Essays
Philosophical and Political
Thoughts From My Journal – Natchez Trace Parkway
*4-23: I was hiking an unfamiliar trail a couple days ago and when it made a sharp turn, I followed it rather than pausing for what looked like an inviting creek spot in the distance; I was focused on the trail, a double-edged sword that seems to obstruct as much as...
Thoughts From My Journal – Sonoran Desert 2
1-28: Last day here and I took off on a trail headed west out of the campground. It crossed three sizable washes, which for me are always evocative and for desert flora are like a magnet that draws them in to make relatively dense populations that follow its path....
Thoughts From My Journal – Sonoran Desert
1-27: I noted that the plants cactus seeds choose to settle next to are called nurse-plants, and I’m beginning to think this whole desert is my collective nurse biome. I just spent another couple hours on the ridge and the trails going to and from it. On the way up I...
Thoughts From My Journal – Desert Seeds
1-26: I have discovered who initiates the intimacy of the close relations I have spoken of. Not surprisingly, it is the cactus; out of the millions of seeds cast to their fates every year only a small minority germinate and grow. Those with the good fortune to land...
Thoughts From My Journal – Organ Pipe National Monument
*1-22: [Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument] I just returned from over an hour’s walk around a lovely trail, one I know I’ve mentioned on earlier visits, the one I always walk several times depending on how long I’m here. I recently downloaded a short essay from close...
Thoughts From My Journal – Tuolumne Meadows
*1-16: [In Death Valley] I felt crotchety with age and ill-humor this morning when I left to hike. But I left and climbed steadily my favorite near-by mountain, which at about 500 feet is sufficiently strenuous to ascend and rewards the effort with a splendid view of...
