation of the prevailing theory on this runs something like this: Don’t introduce a new fish (we’ll stick with fish here for simplicity) to an ecosystem in […]
Read more "About Exotics"In 2009, I hiked across Pennsylvania as a part of the Eastern Brook Trout Solo Adventure, a tale that became “The Dying Fish,” my book on the resurgent eastern forest and all the fish who swim there. My findings in Pennsylvania, as with almost everywhere else, were findings of organic renewal on a grand scale; […]
Read more "The Breadth of the Wild Woods"When I first came to Pennsylvania, I set out to explore it. My wanderings largely followed water routes, much like the early forays of the pioneers of Penn’s Woods. And one day I found a muddy, rutted, disused parking space next to Buffalo Creek and a sort of trail originating across a mound of rock […]
Read more "When Rails Become Trails"I’ve been harvesting fish from the waters of Pennsylvania lately. And not a great number of them but I have been greatly enjoying myself. I may have an affinity for more northerly places but one thing that can be said for Pennsylvania: we have a lot of fish. And we have a diverse range of […]
Read more "Free to Fish"
the dying fish 