I took a hike with a couple of friends several years ago along Slippery Rock Creek here in Western Pennsylvania. He was a long time friend and a native-born American. She was a native of the former Soviet Union as one might have guessed from either her appearance or accent. She clearly loved to not […]
Read more "How We Know Our Woods are Healthy – a Plethora of Critters"There aren’t any. Let me just get to the point. I don’t know of any perfect places. The outdoors is what we make of it as we pursue our individual pursuits. If we read writers like Thoreau, Muir and Nessmuk, we come away from that writing with the definite perception that so much […]
Read more "Perfect Places"From April through October, mushrooms brightened my 2019. Within a few weeks of stowing the ice-fishing gear, I was cutting pheasant backs and hoping for morels. In retrospect, it’s striking that I’ve wandered around the woods of eastern North America for 35 years or so, hardly taking notice of the bracket fungi, cap-and-stems and puffballs […]
Read more "A Fertile Fungal Forest"I didn’t recognize Anthony at first. I was looking for a guy in a Jeep Renegade somewhat over six feet tall, hyper-athletic and sporting a wolf’s head visible tattoo. But this wasn’t Anthony. The day we met, Anthony didn’t have a look that said he snowboards off trail, runs ultra-marathons or spear hunts wild boar […]
Read more "Triumph of the Archer Hero"At the close of the Eighteenth Century, the nation of France went through decades of violent upheaval that we generally remember as the French Revolution. The old guard was no more and altruistic fellows like Monsieur Robes Pierre grasped the reigns of power. Change was in the air and a distinctly French vein of liberty […]
Read more "Seasons in the Forest"I’ve just finished reading an article on the online magazine of hiking, thetrek.co. In this particular piece, the author bemoans a frequently re-visited foible of the long trail scene: litter and other non-adherence to “Leave No Trace” principles. The Trek Article First, to the unindoctrinated: Leave No Trace is kind of […]
Read more "Leave No Trace or Hike Your Own Hike?"Recently, I kayaked with friends through the upper reaches of a gentle riverine reservoir – an impoundment that still looks like a river but with greater depth and less current. Wood abounded in the watercourse and I wished for fishing tackle, maybe catfish tackle. Giant sycamores leaned precariously out over the inscrutable water – still […]
Read more "Get Ready, Your Woods and Waters are About to Change"I like to visit obscure places I find on maps, places not many others go, places of wild opportunity. But sooner or later I also find myself drawn back to the adventure hubs of the east, the places where I might sip something for a while under a sun umbrella and even socialize before venturing […]
Read more "Happiness Knows no Place"Each of the last few years, Susan and I have created a calendar of my outdoors photography which I sell to fund marketing for my book. Susan has outdone herself this year (it’s mostly in her capable hands) and has created yet another inherently useful work of art – our fourth Wild North Country Calendar. […]
Read more "Have a Wild 2020"I’m not a climatologist but I do think about the climate. Climate is a regulator of the biome and all the fungi, plants and animals in the woods that surrounds me. And, really, I can hardly help but think about climate. It has been forced on me by an American media who would have me […]
Read more "Climate of Fear (Part 2)"
the dying fish 